Rural RN uses Master’s Degree to Bring Community Back

A 50-bed nursing home/24-unit assisted living facility in rural Caledonia, Minn. had a problem: it was losing community support. The town of 1,300 just wasn’t getting the kind of care it needed for its aging citizens and their families.

The reasons were many: budget cuts had eliminated geriatrician and nurse practitioner outreach positions. Long-term care and a move toward patient-centered care were misunderstood by the community, which the facility was working hard to fix.

But one nursing services coordinator was about to shake things up.

Developing new programs – and outreach tools

Joyce Meyer, 34, an associate RN at the facility, had been quietly earning her Master’s degree in nursing at home and online, one course at a time, since 2008. Nearly half-way through her program, she began focusing her assignments and research projects on the needs of her geriatric constituents – and things at the facility started to change.

“I helped develop an Alzheimer’s support group as part of my course work. I also developed a ‘Bathing without a Battle’ program for our dementia patients, which came out of my research class,” Joyce said. This program is a work in progress, but will benefit the geriatric population in long-term care settings.

She helped implement an Alzheimer’s support group for caregivers. “I wrote the plan on how to market this group and bring people in from the community. We were offering a safe place for families to voice their fears and challenges. “Turn-outs were good,” she said.

Joyce was also able to help in writing grant proposals to gain the needed funding. “Not only did these programs start bringing back community members by offering a valuable service, they served as a marketing tool for the facility to bring in clients,” she added.

Thanks to Joyce’s Master’s degree specialization in nursing management and organizational leadership, she was able to run these programs, too. “My supervisors were happy that there was now someone to take on the role to implement after we’d talked about them for so long,” she said.

Managing school, work, family – and achieving success

Choosing to go back to school was a tough decision for Joyce. “I have a husband and three children between the ages of one and eight. Money was also a concern,” Joyce explained. “I knew I wanted to do my coursework at home. I didn’t have the time to drive to a traditional school’s campus. I also had to find an affordable program.”

Joyce enrolled in the online RN to MSN degree program at American Sentinel University, which offers CCNE-accredited Bachelor’s and Master’s nursing degrees, flexible scheduling, eight-week courses, and one of the lowest tuition rates for online schools.

“I am proud of what I’ve accomplished academically while also raising my young family and working full time,” she said.

“Plus, getting the two programs started at the facility has been a positive thing for our community. People are starting to understand our move toward patient-centered care, and they’re coming back to support us,” Joyce added.

“The internal staff feels proud of what they do, morale has improved, and our productivity has increased. It’s a win all around when everyone supports each other.”

Nurse Educator Improves Quality, Decreases Turnover at New Mexico Hospital

Former administrator goes back to school, encourages staff to do the same

A 99-bed acute care facility in Alamogordo, N.M., needed a transformation in order to meet criteria as outlined by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Nursing leadership needed to be recharged, so a new CNO came on board with a critical mission: raise expectations and increase accountability.

To do this, the CNO hired a new Master’s-prepared management team that included a new Director of Critical Care Services and Education, Kelly Ramey, RN, MSA, MSN, CCRN, CEN. A big part of Kelly’s job involved encouraging nurses to seek higher education and assist in the transformation.

But there was just one problem.

While Kelly had more than 13 years of experience in healthcare administration, she wanted more experience in nursing leadership and education. So she decided to go back for a second Master’s degree – this time through an online Master’s of Nursing (MSN) in Education program.

Education Proves Satisfying, not Scary
“The biggest part of my job as a nurse educator is persuading nurses to see that education isn’t scary,” Kelly said. “In fact, I’ve seen proof that nurses who have earned advanced degrees can cite research or Joint Commission findings and really hold their own in meetings and with physicians.”

Naturally, there was some resistance to going back to school. But Kelly stayed true to her cause.

“Once associate degree-level nurses start going back to school, they take their blinders off,” Kelly explained. “Advanced degree studies get nurses thinking about standards of practice – that it’s not hooey. They do their own research, read literature and see proof that there is validity to the new changes at our hospital.”

In fact, nurses have started nursing-journal clubs, and they’ve helped re-write policies based on standards they’ve studied. Many are now even driving some of the changes, especially toward total patient care.

Quality Improves, Turnover Decreases by 29%
“Our push for education has resulted in increased patient satisfaction, increased physician satisfaction, and significant improvement in our quality indicators,” Kelly said. Also, due in part to her efforts, nursing turnover has been reduced by 29 percent.

How the Educator Got Educated
Kelly highly encourages accredited online nursing degree programs with the staff.

“In my MSN program at American Sentinel University, I collaborated with students living all over the country, bringing their unique experiences to the online classroom. The discussions were incredibly rich and diverse, and the networking opportunities incredible.”

In fact, when the CNO said that a first-line leadership role wasn’t working out, Kelly was able to cite current literature and research, thanks to a paper she wrote on the changing dynamic in nursing leadership. Her research dovetailed right into how the CNO wanted to develop this role.

“I was able to bring my class research into every day practice,” Kelly said. “Online learning is real stuff, not fluff. The learning is constant, contemporary and applicable to practice.”

At 51, RN combines nursing and business acumen to increase operational effectiveness

Improves communications between leadership and clinicians

Kathy Edwards, an RN and quality advisor for a remote, 140-bed hospital in Northern Utah, had wanted to earn a Master’s degree since the early 1990s. But a divorce, being a single mother with three boys, and having to maintain her home by herself quashed that dream.

Now, at age 51, Kathy’s finally on the road to accomplishing her goal – and helping her regional hospital operate more effectively to boot.

Thanks to the knowledge she’s gaining in an online MSN program, Kathy is able to blend her clinical experience with healthcare business expertise. She’s becoming an increasingly reliable facilitator of clear communication between the administration, physicians, nurses and patients.

Crossing the barriers of science and business
Kathy realized that learning the business of healthcare would broaden her capability to help operations run more smoothly. “What I’m learning in my courses is how to provide clinical knowledge to leadership when they make decisions,” Kathy said. “I’m learning things like core measures and the reasoning behind why we have to do certain things in a certain way. I’m learning what goes on behind the scenes in healthcare leadership, which is something clinicians are not as familiar with,” she said.

Earning respect from physicians and administrators
As Kathy began to apply her coursework to the job, she discovered something that wasn't always evident in her past experience as a nurse: respect.

“I’ve worked with physicians for so many years, but now I find I’m less timid, and I operate at a different level with them. They take my input and don’t question it.” In fact, she’s now running committee meetings with physicians, organizing meetings for root cause analysis, and serving as a sounding board for nurses and patients. Kathy’s ability to understand the varying perspectives within her organization has given her credibility. It’s made her an integral part of the team.

Providing a good life for a family
Kathy never gave up on her dream of a Master’s degree. “I’ve been able to support three children and a house, and take care of my responsibilities, and I’m proud of that,” she said, “but returning to school is a goal I set for myself years ago. I’m 51, and I just said, ‘I can do it!’”

Kathy chose American Sentinel University’s CCNE-accredited online Master of Science - Nursing program because she wanted to retain control of her schedule. She can do her coursework whenever and wherever it’s convenient for her.

“With business and clinical knowledge together, a nurse can help a hospital by offering insights, experience and comprehension of all the reports,” Kathy said. “Plus, it’s a safe job and a good way to raise a family.”