"The field of nursing was her life and it was her light in life to get people interested in a nursing career. Her number-one priority was the nursing profession and providing each of her students advice and assistance."
- Shawn Clark
As a nursing educator for 26 years, Pattie Clark’s highest goal was to earn her doctorate from the Medical College of Georgia.
That dream was fulfilled posthumously June 7, two days after she lost a month-long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Mrs. Clark earned her master of nursing degree from MCG in 1980, then served as a nursing educator at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Ga.
“The field of nursing was her life and it was her light in life to get people interested in a nursing career,” said her husband, Shawn Clark. “Her number-one priority was the nursing profession and providing each of her students advice and assistance.”
Mrs. Clark returned to MCG last fall to complete her doctoral dissertation. She withdrew from the program nine years ago to serve as primary caregiver during her mother’s battle with cancer.
“She had always regretted not finishing her doctoral degree and it became her top priority to return,” explained Dr. Gerald Bennett, director of MCG’s nursing doctoral program.
While this was a rare request for the MCG School of Nursing, administrators decided to reconsider Mrs. Clark as a doctoral candidate. After a thorough review process, she was re-admitted.
“It meant everything to her and she worked hard over the last several months updating her research,” Mr. Clark said. “In fact, she spent the week before her diagnosis revamping her paper. She looked forward to performing the study and getting the results.”
Mrs. Clark’s doctoral research aimed to identify factors promoting breast self-examination for older women in rural areas. With a research interest in health promotion and early-detection behaviors, School of Nursing Dean Lucy N. Marion served as a dissertation advisor for Mrs. Clark over the last several months.
“Pattie was a driven, caring and smart nurse educator who was very interested in breast cancer detection and the health behaviors that go along with that,” Dr. Marion said. “She was so caring about the low-income people in her area who didn’t understand how a mammogram could save their lives.”
Though Mrs. Clark’s illness prevented her from completing her studies, Dr. Marion worked with MCG Provost Barry Goldstein and School of Graduate Studies Dean Gretchen Caughman to bestow an honorary degree. Her co-worker and close friend, Tammy Groover, was overjoyed when she heard the news.
“Achieving this goal would have been her life’s dream come true,” she said.
Mrs. Clark inspired hundreds to pursue a nursing career, many of whom serve the Tifton area. It comforted her that several of her former students cared for her during her illness, her husband said.
Ironically, Hospice of Tift Area, a service of Tift Regional Medical Center that Mrs. Clark helped establish in 1985, cared for her the day she died. Wendy Thompson, one of her former students, was Mrs. Clark’s nurse that morning.
“It was a privilege to be there,” Ms. Thompson said. “She was a wonderful and loving teacher, the kind who took the time to sit down with you until you got it. She was the type of person who could make a difficult task seem simple so you could grasp it.”
Her compassion as a nurse and nursing educator is why students genuinely loved her, Ms. Groover explained.
“The common denominator when you talk to her students is that she not only cared for them, she put in extra hours to encourage them and never gave up on them,” she said. “I can’t begin to describe how loved and respected she was in the profession, community and her college campus.”
Kim Miller