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Students came together from across Nebraska and the region to meet and learn new skills for participation in the Health Systems Nurse Specialist master’s degree. |
The grant expands the Health Systems Nurse Specialist master’s degree launched in 1996. The degree offers three specialty areas that prepare nurses for leadership roles in community-public health nursing, nursing administration or nursing informatics.
“The rapidly changing health-care system is creating a pressing need for nurses with advanced knowledge and skills to help transform nursing and health care in communities and health-care organizations,” said Donna Westmoreland, Ph.D., associate professor, UNMC College of Nursing and grant project director. “We’re preparing nurses to provide leadership in addressing urgent health-care problems, including patient safety, access to care for minorities and the underserved and the nursing shortage.
“Our degree also teaches nurses the collaboration, research and information technology skills they need to be effective leaders in today’s turbulent health-care environment.”
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Students in the Health Systems Nurse Specialist master’s degree participate in small group discussion during a visit last summer to the UNMC College of Nursing campus in Omaha. |
During the next two years, the goal is to recruit, enroll and retain new graduate students, Dr. Westmoreland said. Fifty-four students currently are enrolled in the specialty, including students in Nebraska, Michigan, South Dakota, Iowa and Japan. To date, 26 students have graduated from the specialty.
“We have graduates in key positions throughout the state,” Dr. Westmoreland said. “While students are enrolled, they work on projects that have immediate impact on their organization or a community health issue. Faculty members also work with students to help them develop skills based on their individual career goals. The knowledge and skills graduates will bring to Nebraska communities are critical to addressing Nebraska’s health challenges.”
Innovative features of the grant reduce obstacles that may prevent nurses from earning higher degrees, including time and distance barriers. Enrolled students can earn their degree in their home using a combination of coursework on the Internet, e-mail, interactive television and audio conferences. The technology allows students to access state-of-the-art health-care information, take tests, make presentations and participate in discussions with students and professors without going to campus.
Dr. Westmoreland said the nursing informatics degree is the first and only one of its kind in Nebraska. The specialty is important, she said, because informatics nurse specialists work with information technology specialists to design electronic documentation of patient information.
“Electronic documentation of information helps reduce errors,” she said. “It also enables health providers to get the right information in a timely manner and helps them to make better patient care decisions.”
One of the goals of the grant is to recruit nurses from rural areas who intend to practice in rural, medically underserved communities. The curriculum also stresses cultural competency for faculty and students, and introduces minority and disadvantaged youth to nursing as a potential career.
Michelle Ellermeier of Minden works as an evening house supervisor and infection control coordinator for the Perkins Pavilion, Good Samaritan Village in Hastings, a 196-bed nursing facility. She also is one of the students enrolled in the specialty.
“From the start, the specialty has consistently challenged and expanded my knowledge and understanding of health-care systems, management and the role of the nurse,” Ellermeier said. “I have developed and led educational in-services at my facility on pain management, helping our caregivers share and learn how to better evaluate and treat our residents’ pain. It also has given me a better understanding of health-care financial management; and in this era of decreasing Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, I find these lessons crucial.
“Leadership is extraordinarily challenging in a time of cost-cutting, and having the ability to incorporate the concepts of employee empowerment and systems’ thinking into our day-to-day workplace has helped improve our employee’s job satisfaction and increase efficiency.”
Distance technology tools in the specialty have allowed her to pursue the degree, she said. Having the degree available through distance learning and the Internet has made it possible, not just convenient, for me to participate,” Ellermeier said.
For more information about the specialty, call (402) 559-6639 or e-mail mwendl@unmc.edu or go to www.unmc.edu/HSNS.
The following students are enrolled in the specialty and are listed according to their hometowns.
Beatrice — Patricia Hortman
Bellevue — Rosa Weatherly
Central City — Diana Hines
Columbus — Janelle Ryan
Elkhorn — Julie Linglebach
Fremont — Peggy Helget
Hastings — Rebecca Davis
Hebron — Dianne Simpson
Hooper — Jane Langemeier
Minden — Michelle Ellermeier
Lincoln — Sharon Baker, Angela Herbert, Debbie Hughes, Wanda Kelley, Cynthia Kildare, Leeza Moyer, Sarah Orth, Steven Prester, Tammy Strait, and Sue Ann Tabatabai
North Platte — Nancy Hudson and Shirleen Smith
Norfolk — Anne Wilber
Omaha — Kristin Bertrang, Kena Brewer, Inglish Camero, Michaela Newman, Jill Nienaber, Angelica Rodriguez, Terry Tipton, Maureen Vanderheiden, Jennifer VanWagoner and Christine Young
Orleans — Ronda Barwick
Papillion — Karen Hrabak
Pierce — Cindy Kinnison
Seward — Patricia Lenz
West Point — Alice Kindschuh
Council Bluffs, Iowa — Jacqueline Peterson
Des Moines, Iowa — Cindy Florer
Glenwood, Iowa — Glenelle Kruse
Granville, Iowa — Laurie Gebauer
Hartley, Iowa — Ruth Hobson
Hospers, Iowa — Judy Nieuwenhuis
Merrill, Iowa — Gloria Lewis-Nelson
Paullina, Iowa — Kay Gesme
Stanton, Iowa — Janice “Sue” Allen
Waterloo, Iowa — Doreen Mingo
Grand Rapids, Mich. — Marcia Veenstra
Pierre, S.D. — Karrie Green
Misawa Air Base, Japan — Krisandra Smith
Wilmington, N.C. — Susan Langlois