Even after nearly two decades of training future nurses, no one would be surprised if 2020 is the year that threw Diane Duffy off her game.

Caught in the grips of a worldwide pandemic, Duffy faced the challenge of preparing her practical nursing students at Chisholm Trail Technology Center to enter a career where their lives may be in immediate jeopardy.

And she had to do so in an unfamiliar distance learning environment when her classroom was shut down from spring break through the end of the school year.

Daunting doesn’t even begin to describe the task, but for Duffy, CTTC’s practical nursing director, it’s all part of the training for a profession where handling the unexpected is all in a day’s work.

“We provide a valuable education and skill set to individuals who will be entering a career that is being challenged as never before,” Duffy said. “These young nurses are brave beyond words.

“They continue on with coursework, striving to complete the program as soon as possible, not truly knowing what Oklahoma will be like tomorrow, much less when they do get to finally write their licensing exam.”

Duffy’s dedication to her students in the classroom and beyond earned her recognition from the Oklahoma Association of Career and Technology Education as its postsecondary teacher of the year for health careers education.

According to the organization’s website, the award “recognizes the finest career and technical teachers at the postsecondary level who have demonstrated innovation in the classroom, commitment to their students and dedication to the improvement of CTE in their institutions and communities.”

While Duffy acknowledges she’s never seen a health crisis on the magnitude of the COVID-19 pandemic, disaster training has always been a core element of CTTC’s practical nursing program.

“Practical nursing has had short assignments on epidemic nursing and I think that disaster nursing should continue at all levels of nursing education,” she said. “We need to give our students a glimpse of what it might mean if this crisis continues for several months and then circles back around.”

Initially torn between returning to fulltime nursing herself to lend her expertise to filling gaps in the frontline, Duffy said she sees her role in training new nurses to be equally as important.

“The PN’s mission statement is to ‘prepare safe, knowledgeable and competent healthcare practitioners for the health community,’” she said. “CTTC’s Practical Nursing Program does that.

“Our graduates work in various settings and many have gone on to higher nursing degrees and one has become a nursing educator at another technology center.”

Duffy was recognized at the Oklahoma Summit, the 53rd annual CareerTech summer conference, held virtually this year.

OkACTE is one of the largest professional development educator conferences in the state and Duffy has been active in the organization at both the division and state levels.

“We are fortunate to have a great leader like Diane at CTTC,” Supt. Max Thomas said. “She is very deserving of this award.

“Diane, like many others at CTTC, is a superstar in her field. Her work ethic is impeccable.”

Enrollment is now open for CTTC’s 2021 practical nursing class, which begins in January.