Each year, through the Helen Gurley Wolford Grant faculty have the opportunity to submit grant proposals with specific projects that promote faculty enrichment and innovative learning opportunities for the College of Nursing. Three projects were selected and completed for the 2019 HGW grant: 

Using experiential learning to teach health equity concepts in a BSN Upper Division course

Contributors:
Victoria Davis
Kate Chappell

Project goal:
The purpose of this project is to provide experiential learning activities to BSN students in order to enhance knowledge about factors affecting health equity.

Positive outcomes:
This project is still in progress.  Positive outcomes thus far include integration of health equity experiential learning activities threaded across both undergraduate and graduate courses.  The work funded by this grant was part of the activities leading to the College receiving the SREB Pacesetter Award in Fall 2019. This project has upheld the college’s mission of working to optimize health for all and upholds the college’s values of diversity, equity and inclusivity. 

Impact on CON: 
The overall impact potential is to integrate discussions surrounding health equity as a curriculum-wide effort in the college.  The hope is to enhance nursing student’s knowledge and practice toward health equity by enhancing empathy towards others’ experiences.

AGACNP skills immersion: An innovative approach

Contributors:
Amy Dievendorf

Project Goal
To implement the first skills immersion in NURS 787 for  thirty-one students.

Positive outcomes:
Day one of the training included the following stations: orthopedics, where students learned how to splint and cast; suturing and incision and drainage; thoracentesis with chest tube placement and management, central line and arterial line insertion, intubation, and mechanical ventilation management. Day 2 consisted of ultrasound training at the Prisma Richland training center and two simulation experiences using standardized patients in our CON sim lab. Overall, the two days ran very well. Our wonderful staff in the simulation center ensured a well scheduled two days. The evaluations were overwhelmingly positive.

Impact on CON:
This project has been very impactful to the AGACNP program. We are offering our students the chance at hands on skills training that most other school do not offer. In just this short time, I have been able to see the value of this as my students who participated in the first immersion are now graduate practicing Nurse Practitioners and are easily attaining critical care jobs in highly competitive areas. One recent graduate who is now a practicing NP in the CVICU at MUSC took the time to email me and let me know how grateful she was for the hands-on training this program provided her. Another recent graduate who secured a job in the ICU in Savannah, GA stated that he felt confident in accepting a job that would require many procedures because of his training here.

Integrating Faculty Caring Behaviors in Online Graduate Nursing Programs

Contributors:
Kate Jones
Phyllis Raynor
Vera Polyakova-Norwood

Project goal:
To explore student perception of faculty caring behaviors in online graduate nursing programs and create a toolkit resource for faculty as a guide for incorporating caring behaviors in online learning environments.

Positive outcomes:
A toolkit was created for College of Nursing faculty, which serves as a guide for incorporating caring behaviors in online learning environments. Faculty had the opportunity to attend a workshop on “Faculty Caring Behaviors in Online Learning,” ask questions, and have a dialogue with the presenter and other attendees.

Impact on CON & students:

• Workshop participants gained appreciation for the scholarship of caring. 
• Framing caring in “real terms” helped participants learn to apply in practice. 
• The project provided validation of best practice standards in online / distance education that have been in place at the College of Nursing. 
• The project aligned with the CON’s core value of caring, providing clear information for our faculty about what behaviors in online education are perceived as caring.