Miss America Abbie Stockard has seen first-hand how cystic fibrosis (CF) affects patients and families. Her best friend’s struggle with the disease inspired her to advocate for awareness and research and to eventually enroll in nursing school.

While in Houston on May 14 to deliver the commencement address for Cizik School of Nursing at UTHealth Houston, she visited with patients at Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) who, like her friend, are navigating the complex and often overwhelming transition from pediatric to adult care.

As a child, Stockard noticed her friend frequently visited the nurse’s offices, took pills before eating, and sometimes coughed a lot.

“At nine years old, you don’t think much about hospitals or sickness until is stares you in the face,” she said, remembering the first time she visited her friend in the hospital. “It was the first time I understood that CF was something she battled every single day. I made a promise that I would do everything in my power to fight for her and others living with this devastating disease.”

Stockard, a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) student at Auburn University in Alabama, is serving as a National Ambassador for Cystic Fibrosis in her year as Miss America. She visited the pulmonary/endocrine adolescent unit at TCH, where Cizik School of Nursing undergraduate alumna and third-year BSN to PhD student Hannah Zeller, BSN, RN, works. Along on the tour were Cizik School of Nursing Dean Diane Santa Maria, DrPH, MSN, RN, ACRN, PHNA-BC, FAAN, and TCH Chief Nursing Jackie Ward, DNP, RN, NE-BC, who earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) at the school.

The group spent time with patients like Maira Juniad, who just finished her sophomore year at Cypresswood High School. The energetic 17-year-old loves art class and stuffed animals. She moved with her parents from Pakistan to undergo a lung transplant.

“The adolescent patients definitely become our heroes,” said Zeller, who has gotten to know several through their multiple visits to the hospital over the past 2 ½ years. “They have gone through so much more than we can even imagine.”

The daily health care regimen for patients with CF can be daunting, including chest physiotherapy, nebulizer treatments, multiple medications, and taking several enzyme pills with every meal, Zeller explained. By the time they reach their teens, about 20% develop CF-related diabetes requiring insulin.

Treatment adherence often drops off as patients get older due to factors such as socioeconomics and plain old teen peer pressure. Like any other teenager, an adolescent CF patient is likely to engage in risky behavior, but the consequences of poor health decisions can be much greater and longer lasting, Zeller noted.

“I work with kids with CF-related diabetes quite a lot, and I think one of the things that makes adherence difficult for them is that it makes them feel different from everyone else,” said Zeller, who is focusing her doctoral research on this population.

Zeller was one of the first students to enroll in Cizik School of Nursing’s BSN to PhD option. She participated in the Honors Research Program as an undergrad at the school, and as a PhD student received a fellowship to the Baylor College of Medicine-Texas Medical Center Leadership Education in Adolescent Health (LEAH) training program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Human Service’s Health Resources and Services Administration and Maternal and Child Health Bureau.