When Sarah Beebe began the Ph.D. program at GW Nursing, she made it a priority to complete her degree in three years. Despite the onset of a global pandemic that continues to upend daily routines and well-laid plans, Ms. Beebe is on track to defend her dissertation and graduate in spring 2022.
“I never missed a beat,” she proudly states, “but I might have missed a lot of sleep.”
Prior to joining the School of Nursing’s inaugural Ph.D. cohort in 2019, Ms. Beebe spent eight years working as a women’s health nurse practitioner and certified nurse-midwife in Delaware and Pennsylvania. She spent three of those years as a nurse and five as a midwife/nurse practitioner. In 2017, she became a full-time faculty member at the University of Delaware School of Nursing, teaching an undergraduate women’s health course.
“One of the reasons I love simulation is that we can practice different skills and reduce the risk of errors.”
– Sarah Beebe
After conducting some small independent research studies, Ms. Beebe recognized that she needed formal training and education to advance her understanding of research science. “I saw research as a puzzle, and I wanted to be better at putting that puzzle together,” she explains.
During her time at the University of Delaware, Ms. Beebe became a certified health care simulation educator, and that interest in simulation led her to apply for GW’s Ph.D. program.
Ms. Beebe’s dissertation investigates metacognition in family nurse practitioner students to understand the link between diagnostic reasoning and diagnostic errors, using simulation. “Diagnostic error is a major [patient safety] concern,” she says. “One of the reasons I love simulation is that we can practice different skills and reduce the risk of errors.”
Ms. Beebe left her full-time faculty position to commit to earning her Ph.D. as quickly as possible. That commitment was made possible in part by the McNelis Nursing Education Research Dissertation Award. “Dr. McNelis really values nursing education research,” Ms. Beebe notes. “We see educational research as improving future nurses and providers so that they can make new strides in clinical research and practice.”
Ms. Beebe plans to return to academia after completing the Ph.D. program. “But this time I’ll know what I’m doing,” she adds.
Treating the whole patient
Chad Huckabee plans to take to the skies. As a life flight nurse that is. He knows he will achieve his lofty goals, just as he knows what grade point average he will achieve upon graduation (somewhere between 3.7 and 4.0). Mr. Huckabee sets high standards for himself, thanks in part to his 10 years in the U.S. Marine Corps.
“Being a physical therapist didn’t match up with my thoughts of patient care. It was more about treating symptoms than taking care of the person holistically, which is what I wanted to do.”
– Chad Huckabee
Mr. Huckabee was drawn to a career in nursing after stints as a police officer and time spent studying to become a physical therapist in Texas. “Being a physical therapist didn’t match up with my thoughts of patient care,” he says. “It was more about treating symptoms than taking care of the person holistically, which is what I wanted to do.”
Eager to complete a new degree and begin his nursing career, Mr. Huckabee researched accelerated B.S.N. programs and ultimately chose GW. “What brought me to GW was the veteran compatibility,” he explains. “Most of my professors are veterans; having that to lean on [was important]. And they’re well ranked in the United States. If I was going to learn to be a nurse, I wanted to learn to be a nurse from a program that has high standards.”
Mr. Huckabee used his GI Bill to fund his PT degrees, leaving him to pay for his nursing degree on his own, but he received help from the GW Hospital Women’s Board Scholarship. “The scholarship put a dent in the student loans I have to pay back when I graduate—it’s a financial lift for me and my family,” he says.
That financial support helps Mr. Huckabee focus on his first weeks of clinical rotations in the medical surgical unit of GW Hospital. “It was what they said it was—hard, fast, crazy, but fun,” he says. “But for me, I thrive in chaos and disorder. My first day, I was taken aback by how different each patient could be, but what I learned and experienced I was able to start putting together.”
Mr. Huckabee is energized by the challenge of treating patients and he looks beyond traditional categories that might define them. “It’s about looking at the patient holistically, not just what they came to the hospital for,” he notes. “I want to take care of the patient and give them a full therapeutic idea of how they can help themselves, rather than treating symptoms and diagnoses.”
A passion for serving others
Moses Win has faced life-threatening challenges since the day he was born. His family belongs to the Karen people of Burma (now known as Myanmar), an ethnic minority that has been persecuted by the Burmese military for decades. Mr. Win was born and raised in the delta division of Burma and later escaped to a refugee camp in Thailand. His childhood was filled with obstacles—he received little education and suffered from bouts of illness because of the camp’s poor living conditions.
The nurses who cared for him in the refugee hospital made a lasting impression. “Fortunately I survived, but many young kids like me did not,” he says. “I thank God for my miracle, that I am still here, and for all the nurses who nursed me back to health.”
“I’m more motivated than ever to become a nurse to help others and provide for my family.”
– Moses Win
Mr. Win immigrated to America as a teenager with the help of the U.N. Refugee Agency and Catholic Charities. “[Catholic Charities] took care of me while I came here as a teenager alone,” he recalls. “I didn’t know anybody, I didn’t speak English.” He wanted to join the military “and pay back this country by serving, because they took me in,” he explains.
His first attempt was denied because he didn’t have a high school diploma. He pursued a high school diploma while working full-time and mastering English. His second attempt to join up was also denied because his online diploma was missing certain credits. Mr. Win enrolled in Houston Community College to receive additional credits while working part-time. The third time was the charm, and he joined the U.S. Navy in 2011 because “I would get to experience the world, and maybe be able to visit Thailand or Burma,” he says.
During his time in the Navy, Mr. Win received a medical technology associate’s degree from GWU. He went on to become an officer in the Navy Medical Service Corps and worked as a health care administrator, but it didn’t feel like his calling. His positive experience at GWU led him to the GW School of Nursing, where he received the William and Joanne Conway Transitioning Warrior Nursing Scholarship, which covers 50 percent of an incoming veteran’s tuition.
The scholarship supports Mr. Win’s immediate and future nursing goals, which include returning to hospitals along the Thai-Burmese border. “Burma’s current situation is very volatile, and my parents and sisters are in distress,” he explains. “I’m more motivated than ever to become a nurse to help others and provide for my family.”
There is no neutral space between racism and antiracism, according to Ibram X. Kendi, a history professor at Boston University and author of “How to Be an Antiracist” (2019). One is either racist and endorses the idea of racial hierarchy, or one is antiracist and endorses racial equality.
Racism is a public health issue, and a dedicated group of GW Nursing students wants to address and resolve the racism that exists in health care institutions through the formation of a new student group, the Antiracism Nursing Students Alliance (ANSA).
While health care providers, educators, and researchers have focused on reducing health disparities for many years, a primary driver of those disparities—structural racism—has been absent from the conversation.
Last fall, Lynette Flaherty Glover, BSN ’22, and Madison Upshaw, BSN ’21, approached Sandra Davis, Ph.D., DPM, ACNP-BC, GW Nursing’s former assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, with their idea to form a student group. They had already been involved in the White Coats for Black Lives student organization at GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences, but wanted a group that focused on the nursing school.
Dr. Davis put the two in touch with other advocacy-minded students, and the group officially launched last December. “We all came with our ideas of things we want to change in the nursing program and in general to raise awareness of racism in health care,” Mrs. Glover says. “How can we educate the future health care workers on solutions to what they can do to help be an ally?”
“How can we educate the future health care workers on solutions to what they can do to help be an ally?”
– Lynette Flaherty Glover, BSN ’22
The group developed plans to host a speaker series to address historical racism in health care and encourage meaningful discussions. They welcomed two GW faculty members to speak in the spring semester. Nemata Blyden, Ph.D., a professor in the GW Department of History, presented the inaugural lecture in January, celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sherrie Wallington, Ph.D., an assistant professor and health disparities researcher at GW Nursing, discussed her research findings on the social determinants of health and health disparities.
Several of the ANSA founding members have experienced racism because of their ethnicity, while others were recently drawn to advocacy work after the high profile Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. Billy Baron, BSN ’21, admits to having grown up in “a bubble under a rock,” but was deeply affected by the protests after police officers killed George Floyd. “I lived four blocks from the Capitol building when a lot of the riots happened,” Mr. Baron recalls. “I felt very paralyzed, I couldn’t think, I just laid in bed, I didn’t know what was happening to me.”
“I spent the first sessions listening, but near the end of the sessions I was a main speaker, talking and challenging a lot of the faculty members with questions.”
– Billy Baron, BSN ’21
In-person instruction and clinical rotations were canceled due to COVID-19, and Mr. Baron was worried about how his mental health would affect his class work. After confiding in Dr. Davis about his concerns, she invited him to participate in Continuing the Conversation, a series of open forums that took place virtually at the school throughout the summer. “I went to every single one,” Mr. Baron says. “I spent the first sessions listening, but near the end of the sessions I was a main speaker, talking and challenging a lot of the faculty members with questions.”
Mr. Baron channeled his new passion for antiracism and social justice into shaping the goals of ANSA. Fellow founding member Kimberley Hollingsworth, BSN ’21, believes that GW Nursing students want to understand racial biases, and a major goal of ANSA is to shed light on the issue and get more people involved.
“A lot of staff and faculty aren’t very aware of the racial biases that a lot of these [minority] students go through,” Mrs. Hollingsworth says. As an Afro-Latina, she experienced racism in her own work as a patient care technician, phlebotomist, and testing site coordinator. “Based on the color of my skin and being a woman, of course there’s a lot of racism,” Mrs. Hollingsworth says. “I was passed over for promotions just because—there wasn’t a valid reason given. But I see my white counterparts who haven’t had nearly the same [work] experience get moved on.”
Mrs. Hollingsworth has witnessed similar situations in the classroom setting. “I have seen white [students] get graded differently or have certain opportunities that were not awarded to minority students,” she adds. “Everyone should be treated fairly all across the board. I feel as minorities we have to work twice as hard just to succeed.”
Exhorting the school to acknowledge the racism that its own students experience was a driving force behind the interest of Mimi Bui, BSN ’21, in the group. “The nursing school needs to be much more cognizant of the challenges that their nonwhite students face every day—financial challenges, language barriers, all that kind of stuff,” Ms. Bui says.
“The nursing school needs to be much more cognizant of the challenges that their non-white students face every day—financial challenges, language barriers, all that kind of stuff.”
– Mimi Bui, BSN ’21
Addressing systemic racism at large educational institutions can be fraught. Even acknowledging racism as a cause of health disparities has not been widely embraced. When Mrs. Glover was pursuing her associate’s degree at a community college, she was dismayed when her nursing instructors discussed the various chronic conditions from which Black females are at a higher risk of dying. “They never talked about why—in some ways, it was kind of brushed off,” she recalls.
Mrs. Glover is pursuing a nursing degree because she felt discriminated against as a Black female patient. “I wanted to be part of the change I wanted to see in the world,” she explains.
In addition to the challenge of dismantling systemic racism, the students of ANSA struggle with simply finding the capacity to devote to the group on top of their coursework and personal obligations. The Accelerated B.S.N. program spans just 15 months, a short amount of time to meaningfully engage in an extracurricular organization.
The founding members are working with GW Nursing faculty and staff to help advance ANSA’s mission as students cycle in and out of the school. “Having people like myself and others on this board who can actually speak up about [antiracism], and be able to go out there and advocate, that’s what I hope GW Nursing will continue when I leave the school,” Ms. Hollingsworth says.
Founding Members
Watch video introductions directly from ANSA’s founding members to learn why they’re part of the Alliance.
Contact ANSA
Students interested in ANSA can email gwsonansa@gmail.com to learn about upcoming meetings and events
When she applied to teach at the George Washington University, Crystel Farina, Ph.D.(c), RN, CNE, CHSE, knew very little about the School of Nursing or the university. “I applied solely because the dean was Pamela Jeffries,” said Ms. Farina, director of simulation and experiential learning.
Ms. Farina aiding students during on campus PPE fitting
A doctoral candidate at Notre Dame of Maryland University, Ms. Farina joined the Nursing School in August 2017. She had been aware of Dr. Jeffries, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH, and her work on simulation since 2004, when Ms. Farina was teaching at Chesapeake College in Maryland and grew interested in simulation and nursing education.
“She was the one in all the articles who was teaching me how to actually do simulations,” Ms. Farina said of Dr. Jeffries, whom she first met in 2015 at the National League for Nursing’s Leadership Development for Simulation Educators. Dr. Jeffries was one of the “giants of simulation,” who formed a faculty group leading the program.
“It was like seeing a rockstar,” she said. “Oh my gosh, it’s her!”
Dr. Jeffries, who recently stepped down as dean at the School of Nursing—a role she held from 2015 to 2021—to become dean of Vanderbilt University’s nursing school, turned out to be “very down to earth, very relaxed, and very warm and fuzzy,” Ms. Farina recalled.
“I applied solely because the dean was Pamela Jeffries. She was the one in all the articles who was teaching me how to actually do simulations.”
– Ms. Farina
“Once I got over the awe of sitting with the godmother of simulation, it was very easy to have a conversation and talk about what we were doing at the college level, what we needed to do for nurse practitioners, and simulation in health care education,” Ms. Farina said.
This characterization of Dr. Jeffries as a down-to-earth, amicable rockstar is a common refrain among those who know and have worked with her. And the dean’s departure to Nashville, Tenn., comes amid a larger transitional time at the school and at GW.
Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted many best-laid plans. From an academic and administrative perspective, the School of Nursing was lucky to have put certain programs and processes in place prior to the pandemic, which helped mitigate some remote- and digital-only growing pains.
Pamela Slaven-Lee, D.N.P., FNP-C, FAANP, CHSE, senior associate dean for academic affairs and clinical associate professor, now serves as interim dean of the School of Nursing. GW recently announced that Mark Wrighton, chancellor emeritus at Washington University in St. Louis, will begin serving as interim president in January and will fill that role for up to a year and a half.The School of Nursing was about two-thirds of the way into its strategic plan when the pandemic began, requiring that in-person activities shut down in mid-March 2020. Despite this hurdle, the faculty and staff were able to fulfill the goals of that plan. And, although her departure was eminent, Dr. Jeffries saw to it that the next strategic plan was in place before she left. As she and her colleagues reflect on her legacy and vast achievements at GW, they see a bright future for the school, which has already earned national accolades that are more typical of much older and more mature schools.
The View from ‘Athens of the South’
Reached by video chat in Nashville, Dr. Jeffries said she hopes people will look back on her GW legacy as six years of bringing the school to another level. “We grew—maybe from adolescence to young adulthood,” she said.
Dr. Jeffries is very proud of starting GW’s doctoral nursing program and building up the breadth and depth of the school’s research base. “It still needs to grow more, but the quantity and quality of our research efforts have definitely scaled up,” she said. She also takes pride in the school’s No. 22 ranking for nursing graduate education by U.S. News & World Report and successful school-wide health policy branding.
Joe Velez, GW Nursing’s Executive Director of Operations, speaking with crew at remodel project
Six years ago, when Dr. Jeffries came to GW—after serving as vice provost for digital initiatives at Johns Hopkins University, and before that as an associate dean at Hopkins and at Indiana University Bloomington—her priorities were to build upon the foundation her predecessor, Jean Johnson, established as founding dean some five years prior. Having inherited high-quality programs, Dr. Jeffries wanted to take the school to the next level.
“I had an analogy of a three-story house. Dr. Johnson built the first floor. I had the second floor, which continued to build on our reputable programs,” Dr. Jeffries said. “To build the research base on the third level, I wanted to start a Ph.D. program and to diversify revenue, because we were very tied to tuition dollars and enrollment numbers.”
Dr. Jeffries started a professional development office called Ventures, Initiatives and Partnerships (VIP), and she sought to improve the school’s national rankings. She aimed in five years to move the school into the top 25 graduate programs in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. (It previously ranked No. 58.) It took six years, but the school bested that goal by three slots.
“I had an analogy of a three-story house. Dr. Johnson built the first floor. I had the second floor, which continued to build on our reputable programs,”
– Dr. Jeffries
In the 2022 U.S. News rankings (the Georgetown-based publication ranks schools based on the prior year’s data, which can sound like predicting the future), the Nursing School is also tied for No. 28 in the category of “Best Nursing Schools: Doctor of Nursing Practice” with Oregon Health and Science University; University of California, San Francisco; University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston; and Washington State University.
In the U.S. News specialty nursing school rankings, the GW School of Nursing is No. 8 in “Best Master’s Nurse Practitioner: Family,” and is tied for No. 6 in “Best Master’s Nursing Administration” with University of Alabama at Birmingham and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And in the U.S. News online nursing program rankings, GW is No. 2 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Programs for Veterans,”No. 3 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Administration Programs,”No. 7 for “Best Online Master’s Nursing Programs (tied with University of Nevada, Las Vegas), and No. 7 for “Best Online Family Nurse Practitioner Master’s Programs.”
Creating a doctoral program to help train nursing scientists was necessary to become a top-tier school, according to Dr. Jeffries, who also is proud of starting the school’s Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement. The latter draws upon the school’s location in the nation’s capital.
“I don’t think I would have changed anything if I could have read the tea leaves and known COVID was going to hit in March 2020,” Dr. Jeffries says. “In fact, we actually prepared ourselves not knowing it was happening.”
Pivoting Online
Prior to March 2020, the Nursing School had already begun assembling the necessary personnel to strengthen its creation and delivery of online programming. Dr. Jeffries hired e-learning specialists, instructional designers, videographers, a graphic designer, and a director of online learning and technology.
“I’m glad that was done, because that served us well in COVID,” she said. “We already had online education going at GW Nursing, but I put more resources and support into building a team.”
She also brought on a team to help run the expanded simulation center on the Ashburn, Va., campus, home to a state-of-the-art Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) center. “They had to pivot during COVID to produce and really facilitate faculty with the virtual simulations,” Dr. Jeffries said. And after lockdowns ended, that team facilitated safe in-person lab simulations.
Associate Professor Dr. Karen Whitt monitoring OSCEs at VSTC simulation lab
During the pandemic, Dr. Jeffries would wake up each morning and ask herself what she needed to get through the day.
“I built community with our faculty, staff, and students,” she said. There were weekly town hall meetings for nearly 70 weeks, and Dr. Jeffries helped staff leaders, who had never managed people remotely, and professors, who could not see their students in person, navigate the new normal.
“We did keep community together,” she said, noting the school’s instructional continuity in particular. “Our students graduated on time for the most part.”
“Some of us thought—I was one—we could come back in three or four weeks,” she said of the beginning of the pandemic. “I stayed very focused to get through. I always had to hold it together. Someone has to be the leader.”
Looking forward, Dr. Jeffries notes that telehealth is poised to be a game changer for the profession, and she expects the pivot online will continue even after the pandemic is in the rearview mirror. There is a need for telehealth competencies and full integration into curricula, she said, and nursing schools ought to teach students to assess patients via digital platforms, such as Zoom. Patients are also increasingly tracking their own health data, something nurses should take advantage of.
“We’ve got to be mindful of that,” Dr. Jeffries said.
She looks forward to continuing to see the School of Nursing’s programs flourish, as well as new programs emerge. She expects the healthcare landscape to continue to change, and thinks public health is a priority, particularly the focus on health equity that COVID exposed, as outlined in the National Academy of Medicine’s report “The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity.”
“I see the next five years as a little different. Right now we are transitioning in COVID, but we are still in COVID. But our antennas are up for different things,” she said. “I think we’ve learned we can do things differently.”
Big Shoes to Fill
Dr. Slaven-Lee, now interim dean, came to GW two months before Dr. Jeffries did in 2015. She was excited to join a young school, about five years old, and the opportunities that its youth presented. Dr. Slaven-Lee served previously in a leadership role at Georgetown University and looked forward to returning to teaching. That was not in the cards, however.
“Dr. Jeffries developed our matrix structure with two communities and academic programs, and made a lot of infrastructure changes. With that, it opened up a lot of leadership opportunities,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said. “I came here saying, ‘I want to go back to teaching and not so much leadership.’ As is often the case, I ended up back in a leadership role.
Interim Dean Slaven-Lee (center), Patsy Deyo and Assistant Professor Dr. Maggie Venzke meet with Va. Del. David Reid at GW Nursing-run COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic.
”Dr. Slaven-Lee worked closely with Dr. Jeffries on developing the simulation program, which “became a signature part of our academic programs,” and building the academic affairs unit. “Really further developing all the things that you do as your school continues to mature—evaluation plans, standardizing how you evaluate your academic programs, master plans of evaluation, standardizing how you evaluate each course, clinical placement models, all those sorts of things,”she said.
In the past six years, Dr. Slaven-Lee has seen GW’s reputation soar and has noticed changes in the applicant pool. She does not think anyone else applied for the same job she did in 2015, but now, “The caliber of the candidates that we see trying to come to GW and join our faculty community is outstanding.”
Part of that, she thinks, is the national recognition the school has received in rankings. “Considering how young the school is—we’re 11 years old—that’s absolutely remarkable that we’ve been able to accomplish that,” she said.
Since becoming interim dean on July 1, Dr. Slaven-Lee has drawn on what she learned from working with Dr. Jeffries, whom she called “a great mentor.” She also is very focused on the school’s strategic plan.“
The strategy I have in my mind is to stay focused on the school. Stay focused on our students, faculty, staff, and strategic plan,” she said. She is also focused on enhancing the curriculum with an eye toward diversity, equity, and inclusion, she said, as well as the “Future of Nursing”report.
“The caliber of the candidates that we see trying to come to GW and join our faculty community is outstanding.”
– Dr. Slaven-Lee
“It’s not just, ‘Hold everything steady until a new dean comes.’ It’s ‘Continue on the upward trajectory.’ Holding things steady would be a disservice to the school. We’ve got to keep things moving upwards,” she said. “I’d be derelict in my duty if I just tried to hold things steady. When you’re ranked 22, that takes some work. You can’t just hold steady. You’ll fall backwards.”
Dr. Slaven-Lee expects the school’s rankings to continue to improve, and like Dr. Jeffries, she anticipates that there will be online and hybrid programming and teaching in the future. She also echoed Dr. Jeffries’ thinking about the school’s unique role in the heart of Washington, D.C.,and in northern Virginia.
“We want very much to brand and distinguish ourselves as the school of nursing that’s about health policy,” she said, noting that most GW School of Nursing researchers focus on health disparities and inequities.
“The juncture where it all starts coming together is the research informing the policy informing the practice. It’s not something we are trying to be. It’s something we are actually becoming,” she said. “We want to leverage our position in the nation’s capital.” The school also developed a dual Master of Science in Nursing and Master of Public Health degree, which matches renewed interest in that intersection.
She aims, she said, to fill Dr. Jeffries’ big shoes.“Dean Jeffries is an incredible leader. She is very well known for being a great communicator. She always had a vision,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said. “She did so much in the just six years she was here.”
The Power of Simulations
Dr. Slaven-Lee, Dr. Jeffries, and Ms. Farina—the director of simulation and experiential learning, who chose to apply to work at GW because of Dr. Jeffries—all point to simulation as one of the areas of greatest change at the School of Nursing in the past five years.
Dr. Slaven-Lee said it was “absolutely pivotal for the development of our programs” to require all faculty to be trained in best practices for simulations. “Simulation is a pedagogy that is incredibly powerful. By virtue of that, if it’s used inappropriately, it can have negative impacts on the students’ evaluation and development,” she said.
Simulation training on campus is also a signature event for the school and for students. “These are big events. That’s how they know the campus. It’s about developing alumni. We’re known in the community for being expert simulationists,” she said. And many professional societies and vendors come to GW for talks on best practice simulation.
GW Nursing students in virtual reality simulation room.
“It’s not uncommon to see a whole panel of GW faculty talking about simulation,” Dr. Slaven-Lee said.
Ms. Farina’s tenure at GW has seen sustained growth in the school, she said. When she began working at the school, there was summer enrollment for the first time; there had only been spring and fall terms previously. And some of the conferences and other events that provided the most momentum in pushing the school forward centered on simulation.
Much of that success is owed to Dr. Jeffries, who played an essential role in securing funding for renovations of the simulation center and for expanding its offerings.
“She was really supportive in ensuring that I had the authority to request that all faculty had a standard of education for simulation before they came and facilitated simulation experiences,” Ms. Farina said. She noted that Dr. Jeffries was also involved in creating a massive open online course (MOOC), in which more than11,000 learners have enrolled and participated.
GW Nursing School students now do a lot of virtual and face-to-face simulations, and the curriculum is aligned with didactic content, skills labs, and simulations.“It’s all lined up that way so that they can apply everything they learned each week to providing simulated patient care,” she said. “They sit in lectures; then they learn a few skills; and then they are able to apply all that knowledge to providing care for that simulated patient.”
Ms. Farina hopes the nursing program continues to expand and thinks the school has a shot at top 10 in the U.S. News rankings. She also expects the school to become, in the next two years, one of 2,000 accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare. “It shows that our simulation is high fidelity, high quality,” she said of that accreditation.
Collaborative Culture
Majeda El-Banna, Ph.D., RN, CNE, ANEF, had previously taught at several nursing programs, large and small, stateside and abroad—including Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, where she was dean of the School of Nursing—before arriving at GW in 2013. She began as adjunct professor and is now associate professor, chair of acute and chronic care faculty community, and director of the Registered Nurse to Bachelor/Master of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN) program.
“GW really attracted me with the mission and vision,” she said. And when she started teaching at the school eight years ago, “I said, Oh my goodness!This is the place where I want to be.” She has been extremely happy at GW since.
Dr. Majeda El-Banna speaking to a classroom of Accelerated B.S.N. students.
Where some of her colleagues may think the School of Nursing’s growth has been meteoric, Dr. El-Banna, who has taught in nursing programs for more than 20 years, was part of one school that tripled in size in two years. That was a little more of a dramatic pace than she has seen at GW.
Still, when she first arrived on campus, the nursing program was small enough that communication could occur in a more ad hoc fashion. As the school grew, there needed to be more formalized processes.
She credits Dr. Jeffries’ establishment of the Ph.D. program as a very significant and difficult feat, and the faculty communities that Dr. Jeffries pioneered—the school’s take on departments—have facilitated growth, cooperation, and mentorship. When Dr. El-Banna compares Dr. Jeffries’ approach to communication between faculty and staff, spread across the Foggy Bottom and Virginia campuses and many others remote across the country, to those she has observed at other schools, she thinks what the School of Nursing has achieved is remarkable in this regard.
During Dr. Jeffries’ tenure, faculty was encouraged to collaborate on research, and research funding increased. A buddy system paired new hires in their first year with seasoned colleagues who helped them acclimate to GW. And the dean also welcomed faculty, staff, and students to her home regularly, including for holiday parties.
“GW really attracted me with the mission and vision. I said, Oh my goodness! This is the place where I want to be.”
– Dr. El-Banna
“How did she have the time to hold so many social events in her house?” Dr. El-Banna wondered. “That is different from other schools.”
The “culture of collaboration” at the School of Nursing is one of the things that attracted Dr. El-Banna initially, and which has kept her happily at the school. Dr. Jeffries would ask faculty members where they saw themselves in a few years, and once she knew their plans, would provide guidance on necessary future steps. She would also keep her eyes and ears open for future opportunities, which she would share with faculty.
“I don’t know how she remembers all the things about all the faculty,” Dr. El-Banna said. “It’s amazing.”
When she reflected more on the changes she has seen at GW during Dr. Jeffries’ tenure, and the culture she foresees continuing, Dr. El-Banna reached for an affable metaphor. “It feels more like a family,” she said.
As they undertake research they hope will translate to better patient outcomes and health care practices, GW Nursing’s first-ever Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing students are setting a high bar for those who will come after them.
The Ph.D. program launched in fall 2019. Although GW Nursing had already offered a doctoral-level degree–the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.)–the Ph.D. program aims to prepare students interested in nursing science and education.
“Upon graduation, a nurse scientist will address research questions that are most relevant to the care of patients, educational needs of students and policy goals of our profession,” said Kathleen Griffith, Ph.D., M.P.H., CRNP-F, assistant dean of the Ph.D. program and newly minted associate dean for research. “Nurses study clinical problems that we are in a unique position to manage–such as symptom management, family distress and decision making around preventive health care. The purpose of our research is to build the knowledge base of our profession, which will enhance our care of patients, improve education of our students and change the way health care is delivered.”
Eleven students, each with a range of experiences in nursing and health care, are currently enrolled in the three-year, full-time 57-credit program, which is delivered in an executive-style format.
The six students in the first cohort are now completing their core coursework; the second cohort, with five students, started in fall 2020. A third cohort will have an orientation in July and begin studies in the fall semester, Dr. Griffith said.
First cohort students Michelle Clausen, M.S.N., CNM, and Noelle Herrier, PMHNP, have centered their research on improving outcomes for two populations that too often slip through the cracks.
Michelle Clausen, GW Nursing Ph. D. student
After earning her undergraduate degree in public health from GW and then working at a Washington, D.C., area health-focused nonprofit, Clausen returned to GW, first earning a B.S.N. and then an M.S.N. with a concentration in nurse-midwifery.
She started her nursing career as a Midwifery Fellow and then as a full-time faculty member at the midwifery service at GW Medical Faculty Associates. These roles also came with the opportunity to teach students–from those in medical and nursing school to emerging midwives and medical residents—which has become another passion for Clausen. Since beginning her Ph.D. studies, Clausen has continued to work clinically as a nurse-midwife for the University of Maryland.
Clausen’s clinical experiences motivated her to return to school and is the inspiration behind her research focus.
“I have witnessed the system fall short for women and pregnant persons,” she said. “I’ve seen barriers that certified nurse-midwives have faced in providing high-quality, evidence-based compassionate care, despite this type of care continuously providing significant outcomes.”
On the other hand, she has had the opportunity, through mentors and other experiences, to see midwifery at its very best.
Clausen’s research interests include matters related to the nation’s growing maternal morbidity and mortality rates; barriers to access to care; innovations in women’s health; and the vast spiritual needs of pregnant individuals. She is now focused on testing spiritual needs assessment tools with pregnant women.
“Spiritual health has been studied throughout medicine and associated with various positive health outcomes, and I would like to help bring this to those experiencing pregnancy,” she said. “It is my hope that this work informs future research regarding the dynamic needs of pregnant individuals in order to improve their health and the health of their families.”
Noelle Herrier, GW Nursing Ph. D. student
After 13 years in clinical practice, Herrier has returned to school, hopeful that she can play a greater part in eliminating the health disparities common among mental health patients.
Though her undergraduate degree from Northern Arizona University is in zoology, Herrier minored in chemistry with an emphasis on health professions. She returned to school to earn a B.S.N. from Arizona State and then an M.S.N. in Adult Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner at the University of Washington. There, Herrier did much of her training at Madigan Army Medical Center, focusing on the neurobiology and treatment of trauma. She now works at a Maricopa County, ArIzona, facility, providing court-ordered evaluations and treatment for those with mental health concerns.
Her nursing career started in cardiac ICU, but mental health was always Herrier’s passion; she made time to pursue it by working with community mental health initiatives and at inpatient behavioral health facilities.
“Throughout my career, I found that there were many barriers to my patients receiving medical care, from their psychiatric illness to their social and living situations, and I’ve even witnessed provider bias in delaying treatment,” she said.
Herrier wants to use her Ph.D. to help change that. She says symptoms of other diseases are often overlooked in mental health patients, something that was underscored this past year, she says, as mental health patients with severe coughs were tested for COVID-19 only to discover they had advanced lung cancer.
“The understanding that people with a serious mental illness have higher rates of mortality from cancer than those without a mental illness led me to want to research to find methods to decrease people’s mortality,” said Herrier, whose post-doctoral aspirations include joining the faculty of a university to teach and continue her research.
Cohort 2 students Sasha DuBois, RN, M.S.N., and Burton Korer, RN-BC, D.N.P., CPHQ, have designs on using their research to change the health care industry for the better.
Sasha DuBois, GW Nursing Ph.D. student
DuBois was in high school when she first came to work at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Today, she is a nurse director for the hospital’s IV team and Patient Care Assistant Float Pool.
“I started out through the Student Success Jobs Program for Boston students who were interested in health careers,” said DuBois, who joined the hospital’s nursing staff after earning a B.S.N. at Simmons University.
She received her M.S.N. in leadership and administration from Emmanuel College; she’s pursuing her doctorate because she believes it will be a valuable asset in her goal of addressing the dearth of diversity and cultural competency in nursing.
“Ensuring we have racially and culturally concordant providers of our patients is a very important passion of mine,” she said. “My research interests around this subject are focused on barriers that nurses of color face when completing a professional nursing program.”
For DuBois, nursing is more than a profession, it’s a calling that beckoned to her early on. The pandemic, she says, has shown the world once again how critically important nurses are. She’s never been prouder to work in the field.
“I love what makes a nurse, a nurse,” DuBois said.
She’s determined to leave a mark: to make nursing better by working to knock down barriers that impede both nurses and patients. DuBois has begun that work already by volunteering at Simmons University in the Dotson Bridge and Mentoring Program, which supports African American, Latina, Asian and Native American nursing students.
“I believe that there is room for everyone at the table,” DuBois said. “I plan to continue my career in nursing leadership while working in academia. I can do my part to bridge the two worlds, so I may contribute to the development of the best nurses for tomorrow.”
The COVID-19 crisis has brought the vulnerability of older adults to the forefront, but Dr. Korer says this population was in a precarious situation long before the pandemic. He enrolled in the Ph.D. program to help change that.
“I see many elderly low-income individuals at risk due to declining health and limited access to coordinated and effective care,” he said. “My aim is to help develop nursing practices to address elderly individuals who are aging in place in senior housing.”
Years of study and practice led him to his research focus. He worked continuously in health care as he earned his A.D.N. from Gateway Community College; B.S. in business administration and management and M.S.N. from University of Phoenix; and D.N.P. from GW.
“Starting as a CNA, then an LPN, I have been employed in nursing full time for over 30 years, working for several large employers, and have owned my own health care company for more than 25 years,” he said.
Dr. Korer believes one of the first steps in delivering better health outcomes for older adults and others is to ensure the right programs and initiatives are properly funded and utilized.
“The health care system in the United States currently covers many social costs as compared to other countries (but doesn’t) always produce favorable health care outcomes,” he said. “If we can spend the resources better we can improve the lives of many more individuals.”
After completing the program, Dr. Korer wants to share what he learns about fiscal performance and health care outcomes through teaching, lecturing and partnerships with hospitals and other health-focused organizations.
The student-run COVID-19 testing center, which got up and running in record time, offers an inspiring blueprint for the future, nursing experts say.
When Mark Tanner came to GW’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus weekly to get tested for COVID-19, the former assistant dean for the bachelor of science in nursing program parked adjacent to Enterprise Hall. He entered the building, scanned his GW badge, and walked up to the registration desk, where nursing students scannedQR codes on testees’ phones to call up their appointments, verify names and birth dates, and scan test tubes that would contain their samples. From behind plexiglass, the students—who were gloved and masked—wrote Dr. Tanner’s name and birth date on the test tube and verified his identity with his GW ID or license.
Dr. Tanner took his test tube and walked down a hall in the building’s former cafeteria, which was sufficiently capacious to accommodate the center, to one of six testing booths. If it was a busy time of day, he could wait a few minutes, but often he went right in. He would hand his test tube to the nursing student (gowned, gloved, and clad in an N95 mask and face shield), and the latter verified his birth date. Dr. Tanner had taught many of these students in first-semester didactic courses, but the students would invariably stick to protocol.
“Every experience I had, they always ask, ‘Hey. How are you? Have you done this before?’ even though they knew who I am, and they knew I’d done it before,” he said. “They’re doing the things that they should be doing. They’re neither relaxing nor taking anything off. There’s a sense of pride knowing they’ve come to our program; they’ve come this far; and they’re doing well with this very important task.
Each time, the student explained the procedure to Dr. Tanner, directed him to sit and drop his mask below his nose, and swabbed 10 seconds per nostril. The student nurse placed the swab in the test tube, broke it off and capped it, and then Dr. Tanner was ready to go. A courier picked up samples twice daily from the site, at noon and at 4 p.m., for delivery to Foggy Bottom for processing in a GW lab. Dr. Tanner usually had his results, which he could check via a mobile application, within about a day.
“It’s been very well and smoothly run,” he said. “I’m rarely there for longer than 5 to 10 minutes from the time I stand in line until the time I’m back in my car.” There’s a huge amount that happens in a very short clip, and the testing center did that more than 500 times per week at its peak. But equally as impressive is the speed with which the COVID-19 testing center was created and launched and how effective it has been during these difficult and uncertain times.
Dr. Karen Drenkard
An ‘Aha Moment’
When GW announced in March 2020 that it would be going virtual, the School of Nursing was already well poised for online instruction, which it had been doing previously, but clinical placements became a problem when area hospitals said they couldn’t accommodate student-nurses. The Commonwealth of Virginia ruled that simulations could count for clinical experience, so that semester’s students could graduate.
“But then the new group comes in. What do you do with the new group? Summer, fall, and now spring. We really were beginning to scramble a little bit,” said Karen Drenkard, associate dean of clinical practice and community engagement.
By early summer, Dr. Drenkard was representing the Nursing School on GW’s pandemic task force and was co-running the task force’s health and wellness subcommittee. As the university moved toward bringing essential community members back to campus, there was a need for a COVID-19 surveillance polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing program. Two testing centers were created in Foggy Bottom—one for symptomatic and the other for non-symptomatic people—and by mid-August, Dr. Drenkard had a mandate to create and operate a testing center on the Virginia campus for the 550 faculty, staff, and students, who reported there for work.
“I’m not sure when we had the aha moment, but it’s 25 miles away, and the students have their clinical labs in Ashburn, the employees work in Ashburn, and we have housekeeping staff, faculty, students, and essential staff that are all going to be there,” Dr. Drenkard said.
The semester was slated to begin some two or three weeks after the Nursing School received direction to start the testing center, so Dr. Drenkard—who had only been at GW for about a year—needed to move very quickly. The former chief nurse who spent a decade at the five hospitals of the Inova Health System, had served also on the Northern Virginia regional emergency preparedness disaster task force for the hospital alliance right after September 11, 2001.
“I had a lot of disaster management experience, and I had operations experience,” she said.
Dr. Drenkard corralled a group, which included people she hadn’t met before and who hadn’t met one another, and oriented everyone toward the goal and looming deadlines. “We were able to break down a lot of barriers very quickly,” she said. She also brought aboard two people with whom she had worked previously and upon whom she knew she could count.
She enlisted Bonnie Sakallaris—who was chief nurse of the Alexandria, Va., hospital system and had worked with Dr. Drenkard at Inova—as the COVID-19 testing center director. “She was thinking that she was going to retire. I called her on Aug. 12 and said, ‘Would you be interested in doing this with me? I have no idea how long it’s going to last, but it’s going to be crazy. Do you want to come with me?’” Dr. Drenkard said. “She called me back in two hours and said, ‘Yes. I do.’”
“When you’re a nursing executive or a hospital administrator in the executive suite, you stand up new programs frequently, and often without a whole lot of notice. I had never opened up a testing center before, but both Karen and I have on multiple occasions, with very little notice, developed a whole new program, staffed it, and opened it up,” Dr. Sakallaris said. “There are organizational things that you know you have to do. This was not foreign territory.”
Dr. Drenkard also hired Patsy Deyo, M.S.N. ’14—who is in her Ph.D. dissertation phase in translational health sciences at GW’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and who worked previously in academic affairs at the Nursing School—to run student-nurse educational training.
“I knew we could do it. I wasn’t sure how,” Deyo said with a laugh. “There were so many moving pieces and so many different things that had to happen in such a short time that anywhere along the lines there could have been hiccups that would have impacted our being able to do it.”
The group secured supplies (including the highest level of personal protective equipment, PPE, that it could to protect the student nurses), drafted colleagues from different parts of the university, and found ways to involve students. (It also created and ran a flu vaccination clinic adjacent to the COVID testing center, as a “one-stop shop,” for two weeks in October.)
“I said, ‘If I’m going to put students who aren’t licensed yet in a situation where they’re exposed to some people who could possibly have COVID, they have to have N95s, face shields, gowns, and nitrile gloves,” Dr. Drenkard said. “We used very stringent infection control, and none of my testers ever got COVID.”
From the start, staff members were very open with the student nurses, asking how the process could improve and what challenges could be foretold and skirted. “We kept modifying what we did based on what they were seeing and said, ‘No idea was too crazy or far-out to try,’” Dr. Sakallaris said.
Students have expressed to Dr. Sakallaris something quite similar to how she feels herself: that as the pandemic unfolded, she felt drawn to the front lines to do something useful and to be part of the solution.
“This offers that opportunity,” she said. “It’s very gratifying to know that you’re doing something really important to manage and eventually stop this pandemic. That feels really good. It’s fun to see a plan come together.”
And though the group went into creating the clinic expecting there would be great lessons but also initial glitches, the process went surprisingly smoothly from the start, according to Dr. Sakallaris. “There was no chaos,” she said. “It was all really well controlled.”
Nursing student volunteers in PPE receiving instructions
Charge Nurse
Throughout the day—10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Tuesdays and Wednesdays—student nurses rotate through three roles: registrar, tester, and charge nurse. One student is charge nurse in the morning, and another takes over after lunch. That person is in charge of ensuring the center has adequate inventory and supplies, oversees lunches and breaks, and enforces social distancing and masking protocols in the center. She or he also delivers test samples to the courier for transport to the Foggy Bottom lab.
Veronica Nguyen—who worked at the testing center during the spring 2021 semester—found it nerve wracking the first time she served as charge nurse. Only one other student from her group had held the charge nurse position before, and Nguyen trained with Dr. Sakallaris and with that previous charge nurse.
“You worry about keeping everyone happy and running daily operations as smoothly as you can,” Nguyen said. “Especially for someone with limited leadership experience, it can be daunting to delegate tasks and make decisions. However, developing my leadership skills in a setting like the testing center was incredibly helpful.”
Faculty provided a safe learning environment to facilitate student growth and development, and debrief sessions at the end of the day helped the team address collectively issues that arose during the day. “This time allowed me to reflect on my role and work with my peers to improve,” Nguyen said. “I’m thankful that the testing center created this role. These experiences can help us develop our leadership style and practice as we go into our jobs as full-time nurses.”
Working at the testing center also helped Nguyen bridge the gap between didactic knowledge and practical nursing skills. “The testing site represents a crossroads of our nursing education, training, and experiences at clinical. At the center, we can practice practical skills like properly donning and doffing PPE, participate in patient education, and learn among peers,” she said. “The testing site offers opportunities for team management and building leadership skills.”
Another student nurse who worked at the testing center spring 2021, Timothy Barksdale, also found that the experience connected directly to what he was learning in his classes. “I am learning about COVID procedures in all my clinicals and classes, so the PPE requirements and general knowledge is very intertwined,” he said. “This clinical has absolutely raised my confidence in patient care as a whole and with COVID specific protocols.”
When Seneka Lea worked at the center during that same semester, she discovered there’s a lot more to the center than just swabbing noses and scanning test tubes.
“I was surprised at the number of individuals tested at the Virginia campus everyday, and then more so at the Foggy Bottom campus. Before my experience, these numbers didn’t really mean anything to me,” she said. “But in understanding the importance of surveillance and contact tracing on preventing outbreaks in our GW community, it is impressive to see how many individuals we test on a weekly basis.”
Lea learned something different from each of the three roles at the testing center. As a tester, she learned to ensure sample quality and to reassure patients (nasal swabs aren’t fun, she assures). As registrar, she fine-tuned customer service skills and attention to detail. And as charge nurse, she learned the importance of teamwork and assuming responsibility.
Normally—when it’s not a pandemic—student nurses don’t get a lot of primary care experience, because their clinical experiences tend to focus on acute care.
“This is a real chance for them to see how a primary care, very-specialized clinic works, and to see all the roles that go into making it happen. It gives a different experience than we’ve been able to provide in the past, and it really allows them to understand the full picture of what’s going on,” Dr. Tanner said. “It’s a hopefully once in a lifetime opportunity to work through a pandemic and to provide this service.”
Nursing student volunteer wiping down chair
Student Innovations
In addition to their assigned roles as registrar, tester, and charge nurse, students also kept their eyes and ears open and made an impact on important parts of the testing center processes, center staff said.
One nursing student read the label on a sanitizer bottle and questioned testers taking the swabbed specimens where they needed to go and only then coming back and sanitizing chairs. The instructions said the sanitizer had to sit for a minute before cleaning to be effective. After the student approached staff with that realization, the center process changed. Now, testers spray the chair and let the sanitizer sit while they deliver the specimen. By testers’ return, the sanitizer has done its magic and is ready to be wiped down.
On another occasion, students got the idea to help Spanish-speaking facilities and housekeeping staff on the Virginia campus understand more about COVID in their mother tongue. One of the students, who was fluent in Spanish, provided the text for the educational materials. “The students felt that it was very important to do this project,” Deyo said. “It was so well received.”
“The students were really picking up on knowledge deficits among groups of people coming in to get tested and were able to put together educational materials to address that,” Dr. Tanner said. “They served a really good role. They were the ones who noticed that and brought it to the faculty, who were overseeing and working with them.”
In another instance, students suggested minimizing the distance between the donning and doffing site and testing booths, so they wouldn’t have to walk through the entire testing center in full PPE. A new, closer space was identified, with the students’ help, and students set it up, sanitized it, and arranged supplies, Deyo said.
In normal times, students have less of an opportunity to bring fresh sets of eyes and ears in their clinicals and to provide feedback that revolutionizes processes, according to Dr. Tanner.
“Absolutely, there are people who may have those ideas, but the nature of this being a new clinic, really gave them more a sense of freedom to go ahead and say, ‘Hey. I’m seeing this,’” he said. “When you’re a student and you’re going into a well-established clinical site, you see something, but you may wonder why they do that. You may ask that question, but it’s not going to be very typical—I certainly know that as a student I wouldn’t have felt comfortable being like, ‘Hey. You guys should change this.’”
Nursing student administering flu vaccine
Looking Ahead
As Dr. Drenkard thinks back on all that GW was able to accomplish with its COVID testing, she thinks the university sits squarely in the top tier of those who showed leadership in pandemic management and surveillance. “The capacity to stand something up quickly and to use students who are in clinical training as a resource—these are all really important assets,” she said.
Dr. Drenkard also thinks that the testing center broadcasts an important and broad message about nursing. “As a profession, we’ve struggled a little bit to really shine as leaders, and this was an example of a combination of so many things going together,” she said. “Nursing and nurses taking on leadership and a nurse-led testing site and center shows what can happen and shows people what nurses are capable of.”
There will almost certainly be testing in some form over the summer, and the hope is that need will greatly reduce by the fall.
Now that COVID vaccinations are more prominent, the testing center has shifted to reduced hours. But there is still a potential role the center will play in vaccinations going forward.
It was able to do that with a flu vaccine clinic that the Nursing School stood up adjacent to the COVID-19 testing center, which provided flu vaccines in two weeks to everyone reporting to the Virginia campus who wasn’t already vaccinated. “The thing that we could really look at and see how we can incorporate is working on vaccination clinics,” Dr. Tanner said.
“It’s great to know we can do it on such a short time frame and make it effective. We hope that we don’t have to do it again that quickly,” he said of the COVID testing center. “Academics are made to move kind of slow and deliberate; it’s not the same thing as the clinical environment. But knowing that we were able to do that is a great thing to know and if we have a similar situation—which goodness I hope we don’t—it’s great to know that we were able to do that.”
Dr. Sakallaris agreed. “There’s going to be another crisis at some point, so this is the lesson that I would take away from that: When there’s a crisis looming, take a look at what your students can do, what can they learn from this, and how can we marry those two things. I think that’s been the most valuable thing,” she said.
“When there is a crisis, when there is something new going on, it’s a significant opportunity for learning for your students. Use that. Staffing this with student nurses is unique,” she added. “Other places have tested college students, but they’ve used contract labor and that sort of thing. I don’t know of any other place that has used their student nurses.”
And, of course, their flu vaccination clinic is likely to return in future flu seasons, as it has operated in the past. “It is a really good opportunity for student nurses to do IM (intramuscular) injections,” Deyo said.
To address non-nursing challenges students face while in school, GW Nursing has added two professional advisers to its Office of Student Affairs.
Chloe Harner works with students from the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, and Hannah Hahn is the adviser for graduate students.
“Professional advisers offer students support and have a clear understanding of program, school and university policies and procedures,” said Jennifer Hayes-Klosteridis, assistant dean for student affairs.
Both Ms. Harner and Ms. Hahn are trained by the National Academic Advising Association and assist students with completing necessary paperwork, registering for courses and navigating degree requirements.
“Our job is to make sure students are in good shape and have the right information when they need it,” Ms. Hahn said.
In addition to ensuring all degree requirements are met, Ms. Hahn said professional advisers help students take “a holistic view of academic life.” Advisers can offer suggestions and resources to help students successfully complete their degrees no matter what challenges they may encounter, she said.
“I’m good at helping people adjust to an accelerated program and be a successful student. I’m not a nurse, so I haven’t been through everything students are going through. For that, they have a faculty mentor,” Ms. Harner said.
With offices at the school’s Virginia Science and Technology Campus location, both advisers are readily available to students.
