Beyond the Clinic
Nursing students enter the field to make personal connections with patients
Key Highlights
- Clinical placements across diverse community environments help students develop both strong clinical skills and meaningful human connection
- Nursing Professor Tammy Testut notes that SHU’s community health sites expose students to a wide range of patient experiences and needs
The first time Hunter Harris ’24 explained a chronic illness to a patient inside a jail, the man stared back in silence. He had been living with the condition for years, but no one had ever taken the time to explain what it meant or how to manage it.
“That’s when it hit me,” Harris recalls. “Health education isn’t just important; it’s urgent.”
After a 10-week clinical rotation inside a correctional facility, Harris realized the stakes of health education, a lesson that continues to guide his nursing journey. Clinicals aren’t just about procedures or protocols. They allow students like Harris to learn that nursing is as much about connection as care.
Selected as part of a pilot group of six Sacred Heart University nursing students, Harris was placed at a local correctional facility for his clinical. He did have some help in preparing; his cousin is a longtime corrections officer. “His stories stuck with me,” Harris says. “He would talk about the conditions, the people inside and the real need for health care.”
Each week, Harris worked alongside nurses to administer medications, perform assessments and evaluate inmates following altercations. “We heard a lot before going in about how difficult it would be,” he says. “A lot of the inmates had never been to a doctor or had a routine check-up.”
While juggling a full day of nursing classes, his senior-year clinical and his role as captain of the track team, Harris found space to connect with inmates. While some patients were confrontational, Harris emphasizes that many were simply misunderstood. “There’s really no difference between them and anyone else,” Harris says. “Everyone deserves care.”
The experience reinforced his hopes to work in public health and eventually in epidemiology. He wants his work to close gaps in health education, ensuring that people who have long been overlooked gain the knowledge and access they need to live healthier lives.
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Finding Humanity in Eldercare
Harris’s classmate, Olivia Clough ’24, also found her perspective reshaped during her clinicals, though her work unfolded in a different environment: long-term eldercare facilities. “Everyone lived alone, and I could tell that they wanted to talk to others,” Clough says. “It would make their day just to have someone there.” Her clinicals were less about direct physical care and more about communication. She conducted wellness surveys and assessed mental health.
“It made me think about looking at people as a whole,” Clough says. “It’s easy to focus only on physical health, but you can’t forget the emotional side.”
Drawn to neonatal care, Clough nevertheless brought patience and attention to her work with the elderly. “It was definitely more hands-on than I expected. I learned how much simply listening can matter,” Clough says.
Nursing Professor Tammy Testut, who oversaw Clough’s clinical, notes that such experiences reflect the broader goal of SHU’s nursing program: equipping students to serve communities with both clinical expertise and human connection. “Community health clinical sites are extremely diverse in nature, which provides us with opportunities in several different settings,” Testut says.
Both now graduates, Harris and Clough step into their careers with lessons that will continue to shape the way they serve, teach and care for others.
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