Back in the mid-1980’s Julia Gist found herself at a crossroads: she could continue her nursing career as a clinician, become a nursing administrator, or continue as a nursing educator. It was the advice of a mentor at the college where she was teaching that would eventually help her choose the path she would continue on for the rest of her life. “Julia,” he said, “You can influence nursing more by educating groups of students than you can by caring for patients one at a time.”
With that advice, she continued her own education and began to see her career as an educator take shape as she worked across Arkansas and Texas and then back home to Mountain Home, where she now serves as Dean of the School of Health Sciences at Arkansas State University-Mountain Home.
With a close-knit, albeit enormous, extended family, Julia recalls a very happy childhood with a tremendous support network. “I have almost 50 first cousins,” she laughs. She can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be in the health profession. In the third grade, she wrote an essay titled, “Why I Want to Be a Nurse.” After her science and zoology teacher, Helen Casteel, at Mountain Home High School encouraged her and instilled in her a real sense of success, Julia went to Harding University, where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Nursing—quite an accomplishment for the first-generation college graduate.
In the summers, when she was home from college, Julia worked at Baxter Regional Medical Center as a nurse’s aide. After graduation, she moved to Springfield, Missouri, where she became a nursing team leader at St. John’s Regional Health Center. In an effort to move closer to home and the big family she so missed, Julia took a job at North Arkansas Community College in Harrison teaching students in the nursing program there, while working as a clinical instructor at BRMC. It was during this time that her mentor told her how much she could influence nursing as an educator, and Julia decided she needed more education. She applied to Texas Woman’s University in Dallas to pursue a master’s degree in community health and administration. She saw administration as her avenue to influence nursing, and she worked for five years as a nursing administrator in rural hospitals in Arkansas and Texas.
In 1992, while working in Terrell, Texas, Julia was introduced to her husband, Mike, on a blind date. They fell in love and were married in 1993. Julia joined her new husband in Houston, and from 1994 to 2000, with the strong support of her husband, Julia earned a PhD at TLU-Houston and raised their two daughters, Emma and Claire. While immersed in the PhD program, she was invited to serve on a research team from TWU with the Harris County District Attorney for a study funded by the National Institute of Justice. This experience, which involved intimate partner violence, was a turning point in Julia’s career. Her doctoral dissertation, in fact, was titled, “Reducing Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: Evaluating the Effectiveness of Protection Orders.”
Julia still holds a passion for educating women about domestic violence and educating nurses about the signs of abuse. She is the author or co-author of more than a dozen journal articles on sexual assault against women and the associated dangers to victims: substance abuse, consequences in the workplace, behavioral problems in their children, effects of protection orders, and even suicide. In addition, she has a vision for an integrated healthcare system where community members and patients are partners in their care and where care is provided by highly qualified, professional nurses.
After her experiences as a doctoral student at TWU-Houston, Julia accepted a position as assistant professor at TWU-Houston in Community Health.
“The faith that I learned as a child taught me that God loves me. In return, that I should love God,” Julia says. “The outflowing of that love is to love others. Other people serve through missions in foreign lands, but I see my ability to show people the love of God in my job every day as my personal mission. My community of interest changes with the different hats I wear. Healthcare is much broader than administering medicine and changing a dressing. In community health, healthcare includes addressing issues of poverty such as housing, employment, and food insecurity. It also includes violence education and safety, health education, and many types of preventive care. I see my role as a facilitator in helping others achieve a better place in life. At ASUMH, my community is our students, my faculty and the staff I am blessed to work with each day. My heart overflows when I have the opportunity to participate in a graduation or pinning ceremony for our students and I know how hard they have worked to make positive changes in their lives and in the lives of their families.”
In 2007, when her husband took early retirement from his job as a corporate attorney, Julia was able to return to Mountain Home where the huge family she loved welcomed her and her family back home. As someone who believes that all choices lead us to where we need to be, Julia believes she has returned to Mountain Home at the right time. In 2012, Julia was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time, she was teaching nursing courses online for TWU and Arkansas Tech University. After treatment at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) that included a mastectomy, she was diagnosed cancer-free. In the spring of 2013, she saw an ad for a top academic position in health sciences at ASUMH. “As a breast cancer survivor, I was looking for a way to make a bigger difference on healthcare locally in my hometown. The ASUMH opportunity was just that for me,” Julia says. This position combines Julia’s experiences as a clinical nurse, administrator, and educator.
“I always wanted to raise my children in a town like the one I grew up in, near our big extended family. This is the right place for all of us right now.” Emma, Julia’s oldest daughter, is a senior at Missouri State studying exercise and movement science, and has been accepted into their accelerated master’s degree program focused on wellness and health promotion. Claire, who is a senior at Mountain Home High School, is also interested in medicine, planning to major in biology or biochemistry in college, and eventually become a family practice physician.
To keep in touch with her passion for community health, Julia serves as the chairperson of Baxter County Hometown Health Improvement Coalition, on the Mountain Home Education Foundation Advisory Board, as a mentor at the Mountain Home High School Career Academies, and on the Advisory Board of Good Samaritan Society.
She is an educator who is known for her belief in using innovative methods to enhance learning. Under her direction, ASUMH is expanding its health sciences building, Gotaas Hall, to include a state-of-the-art simulation center. “Education has changed so much from the days when I was in nursing school. The influences of computers and the resources on our campus are incredible. Classes are interactive and use all forms of media. Students study on equipment just like they will use in the hospital setting. They even have the opportunity to test in all of their health sciences classes just like they will be testing when they take licensure exams. This reduces test anxiety for them, which is huge.”
Julia says the atmosphere students find today at schools like ASUMH is much more supportive than in the past.
“Everyone at ASUMH is totally dedicated to the success of our students. When I was in school, if you failed, you failed. Here, everyone is working to be sure students have what they need to succeed, and everyone is thrilled when students reach an educational goal.”
Lucy Haun, one of Julia’s former nursing students, remembers the impression Julia made on her when she was a young, single mother attending classes to become an registered nurse. “I always knew I wanted to be a nurse,” Lucy says. “Julia was such a good role model for me and is still my mentor.” Lucy now works alongside Julia at ASUMH as an instructor in the Practical Nursing program. “Even today she encourages me. I’m going back to school to get my master’s degree with her encouragement.”
Lucy agrees that Julia is right where she needs to be. “She has the background and experience to move our program forward. She is extremely student-oriented and has always got what’s best for students at the forefront of the decisions she makes. I knew that once when I was a student of hers myself, and I know it today as I work side-by-side with her in the nursing program at ASUMH.”
That commitment to student success was clear as Lucy and Julia watched an LPN class walk across the stage and receive their diplomas and nursing pins recently. There were tears, hugs and congratulations for every single student in the graduating class. “Under Julia’s leadership, our students know without a doubt that we want them to succeed,” Lucy says.
Clearly, Julia Gist has fulfilled the prophecy of her mentor who years ago said, “Julia, you can influence nursing more by educating groups of students than by caring for patients one at a time.” M! October/November 2015
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