From left to right: Anastasia Iakiviak, Katherine Murzanski, Kinnary Patel. Not pictured: Graham Niswander
Four faculty members and four graduate students in Elmhurst College’s 4-year-old Master’s Entry in Nursing Practice, or MENP, program recently were selected to present their original research in competitive national conferences.
The MENP program, which currently has 42 students, is designed specifically for students with bachelor’s degrees in other fields who want to transition into nursing. Because these students often are coming to the nursing profession a little later than usual, they have had time to think about what they really want to do with their lives and careers and so bring a special passion to their endeavor. The MENP program helps them get up to speed with coursework or prerequisites they may not have taken, and then prepares them to be nurse leaders.
Four students conducted original research, which they then presented at national conferences sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing:
- Kinnary Patel and Katherine Murzanski presented “Standardizing the Administration of Intermittent Intravenous Infusions” at AACN’s Clinical Nurse Leader Summit in Anaheim, Calif.
- Anastasia Iakiviak and Graham Niswander presented “Peer-Assisted Learning Program Pilot Study: Master’s Entry Level” at the AACN’s Graduate Nursing Student Academy in Atlanta, Ga.
MENP faculty, too, are actively conducting new research. It’s crucial to stay at the vanguard of the profession, says program director Elizabeth Davis. “National health care is changing,” she says, “and it must be based on evidence and research. As teachers, we want to be sure we’re finding and teaching best practices. We have to model that and encourage our students to do the same.”
Faculty presented their research projects at the Clinical Nurse Leader Summit in Anaheim:
- Elizabeth Davis and Becky Hulett presented “Curriculum Innovation: Integrating Quality and Safety
- Mary Weyer and Mary Oesterle presented “Theory Remains Essential: What’s Old is New”
Both the faculty and students currently are working to bring their research to publication.