About

Elizabeth Crawford is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and graduated in the spring of 2017 with a degree in nursing. Staying focused on her academics and doing her best after being in a tough accident was hard, but she accomplished it. Elizabeth said that getting through her accident and having a challenging major didn’t make it easy but she kept her grades up and graduated on time. When Elizabeth graduated she was the second nursing student in the history of UNCP to graduate from the Honors College, which made all the hard work rewarding. She said that being in the Honors College sets students apart and makes students' names known.

For Elizabeth’s senior project she focused on consumer aspects of patient advocacy, which was very important to her while recovering from her accident. When Elizabeth started looking for research on this topic she noticed that none had been done in the past, so she did her own. In her primary research she conducted focus groups, which included nurses, doctors and nurse assistants.  She wanted to know what consumers think patient advocacy is, what it should be and what drives the nurse/health care provider to do their job. Elizabeth’s manuscript was selected to be published in Alpha Chi’s undergraduate research journal Aletheia.

After graduation Elizabeth got a job as a RN. She advises honors students to focus on their attitude because it is “everything.” She said that her situation could have easily broken her but she decided to persevere, and she made it. Elizabeth believes that staying happy and positive has a huge impact on grades--and on life. When Elizabeth applied for schools she said UNCP was not her first choice but she quickly came to love it. The school and her time here became a part of her that will have a lifelong impact. UNCP is a great school that has so many opportunities; make sure to take advantage of them.

Senior Project

Thesis: Examining the Consumer's Perspective of Patient Advocacy

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jennifer Twaddell