Rosa Wilson, who works in the medical-surgical unit at Regency Hospital, took a nontraditional route to become a nurse.

Taking a little longer to meet your goals just makes it more satisfying, says Rosa Davis Wilson, a medical-surgical nurse at Regency Hospital, a long-term care facility within South Fulton Medical Center in East Point.

"Every Christmas my mom would give me a nursing kit when I was a child, so I knew it was in me to be a nurse," Wilson said.

The challenge for Wilson was that she was a special-needs child. "I went to special education classes in school and they told me I was a slow learner. The trouble was that I believed them," she said. After high school, she rode the bus to a nearby nursing school, but didn't have the courage to go inside.

Ten years later, working two jobs, she decided to try again. The school turned her down for the diploma program, so she got help from a vocational rehabilitation program and enrolled at Pellissippi State, a community college in Knoxville. By the time she graduated, the school had named an award in her honor. "It goes to a minority student who overcomes obstacles and persists to graduation," she said.

Wilson went on to earn her bachelor's degree in nursing from the University of Tennessee and began working as a nurse. Her ultimate goal was to become a nursing teacher, but as a single, working parent, she didn't think she'd ever find the time to get her master's degree.

"Then one night I was on the Internet and saw the University of Phoenix's MSN program. It sounded too good to be true, so I thought it was some kind of scam, but then I was watching "60 Minutes" and saw that the University of Phoenix was the No. 1 online school for full-time workers who want to earn degrees," Wilson said.

It took her two years to complete her master's of nursing degree while working full time as a school nurse in Tennessee and then as an assistant director of nursing for a Chicago hospital. But the online program allowed her to work, go to school and care for her daughter.

"When I'd be typing up papers on the computer, my daughter's head would be in my lap. She didn't have to be with a babysitter and I took my laptop on vacation and went to class online," Wilson said. The program was rigorous but it worked. "People think taking classes online is easy. It's not," she said. "The program was hard, but the University of Phoenix made it convenient as possible."

The university's huge e-book library and other online resources meant that Wilson never had to shop or wait for textbooks.

One of the program's features that helped Wilson persevere was her learning team - a group of students enrolled in the same program assigned to work on projects together online.

"My team had members in Las Vegas, New York, Texas and Arizona," Wilson said. "Many of them were nurse managers and I learned so much from them. We became a sisterhood."

Wilson's success story has led her to become certified as an instructor with the University of Phoenix.

She's teaching in the BSN program in the FlexNet modality, which combines traditional classroom and online learning. In FlexNet programs, students attend class on campus for the first and last evening of each six-week course, but complete their other course work online.

Combining face-to-face interaction with the convenience of the Internet is a good fit for people, like nurses, who work long and varied shifts.

Having taught certified nurse assistants in Chicago, Wilson is excited to be back in the classroom.

"Teaching reinforces what I know and I'll have a lot of compassion for my students because I know what its like to learn online," she said. "I love nursing and I love teaching and now I have the opportunity to do both."