Academic Program Planning Activity
School of Nursing
2009-2010
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Common Focus Area – Urban Learning and Engagement
A. Primary ways in which the School of Nursing programs draw on the resources of Chicago to enhance student learning:
1. Pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing program
a. Clinical practicum sites in support of theory content represent a wide variety of acute care hospitals, long-term care and rehabilitation hospitals, and community agencies b. Hospitals in which students have their clinical experiences include Swedish Covenant
Hospital, all hospitals in the NorthShore University Healthcare System (Evanston Hospital, Highland Park Hospital, Glenbrook Hospital, and SkokieNorthShore), Resurrection Health Care system (St. Francis Hospital in Evanston), the Northwestern hospital system, including Northwestern Hospital, Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, and Children’s Memorial Hospital, the Advocate Healthcare system (Lutheran General Hospital), and Chicago Lakeshore Hospital (behavioral health).
c. Community agencies throughout the Chicagoland area are utilized for clinical
experiences in community health nursing. In addition, students complete a community health assessment of selected Chicago neighborhoods (e.g., Rogers Park, Albany Park, Lincoln Square, Portage Park, Englewood, Roseland) and suburbs (e.g., Wilmette, Waukegan, Evanston, Skokie). Examples of Chicago agencies where students have their community health clinical experiences include the Chicago Department of Public Health, Uptown Neighborhood Health Center, West Town Neighborhood Health Center, Bethel New Life Centers of Chicago, Council for Jewish Elderly, the Night Ministry, Vitas Home Health Care, Lawndale Christian Health Center, Heartland Health Outreach, and McNeal Home Care & Hospice.
d. All students complete a Gerontology Internship at sites such as The Chicago
Department on Aging (Levy Center), White Crane Wellness Center (a community senior center), Senior Link Alliance, Mather Lifeways (known for community work with
seniors), and Norwood Crossing (a not-for-profit senior living community center). In addition, there are a variety of activities for students at Little Brothers – Friends of the Elderly. In this agency, students work with volunteers to visit the elderly in nursing homes, in their homes, and to assist with holiday and other celebrations. Students also volunteer for a unique one-week experience during the summers, where students stay with older adults through the weeklong Rochelle Vacation Program. The nursing students who speak Spanish participate in the Little Brothers programs that are offered for their seniors who only speak Spanish.
e. All students in their final Synthesis course as Seniors are partnered with a staff nurse from an agency who serves as their preceptor. Students are assigned to work the same shift and schedule as their preceptor, which include evenings, nights, weekends, etc. An outcome of this clinical course is a Quality Improvement project or Evidence-based practice project in which students work with their preceptors to complete a project on an identified problem, and then prepare a poster and presentation to staff.
Examples of Quality Improvement projects include:
1) Assessed nursing staff compliance in using the asthma score tool at Children’s Memorial Hospital
2) Provided a preliminary evaluation of medication charting by staff nurses of narcotics as a quality indicator of nursing care at Lutheran General Hospital Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU)
3) Assessed patient understanding of the Congestive Heart Failure (CHF) educational program at Lutheran General Hospital
4) Created a patient handbook of exercises for high-risk maternity patients who are placed on prolonged bed rest at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. This handbook has been adopted by the agency for continues use with these patients.
f. Nursing students, through membership in the North Park Student Nurses Association
(SNA), an affiliate of the Illinois Student Nurses Association, sponsor regular blood
donation drives in collaboration with Life Source. 2. RN to BS Program
a. Students in the RN-BS program complete their clinical experiences in their leadership and management course at various agencies throughout the city.
b. In their community health course, RN-BS students are assigned to various community agencies throughout the Chicagoland area. These include Erie Family Health Center
sites, as well as sites used by the traditional pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing students.
3. Graduate nursing program
a. Nurse Practitioner track: Students in the Nurse Practitioner track (Adult Nurse
Practitioner and Family Nurse Practitioner) complete their clinical practicum courses in various clinics, hospitals, physician’s practices, throughout the entire Chicagoland area. Either physicians or Nurse Practitioners serve as their preceptors.
b. Leadership and Management track: Students in the Leadership and Management track complete their clinical practicum experiences during their final year in a variety of clinical sites throughout the Chicagoland area, including acute care hospitals, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Resurrection Healthcare System (St. Joseph’s Hospital, St. Mary’s and Elizabeth Hospital) the NorthShore University Healthcare System, the Advocate Healthcare System (Lutheran General Hospital, Trinity Hospital, Illinois Masonic Hospital), Swedish Covenant Hospital, Weiss Hospital, long-term care facilities, community health agencies and public health departments. In these
experiences, each student identifies a need of the facility for a project, and completes a project that is of benefit to the agency. Some examples of projects completed include:
a) Improving patient discharge experience by educating RNs on best practices model for meeting patient discharge needs
b) Conducting a needs assessment study to understand the educational needs for hospital charge nurses (this is being transformed into a collaborative article to submit for publication).
c) Assessment of the process of patient flow throughout the emergency department, with recommendations for change
d) Evaluating staff readiness for implementation of Family-Centered Care, with education to evaluate its impact
B. Recommended actions for enhancing student learning through engagement of the School of Nursing with Chicago
1. A number of the graduate nursing students in the Nurse Practitioner track are fluent in other languages, e.g., Spanish, Polish, etc. They have been in clinicals at sites where the ability to communicate with non-English speaking patients has been helpful to the site. More of these types of experiences could be created for the bilingual students.
2. Collaborate among faculty, students, and clinical site staff to write and submit articles for publication about the projects conducted at the sites.
II. Particular focus area identified for the School of Nursing Academic Unit: Expansion of the Undergraduate pre-licensure baccalaureate program (See attached 2008 expansion proposal).
A. In order to expand the traditional pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing program, the resources as identified in the 2008 proposal are needed:
1. Additional faculty, both clinical and full-time
2. Expansion of the Nursing Learning Resource Center (NLRC) and simulation program, as the current space is already cramped with the numbers of students who utilize it. 3. In addition, the Admissions staff needs to encourage, rather than discourage, students who wish to transfer to North Park School of Nursing, and who have already completed some of their pre-requisites. There has been a decline in transfer students, which remain the core of the January cohort groups. This has created a situation where there is a lack of qualified students:
Since the Fall of 2008, there has been a steady decline in students reviewed for the major in nursing:
Fall 2008 92 Jan 2009 69 Fall 2009 69 Jan 2010 45
4. The quality of students has been bi-modal. Only 2/3 of the students reviewed are fully qualified and “ready” to be admitted to the major. Therefore, 5 students with deficiencies were admitted on probation.
5. Recruitment of students for the undergraduate program needs to be evaluated. The School of Nursing has not had recruitment materials created for several years, and instead appears as one of many from which to choose. This is not useful for the transfer population. In addition, the website is in need of upgrading to more accurately reflect the School of Nursing and its programs.
6. There are several new and aggressive competitors who have entered the Chicago area. These include Chamberlain College (associated with DeVry). This is a for-profit School of Nursing offering the traditional pre-licensure baccalaureate degree, the RN-MS degree, and a Master’s degree. It is aggressively competing for clinical sites, full-time faculty, and clinical faculty within the area. Some well-established Schools of Nursing
have lost clinical sites to Chamberlain. In addition, Chamberlain has sent recruitment materials to North Park faculty at all levels in the School of Nursing. This shows a greater need for evaluating our approach to recruitment of students, as well as for retention of faculty.
