Vicki Simpson practices her wound preparation on EIT Nursing lecturer Jocelyn Stewart.

The winner of three prestigious scholarships, star EIT Bachelor of Nursing student Vicki Simpson is earmarking the $3500 awarded for postgraduate study expenses next year.

Vicki received this year’s Diana Lewer Memorial Scholarship for Excellence in Mental Health Nursing, the UFS Scholarship for Excellence in Pharmacotherapeutics and the EIT Otatara Trust Scholarship.

The straight A student is in the final year of her degree, which includes a nine-week placement in a real-life clinical setting later this year.

“I’m excited about doing it,” she says of the upcoming practicum experience.  “I need as much time out in the real world as I can get.”

Vicki launched into tertiary study in her mid-thirties after extensive overseas travel and 12 years as an office worker for Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

Walking into EIT’s nursing studies block for the first time, she says, “was like finding a second home.”

She started study with a Certificate in Health Science, and recommends the foundation course to anyone unsure of nursing as a career choice.

After gaining clinical experience and Master’s and PhD degrees, Vicki says her goal is to return to EIT to teach the nursing degree “with the same level of professionalism and commitment as my lecturers.”