HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!      

Hope the Goblins are not too scary this year!

Dr. Maggie

Lateral Violence, Incivility, and Bullying in Online Masters in Nursing Degree Programs

The literature contains much evidence regarding incivility in the nursing workplace and in nursing education.  One would think that incivility would not exist in online education, when actually; incivility does indeed occur in online class settings.  Some examples of online incivility are:

1) Students ignoring requests for information and lack of response to classmates in an online group, or ignoring requests from online faculty.

2) Students not turning in an assignment when due without any communication to faculty

3) Students “fighting” in online groups regarding the direction and development of a project and asking faculty to “referee”.

4) Faculty unresponsive to student questions/emails for more than 48 hours

5) Faculty belittling students in online discussions or in emails (true story: once had faculty email a student that they had “the lowest grade” in the class on an assignment ”

6) Faculty unwilling to admit a grading error and not correcting an assignment grade.

As you can see, students and faculty are equally responsible for professional and civil behavior in the online course.  If an emergency occurs, have a friend or family member notify faculty so the appearance of non-communication does not ensue.  If there is a difficult situation you are dealing with, email the instructor, and work out a way to accomplish the learning goals with a request for some flexibility.  Online instructors are always open to support student learning as long as instructors do not feel taken advantage of for their “good nature”.   Students understand work life balance issues and if faculty are going to be late with grading, or less active in discussions for a particular week, a class email or announcement shows professional and civil behavior. 

Dr. Maggie

Upcoming Nursing Conferences of Interest for Masters in Nursing Online Students

Upcoming Nursing Conferences of Interest for Masters in Nursing Online Students  

Check out the sites below for upcoming nursing conferences for Masters in Nursing Online Students.  When you click on the conference link, be sure to look for a “Call for Abstracts” to submit your MSN work for presentation.  Don’t worry if you miss a submission deadline, just continue to check the sites for more conferences in the future.  Be sure to see my blog from Oct. 1 and Oct. 8 for how to submit an abstract for presentation review.

http://www.nursingsociety.org/STTIEvents/NursingConferences/Pages/NursingConferences.aspx

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/conferences

http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/Conference

Dr. Maggie

Poster Presentation Creation for Online Masters in Nursing Projects

 When an abstract is accepted for “poster presentation”, prepare a professional poster, using a power point template (see website below). Typically the dimensions for a Poster presentation are 36x48 inches, but the conference submission guidelines for posters will provide the exact size required. 

Poster Information included is below.  You can use these headings even if your abstract is not necessarily a study, but is a project (for project ideas see blog from 9-24-13)

Introduction

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion

References  

You may also want to “insert” some appropriate clip art or other graphic, such as a chart or photo if these fit on the poster.  {Go to the website:  MakeSigns.com. This company is located in a suburb of Chicago, but they print and ship posters nationwide.  http://www.makesigns.com/SciPosters_Home.aspx    Be sure to order the poster size required by the conference, as the template is 36 x 48 inches (3ftx 4 ft.) is only a guide. The website has free down loadable power point templates to use to create your poster presentation.  Be sure to allow enough time for creating and producing and shipping the poster for the conference date. 

Conference presentations, either at a podium or through a poster, are a great way to disseminate nursing knowledge.  Submitting an abstract of your work is an excellent way to network for future career opportunities during a conference once you complete your online MSN degree. 

Dr. Maggie

Presenting Your Online MSN Degree Program Project Work

Call for Abstracts   

Now that you have all this great knowledge from your online MSN course projects, it is time to submit the information to present at a nursing conference.  Many of the nursing organizations hold regular conferences.  Check with local, state, or regional nursing organization home pages.   You will typically see a link to “ upcoming conferences”.  The larger national conferences will require abstract submission 9-10 months prior to the conference dates.  Smaller, regional conferences require any where from 6 -3 months abstract submission prior to the conference.  Checking a nursing organization’s home page periodically for conferences and associated “Call for Abstracts” is the best way to find a conference to submit an abstract of your work.  Be sure to closely follow abstract submission directions, as each conference will specify how long the abstract is and what information should be included. You will enhance your chances for acceptance by looking at conference objectives and aligning your abstract with at least one of those objectives.  Remember to  use the same terms as the conference objectives in your abstract.

Tune in for next week's blog for resources to put together a poster presentation!

Dr. Maggie

Practicum Projects for Online MSN Degree Programs

          

One of the requirements for Online MSN Degree programs is a practicum project. Whether in nursing administration (executive leadership) or clinical nurse leadership, or nursing education, any program will require some type of project to be developed based on assessment of organizational need, and include some type of measurable evaluation of the project.  Some examples of projects are:

Documentation of patient status between a critical care unit and step down unit to avoid miscommunications regarding patients’ readiness for CCU transfer and prevent patient readmissions to CCU.

Increasing use of cardiac rehabilitation services for improved patient cardiac outcomes

Diabetic education for new graduate nurses for improved patient compliance

Patient advocacy staff  training program for reduced staffing and improved patient satisfaction

Staff retention and succession planning for improved shared governance and staff satisfaction in a Magnet designated facility

Establish an effective process for post surgical patient discharge, including patient education, to reduce complications and readmissions.

Development of a nursing student attitude assessment tool for faculty implementation during clinical rotations for measuring attitude benchmarks during clinical evaluation. 

Develop an effective Root Cause Analysis process to prevent/reduce medical errors  

Develop a consistent shift change communication process and policy to increase patient satisfaction

Standardize organizational staff orientation modules to improve partnerships with local mental health providers and increase patient satisfaction and admissions

Standardized shift-change hand-off form to improving nursing hand-off communication and reducing medical errors

Implementation of Bedside Reporting to increase patient satisfaction

Implementation of a shared care program for Ventricular Assistive Device implant patients between local community health care facilities and large medical centers to reduce patient readmission and mortality.

Implement Electronic Health Records to  ensure secure and efficient communication for healthcare personnel in providing standards of care policies, preventing adverse events, and establish standard processes throughout the organization to improve patient safety.

Develop an inpatient smoking cessation consultation program in conjunction with an outpatient smoking cessation program to reduce tobacco use in a patient population for a health care organization. 

Develop a  wound care discharge program to decrease infection rates post discharge, and potential readmissions.

For more examples go to : http://online.sxu.edu/programs/masters-degree-nursing/practicum-examples

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 As you can see by the list above, all of the proposed projects relate to nursing practice in clinical, education or leadership areas.  Each project refers to measures of success which can be tangibly evaluated.  The key to a successful practicum project is a clearly defined objective which has specific measures tied to that objective.

Dr. Maggie

Writing Curricula Vitae for Online Masters of Science in Nursing Degree Students

A curriculum vitae is a compilation of one’s education, employment experience, and scholarly works. The “CV” is best written for Masters in Nursing Science degree nurses seeking academic positions.  The best way to begin is to find an example and enter your information into that example.  Templates are OK, but can be really tough to work with, esp. with trying to change the formatting if needed.  Ask a mentor for a copy of their CV to help you get started.

Start the CV with contact information then list Education then Licensure and Certifications.  Then list experience with only job titles and years employed (unlike the resume where accomplishments are listed).  After experience, you would then list specifics such as courses taught (and where), publications, grants, memberships, awards etc.  Unlike a resume’s limit of one page, the CV can have as many pages as needed to reflect education and experiences.

Dr. Maggie