This is a multi-part series celebrating Arizona College of Nursing students, their stories, and their embodiment of the AZCN values.
In 2023, Arizona College of Nursing established the AZCN Values Scholarship Fund as a way to celebrate our values with our colleagues, our students, and the communities in which we serve. Each time an AZCN colleague recognizes another colleague for demonstrating our values, $5 is added to the scholarship fund. These add up to $5,000 scholarships awarded to students the following year who have demonstrated our values within their communities.
Join us in celebrating 2024 AZCN Values Scholarship recipient Jamie Baker as she shares some of her journey to nursing:
Watch Jamie Share Her Inspiring Journey from Patient to Nursing Student
Meet AZCN Values Scholarship Recipient, Jamie Baker, a Nursing Student at the AZCN Tempe Campus. Jamie is a childhood cancer survivor and a camp counselor and healthcare aid for Camp Patrick, a sleepaway camp in Northern Arizona for children living with Spina Bifida.
Jamie’s Scholarship Essay: Finding Purpose Through Personal Experience
Throughout my education at The Arizona College of Nursing, I have found that they dedicate time towards teaching responsibility, nursing excellence and engagement in community through every aspect of education. I have learned the core values of passion, excellence, adaptability, accountability, and integrity through my assignments, clinicals, labs, lectures, simulations, and exams. My passion for nursing has far surpassed my expectations to originally enter nursing school. I believe that my passion for caring for children and adults will help guide and ignite all my studies.
I originally decided to become a nurse because I was a cancer patient at twelve years old, spending hundreds of days in the hospital experiencing all types of nurses. I remember meeting excellent healthcare providers, and after they left the room, I would say to my mom, “I like them.” I want to be the nurse that when I leave the room, my patient says, “I like her.” This is because I want to be a nurse that gives my patients full confidence, comfort, trust, and support throughout whatever their hospital stay may encounter. This is what I consider to be excellence.
Excellence can be achievable in any field of work; however, I want nursing to stand out. I believe that a nurse, for the 12 hours on the floor, holds their patient’s life in their hands. Not only providing medical care and saving patients’ lives through medical interventions, but also through the attitude and grace they give their patients. From a patient’s perspective, the emotions and quality of day in the hospital are dependent upon the primary nurse. Are they compassionate? Do they pay attention to what I’m saying? Are they providing care with intention? I want to answer “yes” to all these questions and proudly take accountability for all my responses knowing I adapted to all of my patients needs physiologically and psychologically. No patient is the same, and adaptability to different illnesses and personalities takes time and care to every individual.
I have found that accountability is not simply owning up to mistakes made. I believe that accountability is also something to take pride in. Beginning every action with accountability provides outlines and purpose for every intervention and gives meaning to what may seem mundane in practice.
Finally, I believe the integrity taught at The Arizona College of Nursing will follow me through my every action, thought and word. With integrity, I can follow every care with ethical and moral values. Integrity will help me remember why I wanted to be a nurse, to care with the utmost respect for each patient with respect, compassion, adaptability, and dignity. The Arizona College of Nursing Values Scholarship recognizes leaders in the nursing values. I have a passion to provide care and outreach to my community, and this scholarship will help me reach that goal sooner. I believe that outreach and service is what binds communities together, closes a gap in divisions, and serves as a reminder that we are alike in many ways.
My passion is children, and I would love to volunteer in communities where children do not have access to quality healthcare or are at risk for healthcare neglect. I have been a camp counselor and health care aid for the last six years since the foundation of the first sleep away camp in the Southwest for children with spina bifida, Camp Patrick. I want to provide exceptional care to children, especially those who don’t have their parents, siblings, and guardians with them while going through healthcare crises. I volunteer in the Phoenix Children’s NICU for the past year and a half, weekly holding babies when their parents are not able to be there. I expect to continue this responsibility even after I take a role as a nurse, seeing hope for all patients, even the smallest of them all.
Q&A with Jamie
Q: How did you decide on Arizona College of Nursing?
A: I joined Arizona College because I was switching my major… and I just found it on [the internet] and called. And they were so receptive to me and wanting to meet and it was just easy. And I feel like when things are easy, they’re kind of meant to be.
Q: What has your experience been with the [AZCN] community?
A: So far, it’s been so wonderful. All my professors have been. I’ve never gotten such good grades because I actually understand their teaching. The professors, I [can] talk to them since it is smaller classes and we [can] talk one on one and ask questions in class. My classmates are becoming great friends and it’s been so great.
Q: How is AZCN preparing you to become a nurse?
A: I feel like Arizona College is really preparing me for the outside world. Not just academically but providing us with that emotional care that we need to give our patients. And I’m just so grateful.
Start Your Future in Nursing Today
If you’re considering a career as a registered nurse (RN), Arizona College of Nursing is here to help you pursue your dream. Our BSN program enables you to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in just 3 years or less with qualifying transfer credits. We’ve helped hundreds of students to earn a BSN degree and enter the nursing profession – and we’re ready to support you on your path to becoming an RN.
Why Choose Arizona College of Nursing?
- Earn a BSN degree in 3 years or less with eligible transfer credits
- Campus locations throughout the US
- Night classes for general education courses
- Hybrid Online/In-Person format for general education classes
- Nursing education is all we do
- CCNE-Accredited Program*
- NCLEX-RN success coaches and exam preparation class
- Financial aid available to those who qualify
Discover Your Path to a Career in Nursing
Information in this post is accurate as of July 7, 2025.
*The Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree program at Arizona College of Nursing is accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (https://www.aacnnursing.org/). All Arizona College of Nursing and Arizona College campuses are institutionally accredited by the Accrediting Bureau of Health Education Schools (https://www.abhes.org/), a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting agency.