OUZ Celebrates 50 Year Anniversary for the First Nursing Class Graduates

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio- About 50 years ago the first nursing class graduated from Ohio University Zanesville (OUZ).

Today they celebrated the class of 1970, where the class members and original instructor, Judy Davis, share their stories on what they’ve been able to accomplish.

Nursing is a caring and compassionate business, says Davis. She said her grandmother was a nurse and after hearing all her stories, she took right after her. 

“I am not only a professor here at the school of nursing, I’m also an employee at Genesis Hospital,” Davis stated. “I work on the critical care unit on call, working completely through the COVID pandemic and I’m very proud of that. I’m proud of the care that we were able to give to the  community. I love being a nurse.”

Davis said about 80 percent of the nurses at Genesis Hospital are graduates of OUZ.

One of the first graduates of 1970, Susan Tyson, shared how in high-school she got sick when her mother was having a blood transfusion, but it didn’t stop her from becoming a nurse.

“At the time when I graduated, if you would have told me I was working in the operating room, I’d never believe you because the sign of blood was not one of my things, but I enjoyed it thoroughly and I love being a nurse and it was who I was,” Tyson said.

Tyson encourages all nursing students to continue to push through because she said you’re able to do anything with a nursing profession. 

There were also current nursing students and alumni at the celebration. Following the celebration, there were tours of the new nursing lab and simulation facilities.