CONTACT - Volume 9, Number 2
Graduate Program in Nursing

Janyce Dyer, DNSc, CRNP, CS
Associate Dean

To achieve the level of competence required of graduates to meet the challenges of health care for the 21st century, schools of nursing must redefine masters and doctoral education in areas that are relevant to global transformation. Nursing education is occurring within the context of rapidly changing demographics and global migration, a shift in health and illness patterns, and an unstable economic environment with limited resources. Moreover, mandates from governmental and professional organizations to increase workforce diversity creates challenges and opportunities for recruiting and retaining socially and culturally diverse students.

In response to these trends, the Division of Nursing has delineated three focal areas for masters and doctoral education: multicultural health, underserved / disenfranchised populations, and risk and resilience. Doctoral courses that reflect this emphasis include Global Leadership Strategies and Diversity Awareness; Bioethical Imperatives in Nursing; and, two research courses organized around methodological and substantive issues in working with multicultural groups, underserved populations, and risk and resilience in various contexts. There is also integration of content from these focal areas in the master's specialties of nursing education, administration, and family nurse practitioner. Selected examples of relevant courses include: Public Policy Strategies for Nurses, Social Context of Nursing, and Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. We truly believe that integrative models for education and scholarship work best when they are congruent with faculty and student expertise and are responsive to community contexts. Selected examples of graduate student scholarship activities are as follows:

Bradley-Springer, L., & Nogueras, D. (2001). HIV update 2001-2002 . Rigdedale, MO: Nursing Education of America.

DeSantis, J.P., Patsdaughter, C.A., & Dyer, J.G. (2002, November). Depression in children and adolescents with HIV/AIDS . Paper accepted for presentation at the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, San Francisco.

Hacker, M. (2002). Misunderstood and underserved: An ethnomethodological study of inpatient Alzheimer's disease unit [Abstract]. Proceedings of the 10th Annual National Primary Care for the Underserved Conference , Bismarck, ND, 48.

La Manna, S., & Efinger, J. (2002, April) The lived experiences of coaches management and knowledge of athletes with asthma . Paper presented at the 8th Qualitative Health Research Conference, International Institute for Qualitative Methodology. Banff, Alberta, Canada.

Maze, C.M. (2002, March). The nurse professorate through a different lens . Poster session presented at the 10th Annual Research Day of the Sigma Theta Tau International, Lambda Chi Chapter and Barry University Division of Nursing, Davie, FL.

Neely-Smith, S. (2002, November). The impact of HIV/AIDS on Bahamian women: A feminist perspective . Paper accepted for presentation at the Fifteenth Annual Conference of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, San Francisco.

Spalding, C. (2002). Pilot Study to Test the 'Willingness to Serve the Underserved and Disenfranchised Population' Scale: Phase 1. Lambda Chi Chapter-Sigma Theta Tau Research Grant.