The ECU College of Nursing

09/17/2026

How do nurses get good at fundamental skills?

Practice. Practice. And then some more low-stakes practice.

The expert staff and faculty in our Concepts Integration Labs provide our students with the expertise, mentorship and encouragement to meet the high standards of Pirate Nursing.

09/16/2026

Healthcare doesn’t only happen in a hospital and neither does simulation.

Today, our nursing students are stepping into the community through a community-based simulation experience designed to challenge them to think about health, safety, and patient care in a real-world environment.

Happy Week

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09/16/2026

Last night we celebrated our newest cohort of Doctor of Nursing Practice Nurse Practitioner students with a white coat ceremony that formally inducted them onto their path to being the next generation of Pirate Nurse providers.

Today also wraps up several days of hands-on training here at the College of Nursing so our DNP students are ready to go when they begin their clinical rotations. We’re excited to celebrate their successes in the months to come.

There are more photos from the ceremony on our Flicker for download: https://bit.ly/46omsL1

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09/15/2026

Our East Carolina University DNP students are on campus during this Healthcare Simulation Week and we took a few minutes during a break to hear from them how simulations have benefitted their learning and patient care.

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09/14/2026

There is only one Dr. Frances Eason.

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For 50 years, she’s helped shape generations of nurses. 🩺

Since 1976, Dr. Frances Eason has been a faculty member at The ECU College of Nursing, teaching at least 8,500 students and helping prepare nursing graduates for the NCLEX.

🔗: http://spr.ly/6182BGJE7r

09/14/2026

You never know where Pirate Nurses are going to turn up.

Dr. Michelle Skipper, the director of our Doctor of Nursing Practice/Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and Doctor of Nursing Practice/Family Nurse Practitioner specialties – and our Healthcare Emergency and Disaster Management certificate – sent this photo:

“This local magazine is in the hotel lobby where I’m staying this week - and features one of our students on the front cover! Sam Scarfone is an ECU Health employee, but also a full-time DNP/FNP student. She’s going to be an incredible APRN.”

Thanks Dr. Skipper and well done, Sam!

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09/14/2026

Join us September 14–18 from 10 am to noon in the back lobby of the College of Nursing as we celebrate the simulationists, educators, faculty, and students who make healthcare simulation such an important part of learning.

🏴‍☠️ Meet Preemie Paul, our newest neonatal simulation manikin

🏴‍☠️ Put your skills to the test in our Skills Race

🏴‍☠️ Have some fun at our photo booth

🏴‍☠️ Enter our raffle for a chance to win prizes

Whether you’re a simulation pro or just curious about what happens in sim, we’d love for you to stop by, have some fun, and celebrate Healthcare Simulation Week with us.

We hope to see you Thursday.

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09/11/2026

This week we were incredibly fortunate to have nursing faculty members from the Medical University of Gdańsk in Poland here at East Carolina University to see firsthand how Pirate Nurses approach their work as advanced practice registered nurses - nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives, certified registered nurse anesthetists and more. Maybe most importantly we shared with them the ways that APRNs are educated and trained to care for patients.

Our Polish faculty peers are leading the effort to bring the APRN concept to patient care in their country. In the US, APRNs have proven incredibly important in extending primary care and advanced intensive care to patients in areas most in need.

Thank you to our friends and peers from Gdansk for traveling to be with us. We hope your visit will be helpful in advancing the nursing profession in Poland.

We look forward to seeing you all again soon.

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09/11/2026

On Wednesday, students from the Future Pirate Nurse Living Learning Village on main campus visited the CON for tours of Concepts Integration Labs and dinner with the dean.

Students asked questions of a panel of Pirate Nurse faculty members and student support staff to get a sense of what a BSN education is like at East Carolina University, and what life might look like after graduation, before breaking into small groups and sharing a meal with individual panel members.

Thanks to everyone who made the afternoon a success and especially the students for their attentiveness and engaging and fun questions. We look forward to seeing you back in purple scrubs.

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09/10/2026

Susan Whitehurst is part of the 2026 cohort of Pirate Nurses inducted into the College of Nursing’s Hall of Fame.

Whitehurst led the redesign of multidisciplinary surgical management teams across 38 operating suites at Duke University Hospital, improving first case starts, turnover times, surgical site infection rates, and block time utilization through Balanced Scorecard methodology.

As a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma and Senior Consultant for Joint Commission Resources, she influenced national quality outcomes by reducing six key preventable events across 52 hospitals participating in the Medicare Hospital Engagement Network.

As a Managing Director of Consulting for TeleTracking Technologies, Susan developed and implemented process improvement methods for hospitals nationally and internationally, achieving measurable gains in patient flow, including reduced length of stay, lower left without being seen rates, fewer avoidable days, and improved discharge prediction and patient placement.

We appreciate your dedication to the nursing profession, Susan.

If you know a Pirate Nurse who deserves to be part of the next cohort of Hall of Fame inductees, nomination forms can be found here: https://nursing.ecu.edu/alumni/hall-of-fame/

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