Franklin Nduku ’13
PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (September 16, 2020) – After transferring to Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) during his sophomore year, Franklin Nduku ’13 left one dream behind for an even greater one.
“Giving up football was the hardest decision I made in my life, but I had a bigger goal to achieve — to become the first of my mother’s children to attain a college degree,” he said.
After he and his family immigrated to Houston from Lagos, Nigeria, Nduku achieved his goal when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from PVAMU. After working as an acute care nurse for five years, he aspired to impact the nursing industry on a broader level. So he attended Grand Canyon University, where he earned a Master of Science in Nursing with an emphasis in nursing education in 2019.
“Nursing is one of the most fulfilling jobs a person could have,” Nduku said. “It is a huge responsibility to be trusted with the life of another human, and it is incredibly rewarding to develop relationships with patients and their families. This is especially true for me as a nurse at the Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital. Our hospital is like a community center for the veterans where they can catch up with fellow veterans — and, over time, you get to know patients on a first-name basis.”
Since December 2019, Nduku has served as the Magnet program director for the Houston VA. The Magnet designation is given to hospitals by the American Nurses Credentialing Center based on the quality of nursing care. According to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, Magnet recognition achieves higher patient satisfaction with nurse communication, lower risk of 30-day mortality and lower failure to rescue rates, and higher job satisfaction among nurses. Currently, the Houston VA has four Magnet designations and has set its sights on a fifth, which would be an unprecedented achievement for a VA facility.
“It’s my job to ensure that the structures and processes we have in place that make us a Magnet facility are sustained,” Nduku said. “This involves working on projects with staff nurses and leadership to improve the quality of patient care and nursing satisfaction.”
Nduku says working in health care during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique experience.
“In my current role, I try to create a work environment that provides relief to the stress we are all experiencing by implementing wellness and health resources,” he said. “This pandemic has pushed health care workers to new levels of patient care innovation. We come to work every day knowing the risks and do what we have to do to care for our patients and make it back home to our families.”
While Nduku isn’t providing direct care to COVID patients in his current role, he is working alongside them for a research project, the APPEX-19 Proning study. The study assesses whether there is a benefit for COVID-19 patients to lie in a prone position or on their stomachs while resting. Nduku is a co-principal investigator in the nationwide, multisite research project.
“I am part of the research team involved in the recruitment and documentation for the project,” he said. “It is humbling to be conducting research that could have global implications and possibly provide a new treatment for this novel virus. Data reveals that mortality for the virus is more pronounced in minorities, so we must do all we can to care for ourselves and those in our communities.”
Nduku and his team hope to wrap up their study this fall.
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By Kendall Hebert