10/19/2026
For Jacqueline Cook, FNP-C, nursing has always been about what happens in moments that can’t be captured in a social media post: the critical decisions, the human connection, and the sacred space between a nurse and a patient. Her career has taken her from bedside to urgent care, nursing education, pageantry, and service with the Arizona Nurse Honor Guard, but every chapter is connected by a commitment to caring for others.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Cook’s ICU step-down unit became a COVID unit, and she served as charge nurse. She shared stories from the front lines with a close friend, a local mayor, who saw the power in Cook’s perspective and dared her to compete for Mrs. Arizona, a preliminary competition for Mrs. America. Cook had no pageant experience. Outside of scrubs, she said, her life was simply “work, home, and back to work.” Still, she accepted the challenge.
After emerging from lockdown, Cook entered a field of about 25 competitors and won the title of Mrs. Arizona American. The experience became more than a competition; it was an invitation to practice the self-care she had rarely prioritized as a nurse and mother. “Pageantry is a sport of self-care,” she said. During her year of service, Cook volunteered whenever pandemic restrictions allowed and used her nursing platform to advocate for opioid awareness—a cause made deeply personal by the loss of her biological father to an overdose.
At the same time, Cook continued growing professionally. She became a nurse practitioner, worked in urgent care and has spent the past 10 years teaching clinicals at Grand Canyon University. She encourages students to think critically, trust their instincts and recognize that compassion is not an extra—it is part of the work.
Cook’s volunteer work as Mrs. Arizona also connected her with the Arizona Nurse Honor Guard at a State Capitol event advocating for safe staffing ratios. After passing on the crown at the end of her reign, she dedicated herself to the Honor Guard’s mission of recognizing nurses who have died. Members attend tributes in old-fashioned nurse caps and capes to support grieving families and honor a nurse’s years of service. They also appear at veterans’ parades, retirements, and graduations. The work, Cook said, is bittersweet, but also “an honor to pay tribute to these nurses and to be there for their families.”
Across every role, Cook returns to one idea: nurses sustain one another. “I think the power of nurses through this whole journey is sisterhood,” she said, using sisterhood as an inclusive term for a profession built on mutual care. It means relieving a colleague who missed lunch, coming together during a code, and remembering that no nurse carries the work alone.
That spirit also inspired her manuscript, From COVID to the Crown, which traces her journey through the pandemic, her father’s death, and her dream of becoming Mrs. Arizona, alongside
stories of patients she calls “little mini miracles.” Cook hopes people see the heart of nursing—and remember that the heart needs healing, too. How has a nurse impacted your life? Share your story at ThePowerofNurses.org
Arizona Nurse Honor Guard
