Said Another Way The Place of Baccalaureate Nursing Programs in the Liberal Arts Setting
St. Olaf has a strong track tape of preparing students for careers in medicine and the health sciences, most notably as physicians, nurses, and concrete therapists. Students benefit from a rigorous and broad liberal arts teaching, one-on-ane advising, faculty-educatee research collaborations, and internships and clinical experiences at top wellness care organizations like Mayo Clinic, as well every bit networking opportunities with engaged alumni who willingly share their noesis and expertise.
St. Olaf's merits as one of the best baccalaureate colleges for preparation to piece of work in the health professions is backed up by information. From 2011 to 2016, 75 percent of St. Olaf students who applied to medical school with a cumulative grade point average of at least 3.60 were accepted, compared to the overall national average acceptance rate of 47 percent amongst students with comparable course point averages during the same time period.
"Liberal-arts-trained health care workers tend to be better problem solvers," says Kevin Crisp, biological science professor and chair of St. Olaf's Health Professions Commission. "They pay attention to the social, economic, and cultural context of patient intendance. Through their exposure to the humanities and social sciences and arts, they're broadly trained in communication, cultural competencies, and intercultural awareness to be constructive in their work."
For the past two years, every senior nursing major at St. Olaf — 48 students in total — has passed the Minnesota Country Board of Nursing RN licensure exam. Every bit students of the liberal arts, these nurses-in-training accept developed critical and upstanding reasoning skills, applied interdisciplinary knowledge to their understanding of patient care, and become proficient collaborators and leaders. As well-rounded generalists with clinical experience in pediatrics, geriatrics, public health, and other medical specialties, St. Olaf nursing graduates are in high demand with employers.
"Our clinical partners are eager to utilise our graduates," says Susan Huehn, associate professor of practice in nursing and chair of the Section of Nursing. "This past summer, we had xi juniors consummate nursing internships, and four of them had jobs before they fifty-fifty started their senior year this by fall. All of the nursing graduates in the Class of 2018 had jobs before graduation."
Best practices
Students interested in the health professions earn majors across the liberal arts, including science and non-science disciplines. Those who are because medical schoolhouse can pursue pre-med (or pre-health) studies in tandem with their major.
At St. Olaf, being pre-wellness is an intention, non a major, and that intention guides students' curriculum choices, as not all of them will continue to get doctors. Amongst those who do head to medical schoolhouse, the Clan of American Medical Colleges notes that, nationally, only 51 percent of medical school enrollees in 2012 majored in biological sciences. The remaining matriculants majored in the humanities, mathematics or statistics, the physical sciences, the social sciences, or specialized health sciences.
St. Olaf's philosophy is to help students think past the title of "doctor" to examine how they tin can best apply their skills to improve the lives of others, Crisp says.
"We want students to explore career options that suit them and that fit their specific fix of skills," he says. "We offer a rigorous scientific discipline education, enquiry opportunities, and support for students to find all sorts of possibilities to make a difference within the health sciences. We help them put their unique talents, perspectives, and experiences to best effect and to go on to get jobs in the field of their choice, whether that's equally a medico, dentist, nurse, physical therapist, or whatsoever number of other options."
Liberal-arts-trained health care workers tend to be better problem solvers. Through their exposure to the humanities and social sciences and arts, they're broadly trained in communication, cultural competencies, and intercultural awareness to be effective in their piece of work.Biology Professor Kevin Well-baked
According to the U.Due south. Department of Labor, between 2016 and 2026, health care-related occupations are projected to add more jobs to the economic system than any of the other occupational groups. Both Huehn and Crisp note in particular that the booming nursing manufacture (15 percent of jobs added to the wellness care market will be in nursing) volition benefit from St. Olaf'south first-class nursing programme, whose students will be well-positioned to fill many of those vacancies.
While nursing students earn a bachelor of arts caste in nursing, they as well partake of St. Olaf'due south liberal arts curriculum by completing the full general graduation requirements, such as courses in a foreign language, oral and written communication, and abstract and quantitative reasoning.
"It'due south imperative that students take the combination of a liberal arts pedagogy with professional preparation because the health care organisation is so complex," Huehn says. "A broad education prepares students to become discerning practitioners."
Admission to St. Olaf'southward nursing program is competitive, with only 24 students admitted each year. The program includes clinical experiences that prepare nursing students to piece of work in all specialty areas, including psychiatry, obstetrics, and general medical surgery, likewise as in elementary, heart and high schools, amid others. St. Olaf'south clinical training for students in public health, in detail, sets the higher apart from other baccalaureate nursing programs.
"While nearly programs prepare generalists, most don't offer public wellness certification as we do," Huehn says. St. Olaf's location too provides nursing students with the all-time clinical experiences in a combination of urban and rural, public and private settings through partnerships with a diverseness of clinical agencies, ranging from Rice Canton Public Health and Northfield Infirmary to Twin Cities hospitals similar Abbott Northwestern, Hennepin Canton Medical Middle, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Eye.
The nursing plan soon volition benefit from enhanced facilities as well. Having been temporarily housed in the basement of Ytterboe Residence Hall for the past iii years, the department volition motion in Feb 2019 into newly renovated space in Regents Hall of Natural and Mathematical Sciences.
The new space, which includes two labs for simulation training with loftier-fidelity patient simulators, improves the department's technical capacity to educate future nurses. In simulation labs, students piece of work with educator-controlled adult and neonatal patient simulators that mimic neurological and physiological processes like respiration, blood flow, musculus activity, eye movement, and skin response. The training leads students through a variety of unfolding scenarios related to patient intendance, which helps them learn to tend to a patient'southward emotional needs while also treating their physical needs.
"Simulations are a cracking way for students to practice their skills in a rubber surroundings," Huehn says. "Students learn to collaborate with other members of a health care squad equally well, such every bit a doc or a chaplain."
The motility as well better supports the nursing programme's collaboration with faculty and students in other science programs, Huehn says. "Proximity to other departments, both in the natural and social sciences, will allow us to provide cross-disciplinary training. Students in other wellness science programs volition likewise do good from using the simulation labs."
In addition to simulation work, all nursing students and well-nigh pre-wellness students participate in cadaver autopsy as role of St. Olaf's comprehensive anatomy and physiology program.
"Working with cadavers is some other feel that tin be quite impactful for our pre-health students, equally it'southward an experience that is rare at the undergraduate level," Crisp says. "The cadaver dissection students comport a memorial service of gratitude in honour and cheers to the individuals who donated themselves as cadavers to our program. This is a powerful, moving event each year, and information technology is an of import function of our students' anatomy education as they reflect on the dignity and selflessness of our donors."
Beyond the classroom
While nursing students gain clinical feel beyond the Hill, pre-health students likewise have numerous experiential opportunities that offer immediate exposure to health care. Administered past the St. Olaf Piper Center for Vocation and Career, cohort internship programs pair students with mentors (some of whom are alumni) who oversee the students in laboratory research and task shadowing in all areas of patient care.
These programs include the Rockswold Health Scholars Program at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis — where students are mentored by neurosurgeon and program creator Gaylan Rockswold, Chiliad.D., '62; Sarah Rockswold, M.D., '90; and Jon Snyder, Yard.D., '94 — and Health Scholars at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, where mentors include David West. Larson, M.D., '93; Erik G. St. Louis, M.D., '87; Scott H. Okuno, M.D., '85; Scott Eastward. Kaese '83; and Stephen Q. Sponsel '82.
In improver, small teams of students participate in the Norway Innovation Scholars and the Mayo Innovation Scholars Programs, founded past alumnus and retired Medtronic executive John Meslow '60, and overseen by faculty advisor Kevin Crisp. The teams of students bear biotech research projects or evaluate potential business opportunities for discoveries and inventions created by physicians and researchers.
In keeping with the St. Olaf value of borough appointment, pre-wellness students are encouraged to pursue community service opportunities.
Students also have the opportunity to intern and/or conduct research at Fairview Health Services; Allina Health; TRIA Orthopedic; the Pediatric Blood & Marrow Transplantation Centre at UMN under the supervision of John Wagner, Ph.D., P'11 ; the Center for Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation in Northfield, Minnesota; Consultative Health and Medicine in Minneapolis (an internship provided by Chris Johnson, M.D., '76 to two students every summertime); and the Children'due south Mercy Center for Bioethics in Kansas City, Missouri.
These programs are intentionally adult in partnership with hospitals and clinics to offering unique experiences that are available only to Oles, says Katie Hughes, the Piper Center's associate manager for pre-health career evolution and coaching, who provides personalized advising while overseeing experiential pre-health programs, including structured job shadowing, for students interested in the health professions. "We work really difficult to create formal opportunities for students to do more vocational discernment to make sure a career in the health professions is right for them," Hughes says.
In keeping with the St. Olaf value of civic engagement, pre-health students are encouraged to pursue community service opportunities. For example, nursing students teach nearly oral hygiene at local Head Commencement programs and recently participated in discussions with community members to empathise farther how health care workers' attitudes toward patients in poverty affect the health care those patients receive. "It's an effort to assistance students become more compassionate caregivers," says Huehn.
With careful planning, pre-health students can also study abroad — another hallmark of a St. Olaf education. Many choose St. Olaf's service learning–focused Peruvian Medical Experience, during which students assist alumni wellness professionals who are serving the dental and medical needs of Andean communities in and around Cusco, Republic of peru.
" All told, St. Olaf supports and empowers pre-wellness students to be autonomous determination makers with respect to their careers, guiding them along the fashion with everything from individualized advising and bookish planning to experiential development and networking opportunities. "We desire them to ask, 'How tin I use my teaching to be the best doctor I tin can be? The best nurse?'" Crisp says. "Nosotros're hither to back up their evolution according to their potential and their desires.
The Constitute for Freedom & Customs Explores the Complexities of Health Care
In bound 2018, St. Olaf's Found for Freedom & Community offered a series of events related to wellness care, which remains one of our country'due south most urgent, circuitous, and controversial public policy issues.
The diverse slate of experts included Joanne Lynn, M.D., who addressed elder care in America — an increasingly urgent social trouble every bit the boomer generation ages — and Gilbert Meilaender, who provided guidance in thinking through the complicated ethics of palliative sedation. Two other events focused on the question of what kind of health intendance organization the U.S. should adopt: David Craig and Joan Tronto debated the merits of incremental or radical reform while considering solutions ranging from single-payer insurance to customs health centers, while Amitabh Chandra and Tyler Cowen highlighted the disquisitional function that market incentives and innovation play in the quality and quantity of wellness intendance Americans can access.
These thought-provoking conversations are bachelor online at http://institute.stolaf.edu/public-programs/2017-2018.
Source: https://wp.stolaf.edu/news/holistic-health
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