CON grads continue education in health careby Heather WoolwinePublic Relations More than ever, nurses across the country realize the need for continuing education. In addition, more people are answering the call to care for others and joining the nursing field. No where are these trends more apparent than at MUSC. From the nurse earning a doctorate to school teachers who changed their career path, MUSC’s College of Nursing (CON) produced several outstanding graduates this year who personify the movement. With more in common than good grades; these students learned that pursuing an education in tandem with the hustle of life is difficult, albeit rewarding. Here are their stories. Nursing research: a rising field gets a rising starThe first graduate from the all-MUSC doctorate level nursing program, Lynne Nemeth, Ph.D., R.N., Care Management, Research & Evaluation, entered her current position at MUSC without a doctorate, even though the job posting called for one. She was excited to get the job in 1999, but it got her thinking.“Going for a Ph.D. was never something that I planned on, I really stumbled into it,” she said. “But once I was at MUSC, it became a career goal upon some reflection and encouragement from Dr. Gail Stuart (CON dean), who was just beginning the program.” The experienced nurse who practiced in New York, Boston, and Seattle prior to her Charleston arrival, Nemeth began a juggling act of work, family, and education that was as relentless as it would be rewarding. “Finding the balance to make it all work was a constant challenge and I had to stay really focused on what I wanted to accomplish,” Nemeth said. “I gave up a lot of personal time and it was a challenge to deal with all the deadlines for my job and school, and then still trying to make time for my family. It was a lot to manage and I gave up a lot, but it was worth it.” She set time limits for herself and stuck to them to master the enormous amount of personal and professional work she faced, stayed on top of the details, and above all, stayed healthy. “I found a lot of personal balance through running and taking vacations,” she said. “And when I say I took a vacation, I mean we went somewhere nice, relaxed and enjoyed some quality family time.” Nemeth cautioned future students to start the program with one question and follow it through, because without defining interests, they may waste time. She enjoyed working with a research team that did “real world” research and because she was one of the first to apply and complete the program, the CON allowed her and fellow classmates a lot of input into how the program was crafted. Nemeth hopes to use her newfound research skills in a shared nurse researcher position, in addition to teaching other nurses. In a position like this, an individual is dedicated to developing nursing research and implementing it at the bedside, so every nurse may follow through with clinical questions through a manageable research process. “In nursing, we need to develop future leaders, because it’s not enough to have strong role models,” Nemeth said. “We’re facing a nursing shortage and how we develop nursing faculty will help determine the fate of health care. The system depends on bright, energetic, intelligent nurses coming through the pipeline. Nurses are the human touch in a high-tech world and the patient’s implementer of care. As nursing roles and education become more diverse to sustain the future, those of us in the field must do everything we can to set aside resources to develop those capabilities.” Nurse midwifery students share more than nursingThree different women, Amelia Rowland, R.N., Lucy Zimmer Wilson, R.N., and Nichole Childs, R.N., share something in common besides new degrees in nurse midwifery. All were former school teachers.“When I graduated from the College of Charleston with my education degree, I was gung-ho,” Rowland said. “But I realized that it wasn’t what I wanted to do forever. I found the accelerated RN/MSN program and decided to pursue nurse midwifery. I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I figured that I’d just plow through.” Like Childs and Wilson, Rowland completed the program in three years with year-round classes. Wilson was a dean of students for an all-female school in California before coming to Charleston and Childs was finally able to pursue a career in medicine after teaching for 12 years. “I was stuck,” Childs said. “I wanted to go to medical school right out of college but taught instead. I thought I would go back to medical school this time but while I was taking some pre-requisites, I shadowed a local midwife and loved it. Nurse midwifery was such a natural fit for me.” With hometowns spotting the east coast, these nursing graduates agreed that to keep up with the program, some serious time management was involved, not to mention handling tremendous amounts of pressure. Rowland was immersed not only in unknown territory as a new nurse working in a new field, but also learning Spanish at the clinic where she kept so many hours. “There was no choice but to learn the language,” she said. “It was really fun and exciting to work in that clinic. Child birth is a very natural part of the Hispanic culture. Providing care for that population throughout the prenatal and labor process was a beautiful learning experience.” Childs dealt with the pressures of school and raising two daughters, Nailah, 10, and Jendayi, 5, as a single parent. “My family thought I was crazy when I came to MUSC and no job or local support system to speak of. When we moved here, I had two weeks to arrange their school schedules in addition to mine. I was fortunate to meet a family while at St. Andrews Family Fitness Center. They sort of adopted us and helped me tremendously with taking the girls here and there or watching them so I could run errands or study. They always seemed to tell by how I looked or sounded over the phone that I wasn’t sleeping and was stressed out. They were also a huge help while I was at clinicals.” A presidential scholar, Childs was the only student from her class required to drive an hour and a half each way to her clinical classes during the week. And despite the time crunch, she performed volunteer work related to domestic violence and pregnancy and smoking cessation during pregnancy with substance abusing women. Wilson was the first student in the midwifery program to become pregnant and give birth will finishing up. “My pregnancy was actually very easy and to tell you the truth, I was so busy with school that I think that helped me through it. I didn’t have time for the usual complaints but once Lincoln arrived, finishing the semester became very difficult. I was just so emotionally and physically exhausted, plus I just didn’t want to be away from him. I really couldn’t have done it without the support of the college, the faculty and my fellow classmates. People were so willing to meet me halfway and there was a lot of give and take.” Wilson now feels that she can better articulate labor, medication procedures and postpartum issues to her patients. “Now I can say, ‘Okay, here’s what this says, now let me tell you how it really is,” she laughed. All three women agreed that the ability to work one-on-one with their preceptors made a huge difference in them as practitioners, and they speak fondly of learning the ropes. “You deal with the adversity, the stress, the tests, and that which doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” Childs said. “I think it was a challenge to go through the midwifery program with no nursing experience,” Rowland said. “But I was very encouraged and other nurses that I worked with were patient with me. It’s hard to be authoritative when the person that you’re going to be in charge of has way more experience than you do. I was humbled.” Pointing to the love and support of family and colleagues, faith, and the simple things of daily life like cars and microwaves, each graduate seems to feel blessed to have completed the program and beginning a new career. The irony is how much teaching these women will do in that new career. “All of us having this background made us gel with each other and with the program,” Wilson said. “Having a background in education gave me a good foundation to effectively teach others,” Rowland said. As for the future, Rowland will work at the MUSC Prenatal Wellness Center as the only mid-wife amongst specialist physicians caring for high-risk obstetrical cases. Childs is currently job-hunting and happy to have a chance to slow down, even just for a minute or two. Wilson, Lincoln and her husband, Benjamin, will move to New Hampshire soon where her next chapter will begin in the company of relatives in the New England area. Nursing’s future: online degreesIf there is a lazy stereotype associated with people who work from home, then Angela Van Sant, R.N., shatters it. Her previous job with the Inveresk corporation didn’t leave room for a lackadaisical attitude, not that Van Sant would have one anyway.The very busy and motivated nurse chose MUSC’s online program and became one of its first students due to her daily timeline. “There was absolutely no way that I could have gone back to school in a traditional classroom,” she said. “My job requires an intense amount of traveling and sometimes I am physically at my home maybe a week during one month. My workload still dictated that I only become a part time student because that really was all I could fit in.” After receiving her associate science and nursing degrees from Trident Technical College, Van Sant spent the next 10 years working in the surgical trauma and neurosurgery areas of MUSC. In 2000, she began to work as a clinical researcher for NCGS Laboratories and by 2003, she was a regional senior clinical researcher for Inveresk. And it’s not that Van Sant didn’t have enough to do that made her decide to pursue a higher degree, rather it was the promise of becoming eligible for positions that she previously thought unattainable with larger companies, like her new employer GlaxoSmithKline. “I looked into some other online programs but they just didn’t seem right,” Van Sant said. “I happened upon the MUSC site and saw the program. From there I figured everything out and submitted my application online. It was very easy to follow and the entire course remained very user-friendly. It was a lot of work during the program but I could do it at home or in a hotel room, which was a big deal for me.” Van Sant, although not the first to graduate, is a member of the first class accepted for the online nursing bachelor’s degree program. “There are five of us who were from that original class who are graduating this year and we feel like we’re making history with MUSC,” Van Sant said. She cited the CO N as very receptive to positive and negative feedback from its online students and felt that made a huge difference in how the course progressed. The CON sponsored feedback sessions around lunch or dinner and implemented many of the students' suggestions. Not all of the course was online and students were still required to come on campus for orientations and practical examinations. Many tests were taken online and the CON instituted several methods of communication so everyone could stay in touch. Student pictures were posted online and contact information was available as well. Questions by classmates and faculty were posted for all to see or in private based on student preference. The opportunity to see questions and responses provided Van Sant and her cohorts the same access to information as other students. In addition, she liked having the Internet at her finger tips for assignments and questions. “There’s a misconception that online learning is easier than traditional classroom education,” Van Sant said. “But it’s the opposite. You have to be directed, autonomous, and driven to excel in this kind of program. You must have self-discipline. It’s so rewarding.” Complementing the CON on developing a well-rounded program and paying attention to potential problem areas (like computer viruses for example), Van Sant mentioned that even when a bump occurred, like when one of her video-taped assignments was lost on campus, the CON responded with respect for her time and the stress the situation created. Van Sant said that future online students should know that in order to succeed within this particular learning environment, a good computer loaded with virus protection is a must. “You also have to make a pact with yourself that you’re going to do it and follow through every day,” she said. “You and your classmates are all dealing with a lot of stress and have very busy lives, or they wouldn’t be in the program. But you have to lean on each other and communicate to get through it. Just remember that you can do it, and you will.” A NICU nurse offers her perspective on advanced degrees “I have been in the NICU at the Medical University for more than 13 years. In that time, I’ve taken the opportunities offered by the hospital to further my nursing skills and education. Becoming a neonatal nurse practitioner (NNP) was another step in my nursing career at MUSC. I decided to go back to school and get my master’s degree as one of my own personal goals. The NICU staff and our nurse manager Cindy Snyder are very supportive of continuing education and help with flexible scheduling. The NNP team along with Robin Bissinger was also supportive. Each member of the team always offered an ear to listen and a word of encouragement. As preceptors and instructors, they shared so much of their time and knowledge. The benefit of tuition reimbursement offered by MUSC made it possible to further my education. This was an extremely helpful way to pay for tuition. Working full-time, attending classes and clinicals was exhausting at times. Some weeks I would work, attend classes, or attend a clinical for six or seven days in a row. Most people don’t realize the time and effort that goes into an advanced degree. I spent many beautiful weekends and forgone countless family activities to complete papers and study for tests. The NICU attending physicians were so supportive and encouraging. Their willingness to share their wealth of knowledge truly enhanced the student experience. I love working with sick babies and their families in this fast-paced, ever changing unit. It’s highly technical and at the same time so very personal. Medical technology and advancement happen so fast and the NICU is no exception. Every year there are new medications, instruments and therapies. Continuing education for all nurses is a must. Nursing as a profession must stay cutting-edge and the only way to accomplish this is to always be learning.” —Debbie Lambert, Nurse Practitioner, NICU Education at the source and in the classroom“From a very young age I knew I wanted to work with children in a medical profession. I learned what a nurse practitioner did and the idea of diagnosing children with illnesses while maintaining a holistic approach really appealed to me.I came to MUSC in 2001 and after working on 7A for a year, I started this program. Coming out of nursing school is quite overwhelming and learning what it was like to be a nurse before starting school enabled me to understand more about the medical/nursing professions and how a hospital works. Working definitely reinforced my education, and in a sense, I think I became a better PNP because of the wide range of patients we see and the experience I received every day at work. I worked full-time and was in school part-time until we started clinicals, then I worked part-time. Working and going to school is not easy. I definitely lacked free-time and had to push myself to keep going multiple times. My amazing preceptors taught me so much. None of them were paid for their time and each of them was kind, supportive, knowledgeable, and patient with me. I also couldn’t have made it through this program without the support of my family and friends. Gigi Smith, PNP, went above and beyond the call of duty to make the PNP program what it is and her knowledge, support and guidance were awesome. There is light at the end of the tunnel and it is worth all the pain and sacrifice. Eventually you really will graduate and be so proud of your accomplishment. Knowing that I’ve made a difference in helping children and their families as well as the people I’ve met was the best thing. As a nurse practitioner, I will diagnose diseases in children, write prescriptions, and be responsible for their care. I will also have a better knowledge base to educate patients and their families about health and ways to prevent illness. It is important for nurses to continue their education in order to better serve patients. By continuing their education and moving into an advanced practice nurse role, patients receive holistic care with a unique approach that places the patient and family first. —Rebecca Hornung, 7A Children's Hospital Friday, May 20, 2005
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