{"id":82019,"date":"2018-11-16T10:09:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T16:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/?p=82019"},"modified":"2018-11-19T10:20:22","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T16:20:22","slug":"alumna-valencia-payne-establishes-scholarship-for-african-american-and-latino-american-nursing-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deltastate.edu\/news-and-events\/2018\/11\/alumna-valencia-payne-establishes-scholarship-for-african-american-and-latino-american-nursing-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Alumna Valencia Payne Establishes Scholarship for African-American and Latino-American Nursing Students"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up with a doctor for a daddy, Valencia Payne was surrounded by medicine and the healing and care his office provided in Greenville, Miss. The family practitioner would come home and teach her and her younger brother medical terminology. The little girl even had a toy medical bag. That early interest in medicine grew as she did, ultimately leading her to Delta State University, where Payne earned a BSN in 2008. Her career has encompassed a wide range of responsibilities and opportunities in medicine: nurse, inventor, entrepreneur. Payne\u2019s repeated successes along the way also resulted in Delta State\u2019s Robert E. Smith School of Nursing naming her its 2017 Outstanding Alumnus.<\/p>\n

Now Payne is helping some of today\u2019s School of Nursing students find their own way with a scholarship. The $2,000 scholarship ($1,000 per semester) will be awarded to an African-American or Latino-American nursing student beginning in fall 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy parents always taught us: \u2018Since you\u2019ve been blessed, you always give back to others.\u2019 My mom instilled that in us,\u201d said Payne. \u201cI see the need for diversity in my career. We\u2019re all family on this planet. We need more African-American nurses and more Latino nurses. That persuaded me to start a scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Vicki Bingham, dean of the nursing school, appreciates Payne\u2019s mindfulness and generosity. \u201cThis scholarship will alleviate some of the financial burden that a student can have in obtaining an education,\u201d she said. \u201cAs more nurses will be needed to provide healthcare services for different populations, a scholarship such as this one could help students make that choice to become a nurse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personal and Professional Motivations<\/strong><\/p>\n

The reasons Payne came to be a medical professional and fund a nursing scholarship are both personal and professional, as the above anecdote about her father suggests. She first graduated from Jackson State University with a biology degree in 2000 and had plans to accept a job in New York at a genetics lab with Cornell University. But 9\/11 put a halt to that. Instead, she worked at her father\u2019s clinic for eight years.<\/p>\n

In 2006, she enrolled in Delta State\u2019s nursing school. In a way, it was familiar territory: Payne had been \u201cindoctrinated\u201d by Delta State at a young age when she was on campus for 4-H activities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually stayed on the campus when I was in sixth grade,\u201d she said. \u201cLater, I learned about the nursing program and heard great things about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne joined the Navy as a nurse upon graduation and was stationed at the Walter Reed National Naval Military Medical Center from 2008 to 2012. She then spent a year at Johns Hopkins Medicine at Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. as a critical care post-anesthesia care unit staff nurse\/EpicCare electronic health record implementation specialist and then did contract work as a nurse. Payne also worked in health informatics as it relates to nursing and nursing case management. Payne taught, too, at Chamberlain University College of Nursing, authoring a textbook for the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what inspired me to start my company, rn4students Education with a Twist,\u201d she said. \u201cI wrote my first nursing textbook and then developed an app called rn4students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne also gravitated to healthcare because of her mother\u2019s diagnosis of cancer in 2003. \u201cI had to help out one of the nurses there with her spinal tap,\u201d Payne recalled. \u201cI had to help undress her and hold her in place for the spinal tap. It was an aggressive cancer and she didn\u2019t last long at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Payne moved to Houston, Texas, where she added technology development to her resume. Payne dove into developing electronic health records systems through her trademarked SHIELD\u2014Strategic Health Informatics Electronic Link Division\u2014and Artificial Nano Technology Intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a conference in Jerusalem, Israel, I introduced the DiaGen-NanoBot\u2014short for the diabetic gene. What it will do is cure type 2 diabetes,\u201d Payne said. \u201cI\u2019m in the process of having it fabricated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Payne, who suffers from the disease herself, noted the bot will be implanted in the body and will help make insulin while keeping blood sugar under control.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy brother and I designed it and it\u2019s being copyrighted and trademarked,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m hoping to have it done by December 2019. I\u2019m working feverishly to get that done. In taking care of patients over the years, I\u2019ve seen the ugliness and nastiness of the chronic disease\u2014limbs being amputated, wounds that won\u2019t heal\u2014400 million people around the world have it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do unto Others<\/strong><\/p>\n

Giving back to patients is as natural for Payne as giving back to Delta State. Recalling her time at the School of Nursing, Payne valued her rotations with surgery, maternity, psychology, and others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked working with patients,\u201d she said. \u201cI was good at it\u201d in part because \u201cI had excellent teachers: Debbie Allen [MSN \u201977], who knew my dad; Dr. Bingham [BSN \u201988], at the time one of our professors, who taught us medical surgery; Dr. Dorothy Seals\u2014I love her to death\u2014who taught us psych.\u201d<\/p>\n

To show appreciation seemed the right thing to do to Payne.<\/p>\n

Dr. Bingham hopes other DSU graduates will follow the same path of giving back.<\/p>\n

\u201cI encourage other alumni, not just nursing, to do as Valencia has done by \u2018paying it forward\u2019 to help students reach their career goal and build the nursing profession,\u201d Dr. Bingham said. \u201cEach of us had someone to encourage and support us along our education journey. Scholarship funds are an excellent way to help an individual further their education, make the nursing profession stronger, and indirectly care for people with healthcare needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

rn4students Education with a Twist Scholarship <\/strong><\/p>\n