Page 45 - University of Martland Nursing Forum - Winter 2017

A Legacy of Compassion:
JMike and Joyce Gering, MS ’92
oyce Gering, MS ’92, RN, always saw a great deal of
potential in the young
women and teens that
she worked with as
a nurse practitioner
specializing in women’s
health. According to
her husband, Mike
Gering, Joyce Gering
was determined for
those young women to
see that same potential
in themselves. Often, her patients found themselves in difficult circumstances, from unplanned pregnancies to unhealthy or even abusive relationships. Mike Gering says it was his wife’s compassionate guidance that helped many of these young women make drastic changes to their lives.
In January 2016, Joyce Gering passed away from complications related to pneumonia only months after a transplant helped her beat leukemia. After her death, Mike Gering wanted to do something in her honor that “would be there forever,” he says. To make it possible for someone else to carry on the work to which his wife had dedicated herself, he established the Joyce Noreen Gering Endowed Scholarship
for Doctor of Nursing Practice students focused on women’s health issues. Joyce Gering began her career as a labor and delivery nurse, but after a back injury limited her ability to provide direct patient care, she returned to school. She enrolled at the University of Maryland School of Nursing to become a nurse practitioner, taking night and weekend classes for several years until she earned her master’s degree in 1992.
Remembering how hard his wife had worked to pay her own way through her
master’s program, Mike Gering decided the best way to honor her would be to create a scholarship so that future students with her same work ethic and passion would have the means to pursue a career
in nursing.
For Mike Gering, one of the most important aspects of being a nurse—and
Joyce Gering with her granddaughter
one of the things he most admired about his wife—is the ability to connect with patients, he says, adding that he hopes recipients of the scholarship will show the same level of care, compassion, and dedication that his wife did. He says she used to tell her young female patients, “It’s up to you to make the choice about how you want to live going forward.”
He recalls that she encouraged them to take ownership of their lives, bodies, and futures, and patients often returned to her with handmade bracelets, cards, or other tokens of appreciation for her help and advice.
Mike Gering, who funded the scholarship with an initial gift of $50,000, says he has been very fortunate in his life, and he is glad to be able to make a contribution that he feels will truly make an impact, not only for the students who receive the scholarship but also for the patients they spend their careers helping. He says that if even
one of the scholarship recipients came through his or her education with the same spirit of care and devotion that his wife had, it would be the greatest honor he could give her.
—Sarah Karpovich
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF NURSING 43
Freda Parker, BSN ’56 Elizabeth F. Patton, MS ’95 Janice H. Pavlock, MS ’95 Helen R. Peddicord, MS ’72 Joseph Pellegrini
Monika Piccardi, BSN ’86
Marcia G. Postal-Ranney, BSN ’78†
Jane E. Price
Jacquelyn M. Ramsey, BSN ’73
Carol K. Randall, BSN ’79
Kristen E. Rawlett, PhD ’14
Roberta A. Raymond, PhD ’99
Joyce A. Reft, MS ’74
Laurel A. Renaud, BSN ’80
Cory M. Riley, MS ’10
Carrie E. Rizer, MS ’12
Gwen Rodney, BSN ’60
Winifred M. Rojas, BSN ’10
Natalie J. Rook, MS ’85, BSN ’72
Georgia H. Gleadall Rosenblatt, MS ’94
Rita L. Rubin, MS ’78, BSN ’74 Alexis L. Rychlec, BSN ’01 Anne V. Samuels, BSN ’84 Stephanie K. Sanders, BSN ’94 Sharon A. Saunders, BSN ’89† Gina D. Scarinzi, MS ’87
Carol A. Scavarda, BSN ’83
Susan M. Schap, BSN ’55
Carole Schauer, MS ’70†
Chuck M. Schevitz, BSN ’81†
Terri L. Schieder, MS ’84
Marilyn S. Schmitter, BSN ’64
Marie J. Schulman, BSN ’68
Carolyn W. Schweitzer, BSN ’64
Mary L. Searing, BSN ’81
Victoria L. Selby, MS ’09, BSN ’06
Joanne M. Shafik, MS ’82
Kathleen M. Shagena, MS ’95, BSN ’86
Joyce A. Shanty, MS ’88
Jane E. Shea, BSN ’75
Ruth Anne Sheetz, MS ’79, BSN ’75
Jennifer A. Sherwood, BSN ’12
Pamela L. Shumate, DNP ’12
Doretha G. Singley, MS ’93, BSN ’79
Jane L. Sinnott, BSN ’78 Cara L. Smith, BSN ’02 Donna M. Smith, BSN ’95 Norma Z. Smith, BSN ’72† Sally Jo Snader, BSN ’81 Tara L. Sofia, BSN ’82† Gary S. Sorock, MS ’10 Janet R. Southby, MS ’71† Diana F. Staley, MS ’78
COURTESY OF MIKE GERING