Inside Duke Medicine
Meet a Great Nurse: Shirley Murray
posted August 11th, 2010Shirley Murray, RN, MSN, a nurse instructor at the Watts School of Nursing, is one of nine DUHS nurses named a Great 100.
After spending a number of years working as a traveling nurse, Shirley decided she wanted to teach. She knew that her background in various clinical settings gave her the broad experience she would need to train nurses.
Shirley now teaches the fundamentals course to freshman nursing students at Watts.
She helps the students start thinking like nurses.
"I think that the students are very impressionable at that stage," she says.
"I like to think about when I was in nursing school, and how afraid and how nervous and how actually clueless I was, and really help alleviate their fears," she adds.
"They all come in with an idea of what nursing is and really nobody knows until they start doing it," she explains. "Towards the end of the class, they really develop an idea of what a nurse does."
Shirley believes that she has found her niche in nursing.
"I really enjoy teaching nursing."
Read more about the other eight DUHS nurses named to the Great 100 Nurses in North Carolina.