The Touro University Nevada School of Nursing helps registered nurses take the next step in their professional careers.
There are multiple options starting with the RN-BSN program in which working nurses do a one-year course with online classes that suits their schedule to obtain a bachelor’s degree and enhance their professional abilities.
The MSN-FNP program is for registered nurses with a bachelor’s degree who obtain a Master of Science in nursing to become a family nurse practitioner. The 20-month program prepares students to meet the educational eligibility requirements for the national certification as a Family Nurse Practitioner through either the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners or the American Nurses Credentialing Center.
A Post-MSN Graduate Certificate-FNP is for RNs who have a master’s degree in nursing and seek to become a Family Nurse Practitioner.
There’s also a Doctor of Nursing Practice Program to learn advanced nursing leadership skills. The DNP with a focus of leadership has the option of a one-year accelerated track or two-year part-time study.
The nursing school offers a different dynamic compared to Touro’s physician assistant, DO, occupational therapy and physical therapy programs. Those are for people emerging in a professional practice, whereas with the nursing program, they’re already a professional nurse working on becoming a better nurse, said Dr. Robert Askey, dean of the College of Health & Human Services.
“They might come in and get their masters, get their family nurse practitioner license or get a DNP,” Askey said. “Most of them are here in the valley but not all of them. That program has been online for several years and they do have to come in at different points in their programs to do on-site practice experiences where they are here for two to three days working with the other nurses that are in their programs working through different cases and simulations.”
Dr. Catie Chung created and launched Touro’s MSN program, and now leads the School of Nursing as its Director.
“Our region is extremely underserved medically in all areas of health care. Our Master of Science in Nursing nurse practitioner students, when they graduate, they are ready to practice as primary care providers,” Chung said. “More than 90 percent stay in the local community and that fills a desperate need for our community. With DNP graduates, nurses need to be in the boardroom across the system, and we are educating those folks to be able to do that.”
For nurse practitioner students, even though the program is online, they do a lot of work independently and go into the clinic setting one-on-one to assist with their learning. Students are also always welcome on campus if they want to use a study room or workout in the fitness center.
Touro has on-campus clinical intensives that come at the end of their last three clinical trimesters where they get hands-on practice on what they don’t see as much in the clinical setting, such as suturing, 12-lead EKG, a seminar on billing – and other matters important to practice, Chung said.
Students get hands-on experience by going to different clinical sites, mostly in primary care and covering a range of patients from babies to the elderly, Chung said.
“They learn in the trenches but have faculty backing them up to meet them at the clinic or counsel with them on Zoom to make sure students are learning what they need to know to get out there and practice,” Chung said.
The faculty continue to do professional development and most practice clinically or volunteer in health care, Chung said. That helps update the curriculum with the latest and best practices.
The university offers student support with study and writing skills and study planning. The nursing school has individualized remediation using an independent study course that tailors a plan for the student to get them where they need to be, Chung said.
To be successful in the programs, Chung said it’s simple and starts simply with “keep trying.” A lot of students, the practicing RNs coming back to graduate school, think they can “shove one more thing into my already busy life and it will be fine.” She said students are encouraged to reflect on that and, if possible, reduce their shifts of work per week so they can focus on their studies and learning a new skill set.
“Our programs are online, our faculty are uber accessible. Prospective students don’t believe me until they experience it; and they are getting emails back from us in minutes compared to experiences they may have had at other schools that took days or maybe never. We are right here in Henderson and available. Just because we communicate electronically, doesn’t mean we aren’t available. We are here for our students, and our student success is really important to us. We have helped students succeed and tell us they could have never done this without the tremendous support that we have offered.”
Dr. Julie Astrella, an assistant professor who teaches in the DNP program, said her work deals with evidenced-based practice, population health and health policy.
“It’s preparing them to be an advanced-level leader,” Astrella said. “Our nurses are leaders, but this prepares them to be advanced leaders, managers, chief nursing officers and directors.”
Students working on their scholarly projects would come up with a problem at a site and look at the evidence to come up with a solution and develop a plan and collect data so they can make improvements in the health care field, Astrella said.
“Those are the practice skills a nurse leader would need to improve patient outcomes through strong leadership,” Astrella said.
Astrella said one of her students started in one role and half-way through the program she became a chief nursing officer at her hospital in Texas.
“It was incredible to see her growth as a student and how she was able to translate what she was doing in her new job to school and vice versa,” Astrella said. “It was a very exciting opportunity for her.”
Dr. Crystal Huffaker, an assistant professor who teaches in the MSN-FNP program, said multitasking is an important skill set for her students with the ability to organize.
“Most of them are working students and have families, so being able to handle those components of their life and still have the time to study and learn is a huge role change and takes a lot of change in thought process and a focus on: How does that critical thinking change going from a registered nurse to family nurse practitioner?” Huffaker said. “A lot of it is going to be the skills of being able to critically think and put together from the patient’s history and what they told you and what you are able to observe from them and develop that diagnosis and treatment plan.”
For the RN-BSN program, Rebecca Reeves said after reviewing three popular colleges she felt Touro was the easiest to understand in terms of what classes she was going to take along with the registration process and how it worked well with her company, Valley Health Systems, for the payment plans/discount.
“I am currently working in one of my ideal jobs now with my BSN from Touro,” Reeves said.
Reeves said she learned how to work efficiently with her online classes and was able to learn better time management while she was at home. The RN-BSN online program helped get her ready to follow a path for her MSN-FNP at Touro.
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