Pulse - Fall 2012

              Master’s Curriculum Recharged................1
Letter from New Board Chair
Robin Kanarek ’96.....................................2
Advisory Board Meeting............................2
Greenwich Dinner......................................3
Scholarship supports Quality
Improvement.............................................3
Grant Encourages Nurses to be
Architects of Change.................................3
Students Visit Lourdes..............................4
Student Partnership on a Project in
Nicaragua..................................................5
New Board Member Richard Murphy.........5
Diving Diva................................................5
Dr. Meredith Kazer is Associate Dean........6
HRSA Grant for Nurse Practitioners .........6
EMDR and Sex Offenders..........................6
Publications and
Faculty News............................................7
Welcome Faculty.......................................7
Message from the Dean............................8
Pulse The
www.fairfield.edu/nursing
Fall 2012
Master’s Curriculum Recharged
The recent Institute of Medicine
report on the Future of Nursing states
“Nurses must achieve higher levels of
education and training to respond to
...increasing [healthcare] demands.”
(IOM, 2010, p. 2). Given the great needs
in healthcare, it is essential to re-examine
master’s nursing education in order to
ensure that educational institutions are
meeting both the needs of nurses inter-ested
in obtaining advanced degrees and
the needs of healthcare systems. There is
also a strong call for developing models
of inter-professional collaboration in
education and practice. Research supports
the ideas that these models will lead to
improvements in healthcare delivery and
health outcomes.
Fairfield’s School of Nursing (SON)
is a national leader in health professions
education at the baccalaureate, master’s
and practice doctorate levels. We are
known for our commitment to excel-lence,
innovation and creativity, and our
engagement with community partners.
The overall goal of this curricular
innovation is to build on the SON’s
successes to revise the master’s of nursing
(MSN) curriculum which may serve as
a national model to implement two of
the Future of Nursing’s recommendations:
Recommendation #2: Expand opportu-nities
for nurses to lead and diffuse
collaborative improvement efforts
and Recommendation #7: Prepare
and enable nurses to lead change to
advance health.
The model of master’s level nursing
education is being developed col-laboratively
with health and non-health
professional colleagues, including those
in the Dolan School of Business, the
College of Arts & Sciences, the School
of Engineering, and the Graduate School
of Education and Allied Professions.
This curriculum will be implemented
collaboratively with partner institutions
including The Veterans Administration
(WHVA) Connecticut Healthcare System;
Stamford Health System; St. Vincent’s
Medical Center, a member of Ascension
Health; and Danbury Hospital, a member
of Western Connecticut Health System.
The SON deeply values their input in
creating a master’s program of distinction.
Moving toward an inter-professional
model of health professional education
that will result in healthcare improvement
is the foundation of the curricular rede-sign.
The resulting curricula will provide
students with the opportunity to develop
skills and competencies in both clinical
and non-clinical areas (e.g., business,
systems management, communication,
education, etc.) and will be supported
through experiential learning opportuni-ties
and a rigorous immersion experience.
This new model will encompass the cur-ricula
essential for Clinical Nurse Leader
(CNL) certification and expanded options
for students with diverse interests that
focus on supporting clinical care.
This work is supported by the
Kanarek Family Foundation. (See page 3)
Fairfield University
a publication of the schol of nursing