Training nurses to see the whole person—and respond

When Clinical Professor of Nursing Debbie Solomon talks about her work, it doesn’t take long for her personality and conviction to come through.

“I’m a little bit passionate about what I do,” she says with a laugh.

It’s an understatement. In various roles over the past four decades, Solomon has helped shape generations of Bethel nurses—preparing them not just with clinical skill, but with compassion, adaptability, and a deep commitment to caring for the whole person. Whether she’s guiding students through clinical practice, leading a classroom discussion, or working alongside them in the community, her approach is the same: connect first.

“My favorite part of patient care is connecting with people—learning about them so we can best help them be healthy,” she says. “It’s the same with students.”

That philosophy was shaped by her own unexpected journey to Bethel. A first-generation college student and new Christian from rural Minnesota, Solomon arrived unsure of where she fit. She started in anthropology and archaeology, drawn to science and travel, but didn’t immediately feel at home.

“I knew nothing about Bethel other than it was a Christian university,” she says. “I lived on campus for two weeks. I just couldn’t take it.” But when Bethel launched a nursing program, something clicked. It offered what she hadn’t realized she was looking for: an intersection between science, faith, and human connection.

Even then, her path wasn’t straightforward. As a member of Bethel’s first graduating class of nurses in 1984, she wasn’t sold on the idea of working in a hospital, which was—and often still is—the assumed career route. Instead, it was a public health rotation out in the community that changed everything. She loved seeing patients in their everyday environments and putting her pragmatism and keen observational skills to work. 

She describes nurses as “master multitaskers” who have to quickly discern all the factors going on in someone’s situation and figure out how to move them toward health. It means being able to “read the room” and not only assess their health condition, but also determine what stressors are at play, whether someone has access to safe food and support, and what supplementary resources or people are available to complement the clinical care that’s being provided. It’s fast-paced, the landscape is constantly changing and evolving, and Solomon lives for it. 

As a family nurse practitioner, Solomon’s clinical work has spanned the full spectrum of life—from pre-birth to bereavement. She began mentoring Bethel students at her workplace in the 1990s and eventually became an adjunct instructor while still working as a nurse. A few years ago, she went full-time at Bethel but still picks up nursing shifts when she’s not teaching. The balance between work and teaching has shifted and changed over the years, but Solomon loves that variety.

Gone are the pressed white nursing uniforms and tights that were required when Solomon started her career. Today’s nurses are more like the center of a wheel, she explains. As the ones often most familiar with a patient’s case, they pull together interdisciplinary teams of therapists, pharmacists, specialists and case workers, navigating ever-changing technologies and community resources to arrive at the most positive outcome. 

“Increasingly, we go to patients,” she says, recalling a time she was inserting a PICC line in someone’s living room when the patient’s cat jumped into her meticulously-prepared sterile field. She had to think on the fly and keep her patient safe. 

That same commitment to meeting people where they are defines her teaching. At Bethel, she works closely with students in clinical settings, helping them translate knowledge into real-world care. She challenges them to look beyond symptoms and consider the full picture of a patient’s life and environment.

“We’re constantly asking: what does this person need, and what is my role in helping them live the highest quality of life possible?” she says.

One trademark of the Bethel nursing program is simulated hospital rooms and community care settings that are as close as possible to the real thing. Solomon and her students role-play different scenarios and practice responding to mundane and off-the-wall situations so students learn not just technical skills, but adaptability, judgment, and teamwork. They learn how to create and hold personal boundaries, where their scope of care ends, how to collaborate across disciplines, navigate complexity, and advocate for patients at every stage.

For Solomon, the most rewarding moments come when all of that learning comes together.

“I love the ‘a-ha’—when you can see it on a student’s face. ‘Oh, I get it,’” she says.

Those moments matter because the stakes are real. The students she teaches today will be the nurses caring for patients—and communities—for years to come. And at the center of it all is a perspective that has remained constant throughout her career: nursing is not just a profession, but a calling.

“My faith and my profession were completely integrated at Bethel,” she says. “I can’t separate them—and it’s beautiful.”

Faith integration is part of what sets Bethel graduates apart, and Solomon sees the difference in her extensive connections in the Twin Cities medical world. Bethel nurses are known not just for their knowledge and technical ability, but in how they care for patients—and this reputation has become a foundational element of Bethel’s new Anderson Family College of Health Sciences.

“Not only are Bethel nurses intelligent, with excellent technical skills, knowledge, and critical thinking. But they’re able to care!” says Solomon. “Anyone can learn to calculate medication or put notes in a computer, but when you do it acknowledging your patient is a human being created in the image of God and worthy of the best care possible? Worthy of unconditional acceptance, without judgement? Wow. Not everyone can see people through the eyes of Jesus. But Bethel nurses can.” 

Aside from the hundreds of Bethel students that Solomon has impacted over the years, she’s also an active member of the local and global healthcare community. She’s worked in rural healthcare systems, served the homeless in Minneapolis, done community health and medical missions work abroad, and has had countless professional publications and presentations. She was honored with the 2024 Presidents’ Civic Engagement Leadership Award from MN & IA Campus Compact and the 2025 Minnesota Society of Public Health Educators Dr. Judith Luebke Health Educator of the Year award. Her list of accomplishments is impressive, but Solomon brushes it aside. 

Solomon never planned for Bethel to play such a long-term role in her life and career. But somewhere along the way, four years turned into four decades—shaped by a deep sense of purpose and the relationships she’s built.

From a student unsure she belonged to a professor deeply invested in tomorrow’s nurses, her story has come full circle. And she’s still doing what she loves most: moving her patients and students, one step at a time, toward health and purpose.

Invest in people's health

Nursing is more than a career—it’s a calling to care for people in their most vulnerable moments and to help communities thrive. At Bethel, you’ll be prepared through hands-on clinical experience, innovative simulation labs, and faculty mentors like Debbie Solomon who bring both expertise and heart to their teaching.

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