Welcome to the LU Moment. Thank you for listening. I’m Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University. Each week we showcase the great events, activities, programs, projects, and people at Lamar University. So many activities in 2020 have been decreased, or delayed, or postponed, or cancelled. We’re getting used to that, right. But over the course of this year, the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing at Lamar University has continued learning, teaching, serving its annual traditions and graduating nurses who are ready on day one to serve their communities. And here to talk about the school of nursing and this year’s challenges, but mainly its successes, is Dr. Cynthia Simpson. She is chair of the school of nursing. Welcome, Dr. Simpson, so glad you could join us.
Cynthia Simpson:
Well, thank you so much, Shelly for asking me to speak today. I always tell people I’m so excited when anyone asks me to talk about the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing. It’s almost like my home. I graduated in the very first nursing class there in 1975. And then I came back in 1980 and got a second degree at Lamar so it really is like my home. So, I’m excited anytime and I’m so proud of what we can accomplish there. I always tell everyone, “we are probably one of the best kept secrets in this part of Texas.”
Shelly Vitanza:
No doubt! And you know, this year, I’ve looked for good news and you guys always provide, you always come through, there’s always something positive going on at the school of nursing and it’s kind of been this gem I can point to and say, “but look at what’s going on at the school of nursing!” It really started back during the start of the pandemic when we were all kind of at home and stuff, but the Cardinals Care project that connected the nursing students with long term care residents and can you talk about that? Dr. Elizabeth Long and Mikayla Brown organized that project, and it was so creative, and it was so right on, you know, at the time.
Cynthia Simpson:
Yes and Dr. Long has actually continued to look at loneliness and isolation of our long-term care residents. That’s actually her specialty. That’s one of the things that we have at the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing. We have so many experienced faculty with such a wide range of education. Dr. Long’s actually a geriatric nurse practitioner. And we were really concerned because one thing that we do at the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing, all of our students are required to do community-based service learning and they all take on projects and they go out into the community, but when our long-term care centers were closed and we couldn't't’t put our students in there and we couldn't't’t put visitors in there, we really looked for a way that we could still have that caring attitude that we as nurses need. So what we started was, actually like a pen-pal system where we assigned nursing students to residents and they actually wrote the letters and sent poems and did artwork and surprisingly enough, many of the residents actually wrote back to our students and we’re hoping once the long-term care facilities are open that those students can actually go in and actually meet their pen pals. Some of our students are going to keep those relationships up. We started that back this summer actually, I think at the end of May, and we’re still continuing that today. So, our students are still doing that project and we’ve written some articles and we’ve received some really good media on it, but I think more importantly, I think we’ve made a difference for some residents that would not have had anyone if it had not been for our students.
Shelly Vitanza:
Well, and that’s just it. These elderly people are in these facilities and they can’t go anywhere or do anything, and they can’t have any visitors and so these are really life-giving touch points for these folks, and I think its phenomenal. It’s phenomenal for both too, the students are learning as well and to keep those relationships is incredible. And you touched on something, Dr. Simpson, the fact that nursing is very hands on and so I’m curious to know how that’s been maintained. In my curiosity, I saw that grants were received for enhancements in the stimulation lab and I’m assuming that’s how you continued the experiential learning is through the stimulation lab and the different equipment you have there. Can you talk about how you continue the hands-on learning through a time like a pandemic?
Cynthia Simpson:
Well, it’s interesting that you would say that. The simulation lab actually just one of the ways we’ve continued it. I’m not sure a lot of people really realize that during the pandemic, we have continued to have our lab where our students have come in and actually practiced their skills and also our students as of August, have actually been back into the hospital working with patients and also they’ve been in community sittings: schools, public health, home health working with patients. You mention our simulation lab, probably one of the best labs in Texas and I can say that because I have people that come to visit our labs all the time. It’s actually a mini hospital. It has medication carts and crash carts, and we have essential supply rooms. We actually practice giving blood transfusions and starting IV’s, but one of the grants, we actually received two grants, one was from the Mamie McFadden Heritage Foundation, the other one was from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Both of these were received during the COVID epidemic to help us continue the education of the students. And what we plan to do with this was to purchase older adult mannequins who have wearable simulators which will help students understand what it feels like to have visual impairments, mobility restrictions, trimmers, and hearing problems. We may even use the simulators to help them realize how difficult it might be to administer your own medications when you have those problems. We’re also getting skilled trainers; those are simulators that the students can take home with them to practice skills at home. We’ve actually written with Dr. Chisholm, Dr. Curl, Dr. Hale, and myself to work on those grants, so we’re really excited. It’s about, probably with all of those, close to $140,000 in grants that we’ve received. We’ve also got some other grants because of the COVID epidemic that we are working on.
Shelly Vitanza:
Yeah! I saw that. The wearable simulators seemed so interesting to me that the students actually put them on and they had this sensitivity suit I saw with a walker and visual impairments and mobility restrictions and trimmers and hearing problems so they actually feel like they are having those situations. That seems like such a great way to gain empathy for a patient, right is to actually experience what they are experiencing. That’s incredible. The grants came from Mamie McFadden Heritage Foundation: $29,000 and then from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board: $118,000. Congratulations on those two awards. It’s working apparently because our nursing grads aced the national exam!
Cynthia Simpson:
That’s right! We were so excited. We were really nervous what would happen in May since we had a complete shut down like everyone else did on campus in March and our students went and took boards and boards in May and did above the average in Texas and aced it, as you said, did really, really well. Many people don’t realize, to be a registered nurse, all registered nurses in the country take a national qualifying exam which actually shows how well your education is compared to, let’s say, a hospital in New York or Massachusetts, or wherever, so that rates are calculating based on those rates in the United States, so to say that our school aced it, we did above the national average and above that state average. It’s really, really good and I think using the simulations, and I can’t stress enough though the strong faculty that we have. I’m not sure how, I don’t want to stay lucky, blessed, what word to use, but our faculty comes from every level of training, education, and experience. I mean, they are top-notch too. You know, equipment’s really good, grants are really good, but all of it is only as good as the people teaching it.
Shelly Vitanza:
Exactly and the commitment and you guys seem to just be so committed to your nursing students. You know, the first-time national pass rate is 92% and Lamar University’s first-time pass rate this past spring was 97%. I mean, congratulations, that is amazing and it’s not that that was a one-time thing, since 2013, Lamar University school of nursing has received accommodation meaning their rate was above the national average every year except one time, so this is a regular thing for you! This wasn’t just a first-time, happened this year, it happens on a regular basis, so that’s a big deal and you guys and your faculty ought to be celebrated for that. And at the same time, you get these rankings all the time, Dr. Simpson, about affordability, Lamar University offers an exceptional nursing school, and its affordable. So, you were just ranked as one of the most affordable nursing schools high-value colleges in the country, so that’s another attribute to the program that is meaningful and makes it desirable people. I know it’s competitive, I want to talk about that real quick, how many nursing students do you take every year?
Cynthia Simpson:
We admit in the fall and in the spring anywhere from 70 to 88 students, we usually have an applicant pool of anywhere from 180 to 200 apply for the fall and the spring. One thing you mentioned that I think is really important is that we are affordable. The other thing that I’m really proud of is in 2014, we actually received a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation for what we call a white coat ceremony. We actually have our current white coat ceremony that we have this year posted on our Facebook page, but we had over 12 million people that viewed that white coat ceremony and that’s where we actually cloak our students and it’s a ceremony for them to realize that they are taking on responsibilities actually for humanity. But the reason, we received that grant, and we receive it every year now, is because of our diversity of our students. We have different ethnic populations. One thing I’m really proud of, the national average for male nurses is about 12% and we have about 25% in our nursing program. I’m really proud of our diversity, I think that’s important that nurses serve humanity, and we reach all populations and we really stress that cultural diversity and how important it is.
Shelly Vitanza:
Yeah, and our nurses seem to really serve the community too, there’s a Faith in Nursing Program. Are you involved in that program? I know you are a presenter at times like the ? Association. But then we
have some of our nurses that are also involved in the Community of Faith Nursing and I’m probably getting all my facts mixed up but can you expand on what you present on in the community and then maybe the Community of Faith nursing?
Cynthia Simpson:
Well, we actually have one of our faculty members that actually collaborates with that and coordinates that and it’s called Faith Community Perish Nursing. She actually helps give continue nurse education hours for nurses all over the United States through that program. It’s Becky Seymour. She actually works at Baptist Hospital with Faith Community Nursing and she’s a full-time faculty member with us and so some of the topics that we’ve presented on is just what we started out talking about, Dr. Long’s presented on isolation and loneliness. I’ve presented on the passion fatigue. I’ve done some presentations on Alzheimer’s disease. Actually, the last one I gave was “Not Your Grandpa’s Alzheimer’s,” talking about early onset Alzheimer’s disease. We’ve talked about legal issues in nursing, we’ve talked about the importance of caring for the young and we cover all populations. It’s a way that we reach out to people all over the United States and you can actually be certified to be a Perish Faith Community nurse and a lot of these perish nurses, faith community nurses, go into temples, they go into tabernacles, they go into their churches because, even now, even more importantly with COVID, people are turning to their spiritual centers of faith for help. And what better place to get also the physical, emotional, and psychological needs? So, we have nurses that actually work in these spiritual settings.
Shelly Vitanza:
Fantastic. I wasn't aware of it, so I was really interested in that. We've got about 15 seconds. Dr. Simpson, tell us, if someone is interested in the school of nursing, where should they go?
Cynthia Simpson:
We have a webpage they can go to. It's the JoAnne Gay
Dishman School of Nursing. They can also call the Lamar University admissions office. I can give them a number. It is 409-880-8817 and we can put them in contact with someone that can talk to them. Again, that number is 409-880-8817.
Shelly Vitanza:
Perfect! Thank you so much for joining us. So much good information, great news coming from the JoAnne Gay Dishman School of Nursing at Lamar University and we're so proud and we're thankful that you are listening to the LU Moment! I'm Shelly Vitanza, the Director of Public Affairs at Lamar University, the pride of Southeast Texas.
