IU Kokomo’s Nancy Schlapman (lower right) is the program coordinator for the new M.S.N. program on campus. The new students (front row, left to right) Jeff Harris and Rick Hollers; (front standing row) Cindy Suryanto, Susie Plough and Joyce Hollingsworth; (second row) Kathy Hetzler, Michaelene Andersen and Candy Graber; (third row) Shirley Clouse, K.K. Hershey and Nancy Lahr; (fourth row) Elizabeth Jernagan, Amber Barneyand Genell Guy; (fifth row) Jolene Windt, Kathy Oldaker and Carolyn Smith; and (back row) Lisa Price, Angela Heckman, Julie Howard, Emily Yearly, Carolyn Lane, Rhonda McKay and Stacy Budd. New class members not pictured are Teresa O’Donnell, Melissa Lines and Sheree Schroeder.
Cass
“It’s very much a community project. The partnerships are so strong. All of these students have support. They’re not worried about paying for schooling, or whether there will be jobs for them once they get their advanced training.”
—Penny Cass, dean, School of Nursing program, IU Kokomo |
(Editor’s note: Indiana University’s nursing school is the only institution in the United States that offers a full range of nursing degrees—from two-year associate to master’s and doctorates, in addition to postdoctoral-level opportunities. IU Kokomo’s launch of a master’s degree in nursing this semester is a fine illustration of the collaborative work of IU’s campuses and their communities in providing educational advancement while setting the tone for better quality of life for Hoosier citizens—in this case, the injection of highly trained community health specialists into the north central Indiana medical profession.)
IU Kokomo launched its first Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) program class in mid-January, with 27 students enrolled toward becoming Community Health Clinical Nurse Specialists.
The specialty involves “advanced practices, theory and skills to deliver care to specific groups of people, rather than to individuals,” said graduate program coordinator Nancy Schlapman. Typical applications would include disease prevention care or patient education regarding medication or therapies.
Two years ago, IUPUI contracted to offer its graduate nursing curriculum at the Kokomo campus, but not enough students were recruited to launch the program. “We had a false start,” said Penny Cass, dean of the Kokomo campus’ School of Nursing program. “The community needed to think about it.”
In that two-year period, several IU Kokomo nursing faculty members earned doctorates, making them eligible as graduate instructors. With this in mind, Cass elected to make a new push for the M.S.N. program last summer.
She persuaded local hospital executives to underwrite tuition for selected nursing staff. Marion General Hospital agreed to cover the costs for three of its nurses, and Howard Regional Health System made it possible for 15 of its nurses to join the program. Other M.S.N. students come from St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Hospital (Lafayette), Ball Memorial (Muncie), St. Vincent Hospital (Indianapolis), Logansport Memorial and Rolling Meadows Health Care (La Fontaine). Most of these institutions are picking up at least part of their employees’ school costs.
“It’s very much a community project. The partnerships are so strong,” Cass said. “All of these students have support. They’re not worried about paying for schooling, or whether there will be jobs for them once they get their advanced training.”
The backing for local graduate nursing is an incentive to keep highly educated nurses in north central Indiana, Cass said. The School of Nursing will “be able to work (with the students’ employers) to create their job descriptions,” she added. Before graduating, each student will complete a capstone project “that must be ‘real’ work,” Cass said. “They must do a cost/benefit analysis, showing that their project would save costs for a health-care provider and have specific benefits for the provider and patients.”
The graduate students have from one to 40 years of experience in nursing and work in several health care fields, including cardiac, psychiatric, cancer, maternal/child, long-term care and radiology. Many have already taken on added staff leadership duties in their jobs. Graduate studies will build on these natural abilities, Cass said. “We can put a theoretical basis under what they’re already doing—teaching patients, coordinating staff development. We can measure the effectiveness and quality of the care, as well as its costs. It will change the composition of nursing in these communities.”
Having graduate classes offered close to home was a major deciding factor for many participants. “The Kokomo program is perfect,” said Carolyn Lane, a 27-year veteran of nursing, working in critical care at Marion General Hospital. “It’s closer than Indianapolis. You can design your own program with the help of Dr. Schlapman, our graduate adviser. The online classes are flexible.”
Nancy Lahr, director of nursing at Rolling Meadows, working part time at Marion General, has progressed through all of IU Kokomo’s nursing undergraduate nursing programs—associate degree to registered nurse, registered nurse to bachelor of science degree holder in nursing. She likes how the faculty members “have constantly worked with people who are working nurses. They help us in so many ways.”
The help was again evident this fall. In September and October, Schlapman met weekly with prospective graduate students, helping them fill out the extensive graduate school application and meet other admission criteria.
When paperwork occasionally had to be resubmitted, Schlapman would remind the applicants, “Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, and not get distracted by the frustrations.”
The prize arrived on Nov. 10, when all 27 applicants were notified of acceptance.
In spring and summer semesters, the M.S.N. students will take core program classes, delivered via Internet to the Kokomo campus. IU Kokomo School of Nursing faculty will sit in with the students during the online classes, ready to clarify and reinforce lessons as needed.
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