One of the teachers here at Rock Island High School has just hit a milestone, receiving her Masters Degree in Nursing Education. Mrs. Stribling has been teaching at Rocky for eight years. It might have taken her a while to get there, but it was eventually worth it.

She has always been a teacher even before she had stepped in her own classroom. “I loved teaching new nurses in the hospital setting, so becoming a CNA instructor was an easy decision for me to make when approached from Rocky to teach this program,” said Stribling. She worked at a Genesis Hospital, around the Illini Campus before working for the school district. She started off her college education by getting her Associates Degree in 1996 from Trinity College of Nursing in Moline Illinois, and then went onto getting her Bachelor’s Degree in 2006 from Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. Now, this year, she has worked so hard to get her Master’s Degree from Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona. The reason why she has waited to receive her Masters Degree was because she has been raising her family. “I decided to take a job in the school district because my children go to school here, and it was a good fit for our family to have the same schedule,” Stribling stated. There are many rewards of being a teacher.

There are many skills that Mrs. Stribling has obtained in her Master’s Degree, and she has used them in examples for her students. She can share with her classes about the newest medical procedures and equipment that is being used, as well as skills for critical thinking. In her CNA classes, she informs the students about the challenges and the ways that she has studied to get her Master’s Degree. “My least favorite subject to teach about is “Death and Dying”. It is a touchy subject and you just never know if someone in the class just lost a loved one. I always tell my students at anytime while learning about this subject, if they need to step out of the classroom, they may,” stated Stribling. There are some things that Mrs.Stribling has learned in her Master’s that eventually connected with the classroom lessons, such as critical thinking skills, patient management, patient safety, and patient rights. “My favorite unit to do in her class would be all of the tasks we have to do with our classmates, like feeding each other or transporting each other with the hoyer-lift. My least favorite unit in that class would be where we had to learn abuse in the healthcare field, it was difficult topic,” stated Emily Pearson, who is one of Stribling’s CNA students.

There are many students who have been inspired to go into the medical field because of Mrs. Stribling. “She inspires me to go into the medical field by explaining that it’s going to be hard work, but it is manageable,” stated Makayla Jones, one of her Medical Terminology students. Emily Pearson states, “Mrs. Stribling inspires me to go into the medical field by seeing how successful she is and all her stories about her experiences in the medical field.” Stribling explains, “The greatest reward I get to see every year teaching CNA program is when students attend clinical, care for the residents, and put the skills they learned in use. I am amazed every year at the compassion from the students at such a young age. It makes me proud to teach such wonderful students!” 

She has given a lot of recommendations of colleges for all of the medical fields. Mrs. Stribling is always recommending different colleges for to look into and research. She has had some experience with looking for a good college to get her next step in her Degree. Makayla said, “I want to go to the Trinity School of Nursing because they eventually reimburse you after you graduate and give you a job.” Emily Peterson stated, “The one that really stuck out to me was the University of Iowa, when we went on a field trip last school year for Intro To Health Care! That’s where I plan to engage in my Nursing Degree!”