An easy decision: Starting a nursing career at Mount Mercy

Traci (Vine) Ridgway ’07, ’20 MSN (Health Advocacy), ’21 DNP always wanted to be a nurse. One visit to Mount Mercy University and she immediately knew it was the school that could help her achieve those career goals.

“I went to the campus, and I remember we got a tour,” said Traci, a native of Decorah, Iowa. “I looked at my mom and said ‘This is where I’m going. I don’t need another visit.’”

Mount Mercy’s comfortable size and welcoming atmosphere—not to mention its reputation for excellence in nursing—had her sold. With that important decision checked off, Traci was officially on her way to a successful career in health care.

By the time she graduated with her Nursing degree in 2007, she was already working as an oncology nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. She spent five years working as an inpatient nurse in the oncology unit and another five years working outpatient in chemotherapy.

Traci also worked for a couple of physicians before eventually turning to Mount Mercy again to elevate her nursing career with a graduate degree.

“You either get the itch to do more or you’re content—and that’s great too,” Traci explained. “Ultimately, I picked the nurse practitioner role.”

Traci would go on to earn both her MSN and DNP degrees from Mount Mercy. Since 2021 she has worked as a Nurse Practitioner at the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center's Medical Oncology Clinic where she sees oncology patients for treatment and chemotherapy education.

It’s a career path that began at Mount Mercy, and Traci’s grateful for the support she received from professors on the Hill.

“I just remember all of them taking you under their wing and it was like nobody was getting left behind no matter what,” Traci recalled. “They’re invested in you, and that makes you feel like you’re on the right track. If they’re invested in me, I need to do my best.

“They truly care about you—like Julie Shaw,” she continued, referring to Mount Mercy’s program director for graduate nursing programs. “She cried with me on different occasions. We’d do research and I’d get stuck on this or that and she’d say ‘It’s fine, it’s fine. We’ve got this.’”

Traci said Mount Mercy helped lay the foundation for her professional accomplishments—and she continues to call upon what she learned as a student.

“I cannot tell you how many times I’ve used knowledge from several classes in a professional setting,” Traci said. “Mount Mercy holds students to a higher level of expectancy. I do think there’s a level of respect and a level of professionalism that I wouldn’t have had elsewhere.”

One project Traci is especially proud of is her involvement with the growing cancer survivorship clinic at the Hall-Perrine Cancer Center. The goal of the program is to help patients navigate

their next steps after cancer treatment, from providing a care plan to recommending healthy lifestyle behaviors for both physical and mental well-being.

“We’ve strategically placed this survivorship appointment to check and make sure they’re not only OK regarding the cancer, but also their mind, body and spirit—that we’re covering the whole person.”

Just as Mount Mercy once helped shape her future, Traci’s now helping impact tomorrow’s health care providers. Not only does she work with current Mount Mercy nurse practitioner students who assist in oncology, she has also provided oncology instruction in the classroom.

“I say trust yourself. If I can do that with all that was going on and be where I am today, then you can do it too.” — Traci Ridgway '07, '20 MSN, '21 DNP

“You take everything that people give you over the years,” Traci said. “People were investing in me, and they didn’t have to do that. But they chose to do so. Now, I feel like it’s my part to give back to the community and to nursing students—whatever that looks like.”

Traci resides in Atkins with her husband and two children and knows firsthand that achieving academic goals can be a challenge. She completed her graduate work in a COVID learning environment while working full-time with two young kids and a husband who traveled for work. But she said it also shows what can be accomplished through perseverance and hard work.

“I say trust yourself,” she said. “If I can do that with all that was going on and be where I am today, then you can do it too.”