Elizabeth Crooks
Giving back through educating
By Joan Tupponce

Elizabeth Crooks

Elizabeth Crooks is quick to correct someone who refers to a nurse as “just a bedside nurse.”

“There’s no such thing as just bedside nursing,” she says with resolve. “Nurses choose to contribute in different areas of the industry — education, clinical and research. They may want to maintain an advanced practice, for example, or generate knowledge through research or disseminate knowledge through teaching.”

Crooks, who is now a collateral assistant professor of nursing at VCU School of Nursing, is concentrating on educating new nurses. But that hasn’t always been her focus. Her nursing journey began during her high school years in Connecticut.

“I don’t know if I chose nursing or it chose me,” she muses.

An honor student, Crooks had an interest in science and engineering. She also enjoyed working with people and felt an intrinsic need to serve others. “Nursing was a good match for me,” she says.

Crooks received her Bachelor of Nursing degree from The Catholic University of America in 1982 and settled into a position on a busy medical/surgical floor at a Veterans Administration hospital in Syracuse, N.Y.

“I spent a year doing that, and then I moved into critical care at SUNY Upstate Medical Center and worked as a staff nurse in the coronary care and pulmonary care units,” Crooks says. “I worked with people who were long-term ventilator patients.”

During the same time, Crooks was asked if she would be interested in doing helicopter transport for the region. She answered with an enthusiastic “yes.” In 1986, while still a flight nurse, she moved to University Hospitals of Cleveland where she helped establish the hospital’s air transport program.

“We had to develop the program from the ground floor up,” she explains. “It was a dedicated flight program that transported patients of all ages.”

While working at University Hospitals, Crooks was approached by a businessman who wanted to establish a supplemental nursing staffing company in northeast Ohio. He asked Crooks if she would be interested in overseeing the company. “The job sounded appealing so we started Favorite Nurses,” Crooks says. “I continued to fly for the transport program on an as-needed basis because it was difficult to fill that spot.”

In her new role, Crooks learned everything from marketing analysis and sales to employee hiring and firing. “It was a great opportunity,” she says. “I really learned a lot about what it takes to run a business and be an entrepreneur.”

After a couple of years, Crooks and her husband moved to Florida. “One of the wonderful things about nursing is the flexibility in what you can do,” she says. “I chose to go back to nursing in an intensive care environment.”

The family then moved to New Jersey, where Crooks worked as a nurse educator. “I worked with the staff development department in a primary care hospital,” she says. “Being in a small community hospital was a different experience for me. It was a non-teaching environment. Because of that, the collaborative process was different. Physician presence was minimal, so independent nursing was important.”

One of her goals was to establish a higher level of independence for her nurses. “It took them a while to learn that there are no physician orders — just physician requests,” she says.

Another relocation took the family to Cleveland where Crooks attended graduate school, graduating in 1996 from Case Western Reserve University. She later passed her advance practice boards and became a clinical specialist in adult medical/surgical nursing. Crooks accepted a faculty position at Case Western and enrolled in the doctoral program. “I taught graduate and undergraduate programs and really enjoyed it,” she says.

She also helped establish a master’s degree program with a concentration in aeromedical transportation. Crooks’ career took another turn when she relocated to Charlottesville and worked as a scientific writer, focusing on developing continuing education courses about dementia.

Crooks found that the allure of working at home wore off over time. In 2004, she left her work-at-home position and accepted a position as assistant professor at VCU. “There was only so many days I could go to work in my pajamas,” she says, laughing. “Really, I missed working with patients and students.”

Each job that she’s had over the years has been her “dream job. People often say to me that my job sounds like a dream job and it is.”

Currently, she is teaching pathophysiology to graduate students and pathophysiology and pharmacology to undergrads. “I also coordinate the clinical experience for the graduating seniors,” she says, noting that the course is cutting edge. “It includes a simulated hospital experience with eight patients who have different needs. It helps students get a sense of managing multiple patients at one time.”

Crooks hopes to pull in medical students to play residents and theatrical students to play patients – pharmacy students already participate in the simulation. “Law school has a moot court and I like to think of this as our moot hospital,” she says. “It’s a simulated environment where you can make mistakes but no one can get hurt.”

All of Crooks’ jobs have suited Crooks’ personality and her role as a nurse, she says. “I am first a nurse. I keep current in the practice and try to bridge the practice and a generation of new knowledge.”

Every nurse augments the nursing discipline, she adds. “A nurse that chooses to spend her time giving direct care is contributing equally to a nurse that chooses to put together a continuing education project. They contribute equally but differently.”