Bishop Named Nursing Director for Gordon State College
BY: KATHERYNE A. FIELDS, Director of Marketing
Gordon State College recently named Samantha Bishop as the director of nursing, a position which she held on an interim basis for academic year 2019-2020.
The nursing program is a housed in the School of Nursing, Health and Natural Sciences at Gordon under the direction of the dean, Dr. Victor Vilchiz.
“Ms. Bishop brings more than 15 years to the position and is well-respected by her students and peers,” Vilchiz said. “She has displayed her leadership both on and off campus.”
Gordon started the Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) degree 1972 and added the Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program in 2010, which is fully online. The BSN pre-licensure program started in 2017 and has graduated two successful cohorts. Graduates from Gordon’s nursing program are quickly offered positions in esteemed medical facilities in the college’s 14-county service region as well as the state to help meet the demand of the nursing shortage.
An alumnae of the program at Gordon, Bishop will manage the faculty, staff and students in the ASN, BSN and RN to BSN programs as director.
Bishop states, "Gordon's Nursing Program has always had a reputation that precedes itself. In the healthcare setting, if someone has a GSC nurse caring or working for them, they know that they have one of the best. I hope that as DON I can help grow our programs and uphold our great reputation as all of the other Deans and Department heads have done before me."
Bishop earned her Associate of Science in Nursing (ASN) from Gordon in 1994. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from The Medical College of Georgia in 1997 and her Masters of Nursing/Pediatric Nurse Practitioner from the Medical College of Georgia in 2006. Bishop is a current candidate for her Doctorate of Education in Workforce Education from the University of Georgia with an anticipated graduation this fall.
Her nursing career started as a Registered Nurse in 1994 at South Fulton Medical Center in the Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU). She then served as a RN in the NICU at The Medical Center of Central Georgia from 1996 until 1998 when she became the Clinical Nurse Educator. In this role she was responsible for the education of more than 80 employees in the NICU and Level II nursery. In 2004, she was promoted to director for PSA Tender HealthCare. Bishop was responsible for the initial startup of the medically fragile day treatment center she managed in the Macon area.
Her career transitioned to the classroom in 2005 when she joined Gordon as an assistant professor of nursing with an emphasis of integrating the pediatric curriculum into the undergraduate requirements for a two-year associate’s degree. From 2011 to 2018, Bishop served as an associate professor of nursing at Gordon, coupled with the role of dual enrollment coordinator from 2016 to 2018.
Bishop was awarded tenure in 2011, and was promoted to full professor in 2018. She has served as the Coordinator of the Maternal Child Nursing course in both the ASN and the pre-licensure BSN programs for many years and began serving as the interim director of nursing in 2019.
Bishop is active in the college and the community as well, she was named to Gordon’s inaugural group of Chancellor’s Learning Scholars in 2018 and facilitated Faculty Learning Communities on campus. Currently she serves as the Vice Chairman of the Lamar County Board of Health (BOH). She has served in this position since 2016 and she has served on the BOH since 2012. She has been the advisor for GCANS (Gordon State College Association of Nursing Students) since 2006 for the nursing student organization on campus where she has organized numerous community events with the students such as blood drives, health screenings and immunization clinics.