Family death from nursing shortage inspires African-native to earn Miami degree — Journal-News

It was a fam­i­ly tragedy that first led her to con­sid­er nurs­ing as a career.A rel­a­tive in her native African coun­try died while in an under-staffed hos­pi­tal, Addae said, with only one nurse for every 50 patients.“I vowed to become a nurse to care for the sick,” said Addae, a devout Chris­t­ian. “I am a woman of faith.”Earning a degree while rais­ing four young chil­dren requires much, she said. So, she often turns to one of her favorite Bible passages.“I can do all things through Christ who strength­ens me. When the going gets tough, I just talk to my God.”Addae’s per­se­ver­ance of han­dling both moth­er­hood times four and under­grad­u­ate class­es drew both the atten­tion of and praise of Mia­mi Uni­ver­si­ty Hamil­ton professors.“I remem­ber bawl­ing my eyes out one day when I was hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with Mia­mi Pro­fes­sor Dr. Eyad Mus­sallem because I thought I was going to fail a course,” Addae said. “He encour­aged and believed in me when I felt I couldn’t find the strength to car­ry on.”Addae “is an excel­lent stu­dent who is always will­ing to vol­un­teer to help oth­er stu­dents and goes above and beyond what is asked of her in the class­room,” said Tri­cia Neu, assis­tant pro­fes­sor of Nurs­ing and direc­tor of the FNP track. “We are so excit­ed to have her in our grad program.”Addae wasn’t sur­prised by the aca­d­e­m­ic assis­tance or high qual­i­ty of it region­al nurs­ing professors.“I decid­ed to enroll at Mia­mi Uni­ver­si­ty Region­als because of its out­stand­ing aca­d­e­m­ic reputation.”And now she is also set­ting her sights on smash­ing a gen­der stereo­type held by some fam­i­ly mem­bers in her old country.“Becoming a nurse prac­ti­tion­er will allow me to become the first woman among my sib­lings to pur­sue (an advanced degree),” she said. “I’ll break the stereo­type that only men can achieve high­er aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess in my family.”