When students on Galen College of Nursing’s Miami campus begin their Fundamentals of Nursing course early in their education journey, one of the first voices they’re likely to hear is that of faculty member Christina Dieujuste.

And when students graduate from Galen and sit for their NCLEX exam, Dieujuste’s voice is one of the last ones they hear as they recall her words of wisdom during their big test.

Since joining Galen as a faculty member in June 2021, Dieujuste has become one of the most integral people on Miami’s campus. She has the ability to brighten the mood with both faculty and student groups, and she’s been known to spontaneously start dancing to pump colleagues and students up when they need a boost.

At the same time, the serious nursing knowledge that Dieujuste imparts on her students during class is something that so many of them carry with them through the rest of their Galen journey, into the NCLEX, and then to the start of their professional nursing careers.

For a South Florida native who grew up with limited financial means, she knows how important it is to have a secure foundation, and to know your fundamentals.

“Your foundation builds you,” Dieujuste said. “Without a strong foundation, you will fall.”

When Miami Dean Dr. Consuelo Nelson, PhD, MSN/Ed, BN, RN was appointed to lead the new campus upon its opening in 2021, Dieujuste was one of the campus’ first hires. It turned out to be a stroke of genius.

“She came in as, I think, the second instructor to be hired,” Nelson said. “And she came in with pretty much next-to-nothing experience in terms of teaching. But there was just something about her, in terms of her aura, and just in terms of her natural vibe, if you must say, I guess.

“And so, you know, when they hired her, I was pretty excited, and that’s the thing, once she got hired, she was just all in. I mean, when we talk about the, the mission and the values of the school, she definitely has inhabited all of that in terms of going the extra inch.”

With the campus opening with new cohorts of students, they needed someone to teach the Foundations of Nursing. Why not Dieujuste? She had everything to offer to students, from her skills as a nurse, to her life experiences.

Born to immigrant parents from Haiti, Dieujuste was one of ten siblings in her family. Speaking Haitian Creole at home and English at school, she learned at a young age to navigate American and Haitian culture. The dual identity taught her to adapt, translate, and read the room in certain situations. It formed the backbone of how she treats others with compassion and care, knowing there are many others from similar backgrounds as her going through nursing school right now.

“We do have a very unique population that we teach,” Nelson said. “There is, like, a socioeconomic status to it, and a lot of them, again, these are first-generation, college students. These are students that have dependents, and you know, when she (Dieujuste) started in nursing, she came from that particular kind of status in life and within the community, and so she’s never forgotten that. I think that’s just what it is, the humility and the humbleness that goes behind what she does. And so I think that’s why she connects so well with the students, is because of the relatability.”

After graduating high school, Dieujuste went to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Fla., where she received her bachelor’s in nursing, and began her healthcare career. The career took her to Ohio first, and then back home to Miami working as a cardiac critical care nurse in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of University of Miami Hospital. It was here that she received a Daisy Award, one of the highest honors in nursing, in 2015, for being ‘caring, attentive, very positive, and has a great energy and vibe to her. She has a heart of gold.’

Her more than 16 years working in the ICU taught her to think quickly, stay organized while balancing 6 or more patients at a time, and trust her intuition. The ICU can be an emotional roller coaster, with one patient making progress, while another one is close to the end.

“You can go to one room… everything is exciting… and in the other room it’s dark and gloomy because the news is grave,” Dieujuste said. “And then you have to go back (to the other room), and you just have to learn to have that balance and self-reflect.”

Students in Dieujuste’s Foundations of Nursing course learn quickly about what it takes to succeed in the class.

“I’m upfront,” Dieujuste said. “I’m just very direct. I don’t want you feeling like at the end of the day, you were lost and confused by an instructor.

“But I can also be gentle and let them know, okay, here’s let’s talk, you and I, side to side, so you have that understanding that if this is the journey you want to go through, be ready. And there are sacrifices you have to make.”

Students who complete the course say they keep coming back to the lessons they learned along their way in their nursing education journey.

“Since my first term in Fundamental, I have been greatly blessed having Professor Dieujuste,” Galen Miami student Adela Zepeda said in an email. “She’s really in my mind every semester I went through. When she told me to have confidence inn my own answers and speak up, it spoke volumes.”

Dieujuste said that it’s important to have a safe space for students in her class, because many of them come from either difficult backgrounds, or bad experiences at other higher education institutions.

“A lot of them have come from other schools, and I’m not sure what happened to them in the past when they’re at the other schools, so a lot of them bring that hurt, they bring that mistrust into Galen,” Dieujuste said. “It’s about being upfront and having that trust factor and teaching them how to learn to forgive who they used to be, (in order) to see who they will become.”

It’s not just students that Dieujuste connects with on campus. It’s the staff and her nursing faculty colleagues as well.

With music often playing in the background of the campus administrative offices, she’s been known to spontaneously start dancing, which lifts up everyone’s mood and gets everyone moving.

“She pretty much brightens the entire (campus),” Nelson said. “You could be in the worst situation possible. You could have a really bad day. You could even be in tears. And the thing is that she just takes it out of you. She pulls that energy out of you, and she just switches it over. And I… it’s very hard to explain how she does it, and it’s not just through dancing, it’s not just through the aura that follows her.”

Added Dieujuste: “If there’s a song that comes on, I’ll just make it like a Zumba class. I’m like ‘all right, ladies, 5 minutes (of dancing)!'”

Dieujuste also brings her love for movement into the classroom too. Sometimes she’ll play a song while teaching a concept about a nursing skill, and it will help her students be more engaged with their fellow future nurses next to them.

“You’ve got to spruce it up,” she said, “because if not, you’ll lose them.”

Dieujuste sees it all the time, whether it’s in the hallways of campus between classes, or at a local facility for her classes’ clinical rotations. Seeing students thank her makes everything she does worthwhile.

“They tell you ‘I passed the NCLEX’, and you’re like, you’re screaming for them,” Dieujuste said. “But the biggest thing is when they text you, or you walk into a facility, and they’re like, have you noticed me (working here now)? That is that testimony.

“I said to myself, wow. Whatever skill that they learned from me, they were able to utilize it, and it was effective. You just have to trust the process.”

Behind every successful nurse is an educator who saw their potential and helped make it blossom. If you’re interested in moving from the bedside to an academic role where you can help shape the lives of future nurses, Galen College of Nursing is a perfect home for you. We offer Adjunct and PRN faculty roles allowing you to gain teaching experience on the side, as well as full time faculty roles in our 25 campuses across the country.

Additionally, Galen’s Online Master of Science in Nursing program is built for working nurses who want to transition into teaching, academic leadership, or other educator roles. Get started today with Galen’s Online MSN and inspire the next generation of nurses.