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Dean of Nursing Receives 'Profile in Excellence' Award
By Lacey Clay
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Each year twelve OBU alumni are recognized for service, leadership, and having lived their lives in a way that brings honor to the university. Dr. Jezek was presented with her award at OBU's Homecoming chapel service.
"I get the OBU alumni magazine, so for years I'm reading it and seeing the 'Profiles in Excellence' award and the people who were awarded and I just thought, 'Oh, isn't that just wonderful,' and now I'm one of them!" Jezek said.
As a college freshman, Jezek was determined to become an OBU alumnus. She achieved that goal, graduating with a nursing degree. She went on to receive her master's degree at the University of Oklahoma and her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin. Now, as the nursing school dean at ORU, she understands the importance of a good curriculum and hands-on experience.
During her tenure as dean, the nursing curriculum has been revised a couple of times to keep up with the changing needs of patients. Concentrations have been added so that students can get educational experience outside the nursing field. Business, missions, and behavioral sciences are a few areas in which nursing students can pursue a concentration.
Jezek has also focused on broadening the students' community-based experience. Now, nursing students can get practical experience that is not in a hospital setting. For the past four years, the nursing school has partnered with the Northeast Area Health Education Center. The NEAHEC offers health care in rural Oklahoma. According to Jezek, it's a "win-win situation because it provides service learning projects for nursing students and helps NEAHEC fulfill their mission." Nursing students have partnered with the Osage Nation to produce a breastfeeding video and handbook for Native American mothers and have also taught HIV education for junior high school students.
Putting an emphasis on integrating nursing into missions and preparing students for missions trips are other focuses of the nursing school. The school has an international partnership with the Roca Blanco mission in Oaxaca, Mexico. There, senior nursing students work with Laura Pratt (ORU Class of 1988), the resident missionary nurse, teaching health education to students enrolled in Bible education classes. They also work in remote rural areas while they are there.
From a young age, Jezek knew that she wanted to be a nurse. During high school she excelled in the sciences and was also strong in interpersonal skills. She has been active in nursing for 37 years in positions ranging from clinical practice at Shawnee Medical Center Hospital to teaching psychiatric nursing at ORU. Now, as dean, she says, "I want to create a healing environment--to build bridges from the School of Nursing to the community."
Jezek has invested her time and energy in the field of nursing, but not with an eye toward earning awards. She said, "...we do what we do because we're called to do it and we're daily laborers, and we are fortunate indeed if sometime in one's life someone says, 'You've done a good job.'"
