Student Life

NCC Graduate Serves Internationally

Nash Community College Nursing graduate Saida Abdul-Aziz is committed to lifelong learning and service.

After completing her Associate Degree in Nursing in 1976 at Nash Community College and earning licensure as a Registered Nurse, Abdul-Aziz worked in psychiatry where she developed several successful nursing programs that decreased the use of chemical and physical restraint and helped chronically assaultive, addicted, and long-term institutionalized patients successfully return to their families and communities. During this time, she obtained certification as a psychiatric nurse from the American Nurses Association. “Under the direction of my Nash Community College instructor, Betty Bunn, I believe that NCC provided me with a strong foundation for my incredible life adventures,” Abdul-Aziz said.

Abdul-Aziz and her students at a coat ceremony when nurses transition into clinical study

In 1986, Abdul-Aziz’s family moved to Cairo, Egypt where she served as a Director of Nursing and developed and implemented a change plan to convert the nursing department from a British system to an American system of nursing. As the nurse leader, she established a nurse extern program in cooperation with Cairo University for leadership development beginning at the Bachelor of Science in Nursing level. Later, she returned to America and re-entered acute care working as a member of an IV team and became certified in telemetry ultimately returning to nursing leadership working as the Patient Education Coordinator and Manager for the Diabetes Health and Education Center.

Abdul-Aziz (center) and her students

Abdul-Aziz continued to pursue nursing education completing three years at Richard Stockton College. In 2004, she continued her education earning a Bachelor’s of Science in Health Administration in 2006 with a bridge to the Masters in Nursing. She also completed a Masters in Business Administration program with a focus on Healthcare Management in 2009. She is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Health Administration program in the School of Advanced Studies at the University of Phoenix.

Abdul-Aziz and a student

Abdul-Aziz serves as a member of the Health Science faculty at Bezmialem Vakif University in Istanbul, Turkey. In her role, she designs and delivers Medical English curriculum for Health Science Faculty students that supports speaking and writing English for purposes of professional practice, advanced studies, and research in nursing, physical therapy, and audiology. She also provides discipline specific simulation lab instruction to nursing and physical therapy students in the application of theoretical instruction on interviewing and history taking, physical assessment, activities of daily living and transfers using English.

In the future she hopes to develop a curriculum that utilizes organization and communication to instill critical thinking in Health Sciences students; design, develop, and implement community visiting nurse programs in countries that do not have sufficient healthcare services and develop an international mentoring program with healthcare professionals who have been engaged in the field for more than 20 years to prepare globally competent health practitioners. “I want to do all I can to improve the quality of healthcare all over the world,” she said.

Abdul-Aziz at work at Bezmialem Vakif University in Istanbul, Turkey