Courtesy SCC
Marcia deAndrade, an Elizabethtown native, is Southeastern Community College’s newest nursing instructor with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare. When two of her undergraduate nursing instructors told her she would not pass state boards, a fire for teaching was ignited to prove them wrong. With deAndrade teaching the Associates Degree Nursing capstone course, she is determined to produce the most qualified next generation of healthcare professionals.
“You know, I’m very big on student success, student achievement and our stakeholders to make sure we’re putting students back out into the community who are successful at what they do and want to stay here in Columbus County,” deAndrade said. “I feel like what I value is the same thing that Southeastern values, and that’s what brought me here.”
This semester, deAndrade is tasked with preparing students for the NCLEX, an exam that certifies a nursing graduate to practice at the bedside in healthcare. deAndrade teaches the nursing capstone course Nursing 213: Complex Health Issues. deAndrade said she is preparing SCC students the same way she prepared nursing students all over the country in a previous career path.
“This is how I am designing my classroom, and it’s how I’m designing their exam questions and lectures,” deAndrade said. “I want them to think critically at the bedside, and that’s why I have a mannequin in this classroom.”
When students are at the bedside, deAndrade wants them thinking many steps in advance so they are prepared for any possible scenario. She wants to help produce the “best possible registered nurse for this community” because it “could be your family member they are taking care of.”
In her short time on campus so far, deAndrade loves the family atmosphere of SCC’s employees. As she gets to know everyone, she said she can feel the close-knit bonds within her fellow nursing faculty and staff. deAndrade feels like she is already part of the nursing family and wants to keep adding photos to her “SCC family photo album” of everyone she meets.
“Teaching is where I really want to be, and I love seeing those ‘light bulb moments’ when it finally goes off in a student’s mind,” deAndrade said. “That’s my favorite moment in the whole wide world, and that’s the moment that I live for.”
deAndrade earned her bachelor of science degree in nursing from UNC Wilmington in 1999. With a BSN in hand, she immediately started working in the intensive care unit at Southeastern Regional Medical Center in Lumberton. deAndrade moved to Bladen County Hospital and stayed there for almost two and a half years while also working as an adjunct clinical instructor for Sampson Community College.
After her time at Sampson Community College, deAndrade did school health nursing for three years. When her second son was born, she stayed home for the next five years to raise her family.
“When he turned 5, I became a school nurse at my children’s school, Harrells Christian Academy,” deAndrade said. “I stayed there for nine years and loved it there because we were all together and had the same schedule.”
Getting that “itch” to go back to school, deAndrade returned to UNCW to earn a master’s degree in nursing education in 2018. Describing her master’s degree program as “fantastic and an easy transition,” deAndrade graduated at the top of her class and earned the graduate achievement excellence award. Fulfilling her desire to be an educator, deAndrade took a nursing simulation instructor position at Bladen Community College and stayed there for five years.
“They didn’t have a simulation lab there, so I built it from the ground up,” deAndrade said. “I became nationally certified in simulation help and was the first person to get certified for that department.”
Placing third at an Associates Degree Nursing conference for her research on health disparities in rural communities, deAndrade said this experience helped her better connect with the issues her students faced in the healthcare field. On a volunteer basis, deAndrade also worked for a nursing enhancement program that helped build clinical reasoning skills.
“For the past three years, I’ve been working for Lippincott Nursing Education,” deAndrade said. “I’ve been traveling around with them as their registered nurse reviewer and previewer, and we basically travel the country to help nursing students prepare for state board exams. So, I could be anywhere from California to Oklahoma to Texas at colleges and universities.”
As a Lippincott representative, deAndrade visited SCC in spring 2025 to help students prepare for their NCLEX. She enjoyed seeing how colleges prepared their students for board exams, but she said the travel time and living out of suitcases began to wear her down. Her desire to stay home and work somewhere on a more permanent basis led her to SCC.
Outside of work, deAndrade loves to crochet, exercise and hunt for shells at Holden Beach. She and her husband, David deAndrade, have two adult sons, Will and Josh.
Interested in a career in nursing? Click here to learn about SCC’s Associates Degree Nursing program and apply today! The application deadline is March 1.
