College of Nursing DNP student, Dani Lai (center) presents her project at Celebration of Scholarship.
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Graduate Program continues to thrive. Our first cohort of BSN to DNP students with Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) specialization completed the second year of the program and will graduate in spring 2015. We also have the MSN to DNP Program for Advanced Practice Nurses and Advanced Administrators.
The Graduate Program offers the Clinical Nurse Leader and Nurse Educator emphases in our MSN Program. Clinical Nurse Leaders focus on quality, safety, leadership and improving patient and staff outcomes. Nurse Educators will fill the critical need for nursing faculty.
We recently received approval for a Healthcare Informatics Certificate Program, and we continue to offer post-master’s certificates for the Nurse Educator and Clinical Nurse Leader.
Our graduate students make an impact on health outcomes with their MSN and DNP culminating projects and they disseminate their work in a variety of venues. We held our first DNP Scholarship Day in April 2014. Our students’ scholarly highlights can be viewed in the Research and Scholarship section.
The College of Nursing would like to introduce the Post-Licensure leadership team. Judy Westphal has been named Post-Licensure Programs director and assistant dean. Westphal earned her doctorate from the UW–Madison and is board certified in nursing administration. Mary Kate Friess has been named the assistant director of Advanced Practice Nursing, Graduate Program. She earned her DNP from St. Louis University and is a board-certified FNP. Friess recently was awarded a Faculty Development grant to develop and implement inter-professional education modules for students in the DNP residency.
DNP students Crystal Lothe, of Stevens Point; and Angela (Springer) O’Connell, of Oconomowoc, along with students from the master’s level Professional Counseling and Public Administration programs, participated in the Area Health Education Center’s (AHEC) Interprofessional Healthcare Case Competition in Wisconsin Dells in January 2014. This was a wonderful new opportunity for our students.
There are many exciting things happening with graduate education in the CON. You soon may see our students influencing care in a clinic or school near you!