Preparing Nurses of the Future

Written By: Ian Silvester

Tammy Rogers remembers the day when she knew she wanted to become a nurse vividly. Years later, she achieved that goal, and now spends her time educating the next generation of nurses at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. 

“I originally became a nurse because of my aunt,” she recalled. “When I was little, she stopped by our house and she had this white, crisp uniform on, and it was just covered in blood. She had just stopped and saved some people in a wreck, and that always impressed me.” 

Later, Rogers learned that her aunt came across the accident as passersby were attempting to pull someone from a car that was on its side. She stepped in, directing them to stop pulling and began performing CPR. Her actions saved this person from a spinal cord injury—solidifying in Rogers her resolve to become a nurse because her actions could save a life. 

Fast forward to 1990, Rogers graduated from UAFS, then Westark Community College, with her associate’s degree in nursing. With her degree in hand, Rogers worked at Sparks Regional Medical Center, now Baptist Health-Fort Smith, as a NICU nurse before transitioning to a pediatric clinic where she worked as a pediatric nurse for several years. 

She loved the work, but something was missing, she said. 

Rogers returned to UAFS as an adjunct, leading clinicals in 2003 and 2004, and “loved it.” 

“When I started working as an adjunct, I was hooked. I only took this job because it was part time,” she said with a laugh. 

Over the next few years, her family grew, and by 2009, she was back as an adjunct. Rogers loved being in the classroom, but to keep teaching, she needed to return to school herself. 

As the UAFS nursing program became a BSN program, it required her to get her BSN as well. Rogers obtained that from UAFS, and by 2017, was offered a full-time position at the university. 

To continue teaching and growing in the program, she had to keep up her own education. Rogers earned her master’s from Western Governors University (2018) and her doctorate from Arkansas State University in 2023.  

Today, she serves as the simulation coordinator and assistant professor of nursing. While she loves teaching the mathematical portion of nursing, the simulation labs that all nursing students go through are where her heart lies. 

Rogers, a certified healthcare simulator educator, oversees the Walter O. Caldwell Simulation Lab, which features high fidelity manikins, giving students experience with pediatric care, emergency care, medical surgery, and intensive care.  

As nurses, Rogers said it’s imperative that students are trained to be ready at all times for a variety of situations. 

“(The labs are) so important because these students don’t always get the opportunity to deliver a baby during their shift,” Rogers said, highlighting the obstetrics lab inside the Pendergraft Health Sciences Building. “This manikin is going to deliver ever time, so, they get to see things that they may not see.” 

From postpartum hemorrhages to shoulder dystocia, nursing students are able to see and treat things they may not encounter during clinicals. 

“This is a safe environment. They’re doing this on their own and making their own clinical decisions,” she said. 

But what she loves most about her work, is that she knows she is teaching those who will one day be taking care of her. 

“That’s why I work so hard,” she said. “They’re going to be taking care of us one day. I can go down the hall any time if any of my family members are in the hospital, and my former students are taking care of them. I like to know that I gave my very best so that they are prepared.” 

It was nurses, like those who have come through UAFS, who recently helped Rogers as she navigated a health crisis. Last year, she was diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer in her neck, synovial sarcoma, for which she underwent surgery and radiation to remove it. During the NASCAR Coke Zero Daytona race, she was surprised by her son who got her name on the No. 54 Monster Energy Toyota from Joe Gibbs Racing Team as a cancer survivor.

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