NATCHITOCHES –Dr. Linda Nichols was feted with a retirement party in thanks for more than 23 years of service to Northwestern State University’s Leesville-Fort Polk campus. It was a capstone to a long career in hands-on nursing and nursing education. Nichols’ commitment to advising, mentoring, recruiting and retention played a critical role in the success of nursing students and growth of the Leesville campus.
During her tenure, enrollment and retention grew when the program began admitting students to clinicals twice per year instead of once. Though negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and two hurricanes, there were many semesters of 100% NCLEX pass rates for the Leesville campus and the staff recruited faculty from the Leesville area to increase program stability.
“We have so many military students that the nurses going through our program don’t just impact the local community, Leesville and DeRidder. They have a global impact,” she said.
Nichols joined the faculty at the campus in 2003 and retired as Campus Nursing Director and Military Student Coordinator, a senior position in which she was responsible for all aspects of nursing education with a focus on student advising, mentoring and assisting active-duty personnel pursuing a nursing degree through a military commissioning program. She also supervised full-time and adjunct clinical faculty.
A resident of Pitkin, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, Master of Science in Nursing and Clinical Nurse Specialist at McNeese State University and an Ed.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of Louisiana-Monroe.
She began her career in 1987 as a staff nurse in the Intensive Care Unit at St. Patrick Hospital in Lake Charles before joining faculty at LSU-Alexandria in 1995 as a clinical instructor in the hospital setting for students in medical-surgical courses. She then served as EMT-Paramedic program director at LSU-A from 2001-2002 before she was appointed assistant professor of nursing providing classroom and clinical instruction for students in Medical-Surgical Nursing I, II and III, Fundamentals and Accelerated guided Study for the LPN.
Nichols served on staff in ICU at Rapides Regional Medical Center from 1992-2017 caring for critically ill patients with a variety of acute and chronic disorders. During that time, she also served in ICU at Beauregard Memorial Hospital for two years.
Joining the faculty at NSU, she was a classroom and clinical instructor for ASN students and provided online course instruction for BSN pre-clinical nurses. From 2016 until 2024, she was Leesville Campus Nursing coordinator overseeing all aspects of nursing education, assisting active-duty military personnel pursuing nursing degrees and supervising all full-time and adjunct clinical faculty. She was named Leesville Campus Nursing Director and Military Student Coordinator in 2024. She also served on the Leesville/Fort Polk campus Critical Response Team and was awarded the Creighton Owen Endowed Professorship in Nursing in 2006, 2008 and 2017-2025.
Over the years, Nichols earned and maintained numerous licensure and certifications. Research for her doctoral dissertation focused on “Faculty perception of value and utilization of best practices for high fidelity simulation experiences in Associate Degree Nursing programs.” She presented at several conferences her research that explored causes and factors of infant mortality rates, documentation strategies regarding legal liability issues for nurses, findings from the National Children’s Study and management of patients with strokes.
Nichols served on the Central Louisiana Human Services Board as a representative of Vernon Parish, nominating committee member, nominating committee chair and secretary. She maintained membership in Sigma Theta Tau, Louisiana State Nurses Association and the American Association of Critical Care Nurses.
Nichols was active on numerous committees within the College of Nursing related to nursing, leadership, curriculum, social events, elections, assessment and evaluations, appeals, student affairs and learning resources and information technology. She represented the College of Nursing on NSU’s Faculty Senate for five years.
In her community, Nichols is a member of First Baptist Church of Pitkin where she has served as past treasurer and Sunday School teacher.
Through her work, Nichols was able to observe the impact that the NSU Leesville/Fort Polk program had on military families. In retirement, she hopes to continue support military students, military nurses and their families and become involved in the Nurse Honor Guard.