Growing up with a woman who loved her job and who thrived on caregiving had a potent effect on her.
"She was a good role model," Tara Cooke said of her mother. "She was so in love with her profession."
Their paths are a bridge from what nursing was like when Susan Cooke started nearly three decades ago, to where it is now.
"One of the biggest things that has changed is technology," said Gloria Donnelly, dean of Drexel's nursing school. "It's a whole different ball game."
Susan Cooke remembers practicing injections on oranges when she was an undergraduate. Now students learn using computerized mannequins - lifelike models that can simulate bodily functions such as breathing and having a pulse.
Nurses' responsibilities have increased in part because of the greater complexity of care and also because they are often called on to deal with sicker patients, Donnelly said.
Because of all that, plus the expected retirement of baby-boomer-age nurses, the demand for nurses, particularly nurses with higher levels of education, is expected to grow, according to Donnelly and other nursing authorities, such as the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
The American Nurses Association supports requiring all newly licensed registered professional nurses to attain a bachelor's degree in nursing within 10 years of getting licensed, spokeswoman Mary McNamara said.
"Studies show that the greater number of staff nurses with baccalaureate degrees, the lower the mortality rates among surgical patients, improved patient outcomes, and shorter length of hospital stays," she said in an e-mail.
The Cookes are also a reflection of what higher education has evolved into today.
