Nursing Thier Skills

In a dynamic profession like health care, nursing professors at UVSC wanted an opportunity to spend some time learning new things and enhancing local hospital relationships to aid their students’ placements. The department determined that externships were needed to help faculty members enhance their teaching.

Labor and delivery has been a teaching assignment of mine for the past few years, but I have had very little clinical experience in this department, said Lori Barber, assistant professor of nursing. When students asked me specific questions, I found myself uncomfortable giving them answers I had only read in a textbook.

These externships, however valuable, would require not only time, but funding. Seeing this need, the nursing department received a faculty merit grant last spring from the UVSC Foundation to fund four externships. With the addition of funding from the department and the School of Science and Health, a total of six faculty performed externships last summer.

My externship increased my ability to function as a competent pediatric nurse, said Opfar. I had the opportunity to provide care for pediatric patients and their families, become familiar with daily routines of the unit, and learn unit-specific charting methods.

The objectives of all the participants in the externship were to develop or enhance competencies in the selected area, connect nursing competencies to the subject matter taught, gain deeper insight related to contemporary nursing and to gain links with the community for future partnerships and collaboration.

LouAnn Provost spent time with hospital wound specialists, a course she has taught for several years. The externship really helped me to have hands-on experience with the newest products and treatments of wounds, she said. I also developed a better relationship with hospital staff and administration and worked on a better charting form for the students to use.

The externship also helped Denza Bruss learn the latest treatments and drugs working in cardiology, oncology and surgery in a pediatric hospital for her externship. Fellow UVSC nursing colleague, Mickie Opfar also chose pediatrics for her externship.

Not only did the nurses update themselves on policy and procedure, but also worked to become familiar with the hospitals that will open doors for their students’ clinical experiences.

According to Marie Hunter, another externship participant, I will be taking my students to this hospital for the first time this fall and so I established three main goals for my externship, she said. One of these was to get familiar with the layout of the hospital and the personnel on each unit. Another goal was to let the staff know who I am so they recognize me as the instructor when I take students. The third goal was also to update myself on procedures, supplies and computers used in the hospital.

All of the nurses who participated in the externship agree the experience was very valuable. Their externships will not only help supplement and improve the quality of their teaching, but also will help their students adjust to the hospital experience more smoothly.

Ella Peterson, the sixth participant felt her time and the money was well spent. I am very appreciative of the grant and wish to thank all those who approved of this project, she said.

Printed in the UVSC Annual Report 2000-2001