BLINN NURSING FACULTY RECOGNIZED AT NATIONAL CONFERENCE
Blinn College Associate Degree Nursing (ADN) faculty recently earned national recognition for their strategies to enhance student engagement and success.
Instructor Karla Ross and Professors Cindy Manning and Rebecca Presswood placed second at the Organization of Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) conference in St. Louis for their poster presentation on admissions criteria for ADN students. Blinn was up against 25 other faculty teams from nursing programs across the nation.
“If we have a good idea about something, we like to tell other programs and vice versa,” Presswood said. “OADN is all about collaborating and learning from one another to better serve our students.”
The project was inspired when ADN admissions committee faculty noticed discrepancies in the success of their students. Several students whom faculty believed would be successful based on their admissions essay and Test of Essential Academic Skills (TEAS), the standardized exam for students entering nursing school, were falling behind their peers.
The admissions committee removed the essay component from the admissions process, weighted portions of the TEAS differently and considered students’ overall grade point average.
“We haven’t seen a full cycle of students, but after just two semesters, we’re really seeing a difference in their success,” Presswood said.
ADN Professors Sami Rahman, Darla Forsberg and Jaime Hardy were also recognized at the conference with a concurrent session discussion slot in which they presented “Gateway to Transforming Nursing Education of Future Nurse Leaders.” The team discussed ways to enhance student engagement in curriculum and ideas to utilize in specific learning environments.
“It’s great to have been selected to present along with some of the top leaders in nursing education,” Forsberg said. “It speaks to the fact that Blinn has some high-quality faculty who produce high-quality students. It’s an honor to be a program that others are emulating.”
Story courtesy of Blinn College