Graceland University has an exceptional nursing faculty that is active as educators and researchers within the national Nursing Community . Their expertise is often sought out by professional organizations and conferences. Recently, Several faculty were selected to present at the national Professional Nursing Educator Group (PNEG) conference in Kansas City, MO in October, 2008. The conference was attended by 400 academic and clinical educators.
The Dean of Graceland's School of Nursing, Dr. Claudia Horton gave a podium presentation on the Nurse Preceptor Academy. She has been one of the project leaders on a grant from the Department of Labor. The group has educated over 500 RNs to be more effective nurse preceptors in an effort to retain nurses in the profession.
Also making presentations were Dr. Jeana Wilcox and Kathy Taylor RN (alum) who gave poster presentations about their papaya teaching project currently in process with patients in a Jamaican primary care clinic. The project will continue teaching and analyzing patient outcomes for the next couple years during yearly winter term student trips and summer alumni trips.
Dr. Jan Rice presented the results of her doctoral research "Group Testing Enhances the Pedagogy of Assessment" as a poster presentation. There was a lot of interest in the design of the collaborative group testing model that was examined as well as the significant improvement in student written examination scores.
Dr. Carol Green gave a podium presentation entitled Taking the Guesswork Out of Multiple Choice Test Writing. The presentation, which was interactive, involved the critique and rewriting of test questions with multiple errors. The session was very well attended by educators interested in improving the quality of their tests. Dr. Green also conducted a round table discussion on Critical Thinking in Nursing.
Dr. Thelma Sword presented a poster illustrating her doctoral research. The poster presentation was titled "Transitioning to Online Teaching: Nursing Faculty Experiences and Strategies for Improvement". Dr. Sword's research findings fostered some excellent sharing opportunities with different organizations regarding the growth of online educational formats.
Beverly South -presented Challenging Undergraduate Nursing Students in Cultural Diversity: A Learning Partnership Joining Minds and Missions. The podium presentation described strategies useful in helping to prepare nursing students to care for culturally diverse patient populations and demonstrated how partnerships between schools of nursing and medical missions can serve as effective clinical experiences for nursing students. Beverly has accompanied nursing students on medical missions to Recife, Brazil and to Mauritania, Africa, and looks forward to future medical missions with nursing students.
The presentations above are just a small sampling of the work that is done and expected by Graceland's nursing faculty. This on-going commitment to excellence is a key component to ensuring that Graceland's nursing students receive an education that features up to the minute best practices that will make them highly sought after graduates.
