Elise Crowe loves caring for children. She’s spent seven years walking into rooms where families are living their worst nightmares.
As a nurse in the hematology-oncology unit at Children's Hospital Colorado, she can't always change outcomes or take away pain. But she's there anyway; steady, present, and listening.
“I work in an area where I see a lot of families’ worst days, and I can’t always make those days better or change the outcome, but I can be that person who understands and someone who can listen,” she says.
That calling to be that person in the hardest moments is what brought Crowe to nursing in the first place, and it's what's driving her toward something more. This August, she'll graduate from the University of Colorado Anschutz College of Nursing's Acute Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program, ready to walk back into those same rooms with deeper knowledge, greater authority, and the same open heart.
More Than Medicine
Crowe's connection to children started long before nursing school. She worked in an elementary school, drawn naturally to kids and the people who love them. That instinct followed her into the hospital, where she quickly learned that pediatric nursing isn't just about treating a single patient.
“It’s not even the medical side of things that keeps bringing me back,” she says. “It’s those relationships I’ve built with these tiny humans and the people who love them the most. That’s the cool thing about pediatrics, you don’t have one patient, you have a whole family unit. And I love that because it makes my job interesting every day.”
After graduating from CU Anschutz Nursing's accelerated BSN program in 2019, Crowe found herself wanting to go deeper. She wanted to understand the why behind the care she was delivering and to have more power to act on it.
“I’m going to be the person who gets to talk to a family on one of the worst days of their lives and be that person who is knowledgeable. I’ll be able to explain what’s going on medically, but I’ll also be there to cope with them and figure out an action plan we can all get through this together.”
Managing School & Family
The decision to return to school didn't come without complexity. Crowe was working full-time in hematology-oncology, enrolled in a demanding graduate program, and in the middle of it all became a mother. She had a choice to make.
“I had to decide whether I was going to take a break from school and do the mom thing and continue being a nurse, or if I should put my head down and do all three. And that’s what I did. I’m glad I did it because if I had stopped my education, I probably wouldn’t have gone back,” she says.
What kept her going, she says, was the people around her: starting with her husband, who has cheered her through both degrees, and extending to the faculty at CU Anschutz Nursing, who she credits with making the difference. With eight students in the AC-PNP program, Crowe says the small class size allows faculty to get to know their students well.
“They know my daughter’s name. They know your needs and want you to succeed," she says.
When she was weighing a job interview for a specialty she wasn't sure about, she picked up the phone and called the program's specialty director, Dr. Jill Marks.
“She told me to listen to my gut and do what feels right,” Crowe recalls. “I’ve never felt that support from higher education before, and it makes me know I made the right decision to come to CU Anschutz Nursing.”
She applied to exactly one NP program. The same place she started.
"When I decided to come back to become a nurse practitioner, I only applied to CU. I had such a good experience as an undergrad," she says. "I think CU has the best reputation, and it aligns with what I want to get out of a program and what they have to offer, especially the clinical placements at UCHealth and Children's Hospital. When I got in, it was an easy answer."
As for what comes next, Crowe is looking forward to a little breathing room. And, so is her family.
“I couldn’t have done this without my husband, so we’re excited to have a little bit of normalcy,” she says. “And as for my daughter, she doesn’t realize I’ve been in school, but she’s excited that I’ll have more time to play with her."
