Ashley Cohen graduated in 2011 but has not lost any momentum these past 4 years. Immediately after receiving her nursing degree and RN License, Ashley began working for the Intensive Care Unit at Falmouth Hospital in Cape Cod, where she cared for critically ill patients including those who underwent cardiac surgery. Ashley developed her nursing skills at Falmouth for two years before moving on to work as a charge nurse at University of Chicago Medicine in the Solid Organ Transplant Center.
In addition to her work as a charge nurse, Ashley works as a teaching assistant for the University of Chicago, where she assists with organizing laboratory periods for two class sessions: Microbial & Human Cell Biology and Genetics & Developmental Biology.
Ashley leads discussions with pre-med school students about the role of the nurse, and the importance of an interdisciplinary team approach to quality patient care. She also discusses the relevance of microbiology as an approach for managing today’s problems of emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in the hospital setting. Her active role with the pre-med students sparked her interest to pursue medical school. She is currently taking relevant courses in physics and chemistry.
During her tenure at MCPHS SON, Ashley worked on her capstone project in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to determine the current public health nursing services available in Massachusetts, and to establish the population to nurse ratio around the state. She further collaborated in surveying nurses across the state regarding bioterrorism training. The project culminated in a poster presentation at the Massachusetts Public Health Nurses Association annual meeting. Ashley is the author of a clinical reflection published in the RN Journal; http://rnjournal.com/journal-of-nursing/keeping-a-positive-outlook-my-clinical-experience-as-a-student-nurse. Her reflection inspires many new nursing students who are taking NUR 205 at the Boston campus where the topic of reflection is introduced as learning strategy.
Ashley is a wonderful example of an MCPHS School of Nursing alumnus with a bright future ahead of her. We are very proud of all of her achievements and look forward to documenting more of her accomplishments.
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