Alliant Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Nicole Lynch, passionate, innovative, and engaged nurse educator
Published on: | 3 minute read
By: Alice Bourget
“As a labor and delivery nurse, I learned a lot about the birthing process, and when I had my own two children, I gained greater understanding and empathy towards the challenges facing new mothers.”
When her beloved maternal grandfather was dying of cancer, Nicole Lynch spent a lot of time at his bedside, helping how she could, but also observing the different professionals that made up his care team. It didn’t take her long to realize that it was the nurses who provided him with the most compassionate and engaging care, and vowed someday that she would become one.
Lynch started on the path to becoming a nurse by attending Marquette University in Wisconsin, and quickly discovered that she loved the profession and wanted to go further with it. While working as a labor and delivery nurse, she earned her master’s degree as a clinical nurse specialist with a focus on obstetrics and community nursing. With the hope of teaching nursing, Lynch continued her education to earn her doctorate in practical nursing, or DNP, a terminal degree that she completed at Rush University in Chicago, Illinois.
Having been graced with such a great education, Lynch embarked on the path of teaching with the commitment that her students get the benefit of her university education, extensive hands-on nursing experience, and the observations from her grandfather’s bedside. Those three things inspired Lynch’s teaching methodology, which incorporates academic excellence with experiential learning and a compassionate and empathetic focus on each individual patient. Recognizing that every student has a unique learning style, her teaching incorporates interactive lab work and hands-on training combined with academic rigor to help all students thrive in the classroom.
Lynch keeps her classes relevant with storytelling, sharing tales from her many years as a nurse in labor and delivery, and from her own experiences of depression and anxiety as a new mother. She encourages her students to meet patients where they are, sitting down when possible to communicate with them at eye level. In her role as associate professor, Dr. Lynch works closely with her students while continuing to act as an ardent advocate for clients with postpartum depression and victims of domestic violence and human trafficking. She supports these causes through volunteering, advocacy, and faculty development initiatives.
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