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February 22, 2023 | XXVII, Issue Number 4
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Last week these was another mass shooting in the United States, this time at Michigan State University, where NLN Chair Dr. Kathleen Poindexter is a professor and interim associate dean of academic affairs. The U.S. experiences just about one mass shooting each day, with mass shooting defined as four or more people shot or killed in a single incident, not including the shooter. Naturally, with our connection to MSU, this one shattered all my protective strategies for keeping the sadness, grief, and anger at bay.
It was reported that a student at MSU was a child at the Sandy Hook Elementary School when 27 children and adults were killed in 2012. Another, a freshman, was a student at Oxford High School in Michigan two years ago when a 15-year-old opened fire and killed four of her classmates. She tweeted, “When will this end?”
How can this be repeatedly happening in these United States? This is the Land of the Free, the Home of the Brave. We are decent, law-abiding citizens who care for one another. Is this my America? When shootings happen everywhere, with no particular pattern or provocation, for too many years, this is a public health issue.
The NLN stands with the victims of gun violence. We grieve for them, their families, and their loved ones. And we renew our call for bold action. In May 2022, after killings in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, and an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, we called for national common sense gun control legislation that provides for adequate and enforceable background checks to limit the sale of any arms to individuals with a history of mental illness or criminal behavior. And we pledged to do whatever we can, as public health servants and advocates, to turn heartfelt words into actionable policies and plans that work to break the current cycle of death and grief.
By now, you have probably also learned of the recent arrest of 25 people alleged to be responsible for a multi-state scheme to sell fraudulent credentials to aspiring registered nurses. Three Florida-based nursing schools, now closed, are alleged to have sold more than 7,600 fraudulent diplomas and transcripts that would enable individuals to sit for the licensure exam. The NLN issued a statement saying that we were appalled to learn about the scheme exposed by Operation Nightingale as was outlined in federal charges.
I continue to be concerned and deeply saddened. We know that licensure is just the beginning. Today’s RNs face a highly complex health care system with a diverse population of often acutely ill individuals. The delivery of safe and effective patient care requires that nurses think critically, develop and demonstrate clinical judgment, and participate as key leaders and members of interdisciplinary teams. Much continues to be published about the knowledge, skills, and attitudes expected of the contemporary nurse. People who cut corners put us all at risk. |
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Achieving Nursing Education Excellence
At the NLN, the question of how to best educate today’s nurses at all levels of nursing education motivates us each and every day. Our journal, Nursing Education Perspectives, publishes the latest research in the area. We just issued a new Vision Statement Integrating Competency-Based Education in the Nursing Curriculum, that provides a comprehensive overview and detailed guidelines for addressing the challenges that exist across higher education and clinical settings. And our Division for Innovation in Education Excellence works constantly to improve the simulation and curriculum integration services we offer, develop new teaching and learning resources, and enhance the professional development opportunities available to our members. We never stop seeking ways to enable faculty to advance the science of nursing education and promote the continuous development of faculty as educator-scholars.
We also seek ways to achieve excellence by staying ahead of emerging trends in staff morale and retention. Some months ago, prompted by our experiences during the pandemic, our Washington, DC, staff went to a four-day week, and we are now closed on Fridays. |
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This has been a positive experience supported by research. It was recently reported that a team of Cambridge University scientists conducted the world’s largest trial of a four-day work week and found that stress and illness in the workforce were significantly reduced, with a 65 percent reduction in sick days, high worker retention, and company revenue barely changing during the trial period. So, if you email a staff member on Friday, please understand if you don’t receive a response till Monday. We will continue to be responsive to member needs.
Now let me switch to another critical aspect of nursing education, that is, assessment and evaluation. In that area, too, the NLN is stellar. In efforts to provide the nursing education needed to co-create and maintain a highly skilled and diverse nursing workforce, the NLN Assessment Services team develops assessments that go beyond screening to provide information about student abilities, strengths, skill gaps, and remedial needs. Our tests are designed to enhance faculty engagement in course delivery and inform ways to adjust curriculum to appeal to the diverse range of learning styles in today’s nursing students.
Heading the team at NLN Assessment Services is Dr. Dodie Serafini, a delightful professional whom I hope you will meet in person. Dodie gave me permission to share some of her life story. I want to do that because of what it tells us about the power of nursing, nursing education, and nursing leadership.
Spotlighting Assessment Leadership
Dodie grew up in rural central Pennsylvania, the oldest of three children raised by a single mother with the support of her maternal grandparents. Restless during her high school years, she dropped out of school and moved to live with her father in Colorado. There she married and had three daughters by the time she was 27. She earned her GED but her longtime dream of becoming a nurse or doctor seemed far from reality. |
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Dodie’s husband did not support her advancing her education or working outside the home. But there was a new long-term care facility (LTC) that opened within walking distance of their apartment. She walked there, asked about employment, and accepted a night-shift position as a nurse aide. There she learned she could complete an LPN program in 10 months. A Pell grant covered her education at Pickens Technical College, but the family car broke down and her husband lost his job. Somehow she managed, going to school during the day and working a 4 p.m. to midnight shift in the LTC facility and part-time on an acute medical surgical unit. At this time, she divorced her husband and became a single parent.
During her work as an LPN, Dodie was asked to consider a new position in the LTC facility, to train new nurse aides for certification. Approximately one year later she was accepted into an associate degree program at Front Range Community College to complete her academic preparation as a registered nurse. |
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She worked double shifts on weekends to meet full-time requirements and be benefit-eligible while attending classes full-time. Eventually, as an RN, Dodie was hired as staff developer in long-term care and worked part-time at a hospital.
She started her baccalaureate program at Metro State College directly after completing the associate degree, but she really wanted to develop her practice. During the six years it took her to complete her BSN, she became an entrepreneur, purchasing a residential assisted living facility, hiring and training staff with an independent nurse aide training program, developing policies and procedures, and working full-time in practice, responsible for infection control, nursing staff education, and workers compensation claims.
She enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Northern Colorado with an emphasis on chronic illness and nursing education as soon as she received her BSN, completing nine extra credits that resulted in a graduate certificate in transcultural nursing. She then took a full-time position at a community college and after three years, was selected as Master Teacher. That led to an offer to consult with a university to open an ADN program in Denver, where she accepted the nursing chair position and later the positions of associate dean for the college of nursing, interim dean, and eventually dean of health sciences. She always worked as a bedside nurse while volunteering as an item writer for the NLN Certified Nurse Educator program.
After a year as dean, she relocated to the University of Phoenix where she worked in different positions over several years and completed her PhD in Educational Leadership at Northcentral University. Eventually she decided to retire and do some independent consulting, and that led to an invitation to join the NLN. She hesitated before accepting the position we offered but shared that she could not walk away from an opportunity to work with the NLN.
I don’t usually tell stories about our staff in such detail, but I believe Dodie’s story is instructive and inspiring. Yes, there continue to be traditional nursing students, like me, who begin their nursing education at age 18, but so often nowadays our students become nurses after doing other things. Like Dodie, many need Pell grants and other financial support, work full time while also caring for family, and benefit from supportive transition programs that encourage lifelong learning. Dodie’s children and grandchildren refer to her as the GED to PhD nurse.
Many of today’s nursing students face challenges similar to those Dodie faced along her professional journey as nurse, faculty, and leader of nursing education programs. In her own words, “As a lifelong student, I am sensitive to the stressors, distractions, and obstacles that can disrupt [students’] path to success.”
Since joining our staff, Dodie has focused on increasing visibility for NLN Assessment Services, noting that many nursing programs do not know what we have to offer. She has also focused on elevating the quality of the assessments we offer, soliciting surveys to gain end-user feedback, engaging volunteer committees with 62 new members to generate items based on developed blueprints, and re-leveling assessments to distinguish LPN/VN education from RN. A primary focus has been on aligning NLN assessments with our core values of Caring, Diversity and Inclusion, Integrity, and Excellence.
I hope you will visit our redesigned website to learn more about NLN Assessment Services. If your nursing program does not already use our products and services, please let us know and we will reach out to you. And if you happen to meet Dodie at a conference, please let her know what a wonderful gift she is to the NLN and thereby to nursing education!
By the way, Dodie wrote about the issue of retention for new nurse graduates and the importance of formative clinical judgment assessments for the Headlines From the NLN in the latest issue of Nursing Education Perspectives (Vol. 44, No 3). I hope you read it, along with all the other valuable articles in this issue.
Before I close, I must also mention the earthquake that tragically struck parts of Turkey and Syria. The loss of more than 40,000 individuals is difficult to imagine or comprehend. I only know that I thank and cherish all those who extended their hands to help others in the search, rescue, and hospitalizing and healing of those we could pull from the earth.
Like so many others, the NLN sent donations to help the survivors to survive. The world has never needed nursing and nurses more. Let us together continue to promote excellence in nursing education to build a strong and diverse nursing workforce to advance the health of the nation and the global community. Let us continue together. |
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