Nursing Education and Faculty Role Program Overview with Dr. Lockhart

Amanda Schoening:

Thank you everyone for attending today is Duquesne University, a nursing education and faculty role webinar. My name is Amanda Schoening I’m one of the enrollment advisors here at Duquesne and today I’m joined by my colleague Jamella Lewis.

Jamella Lewis:

Good. Hello everyone and welcome to our presentation today on some of our online masters of science and nursing programs. Today we’re joined by Dr. Lockhart. She is one of the professors here for our masters of science and nursing education and faculty role. Dr. Lockhart, if you can just take a moment to introduce yourself and also give us a little bit of details on how long you’ve been with Duquesne University as well.

Joan Lockhart:

Hi everybody and thank you very much for inviting me. Yes, my name is Dr. Joan Lockhart. I’ve been at Duquesne many, many years and I have the privilege right now of serving as the director of the MSN in nursing education program. In terms of my background, you could read through that paragraph, but basically my background is consisted of oncology nursing for my clinical specialty as well as nursing education. I’ve kind of tried to blend both of those throughout my career in my teaching, in my scholarship, and in my service and again, hold a certification as a certified nurse educator through the National League for Nursing. Had a lot of roles as an educator both in the nursing professional development practitioner role or staff development role in the hospital setting and also prior to Duquesne at a diploma school of nursing and at Duquesne I have taught in all the programs, the undergraduate program from high school students to second degree students, RN to BSN students, currently masters students, currently PhD students, and DNP students.

Joan Lockhart:

So I really have had a lot of opportunities here at Duquesne. Taught online for almost two decades since we went online with the PhD program. Just to say this, I was interested in nursing education because of the experiences that I had in my first nursing program and also in one of my first job positions. So I saw those educators as my role models and kind of pursued that in my career. Oftentimes that’s what a lot of our students say that they had a good experience and they want to be able to do that as part of their career. Also had a lot of leadership roles in nursing education and about 12 years I had been the associate dean for academic affairs at Duquesne. Take a leadership role in some of the nursing education journals too. So as I said, blending both a clinical specialty and nursing education is very important.

Amanda Schoening:

Excellent. So thank you so much for taking your time to speak with us today and for elaborating on your experience as well. So the first program we’re going to discuss today is the online master’s of science in nursing with a focus on nursing education and faculty role. So this program takes about 2.4 years to complete, or just shy of two and a half years. It is a 36 credit hour MSN, and it consists of 12 courses. Now, could you just explain a little bit more about what is the nursing education MSN program and what will students be studying with this program?

Joan Lockhart:

Well, our goal with the program is to prepare beginning educators, nurse educators, and focusing on probably two main areas. One is obviously the academic educator. That’s the educator that’s in the school of nursing that may be in a clinical position, a classroom position, a lab position. Also I’ve kind of expanded it to educators that are in healthcare organizations and that role of nursing professional development specialist. Oftentimes that label or that title was different depending on the health care setting or the practice setting. I kind of focus on both of those educator roles and looking at the standards of practice and the competencies expected in those roles.

Amanda Schoening:

Thank you so much Dr. Lockhart for explaining that. What do you believe sets Duquesne University’s nursing education program apart from the other online programs?

Joan Lockhart:

I think that’s a good question. I guess first of all, we’ve been in business of education and quality education for many years and the school of nursing has focused on, they had a nursing education graduate program for many years. So we are very student focused, really aligned with our mission. As far as the school of nursing we’re a center of excellence, a national league of nursing for several years. Just recently we were rated, the master’s in nursing education program was rated third in the country according to the US News and World Report. So I think we really do help students succeed, engage with students, and really are student centered.

Amanda Schoening:

Wonderful. That’s always excellent to hear. Now in terms of outcomes and career paths for nursing education students. Students that attend in this program, are they strictly focused on academic education or is there opportunities for clinical education once finishing this program?

Joan Lockhart:

In terms of the outcomes for the nurse education, as I said before, there are two primary roles. One is the academic educator and one is the clinical educator, that’s the nursing professional development specialist. Those roles entail classroom, online teaching, simulation lab, lab experience, and clinical practice setting. So a variety of that. What I try to do, and we could talk about what students are expected to learn in the programs. The assignments are really geared towards really realistic and practical. Students always comment on that. There are things that are the roles and responsibilities and the competencies expected of both sets of these educators. So what I try to do is when a student has a particular interest, they learn about everything, both of those roles and they learn about the standards of practice and as I said the competencies and what’s expected of the role and learn about both.

Joan Lockhart:

In the assignments they have an opportunity to focus on what’s important to them in their near future and their career plans, so that they have an insight into both in terms of the beginning role. So I do think the outcomes obviously as a beginning educators in both of those roles, either those roles and in particularly the academic educator, they actually have met the eligibility requirements for sitting for the certified nurse educator exam off the budget National League for Nursing. As far as the nursing professional development role, they need to complete some hours in staff development so that they have to look at those eligibilities, but the courses also help set them up for success for those content areas and that test blueprint.

Jamella Lewis:

Thank you so much Dr. Lockhart. We know that there’s 225 clinical hours associated with the nurse education program. Can you talk a little bit about where students can complete these clinical hours at?

Joan Lockhart:

There’s three courses where students have clinical hours and one would think that those clinical hours people would be moaning and groaning about that, but actually students they value those and they really find those as excellent, rich experiences. The two that are in the nursing education courses, there’s one in advanced practice nursing and that course focuses on the advanced practice role that mainly we know the scope and standards of practice for all registered nurses, but there’s another set, an additional set of competencies that nurses prepared at the graduate level, whether that be at an MSN or at an MSN with an advanced practice role are expected to function and perform in practice. So what we do is we focus on connecting a student with a nurse that has a master’s degree or higher at a healthcare setting and they work on direct patient care.

Joan Lockhart:

So that’s that area where the student chooses a clinical area. Maybe the current clinical specialty might be oncology. They may decide to work with a preceptor that may be in bone marrow transplantation if they are not that familiar with that aspect of it to expand upon their clinical specialty and to be marketable as a faculty member or as a nursing professional development specialist, kind of new territory. The other course, the other clinical course in the nursing education offerings is the nursing education role practicum and that’s the traditional one that students often know that where you’re paired with a preceptor who’s an educator. Again, either an educated in academic setting in the school of nursing or an educator in a healthcare setting, that nursing professional development practitioner. Students split their hours and have a preceptor in each one of those areas to get the best of both worlds.

Joan Lockhart:

So in that you focus on the role of the educator and those competencies as I had mentioned, according to the National League for Nursing and the Association for Nurses and Professional Development national standards. Both of those courses includes the count for a minimum of 75 clinical hours, which is really doable when students are working and they again are paired with the preceptor prepared at a master’s level or higher. So that the first course is in advanced practice and clinical practice.

Joan Lockhart:

Second course builds upon that nursing education role. The clinical projects to each one of them. So that gives them really a nice experience in working side by side. I often even ask students too in the nursing education practicum to make sure that they engage in some form of activity in the simulation lab and if they don’t, I invite them to Duquesne to spend some time in our simulation lab with high fidelity human simulation, some virtual simulation. The clinical aspect is in those core courses and the physical assessment course, all MSN students at Duquesne come to campus for just a few days to be able to demonstrate the physical assessment skills and also work with a preceptor at their home place and perfecting those skills. So that’s the remainder of those clinical hours.

Amanda Schoening:

Thank you so much for elaborating on that in a bit more detail as well as discussing the campus residency. So at this point I believe that leads us right into our admissions requirements and the admissions process for the masters of science and nursing program. So to qualify for this program, students are asked that they have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Now that does not specifically have to be a BSN in nursing. Though regardless of what the degree is in, it must be passed with a 3.0 GPA or higher and you must also have obtained a C or higher in an undergraduate statistics course. Last but not least, we also require students have an unencumbered RN license and then for the admissions process itself, we ask the students present their resume or curriculum vitae, that they present two electronically submitted references, official transcripts their RN license, and then a professional goal statement as well, which should be two pages double spaced.

Amanda Schoening:

Really just explaining what led them to Duquesne, why they’re interested in nursing education and why they think that they’re going to be a good fit for this program. Now, Dr. Lockhart, could you just expand a little bit more on what sort of student is the best student for this program? Should it be someone with extensive background in nursing? Is it suitable for students that are a little bit more green in the field? Who do you think makes the best applicant for this program?

Joan Lockhart:

That’s a good question. I guess the best applicant is someone who’s really interested. I think that professional goal statement, I really pay attention to that besides the admission requirements, but someone who just to be able to express why they want to become a nurse educator and what goals they have in mind I guess is a good start. Just helping someone fulfill their dreams and learning should be enjoyed and just someone who wants to learn I think is a good start and regardless of the experience. You could have a lot of experience, but you’re going to be maybe an expert clinician. You may be a new clinician, but we’re all teachers in nursing education because even our clinicians, our preceptors for newly hired nurses in residency programs. So the experience that you gain from our program is going to help you in your everyday nursing practice.

Jamella Lewis:

Thank you so much for expanding on that personal goal statement as well. We also offer the postmaster certificate in nursing education and faculty role as well. It just takes one year to complete. It’s 15 credit hours, five courses. Dr. Lockhart, can you explain a little bit the differences between the postmaster’s certificate and the MSN program?

Joan Lockhart:

Well, that’s a good question. If you look at the program of studies for the entire MSN program, you see a lot of the courses that are at the top part of that slide that focus for all students. So there’s a core, there’s core theory courses and core clinical course. That’s for that physical assessment, pharmacology, advanced patho, all those courses are in that core. Then each student then decides on a specialty. So those five courses at the bottom of that screen are the nursing education specialty courses. Like I mentioned, the two clinical courses. So one in advanced practice, the one in the nursing education world practicum. Yeah, exactly. Then the others are, one is on teaching strategies including technology in terms of evidence based teaching strategies and simulation. Another one is on curriculum and evaluation from the big program piece to the day to day lesson plans and in learning theory.

Joan Lockhart:

So those five courses or 15 credits comprise the nursing education specialty. Students who are interested in the postmaster certificate enroll in those five courses only. So that they’re going to be taking the same courses that a student starting a master’s program they do, but then just focusing on those five specialty courses. I also want to add that we have a nursing education concentration. Concentration in nursing education, which is nine credits and the nine credits are those courses minus the two practica. So that’s also an option for students that may have experience that want to strengthen some of the theory based piece to apply it to their practice.

Amanda Schoening:

Excellent. Thank you for elaborating on the concentration as well. Now that is available for students who are interested in pursuing a master’s here at Duquesne with another focus. So perhaps if they were looking at the psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner program that we’re starting this fall or one of our forensic nursing programs for example, they can add the nursing education concentration and that curriculum that hits all the points to still qualify for the CNE exam. Is that right?

Joan Lockhart:

I believe so.

Amanda Schoening:

Perfect. So then as far as the clinical requirements for this program, it’s very similar to the MSN. You still have your 150 clinical hours required. You need a clinical MSN prepared nurse to precept your first 75 hours and then 75 hours within a nurse educator setting as well. Then that would be very similar to the MSN near the tail end of the program with those specialty classes. Then for the final piece of this presentation, I suppose the next step would be the admissions requirements and admissions process for this program. So in order to apply for the postmaster’s certificate in nursing education, students must hold a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university. Again, it does not specifically have to be a BSN. It could be a bachelor’s in another field. They must also hold an MSN from an accredited college or university with at least a 3.0 GPA and they must have completed a statistics course with a C or higher at some point in their education.

Amanda Schoening:

Additionally, they also need a unencumbered RN license as well to be qualified for this program. Then in order to start the application process, students must provide official transcripts, two electronically submitted letters of reference, a professional goal statement just detailing their interest in the program and the field itself. Then of course the resume or curriculum vitae. Now, Dr. Lockhart do you have any more words of advice or any more final thoughts on the program or anything that you think students should hear from you about the nursing education program?

Joan Lockhart:

I think we talked about some of the key learning activities that they’re involved in besides curriculum and evaluation and teaching strategies. We also talk about role issues. We talk about both of those roles. Advanced practice role and the nursing education role. We also work on helping students develop a professional career plan, updating their resume or their CV, and practicing how they might interview with elevator speech and practicing how they may interview for a nursing education role.

Joan Lockhart:

The other thing that we try to do is to integrate technology throughout all the courses. So students again exposed to simulation, high fidelity simulation, and the virtual simulation. They develop a simulation plan using a National League for Nursing’s template in which they’re also asked to incorporate telemedicine, the telemedicine equipment which is very timely to be able to have different plans of learning for future students. They also have opportunities besides using Blackboard and all those features and VoiceRead and Zoom and everything that we’ve heard about to be able to use ExamSoft and creating some in click style test items. Having that experience. Using Tyson to be able to have a database of their clinical hours and their engagements. So we really try to tailor to the student goals, career goals, and integrate the latest innovations that we can in the whole program.

Jamella Lewis:

Excellent. Thank you so much for providing that additional insight for our potential students. If anyone is interested in learning more information, you can always reach out to either Amanda or myself or your dedicated enrollment advisor at (888) 305-5749. Again, thank you so much, Dr. Lockhart, for providing us the time to expand a little bit on the nursing education and faculty role program here at Duquesne University.

Joan Lockhart:

Thank you.