Outstanding Alumni Award Recipient
Dedicated to Total Health
“As a nurse, I don’t believe anything else on Earth is as important as our health,” says Dr. Souror (Sourri) Baetjer. “You can be the richest man or woman on Earth or have the best education, but if you’ve lost your health, you’ve lost everything.”
Baetjer, recipient of Walden’s 2008 Outstanding Alumni Award, described her vision for total health when accepting her award: “Total health is an overall, inclusive umbrella covering physical, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, environmental, and occupational health. It helps us sustain happiness and success in whatever we endeavor to achieve in our lives. The importance of total health should be respected and promoted, not only for the benefit of the individual, but also to help lower health care costs and reduce the heartbreak of sickness.”
Born in Iran, Baetjer studied and taught practical nursing before coming to the United States through an RN exchange program in 1970, when she was 25 years old. At the end of Baetjer’s exchange year, the hospital offered her a job if she passed the test for a nursing license. She also met the man who was to become her husband. She ended up staying in the United States, and, “because of the politics, I haven’t seen my home country since 1973.”
Baetjer has held a range of positions across the health care arena—in hospitals, schools, nursing homes, and business. “I’m a person who wants to get experience in every area,” she explains. In 1983, she began working as an assistant professor at Raritan Valley Community College (RVCC) in Somerville, N.J. In her current position of assistant dean for corporate and continuing education, she has developed an exemplary continuing-education allied health program from the ground up.
Along the way, Baetjer earned a B.S. in health care administration and a master’s in health education before earning her Ph.D. in Health Services with a specialization in Community Health from Walden University in 2000. In her award acceptance speech, she noted: “Walden University has made a difference in my work, my community, and my personal life by giving me the tools to promote total health.”
“Advancing an education elevates your knowledge and skills,” she says of earning a Ph.D. “And the social change mission of Walden expanded my ideas of how to reach not only the younger generation, but anyone else about health and education. You develop so many contacts with people who are experts in the field.”
Now, in her role as assistant dean, Baetjer shares her exper tise at conferences, prepares students for state and national certification examinations, advises prospective students and others about health and allied health careers, and continues to teach courses. The credential of a Ph.D., she says, gives her more credibility in this role: “People look at you a little differently [and] listen to what you’re saying better.”
Throughout her career, she has focused on wellness and disease prevention, which she says should take priority over treatment. “As a nurse, I believe in the value of medical interventions; however, medication and surgery should not be our first choices. We need to get away from the quick fix and take responsibility for our own health. As the saying goes, ‘An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of treatment.’”
Baetjer believes that taking responsibility for one’s health requires knowledge that can only come from comprehensive and coordinated health education for all, beginning in nursery school and continuing throughout life.
“We want miracles, but miracles are not going to happen until we realize that we need continuous health education throughout life,” Baetjer says. “We know that no one is going to be an expert in English or math or history in a short period of time, but we don’t think that way about health. Three to six weeks in a year in high school is not going to give students enough knowledge to achieve total health.”
Sometimes the task of providing this education seems overwhelming to Baetjer, but she is dedicated to making a difference. She explains: “One thing my father always said was, ‘You are the world, and you have to do everything in your power to make the world a better place.’”
