Nursing Shortage Initiative, 2003-2007: Project Summaries
WSU Vancouver College of Nursing
Enhanced and Expanded Nurse Educator Program
Grant Amount and Duration:
$251,017, 2004-06
To better prepare masters level nursing students to become nursing faculty, the Enhanced and Expanded Nurse Educator Program sought to:
Support multicultural transformation through systematically evaluating the WSU community nursing masters courses to develop best practices related to student teaching in all areas, including gerontological content;
Convert all WSU community nursing masters courses into an on-line and distance learning format; and
Expand program capacity to prepare increasing numbers of nurses to become nurse educators at all levels of academic and service settings.
Student evaluations have been very positive regarding multicultural transformation. And faculty are committed to multicultural competence initiatives and have incorporated many of the concepts into course lectures and curricular activities.
More recently, representatives of the program have disseminated what they have learned from their efforts. In April 2007 a symposium proposal titled “Multicultural Curricular Transformation: A Journey, Not a Destination” was submitted to the Western Institute of Nursing conference. In June 2007, a presentation on the project was delivered in Yokohama, Japan at the International Council of Nurses.
It was the intent of the program to convert all courses into an on-line format. To date, all of the community masters core courses have been converted to be distance-friendly and to reflect multicultural and gerontological competence. Since fall 2006, all of the community masters core courses have been delivered in a distance friendly/hybrid format to students in Yakima, Walla Walla, the TriCities, Spokane and Vancouver, Washington. Thematically analyzed course data shows high levels of student success with the distance-friendly formatted courses.
Since 2001, the program has launched four cohorts (26 students) of students in the nurse educator certification program. Twenty-two cohort students have graduated or are slated to graduate in fall 2007. When looking at all four cohorts, 21 of the 26 students have completed their nurse educator certification and 22 of the graduates are teaching at schools of nursing throughout Oregon and Washington. The program has expanded capacity to prepare increasing numbers of nurses to become nurse educators at all levels of academic and service settings.
Contact:
Renee Hoeksel, PhD, RN, CCRN
Interim Assistant Dean BN-BSN Statewide Program
Professor of Nursing, WSU College of Nursing
360-546-9621
Dawn Doutrich, PhD, RN, CNS
Associate Professor of Nursing, WSU College of Nursing
360-546-9038