Frontier school of midwifery and family nursing news

Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletin, Spring 2002 by Ulrich, Susan

Greetings from the Frontier! I am pleased to be writing my first column for the FNS Quarterly Bulletin. I became the acting Chair of the Department of Midwifery and Women's Health on January 7, 2002.Prior to that, I was Course Coordinator for the birth center courses. I came to Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing after being the Director of the North Shore Birth Center in Beverly, Massachusetts, for almost 10 years. I often mentored Frontier students at the North Shore Birth Center.

My midwifery education was completed at Georgetown University in 1983. I have taught nursing students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. I completed a Doctor of Public Health Degree at the University of Pittsburgh in 1991. Being part of FSMFN is a dream come true for me.

The faculty of the FSMFN has been hard at work refining the new curriculum. Since implementing our newly revised curriculum in 2000, we have been evaluating areas that needed to be refined. Course Coordinators had a retreat in Hyden the first week in March to review courses, eliminate overlap, make assignments more clinically meaningful and reduce some of the duplicate readings. These changes were based largely on student input. The Course Coordinators had a conference call with two student representatives to help us evaluate the new curriculum. Their thoughts as well as course evaluations were used to improve our program.

I was quite excited with some of the innovations developed at this meeting. For instance, Robin Jordan, CNM, MSN is planning to do a synchronous class for the Antepartum Course. The students will begin as a group and move through the course together. Robin will use the Banyan Tree chat room to introduce the student cohort to the course and case study assignments will be done on the forum within a designated time frame.

This synchronous approach will provide more structure for students who need help in pacing themselves through the course. We will be evaluating this sychronous approach and may also adapt it to other courses.

Having faculty "teach" was a recurrent theme in student evaluations of our curriculum. To improve this, Amy Marowitz, CNM, MS, will be using case studies in the Intrapartum Course with a pass-fail grading system instead of a letter grade. This approach will promote faculty/student interaction. Students will be working through case studies with the faculty input, making improvements until the case study meets standards. This removes the pressure of a letter grade and facilitates faculty student interchange of ideas, allowing faculty to "teach."

Debi Karsnitz, CNM, MSN, is also doing more "teaching" by having the students present their postpartum depression client case study on the Postpartum/Newborn Course web forum. Previously, students wrote a scholarly paper about their clients. The instructor graded these papers. By sharing these cases with other students and generating input in the class forum, the goal is that this assignment becomes more relevant and helpful to all students.

The Core courses in primary care were carefully evaluated for redundancy and plans to streamline these courses have begun. New modes of teaching, such as CD ROM lectures and streaming web video, are also in the works with the help of Heather East and the Multimedia Team. I am thrilled to be working with such a dedicated and innovative faculty.

Three students in the CFNP program have graduated with their certificates from FSMFN and their MSN from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. A huge congratulations to Karen Orberson, Kentucky, CFNP Class 1; Vickie Deleruyelle, West Virginia, CFNP Class 2 and Barbra Kelly, Colorado, CFNP Class 2. We are so very proud of their hard work and success in the program. All three have been exceptional students and will be excellent FNP's.

Susan Ulrich, CNM, DrPH

Chairperson of CNEP