The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing has received
a two-year, $580,000 continuation grant from the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services to recruit more rural nurses into a masters degree
that prepares nurses as leaders. The grant makes it possible for more nurses
in Nebraska to earn a masters degree at home through distance education
technology. It also emphasizes recruiting students from rural areas and
those from diverse backgrounds.
The grant expands the Health Systems Nurse Specialist masters degree
specialty which began in 1996. It 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. Were 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.
This degree also teaches nurses the collaboration, research and information
technology skills they need to be effective leaders in todays turbulent
health care environment.
Dr. Westmoreland said during the next two years, the goal is to recruit,
enroll and retain new graduate students. Fifty-four students currently
are enrolled, including students in Nebraska, Michigan, South Dakota, Iowa
and Japan. Twenty-six students have graduated to date.
We have graduates in key positions throughout the state. While students
are enrolled, they work on projects that have immediate impact on their
organization or a community health issue, she said. Faculty 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 Nebraskas health challenges.
Innovative features of the grant reduce obstacles that may prevent nurses
from earning higher degrees, including time and distance barriers. Students
can earn the 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, to take tests, make presentations, and participate in discussions
with students and professors without going to a campus.
Dr. Westmoreland said the nursing informatics specialty is the first
and only one in Nebraska. She said it is important 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 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, is one of the students enrolled in one
of the specialty degrees. She works as an evening house supervisor and
infection control coordinator for the Perkins Pavilion, Good Samaritan
Village in Hastings, a 196-bed nursing facility.
From the start, Ive been 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 to improve
our employees job satisfaction and increase efficiency.
She said distance technology tools have allowed her to pursue the degree.
Distance learning and the Internet has made it possible for me to be enrolled,
not just convenient, Ellermeier said.
For more information, call (402) 559-6639 or mwendl@unmc.edu or go to:
www.unmc.edu/HSNS.
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The following students are enrolled in the degree 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