Dr. Susan Steele-Moses named Outstanding Louisianian: Nursing

October 4, 2024

NATCHITOCHES - Dr. Susan Steele-Moses, associate professor, statistician and methodologist in Northwestern State University's College of Nursing, was named Louisianian of the Year for Nursing by Louisiana Life Magazine.

Steele-Moses, a resident of Baton Rouge, made the list that is annually compiled by editors to recognize artists, athletes, medical professionals, teachers, conservationists, volunteers, politicians, entertainers and others who stand out in their professions, give back to their communities and/or contribute to the good of society or to Louisiana culture.

Steele-Moses is also this year's Nursing Educator of the Year for Louisiana, named by the Louisiana Nurses Foundation.

Steele-Moses grew up in Oregon, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo, and felt a calling from a young age to become a nurse.

"When I was five, I had my tonsils removed. That was back when you were admitted the night before for surgery. I followed the nurse doing her tasks and I thought what she was doing was so interesting that I wanted to do that," she said.

She earned associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in nursing. Her dissertation topic was on health behavior, "The relationship of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, perceived threat on the mammography behavior of women in three rural southeast Louisiana parishes," research she continued in post-doctoral work. Her career has spanned more than four decades, almost 20 years spent as an oncology nurse before her transition into education. After working in acute care and teaching clinical students, Steele-Moses transitioned to nursing education.

"My mother and both of my brothers are educators, so education was in my blood. Back in the 90s I was an administrator, but I missed patient care. The way I reengaged was to teach nursing students in the clinical setting. I wanted them to be enthused about nursing, to love nursing as much as I did. So many times, nurses eat their young and I wanted to show them that there were people who cared about them, who wanted them to succeed."

As a nurse statistician methodologist, Steele-Moses assists students and faculty as needed with research project design and computation of their statistical analysis. She is particularly proud of the number of nurse's lives she has touched.

"This compassion came from my mentor, Dr. Demetrius Porche. He went above and beyond, way more than any other faculty ever did, and all he asked was that I pass it on.

"If you think about it, one faculty member touches 20-25 students in any given year, and over the course of a career, 30 years for me, that is 750 lives I have been involved with. Then if you think about the number of patients the average nurse takes care of in any one given day, 5-6, that is 4,500 patients a part of me took care of today. In nursing, we take what we like from each of our instructors and leave the rest. In so doing we grow the profession to become better."

For a full list of 2024 honorees visit https://www.louisianalife.com/la-nouvelle-louisiane/

For information on Northwestern State's College of Nursing, visit https://www.nsula.edu/nursing/.

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