This introspective exercise allows students to identify the moments in their lives that first inspired them to pursue a career in nursing, while reminding them of their unique purpose and motivations for the path ahead.

Dr. Moretta Burk has known her “why” ever since she was a little girl, as she watched her infant cousin receive care in a hospital nursery. “I loved looking into the nursery window and watching the nurses bathe the newborns and take their vitals,” Burk says. “I didn’t fully understand what they were doing, but I knew — that’s what I wanted to do. In many ways, it felt like a calling.” 

What started as a memory of looking into the nursery window eventually inspired Burk to enroll in the BSN program at SEMO, where she planned to specialize in either maternal and child nursing, neonatal intensive care or pediatric nursing. Her training in SEMO’s BSN program provided valuable experiences that helped her find her career focus. 

“I got a wonderful externship opportunity while I was in school, and with that I was able to work in a variety of hospital settings,” Burk says. “I absolutely loved all the floors I was on, and I met a lot of wonderful people. But in my heart, I was still drawn to the moms and babies.” 

After graduating with her BSN and obtaining her RN license, Burk’s first job was working as a nurse in a level-three neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) caring for premature babies. 

Applying SEMO Nursing Skills After Graduation 

Working in a NICU requires specialized training that you typically only acquire on the job, such as learning how to administer care to babies who require a ventilator to breathe. As Burk developed new nursing skills in the NICU, she leaned on her BSN training from SEMO.  

“The training I had in nursing school really set the foundation for the healthy mom and baby, and some of the more common things you would see in the normal newborn nursery,” says Burk. “That foundation gave me the lens to recognize when something wasn’t right — because once you know what healthy looks like, the abnormal really stands out.” 

While she had a lot of learning to do in her new role as a NICU nurse, Burk was never afraid to ask questions to ensure her newborns were receiving excellent care. “I had the confidence to go to the physician or the nurse practitioner and say, ‘I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I think something is wrong here,’” says Burk. “That willingness to speak up became a cornerstone of my entire career.”  

With her dedication to learning new skills and her thorough approach to patient care, Burk thrived in the NICU. Over time, she found herself wanting to share her knowledge on a larger scale, so she began volunteering to supervise nursing students and new hires as a preceptor for the unit. Burk enrolled in the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program at SEMO after a little over a year in the NICU, giving herself the opportunity to build on the leadership skills she was already beginning to develop at work.  

From NICU Nurse to Clinical Nurse Educator 

In her fifth year in the NICU, after earning her master’s degree, Burk advanced to the role of clinical nurse educator. This change allowed her to experience the best of both worlds in her work — continuing to develop her nursing skills and sharing the knowledge she’d acquired with new nurses.  

“I got to work in the NICU and keep up with my skills and knowledge, while also working with nurses one-on-one and being in charge of skills labs and mandatory training sessions,” says Burk. “I also got to work with new equipment, build the drug libraries, and be a liaison between the staff and the companies we work with.” This role allowed her to gain insight into the ways medical technology and pharmaceutical companies support the NICU every day, which gave her a broader understanding of the healthcare system. 

Burk’s success as a nurse educator encouraged her to pursue her personal goal of earning a doctorate in education, which would eventually allow her to transition her nursing skills to a role in higher education. “When I mapped out my career plans, I knew academia was the direction I wanted to go,” says Burk.  

With young children at home and a full-time role in the NICU, Burk began working toward her doctorate on a part-time basis, enrolling in one to two classes per semester to maintain her responsibilities at home and at work. 

Coming Full Circle with SEMO Nursing 

With just two years left in her doctoral program, Burk came across a job opening at her alma mater for an OB-GYN nurse instructor. SEMO chose her for the position, and Burk began a new phase of her career as a nurse educator, teaching nursing students the valuable skills she’d learned over her 10 years in the NICU.  

Returning to SEMO to educate the next generation of nurses was a full-circle moment for Burk. “It truly felt like coming home. I had earned both my bachelor’s and master’s at SEMO, and my dad was a proud SEMO graduate. SEMO is also where I met my husband, which makes the campus an even more special part of my story.”  

Nine years later, Burk is now the chairperson for SEMO’s Department of Nursing, working every day to make sure students are prepared not only for the clinical world of today but also for the clinical world of tomorrow. “We’re bringing more and more technology into the classroom at SEMO,” Burk says. “Our mannikins are incredibly realistic, and students are gaining skills in the simulation lab that we could only dream about when I graduated.”  

Though the healthcare landscape has changed significantly since Burk graduated with her BSN degree, SEMO continues to prepare career-ready nurses who are highly sought after by healthcare employers.  

Nursing Student Success at SEMO 

The National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) is the gateway to a registered nurse license, determining whether candidates are ready for practice. In the first two quarters of 2025, SEMO’s NCLEX-RN pass rate for first-time test-takers was 96.67 percent, which is 8 percent higher than the national average among first-time test-takers, according to Kaplan. 

Beyond assessing an aspiring nurse’s foundational nursing knowledge and clinical skills, the NCLEX-RN also measures their clinical judgment by testing their decision-making ability as they consider a range of factors on a patient-to-patient basis. 

“There are patients from all walks of life coming into care,” says Burk. “And they may present saying it’s one thing, and as you start to assess the patient — perhaps get a test result back, some lab values back — that’s not looking like what we walked in with.” 

According to Burk, “That’s why clinical judgment is so important. Because a nurse’s ability to recognize and respond may pick up on something before those lab results get back. And they have that working relationship with the physician or the nurse practitioner who’s working with the patient and are able to get that information to them quickly.” 

Burk and her colleagues are continuing to prepare practice-ready nurses by regularly improving SEMO’s nursing programs, which include the on-campus BSN and MSN programs and an online RN to BSN program. The team is currently working to enrich the BSN curriculum with key competencies from the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), as well as the NCLEX-RN test plan. 

Empowering the Next Generation of Nurses 

Beyond teaching didactic knowledge and clinical skills, Burk encourages new students to discover their “why” as future nurses. More often than not, there’s a meaningful, personal connection that led each student to pursue a career in nursing.  

“Most students can point to a person or a moment in time that inspired them. Sometimes it’s, “I don’t remember her name, but I will never forget her. I’m doing this for the nurse who took care of me.” says Burk. “I had a student who was a former St. Jude patient, and they told me, ‘This was my whole life from this year to this year, and I’m going to go back and give back when I graduate.’” 

These students are determined to be like the nurses who were there for them in difficult moments. “You can’t stop a determined person,” says Burk. “They arrive ready, we provide the skills and knowledge, and then they take flight — going on to do wonderful things.” 

What’s Your Why? Pursue Your Calling as a Nurse at SEMO 

Whether you’re just beginning your journey as a nurse or taking steps to expand your impact, there’s a program led by knowledgeable and experienced instructors like Moretta Burk to help you reach your goals at SEMO.  

Delivered on campus, the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program provides students with the foundations of nursing practice to prepare them for the NCLEX-RN.  

SEMO’s online RN to BSN program allows licensed nurses to work full time while earning a bachelor’s degree, so they can balance their responsibilities outside of school while advancing as a nurse.  

At SEMO, you’ll benefit from caring and connected nursing faculty, a strong reputation among healthcare employers, and partnerships with local healthcare organizations. It’s time to fulfill your calling and reach your full potential in nursing. Join us at SEMO Online.