April Chase from Cibolo, Texas, is graduating with a Master of Science in Nursing degree with an Education specialization. She grew up in Hermon, Maine, and earned her BSN from the University of Maine in 2004. She completed her MSN coursework in October, is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society, and continues to be a part of the Saint Joseph’s College community as a student in the post-masters Family Nurse Practitioner certificate program.
Upon graduating with her Bachelor’s in Nursing, Ms. Chase was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Army. She served on active duty for eight years as an emergency/trauma nurse. She deployed to Mosul, Iraq in 2008 where she had the opportunity to serve as a critical care flight nurse in addition to trauma nurse. Her Army nursing career provided many leadership opportunities which includes charge nurse, team leader, emergency department operations officer, nursing regional deployment officer, and interim company commander. Captain Chase wrapped up a successful military career with a Meritorious Service Medal. She continues to serve the military population in the emergency department of the only Level 1 Trauma Center for the Department of Defense, which also serves civilian trauma and burn patients in San Antonio and all of South Texas.
Throughout her nursing career, April discovered a passion for teaching. She has held many instructor positions over the years to include faculty for the Emergency Nurses Association in the Trauma Nursing Core Course and Emergency Nursing Pediatric Course. As an instructor in Basic Life Support, she volunteered to certify the teachers at her children’s’ nonprofit Montessori preschool where she was a board member. April has been a guest lecturer for the Army Licensed Vocational Nurse program as well as the military’s Emergency Nursing and Critical Care Course. As a Certified Pediatric Emergency Nurse, and with her experience in Iraq, and in busy military hospitals, she is often invited to lecture on pediatric trauma and resuscitation. Within days of conferral of her MSN, Professor Chase joined the faculty at the University of Texas Health Science Center (UT Health) School of Nursing in San Antonio. She currently teaches the Leadership & Management clinical in their BSN program.
Ms. Chase’s graduate work at Saint Joseph’s College included the development and implementation of a simulation focused on impaired nurses, allowing students the opportunity to apply content learned in theory to the clinical setting. This simulation has become part of the curriculum at UT Health San Antonio, and April is the lead author for a podium presentation on this simulation at the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) conference in Toronto, Canada, in June. She plans to continue as nursing faculty and hopes to also become a provider in a family practice office in the future.
April is the proud mother of two boys named Jonathan and Daniel, ages 6 and 8.
