Undergraduate Nursing Student

Receives Overall Excellence Award

from the MU Sinclair School of Nursing

Contact: Pam Roe
S218 School of Nursing
(573) 884-2690

April 25 , 2007

COLUMBIA , Mo. – Rebecca Pratte's, senior nursing student, first choice of a career wasn't that of a nurse it was that of a soldier. However divine order took over and due to a military-ending sport injury at West Point she had to face making a critical decision about what to do with her life.

Quite by coincidence, this sports injury fine tuned her choice of career. Always interested in the health-care profession she had considered becoming a physician, but after being in the role of patient she couldn't forget the way the nurses had treated her with respect. “The nurses were the ones who spent the most time with me and really helped keep me motivated through my surgery and recovery process,” Pratte says. After an additional surgery, Pratte was eligible for a medical waiver back into the Army. So she enrolled at the School and Army ROTC and has split her time between military and nurse training. Her belief that nursing is a profession where a nurse can influence people's lives, take care of patients in their lowest moment, share their joys and be there for new beginnings and hold hands as the end of life nears were the deciding factors in Pratte receiving the 8th-Semester Student Award for Overall Excellence at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing's annual spring banquet on April 13. She is the daughter of Allen and Rita Pratte of Huntsville , Al. “Cadet Pratte is the best cadet I have had the privilege to work with during my 23 years of active duty in the U.S. Army,” says Malcolm Wallace, Jr., LTC , IN , professor of Military Science at MU. “She is going to be an outstanding nurse and it gives me great comfort to know we are producing such great nurses who will help our men and women in need.”Since entering the clinical portion of her nursing education, Pratte was able to attend the Army Leadership and Development Course. The course is a 33-day intensive training that is extremely physically and emotionally challenging. It tests strength, courage, critical thinking, problem solving and the ability to survive the elements and deal with adverse situations. “Not everyone makes it through this intense course as they are weeding out the weak and identifying and training those who emerge as top leaders,” says Anne Heine, instructor of clinical nursing. “These individuals, who are learning to serve and protect our country, are truly the cream of the crop.” At this camp, Pratte received an “excellent” rating, ranked in the top five of her platoon and was in the top 10 percent of cadets out of the approximately 4,000 cadets who attended. She also received the Distinguished Military Graduate award, which is the highest award available to a ROTC student and she has recently been assessed as an Army Nurse by the Army. Additionally she was a nominee for the Army's 2007 Pallas Athene Award. Nationally only three senior Army ROTC women will receive this prestigious annual award.

Pratte's future plans include becoming a certified flight nurse and then completing a master's degree in nursing to become a neonatal or pediatric nurse practitioner. However, her immediate plans include graduating in May and then serving her country wherever she is needed. She is anticipating being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan to do her part in the American efforts to care for wounded heroes/soldiers and others hurt in the line of duty.

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