50 years and 10,000 students: ECU’s unstoppable nursing professor

50 years and 10,000 students: ECU's unstoppable nursing professor

For many university professors, five decades in front of students might be reason to take a foot off the gas and a victory lap.

Dr. Frances Eason isn't most professors. This spring, she taught 113 undergraduate nursing students, which is just less than the total number of students in East Carolina University's then-School of Nursing when she joined as a student in 1968.

Sept. 5 will mark 50 years that Eason has been a faculty member at the College of Nursing, but 61 years as a member of the profession.

Eason completed her initial nursing training several years before taking her first class at ECU in a small house that no longer exists, then the Graham and Rivers buildings. She graduated with a BSN in 1971.

She took her first position as assistant director of nursing at the hospital in Nash County in 1976. Evelyn Perry, the second dean at the College of Nursing and her former advisor, suggested she apply for a vacant teaching position at ECU.

"It was a baccalaureate program, period. Not RN to BSN, not accelerated," Eason said. "There were nine teachers in that first course. Most of us had 20 students each, 10 on one day in the hospital and 10 on the next day."

When she arrived at ECU she already had a master's degree in education but was encouraged to pursue a doctoral degree at N.C. State. While there she completed a second master's - this time in nursing.

During this period, she taught full time and worked at UNC Nash.

Staying engaged as a working nurse has been key to her success, Eason said.

"The most important thing that I have done is work at the hospital on weekends for 40 years as it was a reality check about teaching nursing," Eason said.

Teaching

A few years ago, she drew back from work in the clinical setting, mostly to be able to devote more time to teaching and tutoring students to pass the NCLEX, the profession's entry-to-practice licensure exam. Her faculty peers say Eason's specialty is preparing recently graduated BSN students for the NCLEX, along with other programs, in a weeks-long intensive boot camp-style cram session.

"For many years, Pirate nurses have registered some of the highest NCLEX pass rates, but more importantly the consistency of those high pass rates is what makes our program special," said Dr. Bim Akintade, dean of the College of Nursing. "We can't say that it's all up to Dr. Eason, but she is a very important part of our testing successes."

A few years ago, a group of students came to her with a request: could she stop using so many slides to teach her classes? They had been slided to death in their educational careers.

"I told them it's okay with me. I taught for 30 years without it, I guess I can go backwards instead of forward," Eason said.

Eason laments that technology has sapped her students' attention - the chit-chat during breaks is a thing of the past - but she values the unlimited access they have to an unknowable universe of medial information she had to sort through in encyclopedias at the library.

Eason knows she faces a headwind with technology, but 50 years of teaching experience has given her a set of skills that transcends generations: story.

"I try to look at each student as an individual and to think what can I do to assist them to focus on what I'm talking about. Monday in class I said, 'Wasn't there a recent death of a movie star who was 48 years old and died with cancer of the colon?'" Eason said.

She used that bit of pop culture as in inroad, to get her charges thinking about cancer, the subject of the day's lecture.

"I'm with those students seven hours every Monday. And don't you know they get tired of me by five o'clock. So, I have to do something to add some variety and keep their focus," Eason joked.

Continuing Motivation

By her estimate, Eason has taught at least 8,500 nursing students, but probably something closer to 10,000 - a number she doesn't have the capacity to imagine. Some of those alumni are her current colleagues. Some have already retired from their tenure as faculty.

Fifty years and a city's worth of students was never the plan, but a word of encouragement from her son kept her showing up.

One very early morning in 2022, he stopped by her house and asked why she was up so early. Preparing teaching materials was the answer. He told her that the students didn't know what they needed, to wrap things up and get some rest before heading into the office.

"I said, 'Well, I'm trying to motivate them to look into their potential because everybody has potential that probably they don't even use. What's your advice to me? Should I just walk in there and hopefully I can say what I need to say?'" Eason asked.

No, mom, he told her. They don't know what they need to know. You do.

Less than three weeks later he passed away. His advice kept her tied to her faculty role.

"I kept thinking I'll work just one more semester. In honor of what my son tried to advise me, I thought I would teach one more semester," Eason said. "And so, one more semester has turned into numerous semesters. But as long as I am mentally competent and physically competent, I would like to think that I give everything I can give."

Impact

Ask any student who has been through Eason's NCLEX boot camp and you'll probably hear an exasperated sigh. But ask that same student how they did on the national test and they'll quite likely brighten.

"They say, 'Dr. Eason, it wasn't nearly as hard as your course,'" Eason said. "That's exactly what I wanted them to say today, because that means they were prepared. What if it had been a sweet little course and we had refreshments all day long and laughed and talked and then they went up there and took a hard test? I wanted them to take an easy test."

Janice Lawrence, who graduated in 2006, was one of those students. Eason didn't just prepare her and her peers for the exam, but for the real-life lessons that shaped the nurses, and people, they would become.

"I truly don't know how she balanced it all - farming, working at the bedside and teaching - yet she did it with grace and dedication," Lawrence said.

Dr. Donna Roberson, BSN '86, MSN '93, an ECU nursing professor who considers Eason a mentor and friend, called her a dynamic force.

"From the first day I saw her in the Rivers Building, I knew she was the ultimate professional and a nurse of the highest quality," Roberson said. "As a colleague, she has given me insight into the importance of collaboration for success as an academic citizen."

Eason served 12 years on the North Carolina Board of Nursing, two of those years as chair and vice chair for another two - the "greatest learning experience" she said anyone could have. She has been deeply involved in the college's accreditation processes for decades, won any number of teaching excellence awards and was even appointed to the state's Radiation Safety Commission, as well as the State Commission for Health Services.

In the summer months she didn't work at ECU, she would travel to Bulgaria, Moldova and Romania to prepare nurses from eastern Europe to pass the NCLEX exam in the U.S. Nearly 100% passed the exam the first time, like her ECU students. When she returned home, she would often be asked if she had a good time.

"I didn't go to have a good time. I went to try to help them learn nursing like it is in the U.S., because the exam is written according to the U.S. standards," Eason said.

In February, Akintade asked her if she'd be willing to have a scholarship named in her honor. She said she would, but only if the scholarships would help students who show promise that wasn't obvious. Students who need a champion.

"I convey to my students that they matter to me, because they do. Every single one of them. And when a student does fail, I try to convey to them that they may have failed this course, but they aren't a failure. They can rise up, and the next time they take a test, they can be successful. But it's up to them," Eason said. "I am just their cheerleader."

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