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Meet Ginger Richardson. Water-skier, kayaker, and paddle-boarder who grew up near the Chickahominy River in New Kent, VA. Mom to three kids and two dogs, Annie and Tyro. Blue Lizard sunscreen adherent and home-cooked foods devotee who adores Trader Joe’s 21 Seasoning Salute and soups. A pediatric NP who practices at KidMed in Short Pump, VA, and currently in the DNP program and set to graduate in spring 2025. Works as an instructor at the School who teaches both undergraduate and graduate students.

HOW SHE CAME TO NURSING

“My mom was a teacher, and I was always her helper. So, education was really a place of comfort, because that’s what my mom did. Similar to nursing, in education, it’s a caring model: we’re taking care of the person in front of us and teaching them and launching them off in better ways.

“My first degree was in health sciences, pre-med studies, from JMU, where I realized that I didn’t really want to go to medical school. To figure out what I did want to do, I worked as a secretary in a clinic just to figure out what health professionals out in the world were doing. There, I met a pediatric nurse practitioner. At that point, I didn’t even know what a nurse practitioner was; I thought that nurses did a lot of dirty tasks, a belief that probably came from my dad, who, as an EMT, always saw ER nurses who were tired and overwhelmed.

“Once I realized I wanted to be a nurse, I attended VCU’s second degree nursing program and took master’s and bachelor’s courses at the same time. I thought, ‘Oh, I love this. It is not the awful thing I thought it was.’ I came to understand the role of nursing more. On the units where I worked, patients were often there for months at a time, so we got to know them really, really well. Those relationships, and the relationships I developed on the unit, were amazing: we were like one big family.”

HER APPROACH TO TEACHING

“I walk along side my students. We’re there with them, giving them the experiences, but also guiding them through. It’s intentional. We want them to grow and be healthy and launch.

“My colleague, [assistant professor] Amy Boitnott gave me some good advice once. She said, ‘Stay about five minutes ahead of students.’ It’s true in clinical care, too, I’ve found: We’re not always going to have the answers. That’s OK. I learn from students all the time and it’s eye-opening and humbling. But it’s important that we stay open to our ability to grow.”

HER FAVORITE PART OF TEACHING

“I enjoy the students’ excitement: if they have a patient experience or tell you how they used something they learned in class. They’re like, ‘Hey, it worked!’

“As a clinician, I love teaching, too: my heart thinks that my joy comes from clinical care, but it’s really from both sides. I get as much from teaching as I do from being in the clinic. Those connections you get with students are my favorite: I’m lucky because I get it from both students and patients.”

LESSONS SHE ALWAYS IMPARTS

“While I was earning my BSN, I had a rotation in the bone marrow transplant unit. I loved it there: the resiliency of the patients, the autonomy that the attending physicians gave the nurses. It was such a great work environment, and everyone was just really happy: what they were doing was rewarding, and it was a place of trust with an excellent workplace culture.

“I tell students this: move to a place you want to live, go somewhere fun, but find that first job where they’re kind to you. You need to be supported. Honestly, it might help the nursing shortage if we focused less on our patient population and job goals, and more on the kind of service we imagine ourselves providing and focus on more on where our personalities fit.”

THE SCHOOL IN A WORD?

“CULTIVATING. The definition is to ‘foster the growth of.’ That’s what we do. We nurture our students, colleagues, patients, and we provide them with what they need to grow and heal, and we’re intentional about providing opportunities that position them for success.”