by Christina Morgan | Nov 25, 2019 | Faculty/Nurse Educator, Missouri, News |
Research College of Nursing (RCoN) in Kansas City, MO, has named Maithe Enriquez, PhD, APRN, FAAN, the new Graduate Program Director. Enriquez was appointed to her new role by RCoN President Thad R. Wilson, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAANP.
Enriquez’s new role will require managing operations and providing leadership in execution of the graduate nursing program, which is known for its educational excellence, cutting-edge curricula, and distinguished faculty. She will also collaborate with other RCoN program directors and the Dean to promote academic excellence and assure nursing students achieve success in pursuing their professional goals.
Dr. Enriquez began her nursing career in 1985, performing clinical roles in several areas, including infectious diseases. She most recently served as associate professor at the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing in Columbia, MO, from 2012 to 2019. Her experience includes nursing leadership, clinical excellence, patient experience, quality/risk management, infection prevention, and nursing education.
Dr. Wilson tells researchcollege.edu, “Dr. Enriquez will help develop graduate programs to meet the changing needs in today’s healthcare environment. She will strengthen RCoN’s current programs and expand our reach beyond Kansas City even more. We look forward to leveraging her exemplary and robust teaching experience in undergraduate and graduate academic nursing programs as we transform health care through heroic leadership.”
RCoN is a fully accredited institution of higher learning with roots in the history of Research Medical Center, part of the HCA Midwest Health network. The college offers flexible graduate nursing programs in a dynamic hospital setting.
To learn more about the Research College of Nursing’s newly appointed graduate program director, Maithe Enriquez, visit here.
by Christina Morgan | Nov 18, 2019 | Faculty/Nurse Educator, News |
Seton Hall University’s College of
Nursing has been nationally recognized as a winner of the inaugural Assessment
and Impact Awards for Nursing Education by Skyfactor
Benchworks, a Macmillan Learning company that provides research-based
program assessments and benchmarking for a variety of programs.
Dean Marie C. Foley, PhD, RN, accepted the award on the college’s behalf at the 2019 American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) Academic Nursing Leadership Conference.
Dean Foley tells shu.edu, “Our undergraduate faculty, led by Dr. Judith Lucas, our associate dean of undergraduate programs and assessment, are dedicated to improving our curricula and, likewise, student retention and outcomes based on relevant data. Skyfactor contributes to our success in making appropriate data-driven changes.”
The
Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing was created to highlight schools of
nursing that are successfully using data to improve their programs, which in
turn helps to retain students and develop more practice-ready nursing
professionals. Benchworks selected the winners by analyzing multi-year
assessment data that identified programs that had the best results or increases
in performance in areas like course interactions and quality of instruction, as
well as through interviewing nursing program administrators. Seton Hall was
selected for its leadership in contemporary healthcare education and blending
scholarship with excellence in nursing practice.
To learn more about Seton
Hall Nursing’s national recognition as a winner of the inaugural Assessment and
Impact Awards for Nursing Education by Skyfactor Benchworks for its commitment
to improving nursing education, visit here.
by MedPage Today | Sep 19, 2019 | Faculty/Nurse Educator, News, Nurse educators |
Job shadowing is a long-standing tradition. High schools often have dedicated shadowing days, during which students can come and spend time with people working in careers that the students find interesting. While a few hours isn’t really enough to know if you like, love, or hate a job, it’s a start.
In healthcare, it can be especially important to spend time shadowing. In fact, PA schools want applicants to have hundreds of hours of documented shadowing time. I’m certain medical schools now want the same. I don’t know about other healthcare fields, such as dentistry, physical therapy, or pharmacy, but I suspect they want to see it as well.
We have created a system where shadowing is expected for acceptance in professional schools even as some hospitals make it very difficult (or impossible) to shadow. In some instances, it’s about concerns over privacy. In others, it’s simply that the number of people who desire to shadow is so large that it’s very difficult to get a time slot. And in others, it’s that there are medical, PA, or nurse practitioner students and residents rotating through the hospitals as part of their graduation requirements. In other words, it’s just dang crowded. As such, high school or even college students, trying to shadow, are at the bottom of the list.
In many career fields, it’s easy enough to shadow. If mom is an attorney, her son or daughter can sit in the courtroom or come to the office. If dad is a plumber, it’s easy enough to tag along and watch (or practice on projects at home). Teachers encourage students to shadow, and assorted business people do as well. Law enforcement often allows ride-along sessions. Even moms or dads in military careers have days when family can come on base and see what life is like in their jobs. I could go on, but the fact remains that from what I’ve seen, it’s much easier to shadow in other fields than in medicine. (If I’m wrong and this is a new trend everywhere, please leave a comment and educate me!)
The problem with medical careers that require graduate degrees is that the path to those schools is long, arduous, and expensive. And they require careful planning, sacrifice, and intentionality to create a resume and application that is more likely to stand out from the others. In this case, it would make so much more sense for shadowing opportunities to be much more available and easy to access.
It’s extraordinarily hard for a student to know if he wants to commit to 14 years of education based on a couple of hours walking around in a clinic. Admittedly, I have had some shadowers who probably got the message pretty quickly. Once I had a university student who followed me in the ED for four hours. At the end, he said, in a fatigued voice, “Don’t you guys ever sit down?” Not the perfect attitude if you really want to go into medicine. (Although maybe he ended up a radiologist with a nice chair in a dark room.)
We need to offer more shadowing, not less. Especially in an era of growing physician shortages in both primary care and specialties. We need to encourage students to pursue careers that have made our lives so rich and meaningful. And we need to urge hospitals, clinics, and offices to make those opportunities available as well.
If
we want good healthcare; heck, if we want healthcare at all, we have to
have physicians, PAs, and all the rest. And in order to have those
essential persons, as it stands, they’ll have to shadow.
Every other job field seems to get it.
It’s time we do too.
Edwin Leap, MD,
is an emergency physician. He practices full-time in a rural community
hospital in South Carolina. He has spent many years practicing in rural
and critical access facilities, including work as a locums provider for
Weatherby Healthcare. He is a writer and blogger. He and his wife have
four children. See more at edwinleap.com.
This post appeared on KevinMD.
by Maggie Ciocco, MS, RN, BC | Jun 24, 2019 | Blog, Career Advice, Faculty/Nurse Educator, Patient Care |
Thousands of hospitalized patients die every year and the cause is directly attributed to nurses and their “failure to rescue” the patients within their care. We’ve all heard about that one patient that came in with one issue and died of another. Those of us who have reviewed charts for malpractice cases refer to it as the “snowball effect”—reading the progress notes of a patient who died due to failure to rescue will make you cringe at the glaring errors.
Patients may have one clinical issue, however minor, that if overlooked by the nurse, cascades into a huge mess of concurrent errors and oversights that often leads to the injury or needless death of a patient. Did you ever wonder why this occurs? Short staffing? Maybe. Nurse burnout? Could be. The main contributing factor, though, is that unfortunately there are many nurses who don’t think creatively or innovatively. They don’t act on their assessment findings nor do they follow up on a change in patient condition. They fail to act as advocates for their patient. Nurses who fail to rescue use “traditional thinking” rather than critical thinking.
Failure to rescue always includes four key elements: (1) Omission of care; (2) a failure to recognize a change in patient condition; (3) a failure to communicate a change in patient condition to medical or other staff; and (4) poor or lack of clinical decision making.
Preceptors and nursing instructors, no matter the level of nursing taught (RN, BSN, MSN, NP, or DNP), should review the below list. It contains elements of traditional thinking. Promoting traditional thinking stifles critical thinking.
Nurses
who don’t think critically:
- Don’t learn from their mistakes or the
mistakes of other nurses.
- Demand that nothing changes and have a
“but we’ve always done it this way” attitude.
- Treat each patient interaction in
isolation.
- Fail to “connect the dots” from one
interaction to another.
- Fail to learn about cause and effect.
- Do not connect new events with prior
knowledge.
- Do not see what is possible in the future.
- Solve problems in isolation.
- Demand that all things be done their way
and not any other.
- Allow personal dislikes and prejudices to
cloud judgement.
- Lack self-confidence.
- Have poor verbal and written communication
skills and do not interact well with others.
- Do not further their education or promote education
for others.
- Force others to make decisions quickly or
set time limits on when decisions can be made.
The behavior and clinical actions of nursing preceptors and instructors affect a student or new nurse long after their clinical rotation or orientation has ended. In fact, the actions of a preceptor or instructor will influence the new nurse far into their nursing careers.
The following statements, said by a preceptor or any nurse to another nurse, will stifle critical thinking:
- “That’s a dumb idea.”
- “I can’t believe your school didn’t teach
you __________.”
- “Your idea is good, but it won’t work here.”
- “It’s too complicated so I’ll just do it
and you can watch.”
- “You spend too much time talking with your
patients.”
- “We tried that here on our unit and it
didn’t work.”
How do you teach critical thinking to your preceptees and students? Let us know in the comments!
by Lily Miller | Feb 15, 2019 | Blog, DNP, Faculty/Nurse Educator, News, Nurse educators, Nursing Students, RN |
Calling all nurses! Springer Publishing Company has launched the 2019 Nursing Career Survey, and we want to hear from you!
This study is designed for professional nurses and nursing students in every stage of their careers. Springer Publishing Company is surveying nurses to find out more about your professional paths, academic achievements, and leadership goals.
We are interested in learning about what steps you take and what tools you use to further your career, whether you’re just starting out or you’re thinking about pursuing a specialty. Your feedback will help us determine how we can better serve you and your needs in your nursing careers.
As always, there’s a perk for participating and helping Springer Publishing Company report the most up-to-date nursing career data. Survey participants will be entered to win one of five $25 Amazon gift cards!
Click here now to participate in the survey. We look forward to hearing your responses!
by Caitlin Goodwin MSN, RN, CN | Feb 1, 2019 | Blog, BSN, DNP, Enrollment Management, Faculty/Nurse Educator, MSN, News, Nurse educators, Nursing Students, RN |
The United States is facing a critical shortage in all health care professions. With the nation’s baby boomer population approaching retirement age, the issue is twofold: the aging population requires more care, and the nation’s physicians, nurses, and other health professionals are retiring.
Too Many Students, Not Enough Options
The solution to filling this gap is replacing the departing health care professionals with nursing graduates of all academic levels. However, many higher education institutions are turning away suitable candidates in droves. In 2016, nursing degree programs in the U.S. rejected 64,067 qualified applicants from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs alike citing a lack of budget, faculty, clinical sites and preceptors, and classroom space.
Currently, there is a serious shortage of physicians, which continues to grow. By 2025, there will be a projected deficit of nearly 35,600 primary care doctors alone. Nursing schools are facing the struggle and strain to increase the capacity of existing nursing programs, and explore other avenues like online courses and accreditation.
Higher Education Means Higher Pay
Enrollment is increasing in nursing masters and doctoral programs across the country, and it’s no wonder that nurses are applying to graduate schools en masse. RNs realize there are significant perks to training and becoming an advanced practice registered nurse. Evidence shows that the quality of care by an advanced practice nurse is comparable to physicians, while often more affordable.
The full-time annual salary for a Nurse Practitioner (NP) averages $105,546. The high pay range of the NP may be partly to blame for the faculty shortage—higher compensation in the clinical setting is luring potential educators away from teaching.
Most vacant faculty positions require a terminal nursing degree. If more nurses pursue a doctoral degree, the faculty shortage will be alleviated. What will the outcomes of the nursing shortage be? Only time will tell.
Caitlin Goodwin MSN, RN, CNM is a Board Certified Nurse-Midwife and freelance writer. She has ten years of nursing experience and graduated with a MSN from Frontier Nursing University.
