1. Ranger Nursing
April 2018

2. National Program Recognition
for
brought yet another national recognition to the nursing program at Northwestern The traditional program was recognized by America’s Best Nursing Schools for its access, affordability and program quality.

3. Faculty/Staff Profile
Nine Full Time Faculty Doctorally Prepared
Remaining Faculty engaged in Doctoral Study
We are pleased to announce that 90% of our full time nursing faculty are now doctorally prepared – giving us the highest percentage of doctorally prepared nursing faculty in the state.
We have several new changes in the Division faculty and staff since our last meeting. Sandra Nigh- faculty from our University Center site retired this past summer and Dr Nikole Hicks was hired to be our new UC faculty member. Dr Hicks’ come to us from the Yancey School of Nursing, Kentucky Christian University where she served as the Dean. She completed her BSN at the University of Iowa, her MSN at the University of Phoenix and her PhD at the University of Northern Colorado.
Dr Courtney Ballina joined us as a full time faculty member in our BSN-to-DNP program. Dr Ballina is an advanced practice registered nurse – licensed as a family nurse practitioner in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. She has practiced as a full time FNP and continues to maintain a part-time practice. She completed her BSN at the University of Wisconsin- EuClaire, her MSN as a Family Nurse Practitioner at Metropolitan State University in Minnesota and her DNP from Samford University. Dr Ballina teaches online in our DNP courses and she commutes to Alva no less than three times per year to work with our faculty and students.
Linda Banks- who worked in the Division of Nursing as an Administrative Assistant at both our Enid and Alva campuses left us in December to continue her education. We were extremely fortunate to hire Pam Hess who joined us officially the first week of January.
The changes have not stopped.
Unfortunately for us, We are losing Dr Cheryl Kent – who has served as the Assistant Chair of the Enid campus to retirement! Angie Henson – the Administrative Assistant for the DNP program is leaving us at the end of June as her family relocates for her husband’s ministry work. We certainly are going to feel the loss of these two members of our team.

4. New Faculty August 2018 Heidi Ritchie Dr Sara McCumber
However, along with those changes, we are pleased to announce that we have two new faculty members joining us in August 2018.
Mrs. Heidi Ritchie is returning to teach at Northwestern after a hiatus to care for her young children. She is now completing a year of teaching for NOC. She earned her BSN at Nebraska Weslayan University and her Masters of Science in Nursing from the University of NO Colorado. She will be re- joining us on our Enid campus.
Dr Sara McCumber is joining as a full time faculty member in our BSN-to-DNP Program. She is currently the director of the Nurse Practitioner program at the College of St Scholastica in Deluth MN. She is licensed as an APRN – Family Nurse Practitioner in Minnesota and Wisconsin. She has maintained her clinical practice in an Adult- Gero setting. Her DNP is from the University of MN. She completed post- Master’s certificates as both a FNP and ANP from the College of St Scholastica. Her MS in Nursing is from the University of MN and Sse was a graduate from the St Lukes School of Nursing in Deluth MN. Dr McCumber will teach online in our DNP courses and she also will commute to Alva no less than three times per year to work with our faculty and students.
Dr Sara McCumber

5. Updates
Completed the transition from the ATI Curricular testing assessments to the Kaplan Curricular Assessment Program. Includes the Pre-Admission Test.
Further integration of simulation across the nursing curriculum for both juniors and seniors with the inclusion of high fidelity simulators and standardized patients.
Added a new SIM-MOM high fidelity unit to the Wymer Lab in Alva.
Continued high pattern of usage of the Ketterman Lab with clinical partners and visitors in
We have had a busy year in the Division of Nursing.

6. Memorandum of Understanding with
Vance Air Force Base
In November, the Division of Nursing signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Medical Group at Vance Air Force Base. This agreement provides additional clinical experience opportunities for our students on base and provides practice lab experience for the Air Force medical group staff to practice competencies. We have had students on base this semester in several courses and look forward to future experiences.

7. Interprofessional Education Opportunities and Collaboration
Nursing faculty working with Athletic Department on
Concussion Protocol and Screening. Developing
opportunities to involve students.
Nursing Faculty conducting Sports Physicals at NWOSU
Selected as a partner in the OSU Health Science Center
AHEC Scholars program that will provide interprofessional
educational opportunities for our nursing students at all
levels and students from OSU Medical School.
Continue to involve students and faculty from Social Work
and Psychology departments in practice lab environment.
We continue to seek out opportunities for Interprofessional education and collaboration.
Several of our nursing faculty are working with the Athletic department on refining the Concussion protocol and assessment of injured athletes. Our Advanced Practice Nurse faculty are assisting with the Athletic physical examinations.
We were selected to partner with the OSU Health Science Center’s AHEC Scholars program for Interprofessional education with medical students and residents from Oklahoma State University.
We area also collaborating in the “Power of Orange” event in Enid this June where we have teamed up with OSU Health Science Center to attract high school students to health career opportunities.

8. Summer MASH Camp Phase I and II
Students from Woods, Alfalfa and Majors County
Phase I: 36 students (just finishing 6th grade) attended
the 2 ½ day experience focusing on health careers
Phase II: 12 students (just finishing 8th grade) for 1 day
experience including preparation for job sharing in the
morning and afternoon job sharing across a variety of
health-related opportunities
Senior Students are participating in program evaluation.
Our Summer mash camp program entered its third year last summer with a total of 48 students participating in the experience.
This past summer , we implemented the second phase. In the second phase, we targeted the students from our first MASH camp session to return for a one day experience. They were introduced to a variety of health-related concepts that morning including HIPAA regulations and Blood Borne Pathogen precautions. That same afternoon, each student participated in their choice of a job-shadowing experience. They worked with health care providers around the region and returned to campus that evening for a dinner. Some of our senior nursing students collected data from the participants to measure the impact of the session.
Results continue to demonstrate the value of this experience for this age-group and we will continue to monitor the cohorts for their post-high school education choices.

9. Student Nurses’
Association at NWOSU

10. Graduates Traditional Program: 38 in May 2017
Online RN-to-BSN: 13 in August 2017
9 in December 2017

11. Current BSN Student Enrollment
Juniors: Total- 27
Alva – 9
Enid – 11
Woodward - 4
Ponca City – 3
Seniors: Total - 32
Alva – 7
Enid – 17
Woodward – 6
Ponca City - 2
Online RN-to-BSN: Total – 18
Summer 17 Grads – 12
December 17 Grads - 6
TOTAL BSN
NURSING STUDENTS 77
Overall we have dropped in student numbers this past year. Last year’s total enrollment was 95 and this year we have 77.
Our Traditional BSN program junior class is smaller than the past several years due to lack of qualified applicants. We continue to try to attract the best and brightest to the program through recruitment events at community colleges and career tech centers in the area.
Enrollment in our online RN-to-BSN degree completion slowed this year and a mid-year analysis revealed a need to adjust the tuition/fees to be competitive. We dropped the overall cost by $50 per credit hour for Spring 2018 enrollees, and now with renewed marketing, interest is once again growing in this program. Marketing for this program has also been expanded to include meeting RNs at the annual ONA convention, meeting Associate degree nursing students at career fairs held by their programs state-wide and promotion at the Annual Nurses Day at the Capitol that is heavily attended by nursing studens in many program types. We have worked with several of our clinical partners to promote the program within their facilities as well.

12. 2018-19 Applicants Traditional Program
98 interested applicants – some with only
partial admission packets submitted.
68 interviews completed.
33 Letters of acceptance sent to applicants who
exceeded the admission qualifications and 3
students will return from previous years.
First year to ever have a “wait list” for
admissions
We look forward to our incoming class this summer.
Interest in the nursing program hit a historic high this year with 98 interested applicants. The Admissions Committee interviewed 68 of the applicants and in the end, 33 applicants who well-exceeded the admission requirements were selected. There are 3 students who will join this cohort who were originally selected for admission earlier and had their place saved due to issues that prevented them from starting last summer.
This was a tough year for the Admissions Committee. In addition to meeting 1:1 with 68 applicants, we had a record number of applicants who met the minimum admission requirements for the program. Our class size is restricted due to availability of clinical experience sites and a limited number of clinical instructors. Even though we have permission from the Board of Nursing to include simulation hours as clinical experience hours, we do not have the capability to increase our class size at this point. For the first time in the history of the program, we had to deny admission to students who met the minimum admission requirements. This really left the Admission Committee as well as the Nursing Faculty as a whole somewhat torn as we have always admitted all who met the requirements. The fact that we now had a competitive pool to choose from was quite a challenging experience. We even established a “Wait list” in case any of those we initially selected declined their spot. We were able to take one from the wait list.

13. Online RN-to-BSN Program
Admissions
Rolling acceptance:
7 already admitted for Fall 2018 with 5 more in process of applying
As mentioned earlier, the Online RN-to-BSN program took a bit of a dive in numbers this year. We continue to do a “rolling acceptance” meaning there are no application deadlines. Everyone who meets the admission requirements are indeed admitted to the online program. We are hoping that our recruiting work with our clinical partners will result in higher numbers yet to come for this next year.
Enrolling students every semester

14. Family Nurse Practitioner Program
BSN to DNP
Family Nurse Practitioner Program
Fully funded program to admit first
students in Fall 2017
Three year program with 73 credits and 1020
clinical practicum hours
Grads will be eligible for FNP certification
and APRN licensure in Oklahoma
Program allows students to bypass the MSN
Degree completion component for FNPs
with MSN
Just to review:

15. Family Nurse Practitioner Program
BSN to DNP
Family Nurse Practitioner Program
Faculty have developed 12 new courses and six of them have
been delivered to date:
Course Delivered in
Courses for Summer and Fall 2018
Advanced Pathophysiology
Advanced Holistic Assessment
Biostatistics
Role Development for DNPs
Health Policy, Ethics, Economics and the Advanced Practice Nurse
Health Systems- Informatics and Quality Management
Theory for Evidence-Based Advanced Nursing Practice
Population Health and Health Promotion
Advanced Research Methods
Evidence-Based Practice
Interprofessional Leadership, Collaboration and Communication
Advances Pharmacotherapeutics
Faculty have been working hard to stay ahead of the students with development of the curriculum. Six courses will have been delivered by the end of the first week of May. Six more courses have already been developed and through all of the Division and University approval processes and three of them will be delivered this summer and three more in the fall. Eleven more courses are in various stages of development.
We will be having the first Summer Residency week this July. Students will come to the Alva campus, live in the dormitories for the week and work on their summer courses. Included in that summer residency are skills validations and testing as well as professional seminars and an introduction to some simple procedures such as suturing, x-ray interpretation and the like. The faculty will reside in the dorms during the residency week to promote role socialization as well.

16. DNP Program Enrollment
Started the year with 24 students
13 Full Time
9 Part Time
Currently have 19 students
9 Full Time
10 Part Time
The BSN-to-DNP program garnered a great deal of interest. Our initial plan hoped for a class of 6 students for the first cohort. We had an overwhelming number of applicants and selected 24 to start the cohort.
Over the course of the first semester – and in several cases within just a few weeks of starting the first semester, 4 students withdrew due to changes in employment and demands of the employer. The fifth completed the first semester but withdrew as she decided she really wanted a different career track. We also had students change their status from full time to part time at the semester break once they came to grips with the rigor of the program.
From the start, we offered a full time option to complete the 73 credits in 3 years and a part time option to complete the program in 4 years. In talking with these students, none of them truly had a good understanding of the rigor of the graduate program (remember – they are all BSNs with no grad school experience). Starting in doctoral level courses was an eye-opener for them. It has been challenging for faculty as we work to assure the students are meeting course and program outcomes .

17. DNP Program Enrollment
August 2018 Cohort
45 applicants- but only 33 completed the application process
Interview team met with the 33 applicants
Selected 25 to start the August 2018 program cohort
Interest in the BSN-to-DNP program continued to grow. We had 45 people start the application process with only 33 seeing their way to the end.
Dr Thompson and several of the first year students comprised the interview teams who met with the 33 applicants. Adding a current student to the interview process allowed the applicants to get a “first-hand” feel for what was entailed in the program. It also gave us the chance to make sure these applicants knew about the expectations of the program and that it was not an easy program to tackle. The students painted the picture about juggling the expectations of course work, work-work and family during that first year for these applicants.
Twenty five well-qualified applicants were selected to start the second program cohort this coming August.

18. Program Outcomes
Now it is time for the program outcomes.

19. Program Outcomes 2017 NCLEX Pass Rates
(percent by calendar year)
Alva – 55.56% (10/18 passed) (2016 = 66.67%; 10/15)
Enid – 71.43% (10/14 passed) (2016 = 75%; 6/8)
Woodward – 83.33% (5/6 passed) (2016 = 83.33%; 5/6)
Ponca City – 60% (3/5 passed) (2016 = 50%; 1/2)
Cumulative: % (28/43 passed) (2016 = 70.9%)
Again, in spite of the many interventions we put into place for the class of 2017, we continued to experience pass rate issues as noted in this slide. Percentages really do not tell a true tail when we have such small numbers; however it is the percentages that are used to measure our program effectiveness.
For this class of we moved to the Kaplan NCLEX-RN Preparation product instead of the Virtual ATI product as we continued to see delays in the students taking their NCLEX in a timely fashion. For the 2017 results - all but 2 of the graduates had their NCLEX-RN completed the first time by August 2017 – a first in four years to have so many of them take the test this soon after graduation. However we continued to experience devastating rates of students who were not successful. In addition to the students who graduated in May 2017, the 2017 NCLEX rates were also impacted by three students who were graduates of earlier classes (2015, and 2016) who were not successful on their first attempt.

20. Program Outcomes 2017 Pass Rate and NCLEX:
NCLEX Pass Rate Report to OBN for Alva and Enid Campus pass rates due August 1, 2018.
Another Substantive Change Report for Pass Rates will be submitted to ACEN.
The 2017 Alva pass rate and Enid pass rate was below the acceptable limits as defined by the OBN. We will submit a pass rate on the Alva and Enid campus again this year in August and most likely will be put on warning.
Pass rates for the Woodward fell within the allowable OBN limits. It takes a cohort of 11 students to require the presentation of a Pass Rate Report to the State Board, therefore it does not require the inclusion of the Ponca City campus in the report.

21. Program Outcomes Ongoing NCLEX Improvement Actions:
Switched from the ATI Curricular Assessment product to the Kaplan Curricular Assessment product that other programs have demonstrated to be successful.
Continued faculty 1:1 work with at risk students
Instituted annual curriculum mapping to the NCLEX Test Plan to assure a well-rounded curriculum.
So.. While we made progress in getting the graduates to take their exams earlier, the exam pass rates were still not acceptable. The Nursing Faculty and University administration take this issue very seriously. We made the transition from the ATI Curricular Assessment products to the Kaplan Curricular Assessment products in August 2017 as our results with the ATI products were not meeting our expectations in spite of hours of work with ATI consultants and education specialists. The Kaplan Curricular Assessment products are in wide use nationally with strong positive results.
Nursing faculty continue to work 1:1 with all students to promote their understanding and completion of their review.
The Nursing Faculty have worked to assure that the NCLEX test plan is mapped to our curriculum.. We adjusted faculty teaching assignments to assure that faculty were adequately prepared to cover the content.

22. Program Outcomes Ongoing NCLEX Improvement Actions:
Faculty participated in Teaching Strategy Workshop in 2017 – 2018 to assure understanding and incorporation of evidence-based active learning techniques.
Faculty to complete no fewer than 6 CE Credits in new clinical content for their assigned courses annually.
The Nursing Faculty all participated in teaching strategy workshops to assure that the best evidence-based teaching strategies were being used.
To assure that faculty were maintaining their competence in their areas of clinical focus, the Division voted in August 2017 that every nurse faculty member would complete at least 6 CE credits annually over content they were teaching in clinical courses.
Additional strategies will be discussed at our year-end faculty retreat next week. Among things we will do is to critically analyze course exams, course assignments, textbooks and other materials in use in the program. We will also take a look at our student success strategies for effectiveness. Nothing will go unexamined.

23. Program Outcomes Graduate Surveys
When asked about their overall satisfaction with educational preparation:
48.6% rated as “Excellent”
37.8% rated as “Good”
13.5% rated as “Adequate”
When surveyed about meeting the end of program learning outcomes:
80.4% rated their progress as “Excellent”
20% rated their progress as “Good”
Of interest:
10% replied that they strongly disagreed that the library ,
advisement and career counseling, tutoring opportunities, and
computer labs were easily accessible.
In a survey of the 2017 graduates,
Due to a change over in office staff, we have not yet completed our survey process of Alumni this spring. These results are from our traditional BSN class that has been out of school six months.
[Next slide for continued comments from this group.]

24. Program Outcomes Graduate Surveys
When asked about their overall satisfaction with educational preparation:
48.6% rated as “Excellent”
37.8% rated as “Good”
13.5% rated as “Adequate”
When surveyed about meeting the end of program learning outcomes:
80.4% rated their progress as “Excellent”
20% rated their progress as “Good”
Of interest:
10% replied that they strongly disagreed that the library ,
advisement and career counseling, tutoring opportunities, and
computer labs were easily accessible.
In a survey of the 2017 graduates,
Due to a change over in office staff, we have not yet completed our survey process of Alumni this spring. These results are from our traditional BSN class that has been out of school six months.
[Next slide for continued comments from this group.]

25. Program Outcomes Graduate Surveys
When asked about their overall satisfaction with educational preparation:
48.6% rated as “Excellent”
37.8% rated as “Good”
13.5% rated as “Adequate”
When surveyed about meeting the end of program learning outcomes:
80.4% rated their progress as “Excellent”
20% rated their progress as “Good”
Of interest:
10% replied that they strongly disagreed that the library ,
advisement and career counseling, tutoring opportunities, and
computer labs were easily accessible.
In a survey of the 2017 graduates,
Due to a change over in office staff, we have not yet completed our survey process of Alumni this spring. These results are from our traditional BSN class that has been out of school six months.
[Next slide for continued comments from this group.]

26. Still to come…. Continue to improve the NCLEX pass rate issue
ACEN Self-Study Report due October 2018
ACEN Site Visit Spring 2019
We realize we still have a great deal of work to do – and look forward to even more feedback from you to help us with strengthening the program.

27. Important Dates to Remember
May 4, :00 PM Pinning Ceremony Herod Hall – Alva
May 5, :30 AM Commencement – Ranger Field – Alva
August 24, White Coat Ceremony – Alva
April 26, :30 PM Advisory Board Meeting - Enid