Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

NATCHEZ — Alcorn State School of Nursing instructor Lauren Guedon walked down the hall with a smile on her face on the Natchez campus close to where The Dart landed Friday. She is in her fifth year of teaching at the Alcorn State University school of nursing. 

A Natchez native, she moved to Woodville in middle school and graduated from Wilkinson County Christian Academy before attending the University of Southern Mississippi. Her friend was applying for nursing school there, and she thought she would give it a try. 

Upon graduation, she moved back to Natchez to live with her husband in Churchill. He is a fourth-generation farmer and owns his own farming supply company. She worked at Merit Health Natchez before teaching at Alcorn. Students are the reason why she teaches. 

“I enjoy the students. I like building connections with the students and breaking things down for them,” Guedon said. “I hope they are empathetic and compassionate. I teach them to have integrity and pour into the nursing profession. We really need it.” 

She is still a PRN and works at Merit when she is not teaching. Alcorn takes students to the hospital for clinicals, and she is able to take her experiences from the bedside to the classroom. 

An obstetric nursing instructor, Guedon is passionate about women’s health and maternal health. She worked in labor and delivery at Merit. Additionally, she teaches med search. 

Alcorn State’s Natchez campus serves an underserved population, she said.

“A lot of them are first generation college students. It is neat to see them have the ‘ah ha’ moment,” Guedon said. “I love to teach. It is my thing. I love getting to know them why and why they are here. Hopefully, I will help them be a good nurse.” 

In her spare time, Guedon loves to read. She has three kids and stays pretty busy with them. The beach is her favorite destination, any beach will do, she said. 

Another hobby of hers is arranging flowers for friends and family.

“I would love to be a florist,” Guedon said. “I like decorating and doing flowers. Someone asked me to decorate for a baby shower, and it took off. I had an older friend, who owned a flower shop, teach me what I needed to know.”