Bailee Nichols, R.N., and her mom, Dawn Nichols, M.S.N., R.N., NEA-BC, laughed as they shared stories about Bailee growing up around Texas Health Resources while her mother was growing her career with the organization.
For instance, there was the time when Bailee was a toddler and a nurse helped her send her baby doll back and forth through the nurses station’s pneumatic tube system at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Allen. And there’s the photo of young Bailee in the kitchen at home, wearing her mom’s scrubs jacket.
Bailee began her own career Dec. 19, 2022 — her 21st birthday — at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas as a nurse extern. She became a resident July 17. Like Dawn, who is director of Perioperative, Women’s and Infants and Administrative Services at Texas Health Hospital Frisco, Bailee has chosen labor and delivery as her nursing specialty.
“I’ve always wanted to be a nurse since I was a little girl – because of my mom,” Bailee said. “It’s such a happy time in people’s lives, welcoming a new baby.”
Starting out in 2001
In fact, Dawn was pregnant with Bailee when she went to interview at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Allen in 2001. She had been a nurse elsewhere since 1997 and was hired as a PRN staff nurse in labor and delivery.
She changed to full time and worked in several different roles before she took her first leadership position as interim director of women’s services at Texas Health Allen in 2006.
“They put resources into me to mentor me, to grow me as a leader,” Dawn said. At the time, she was using Texas Health’s tuition reimbursement program to pursue a master’s degree with plans to become a nurse practitioner. But after growing and learning through the mentorship, she changed her plan and earned her degree in nursing administration.
‘A good place to get started and grow’
Texas Health continued to support Dawn’s education through tuition reimbursement and her career through promotions and mentoring.
Though she briefly left Texas Health for a job in Durant, Oklahoma, which is closer to where she lives, Dawn returned, and after serving as mother-baby manager and women’s services director at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Plano, she stepped into her current role at Texas Health Frisco.
“Texas Health has been really good to me,” Dawn said.
Carla Dawson, chief people officer, said, “I love to see generations of a family come to work at Texas Health. Dawn’s career and her daughter’s choice to begin hers at Texas Health exemplify our strong culture, guided by Our Texas Health Promise: Individuals Caring for Individuals, Together. I’m also glad to see Dawn used our Tuition Reimbursement to further her education and career here.”
Dawn’s network of nursing colleagues and experience came in handy while Bailee was in nursing school at The University of Texas at Tyler. Dawn is working on her doctor of nursing practice degree at UT-Tyler, and they would have graduated together, had Bailee not chosen an accelerated program.
Bailee said she relied on her mom and her Texas Health friends and colleagues for help when she needed it. Dawn went to Tyler and quizzed Bailee before big tests.
“I’m proud of her,” Dawn said. “I’m very excited she was able to get hired on at Texas Health. It’s a good place to get started and grow.”
Ways to grow your career at Texas Health
Besides the Tuition Reimbursement program, Texas Health has many ways to pursue career growth. Among them:
- Texas Health Resources University has partnered with a cutting-edge company called Fuel50 to provide a career development website for all Texas Health employees. The My Career Journey website includes assessments, goals, feedback and Mentor Connect, which can be used to access mentors at key stages in your career.
- Pipeline programs, which include fast-track apprenticeships to become certified medical assistants, patient care technicians, pharmacy technicians and licensed vocational nurses to surgical tech, sterile processing and distribution technicians
