Loyola DNP alum Sue Hook has opened Samaritan Health and Wellness Center to provide affordable health care to the uninsured and under insured. Recently, a local TV station highlighted her success.

 

Jeri Buckley, one of her fellow graduates of the DNP program, wrote “she has done so much to ‘walk the walk’ and she is truly a blessing to her patients.  The Samaritan Health & Wellness Center is a beautiful testament to a woman who treats the souls of mankind and I am so happy and proud to have an affiliation and a colleague in Sue.” 

 

Sue wrote a brief summary about how she grew into the work she now does. She shares: 

 

I never wanted to be a nurse, but God's plan is always best. I attended Ball State University studying journalism and public relations. Toward the end of my time there, my brother suffered a spinal cord injury which left him a quadriplegic. He was a freshman at BSU and I was a junior. This turned our family's and my life upside down, but in the midst of this trial, God showed me a new path. Following graduation, I enrolled in Lutheran Hospital School of Nursing in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. In 1985 I graduated and earned my RN, so as we graduate in May 2015, I will also celebrate 30 years in this blessed profession. 

 

This 30-year journey has afforded me the opportunity to work in hospitals both as an RN and as a communication specialist in a hospital PR department; teach high school Health Occupations Education; earn my MSN, Family Nurse Practitioner at University of St. Francis in Ft. Wayne, and work as an NP in family practice and cardiology over the past 12 years. 

 

In 2004, my family and I moved to Cape Coral Florida; this was another of God's astounding plans. After living here for six weeks, I was hired by Lee Memorial Health System as an NP in the Employee Health Department. After working in this area for 18 months, I transferred to the outpatient setting at Lee Physician Group, an arm of LMHS. In the Fall of 2011, as I sat at home working on patient charts, I was listening to Moody Bible Channel, and a physician was being interviewed. He was founder of the Church Health Center in Memphis. He said, "If you, as the church, are not involved in the healing ministry, you are leaving a third out of what Jesus did when He walked on this earth." My life has not been the same since. I traveled to Memphis and took the replication workshop at the Church Health Center, brought what I learned back to Cape Coral, and God started the ball rolling. 

 

Prior to visiting Memphis, in March of 2011, I traveled to New Orleans for a pleasure trip. Strolling past Loyola I couldn't help but be drawn to the campus, so when I got home, I started researching  the DNP program. When I returned from Memphis in October 2011, I started preparing to enroll, but my father became ill and died in December, so I postponed school. I called and spoke with Dr. George in 2012 about my insane notion of working full-time, moving forward with Samaritan, and starting the DNP…she agreed that this plan would be quite difficult, but she encouraged me to begin school and use Samaritan as my Capstone project. 

 

Well, I guess you know the rest. I am so thankful for all of God's sovereignty, grace, peace, wisdom, and all that He is. He allows me to work at Samaritan. This ministry is His, not mine. Jesus is driving this bus, and He lets me sit right behind Him (I can't sit at the back because I get car sick). The road is bumpy, but the scenery is beautiful…occasionally He takes a turn I am not prepared for. It is painful at times and trials come, but His "grace is sufficient, for His power is made perfect in weakness" 2 Corinthians 12:9.

made perfect in weakness" 2 Corinthians 12:9.

 

Jeri, thank you for being a friend! The most important part of what people need to know about this journey is not about me but about Christ. Without Him, I am nothing.