Kate Powers is part of the ABSN Program for students who have completed a bachelor’s degree in a discipline other than nursing. The program builds on what students learned in their previous degree programs, with students taking only the nursing-specific courses. Photo by Angela Foster.
For Kate Powers, becoming a nurse wasn’t a matter of if—it was a matter of when.
Now a student in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) program in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s College of Nursing, Powers recently received a March of Dimes Undergraduate Nursing Scholarship.
In 2018, she began pursuing her pre-nursing studies at California State University Channel Islands.
As part of that degree pursuit, she volunteered at a local hospital and eventually earned a COPE Health Scholar internship, working across departments. That experience led her to become a certified nursing assistant.
“Ever since I was 16, I had an interest in nursing,” Powers said. “I loved volunteer work. I liked helping people, especially talking with them. I started volunteering at a local hospital near me just as a student volunteer and absolutely fell in love with it. I was so excited every weekend when I had a shift.”
When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, her plans changed.
“When my dad first got sick with COVID,” she recalled, “my mom was sitting down with me and said, ‘Hey, it’s just too much of a risk for us to have someone in the family that’s in an environment when this is just so rampant right now.’
“I actually stepped back from direct patient care after that, reevaluating things, reevaluating my interests, what I want to do, how I felt like I could help and what my purpose is.”
One takeaway from her clinical experiences was the realization that many health issues are preventable, which inspired her to pursue a degree in public health.
“I really saw the importance of health education and how it could make a huge difference not only at the individual level but also at the community level,” Powers said. “I finished up my bachelor’s degree in health science, which was a little bit of everything.
“I started working as a peer educator on my campus doing health promotion programming and presentations and wanted to continue and further my education. I ended up moving to Austin (Texas) to pursue my master’s degree in public health and specifically in public health education and promotion.”
After earning her master’s degree from the University of Texas, she began a career as a health and wellness coordinator at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. While there, she contracted COVID, which made her reevaluate her career.
She enjoyed her role in an office but explained that working directly with people was her passion.
“I’ve been on this path, this trajectory and it’s been good,” Powers said. “I’ve been able to help people, but I never really forgot about nursing and knew I wanted to go back to school,” which led her to UTC’s ABSN program.
During her clinical rotations this summer, she has already seen the advantage of her previous career. She often thinks about what care will look like after patients leave the hospital.
“Public health helped me look at patient care through a broader lens, where it’s not just about addressing them at the bedside but also about helping connect them,” she said. “It’s also a goal of mine to help connect them to resources and get support outside the hospital once they’re discharged, to address those other areas.”
This summer, Powers received an undergraduate nursing scholarship from March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the health of mothers and babies. She said March of Dimes resonated with her because she was one of triplets born from a high-risk pregnancy.
“I grew up hearing a lot of my mom’s story about when she was pregnant with us and when she was delivering … just how chaotic that was,” she said. “How many risks were involved and also seeing the financial limits on that and her struggling to be able to keep up with all of our care.
“It’s a lot and a huge responsibility.”
Powers said she also was drawn to the organization for its focus on closing gaps in healthcare, particularly in an area close to her heart.
“When I got the call that I got it, I was floored, honestly,” Powers said. “I was so excited that I get to at least be a small part of this organization and what they’re doing.”
ABSN Program Director Kristen Singletary said Powers is compassionate, detail-oriented, and “you can just tell that she’s going to be an awesome nurse.”
“The scholarship highlights what we’re here for and that we support our students,” Singletary said. “They’re super motivated and they push to do things. It’s really important for people to see that that’s what we’re about and that we support that and we help with that, encourage it in fact.”
Powers pointed to Singletary’s own transition from a previous career to nursing as an example of what makes the program distinctive.
“Dr. Singletary is amazing,” Powers said. “Our whole class imprinted on her. She’s like ‘Mama Singletary’ to us. I’ve just been so blown away by the staff we have because it is a hard program and it moves fast, but there’s just so much support. It’s really obvious that the professors care and want us to succeed, not only as nurses but as people.”
Powers cited her classmates as another example of the support she has received at UTC.
“I really lucked out with our cohort,” Powers said. “They are just some of the best people that I’ve ever met. The coolest thing about our class is that we’re all really passionate about the same thing but came to it from different angles.
“We have people that did speech pathology. We have people that were policy writers in D.C. There were so many different career paths and people that came out of college and were just like, ‘Yep, this is what I want to do.’”
Learn more
