
Lauralee S Krabill Scholarship Fund
Lauralee’s nursing career began in 1975 at Riverside Methodist Hospital on an orthopedic floor where she cared for many Ohio State football players. In 1978 she married Jeff and moved to Sandusky and became an operating room nurse at Providence Hospital, where she eventually joined the staff of the Providence School of Nursing. The teaching staff at Providence School of Nursing became some of her closest, lifelong friends.
In 2000, she joined a team of colleagues to open the Northern Ohio Surgical Center, which is now called Erie Shores Surgery Center. Many of the original staff nurses that Lauraleehired are still working there and it is also one of our most important clinical sites for the LPN program, as they go there to obtain the requirements for their IV certifications.
In 2005, Sandusky City Schools wanted to bring back the LPN program. Lauralee was chosen to take on the responsibility of writing the curriculum, implementing the whole program, and obtaining the proper approvals and accreditations to be able to run the program. She did this in a matter of 10 months. Through her efforts with this program, she assisted with 16 graduations, for a total of 338 LPNs. Many of these LPNs have gone back for their Registered nurse or nurse practitioner degrees. She was also the director of the medical assisting and phlebotomy program and the pharmacy tech program.
When you sit back and reflect on someone that had a career like Lauralee’s, it truly is astonishing to think about everything she did. I believe that was able to do this because she was always thinking about the future; if she didn’t like something, she advocated all the way to the top to change it; and most importantly…she was approachable and kind.
Lauralee was a forward-thinker and was able to predict the future needs of the nursing profession. With the nursing shortage, she knew we needed to get nurses through programs to get them to the bedside faster. She had a skill of forcasting those needs and implementing them quickly. This is why Lauralee began a new LPN to RN Diploma Program in 2017. She saw the need and she acted on it. The LPN to RN Program is currently in its 5th class and has graduated 124 Registered Nurses.
Lauralee also had a constant mindset that if you don’t like something, you have to get involved, and advocate to change it. She did this through her involvement with many organizations including the Ohio Organization of Practical Nurse Educators, Association of Operating Room Nurses, 100 Women of Erie County, and she even served as the Ohio Board of Nursing President until her passing. Her dedication to these organizations displayed her commitment to the future of nursing.
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