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.”