Florence Nightingale Museum, Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret among stops on spring break study-abroad trip.
by Duane Bonifer
COLUMBIA, KY. (03/09/2026) A group of Lindsey Wilson University nursing students and faculty members learned about the origins of their profession during spring break.
The 10 students and four faculty members spent March 2-8 in London and Paris, where they paid tribute to their profession’s founder and learned about medical procedures dating back two centuries as part of a special study-abroad program.
The trip, which was funded in part by a university grant, helped the nursing students put their profession in perspective and prepare for their entry into it, which most of them will begin later this year.
“It definitely was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Savanah Pippin ’26 of Portland, Tennessee. “We’ve gone through nursing school together, which is very challenging. And this trip was definitely one for the books because of what we learned and did. I’m very, very blessed that we got the opportunity to do it.”
Half of the 10 students who participated in the study-abroad trip had never flown on a plane, and a couple had not ventured far from their native Kentucky, according to Lindsey Wilson Director of Nursing Dr. Emiley Button.
“This study-abroad experience was another example of how our nursing program gives students opportunities to go beyond the classroom during their time at Lindsey Wilson,” said Button.
Florence Nightingale’s legacy
While in London, the Lindsey Wilson students studied the British health care system and visited the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garret. The museum features one of the oldest surviving operating theatres, dating from 1822, which was before anaesthetics and antiseptic surgery. The herb garret was used by the hospital’s apothecary to store and cure herbs used in healing.
The Lindsey Wilson nursing students also visited the Florence Nightingale Museum, which pays tribute to the founder of the nursing profession, including her work during the Crimean War that gave birth to modern nursing.
“I feel like they were two of the most important things we did because it’s essential to go back to the origins of the career that you choose,” said Pippin. “We still practice every single day what Florence Nightingale set in place, and it was interesting to go through that and see where it all came from.”
In addition to being an extended exercise in team-building, Anna Dangelmaier ’26 of Liberty, Kentucky, said the study-abroad experience also helped the nursing students build their cultural competency.
“Cultural competency is so important in nursing,” she said. “Getting to experience what we did on this trip was very important in helping us build that area because in nursing you have patients from every walk of life.”
Pippin, who played volleyball at Lindsey Wilson and also served as a volunteer assistant coach, said the trip also gave Lindsey Wilson’s American students a taste of some of some of their international classmates’ culture.
“Lindsey Wilson is such a culturally diverse campus,” she said. “I have friends from all around the world, especially from Europe. It was really cool to be able to kind of live in their life for a minute and see how their life functions. That was a really cool opportunity for us.”
Nursing professor Kristen Branham said the trip itself was a good lesson for the students.
“Your schedule changes a lot when you are a nurse — it happens daily, sometimes hourly,” she said. “You need to be able to make adjustments all the time, and that often happens as well when you travel.”
The LWU nursing students and faculty also used a day to take the two-and-a-half-hour ride on the Eurostar through the Channel Tunnel, which connects England with the European continent, so they could spend a few hours in France. In addition to learning that croissants taste better in Paris, they viewed the City of Light from the top of the Eiffel Tower.
“That was a little surreal, for sure,” said Dangelmaier. “Seeing the Eiffel Tower is one thing, but going up to the top of it is something else. It’s on so many people’s bucket list to do that.”
In addition to Dangelmaier and Pippin, the study-abroad trip included LWU nursing students Jaylyn Burton ’26 of Columbia; Haylee Curry ’27 of Greensburg, Kentucky; Alyssa Milam ’26 of Liberty; Abbie Nunn ’26 of Brownsville, Kentucky; Kayla Shepherd ’26 of Columbia; Amanda Skipworth ’26 of Winchester, Kentucky; Kaylyn Smith ’26 of Campbellsville, Kentucky; and Hannah Williamson ’26 of Munfordville, Kentucky; and in addition to faculty members Branham and Button, it included Assistant Director of Nursing Dr. Angie Johnson and faculty member Dr. Susan Vickous.
Students and faculty members of the Lindsey Wilson University nursing program gather outside the Florence Nightingale Museum in London on their study-abroad trip to London and Paris during the university’s spring break.
Students and faculty members of the Lindsey Wilson University nursing program stand near the Eiffel Tower while on a day trip to Paris during their study-abroad trip to London and Paris over the university’s spring break.
Students and faculty members of the Lindsey Wilson University gather on the Tower Bridge glass walkway in London on their study-abroad trip to London and Paris during the university’s spring break. The walkway is about 110 feet (33.5 meters) above Tower Bridge Road, which runs above the River Thames.
Lindsey Wilson University is a vibrant liberal arts university in Columbia, Kentucky. Founded in 1903 and affiliated with The United Methodist Church, the mission of Lindsey Wilson is to serve the educational needs of students by providing a living-learning environment within an atmosphere of active caring and Christian concern where every student, every day, learns and grows and feels like a real human being. Lindsey Wilson offers 28 undergraduate majors, five graduate programs and a doctoral program. The university’s 29 intercollegiate varsity athletic teams have won more than 120 team and individual national championships.
(Duane Bonifer – Lindsey Wilson University)