Price brings 50+ years experience as new Nurse Aide I Program Coordinator at SCC

Kathy Price, a New York native, is Southeastern Community College’s new Nurse Aide I Program Coordinator, and she brings more than 50 years of clinical nursing experience to her classroom. Teaching high school students during the day and adult learners at night, Price said she gets the “best of both worlds” for a role where all her experiences “led me to Southeastern.” 

Price graduated from St. Elizabeth School of Nursing in Utica, NY in 1974 with her Registered Nurse diploma. She joined the U.S. Air Force and served for two years.  While in the Air Force, Price worked in the flight surgeon’s office which dealt with transport between San Antonio and William Beaumont Army Medical Center. 

After leaving the Air Force in 1976, Price moved to Vista Hills in El Paso, TX. to work as a head nurse for its 42-bed medical surgical center. After working there for just over 3 years, her travel nurse career began as she moved all over the U.S., hitting key cities in Florida, Alaska, Texas, California and Maine with most of the assignments being in ICU and ER. For the past 15 years, Price has worked in home health and long-term care.  Price worked at her most recent job at Providence Home Health and Hospice in Rock Hill. SC prior to moving to Chadbourn almost 4 years ago. 

Determined to finish what she started in the 1970s, Price enrolled into Southern New Hampshire University’s nursing program and completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing in 2023. She took her education a step further and enrolled in SNHU’s master’s degree program in nursing education and graduated in December 2025.  

Price is married to Denver Price, and he works as a respiratory therapist. When his latest travel assignment sent him to work in Wilmington and later in Pender County, they moved to Chadbourn.  

When Price discovered that many nursing school programs are requiring students to get their nurse aide I certification, she realized that was her chance to “pay it back” and let her years of experience pass on to the next generation of nurses. Price was hired as a part-time Nurse Aide 1 instructor in summer 2025.  

“I’m giving these students the best of my first year as a diploma nurse, and I am teaching them exactly what I learned in basic skills,” Price said. “I’m teaching them how to check vital signs, bathing, feeding, dressing and personal care. Everything I’ve done so far has prepared me for what I’m meant to do here, and I have faith that I was placed here.” 

 She cannot see herself “doing anything else.” She praised the nursing department’s supportive staff and faculty and the communication between them.  

“My daytime students are so supportive of each other, and even though they all go to different high schools, they work so well together,” Price said. “I get to see those ‘aha moments’, for example, when they are learning to perform blood pressures. I get to listen in on the blood pressures during their checkoffs, and I work closely there with them until they get it.” 

Price described her students in both classes as engaged and respectful. She is excited to know that she is helping her students enter the licensed practical nurse and associates degree nurse programs at SCC. Price said she was impressed with SCC’s response to the workforce needs of Columbus County, while it built its programming around jobs that have the most vacancies.  

Outside of work, Price enjoys gardening and fishing at Sunset Beach pier. Price has one son in Maine and a daughter in Texas. She and her husband attend New Hope Baptist Church, and they have five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren with one more due in April.  

Ready for a career in healthcare? Contact Student Services at 910-788-6279 or visit A-building on campus to connect with a student advisor.