Students, Alums and Nurses: Sisters Share Path and Passion to Heal 

Donor Suzanne Potts Scobey and her two sisters, Stephanie Cape and Stacey Park, are connected through more than blood. They have a shared passion for nursing and love and appreciation for the nursing program at the University of Memphis, their alma mater.

A former member of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Loewenberg College of Nursing (LCON), Scobey and her sisters toured the Community Health Building (CHB), getting their first opportunity to visit since LCON moved into the $200,000 square-foot, $60 million building. A member of the committee that hired the previous dean Lin Zhan, Scobey was on the council when the UofM was raising money to fund the Park Avenue building. She said the final product makes her proud to have even a small part of its inception.  

“The facilities are state-of-the-art. It is obvious that it was developed with today’s student and the needed skills/knowledge base the healthcare community expects from graduating nurses in mind,” she said. “The simulation is fantastic! The clinical fears of student nurses can be eased by practicing first time procedures on lab manikins versus a human. This practice has worked well in the airline industry and it was overdue for the healthcare industry.”

Her sisters agree. Cape said that the facility and amenities were beyond her imagination and expectations. “After my tour of the nursing college facilities, I was completely flabbergasted and blown away. The college has no comparison. The classrooms, simulated training labs and other features are state -of-the-art, and the teaching staff is incredibly impressive. I left that day so incredibly proud to be affiliated with and a graduate of this fine program.”

Park said the space and technology in CHB were well planned. “The amazing technology and simulated manikins are wonderful teaching tools. It’s an exciting time in the nursing profession with ever-changing advancements in technology and ways of learning. But with all the advancements, the best part of the nursing profession is and will always be the hands on, human interaction. Students at the UofM are getting that education.”

ABOUT THE SISTERS

Born and raised in Memphis, the sisters were familiar with the UofM through their father John Potts, former scholarship track star and a graduate of the Fogelman College of Business and Economics.

“My father was a huge Memphis supporter, both for the city and the University. He always entertained around Memphis ball games and was always the man with the tickets for his customers even during the days of Larry Finch and Keith Lee when no seats were available in the Coliseum,” said Scobey, who was asked as a student to participate in a recruitment commercial with Lee and another basketball player. Designed to show the university’s diversity, Scobey was featured in her white nursing uniform carrying an armload of books.

The oldest of the three sisters, Scobey earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree in 1985 from then Memphis State University after graduating from the Methodist School of Nursing in 1981. In 2008, she earned a Master of Science in Nursing from the UofM.

“I really had no idea what I was getting myself into. I remember the entrance exam falling the day after my senior prom. I can’t believe I even passed it. God must have had plans for me,” said Scobey. “It was no walk in the park, but it was clear it was something I was called to do.”

Mother to two sons, Scobey currently works with her husband Dr. Eugene C. Scobey Jr., internal medicine specialist at Inpatient Physicians of the Midsouth. She is also adjunct faculty at Union University and a staff nurse in the Surgical Department at Methodist University Hospital.

“Nursing was a perfect fit for me. The more I studied, the more I loved it. The profession fertilized the strong areas of my personality—a driven, goal-oriented, people person and self-proclaimed perfectionist—which helped me succeed.”

In 1991, Park was the second sister to graduate from the Methodist School of Nursing with a nursing diploma, before earning a BSN in 1994 from the UofM. As an RN, she started working as a nurse technician at Le Bonheur and continued until 2003 when she became pregnant with the first of her three children. She hopes to one day return to nursing when her mom duties are not as demanding.

“I chose pediatric nursing because when I did my rotation at Le Bonheur in nursing school, I loved it so much that I never left,” Park said. Married to Dr. Ashley Park an interventional spine physician at Campbell Clinic, she was first runner up in the Miss Tennessee USA pageant in 1994. “Pediatric nursing was such a fulfilling career. I never felt like I worked. I just did what I was passionate about and felt that I served the families that I cared for well.”

The middle sister, Cape graduated from Methodist’s nursing school in 1984. Like her sisters, she worked full-time as an RN while working toward her BSN, which she earned in 1990 with a Magna Cum Laude designation. In addition to work and academics, Cape entered and won Miss Tennessee USA in 1988, going on to place eighth in the national Miss USA pageant.

After earning her BSN, she pursed a career in pharmaceutical sales, working for Lederle Pharmaceuticals. “My medical knowledge derived from my nursing background proved invaluable. I was able to speak with physicians, pharmacists and students with confidence and ease. My co-workers with no medical background found this atmosphere intimidating and daunting.”

In 1993, she moved to Dyersburg, Tenn., with her husband Dr. Richard Cape, ophthalmologist. She taught prepared childbirth classes at Methodist Hospital of Dyersburg. Cape now oversees Cape Regional Eye Center, PLLC, and Cape Surgery Center, LLC, for her husband.

“I love having my sisters in the same profession. We did and still do tell each other stories of our various experiences, while maintaining patient confidentiality of course. It was nice to knock around ideas, scenarios and concerns and get their input on various situations,” Cape said.

Park said the fact that they all married doctors is interesting but not surprising. “It happens because that is who you work with. I love being married to a fellow health care provider because we can share that passion of helping others and the profession of taking care of the sick. It truly is a calling.”