Meet Laura Murphy, MSN, RNC-OB, Clinical Instructor, Alternate Entry Foundation Year Coordinator, two-time graduate from the UT Austin School of Nursing, and a current PhD Candidate with an anticipated graduation date of May 2022.
Laura chose a career in nursing after shadowing different nursing professionals in high school. She appreciated the role of the nurse at the bedside - the care and compassion they displayed, and the holistic nature of nursing drew her to the profession. While in nursing school, she discovered a passion for perinatal nursing and, after graduating from UT Austin with her BSN in 2005, she began working in postpartum and labor and delivery. During this time, she discovered another passion: teaching nursing students. She returned to UT Austin soon after to earn her MSN in maternity nursing and nursing education in 2009.
As a PhD candidate, Laura developed a focus on the disparities in pregnancy-related morbidity and mortality for Black women. She conducted a narrative inquiry of the pregnancy and birth experiences of Black women who had high-risk pregnancies. Using interviews, she sought to gain knowledge about the experience from those who lived it and to understand the meaning of the experience for the woman in the way they constructed their stories. By listening to, and acknowledging the stories Black women share, Laura hopes to create a research trajectory that aims to partner with Black women to identify and implement strategies to improve the perinatal care experience.
Today, Laura has been teaching in the Alternate Entry Master of Science in Nursing (AE-MSN) program for 10 years and has been the foundation year coordinator for the last two years. “I love working with students who have had a wide variety of experiences and careers before coming to nursing and helping guide them through the program. I also love to incorporate simulations into my teaching which earned me the award of ‘Simulation Champion’ at the School of Nursing in 2019.”