Nationwide — Meet Samantha Cepeda, a licensed practical nurse, artist, and educator from Atlanta, who is also the founder and CEO of The Nurse Sam, a leading resource for visual and interactive learning for nursing students. Her platform offers a new approach to studying with the use of innovation and artistry. Following the philosophy that “a person retains when entertained,” she helps students to effectively digest information while making learning a more fun experience.
Samantha founded the company in 2018, after going through an emergency hysterectomy just 5 days after her wedding. Today, her website has a continuously growing following who benefit from her unique learning materials. She has become a leading resource for nursing students at all levels! “I’m giving nursing students a new way to study and retain information that they will enjoy,” says Nurse Sam.
There are several types of educational content available on in the site. In addition to digital study guides, the site also offers other learning media such as online courses and live broadcasts.
The focus is to help students prepare for critical examinations, most importantly the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). She also has been preparing students for The Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) that is launching in April 2023. Nurse Sam develops visually dynamic approaches to studying for this career-changing test. The best seller is The Ultimate Nursing School Bundle which includes 400 pages of visual learning material covering all the major topics in nursing school. Her virtual courses are very popular; among them include an arcade-themed online course packed with interactive learning activities and a digital workbook titled “NCLEX ARCADE”. Students can also take advantage of Nurse Sam’s free live review sessions on her TikTok page, @TheNurseSam1, every Tuesday for TEAS Tuesday and NCLEX Jeopardy on Thursdays, both at 7:00 PM EST. The replays are also posted on her YouTube channel (@TheNurseSamTV) along with other tutoring content!
The company also offers downloadable study kits for other examinations such as the ATI TEAS (Assessment Technologies Institute Test of Essential Academic Skills) test. The extensive ebook provides useful information to help aspiring nursing students in passing the qualifying tests and get accepted to nursing school. It contains tips for preparing for the exam, interactive worksheets, and illustrated workbooks on key concepts and specific topics which are commonly tackled in the tests.
Students can also enjoy browsing through a selection of nurse-themed merchandise from the Nurse Sam website. Currently, the product categories include The Digital Nurse Life Planner, Nurse Sam Study Gummies, Nurse Enamel Pins, and a variety of apparel such as T-shirts, sweaters, hoodies, and joggers just for nursing students and nurses!
Nurse Sam has an established presence on social media. Her Instagram account @TheNurseSam, has an impressive following of over eighty thousand while her Facebook page has harnessed over twenty-five thousand followers. She enjoys giving input on pop culture, current TV shows, and nursing events on Twitter as @IamNurseSam.
Nurse Sam also creates fun relatable videos on TikTok as @TheNurseSam1 with over thirty thousand followers and a few posts that have gone viral gaining over 300k+ views. She also posts study tips and nursing content on her Pinterest page, also @TheNurseSam, that has close to 400k monthly views and her new YouTube @TheNurseSamTV with over 100 videos with more coming!
The effectiveness of Nurse Sam’s learning materials is well attested to in its customer reviews. According to one student, “I love the product! Super useful. I like how you break everything down to the simplest terms. Thank you!”
