Itawamba Community College Program Review Career-Technical and Health Science Programs I. Program Information 1. Name of Program Associate Degree Nursing 2. Submission Date of Program Review 6/29/2011 (ex. 01/23/2009) 3. Name of Director or Coordinator Melisa Lepard 4. Purpose Statement for the Program (This can be found on CHIEF) The Associate Degree Nursing Program prepares the graduate to function within the scope of practice as a registered nurse. 5. How does the purpose of the program support the overall mission/purpose of the College as adopted by the Board of Trustees? (Mention College goals that show a linkage to your program. Mission and Institutional Goals can be found on CHIEF.) See Chart "Comparison of the Parent Institution and the Nursing Education Unit: Mission and Philosophy" ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 1 of 14
6. List the current Faculty and Staff with their titles for this program. Name Title Earnest Agnew Simulation Specialist Toni Armstrong Jessica Burton Administrative Assistant for AD Nursing Sharon Catledge Martha Davis Mary Ann Fleming-Parker Heather Hancock Joy Hand Janis Howell Melisa Lepard Associate Degree Nursing Program Director & Associate Dean of Nursing Lisa Lippincott Linda Lott Tamar Lucas Angie Morris Robin Phillips Cathy Todd Mary Walden Donna Williams ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 2 of 14
II. Syllabi, Curriculum, and Instruction 6. Are all syllabi current? If NO, explain below. 7. Are students provided with written and clearly stated goals and requirements of each course, the general nature of the course content, and the methods of evaluation to be used in each course? 8. Are grading policies made available to students in this educational program? 9. Is the curriculum sequenced in a manner that is acceptable? 10. Does the curriculum fully satisfy the respective general education core? 11. Does the curriculum contain sufficient and appropriate numbers and types of elective courses? 12. Does the curriculum fully satisfy the educational needs of the students in this major? 13. If any of the curriculum questions were answered with a NO response, state your recommendations for changes in the current curriculum. 14. In the clinical experiences, cooperative agreements, or affiliations with other agencies or institutions utilized in instruction, does the college faculty ultimately control and supervise the student learning? N/A If NO, why not? ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 3 of 14
15. Does the academic preparation of instructional faculty in this program meet accreditation and approving agency standards? If NO, why not? 16. Are the program s faculty routinely involved in professional development and other in-service training? Explain: Faculty are required to obtain all continuing education requirements pertinent to the clinical agency (annual competency) in addition to the college requirements for 15 hours professional development. Faculty attend educational, clinical and technology focused courses. 17. Do instructors in this program devote adequate time to preparation for the courses they teach? 18. Do instructors provide effective academic advising? 19. Is there evidence that program advisory committees meet at least twice annually to provide advice and consultation? Describe the nature of interaction between program faculty and the advisory committee (Give example(s) of advisory input or changes that resulted from the advisory relationship in the last five years.): We meet annually with NMMC, Baptist North Mississippi and MUW. All faculty, nurse managers, and nursing administration are invited to attend. This provides an opportunity to update or share any concerns particularly with graduate performance as well as an opportuity to share any significant curriculum changes. We are all striving to develop that nurse leader that excels in patient care, is professional, loves her job and demonstrates a great work ethic. Every year is a new concern. With input for our healthcare partners, we have made many changes. Most recently the concern has been NCLEX success on the first write, work ethic, appearance and the change in the number of extern and new RN positions. The hospital announced they are decreasing the number of LPNs significantly and replacing with RNs. The philosophy is an FTE is an FTE. Nationally the move to have all AD nursing graduates update to absn.to assist our graduates in obtaining a BSN, we have upgraded our curriculum to include College Algebra beginning fall of 2012. To improve NCLEX success we have implemented a new exit exam that is predictive of success on boards and gives us the opportuity to provide additional instruction based on indivdual performance. The uniforms were changed to reflect a total white professional appearance (previously we had navy aprons over a white uniform) ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 4 of 14
These advisory meetings have always been offerred by the other agencies, this year we are providing an advisory meeting to include not only partners but graduates and other communities of interest. 20. Is there evidence that competencies being taught in this program are the competencies needed to perform in the workforce or at a higher level of education? If yes, how are the competencies determined? The competencies are based on the Mississippi Competency model. This past June we ( deans and directors of schools of nursing ) have adopted the Massachusetts competency model and will begin completing a gap analysis this spring with our communities of interest. This is an outcome form the educational redesgin committee. 21. Are students who complete this curriculum ready for transfer and/or immediate employment in the field? Students and Course Content 22. Are instructors and administrators in this program careful in protecting the security, confidentiality, and integrity of student records? 23. Are appropriate and adequate laboratory experiences provided to supplement and reinforce the subject matter? N/A 24. Do courses in the program use a variety of means to evaluate student performance? Describe examples of student learning assessment (not related to end-ofsemester course grades): we have a formative and summative evaluation that includes class room and clinical performance, laboratory skill evaluation, community service, projects, poster presentations and group presentations. 25. Is the length of this program appropriate for the degree offered? III. SWOT Analysis (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats) 26. What are the program/unit s strengths or strong points? (Strengths are documented with data such as information on number of customers served, program/unit s performance, staff credentials or other factors that contribute to the success of the unit.) The faculty diversity, work ethic, strong support and commitment from ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 5 of 14
administration and the communities of interest. Williams, Walden and Agnew have earned DNP. Davis and Lucas are working on PhD. 27. What are the weaknesses of the program? (Any problems that the program/unit may have encountered in the past are appropriate for this section.) We want every student that enters the nursing program to complete successfully, have a wonderful experience, pass NCLEX on the first write and function as an exemplenary registered nurse. In order to achieve this vision, we are continuously strengthening areas of program selection, faculty selection, retention and graduation. ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 6 of 14
28. What opportunities are available for the program/unit? (Any opportunities for improving the program should be included in this section.) Improving retention and graduation rates. The program will get new facilities on the Tupelo campus when the new Health Science Education Center opens in 2012. 29. What are the threats or difficulties that the program/unit must overcome in the next five years? What is your plan for addressing these threats or difficulties? (If there are changes in the near future that are foreseen as negatively affecting this unit/program, these should be mentioned.) We have outgrown classroom and lab space in the current location. Clinical experiences are becoming more difficult to obtain due to increasing number of schools of nursing utilizing the same institutions. ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 7 of 14
IV. Program Data 30. Data from your program for the previous three years (provided by Office of Institutional Research) Fall Student Enrollment Fall # of Majors Annual Completers Annual Graduates Board Pass CPAS Pass Positive Placement 2008 2009 2010 Duplicated Unduplicated # # # # % # % # % 668 238 226 FT 24 PT 85 82 96% 85 100% 239 FT 729 266 34 PT 101 89 88% 91 90% 244 FT 636 252 105 87 83% 85 81% 33 PT (Enter percentages as decimals and round up. i.e. 75% would be.75 or 74.5% would be.75) 31. Provide an overview of significant results, honors, awards, and milestones achieved, as well as enhancements made to this program in the past five years. Preparing for the NLNAC Accreditation Site Visit which occurs every 8 years. March of 2004 was the last accreditation date for the program. V. Vision 32. State the vision for your program for the next five years or beyond? What goals do you hope to accomplish? "A high quality nursing program that prepares graduates to pass the licensure exam and function as exemplary registered nurses" ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 8 of 14
VI. Utilization of Supportive Resources 33. Does the department of Campus Police adequately support your program? 34. Does the Office of Institutional Research, Effectiveness, & Accountability adequately support your program? 35. Does the Business Office adequately support your program? 36. Does the department of Technology and Information Systems adequately support your program? 37. Does the department of Physical Plant adequately support your program? ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 9 of 14
38. Does the Learning Resource Center adequately support your program? 39. Does the department of Distance Learning adequately support your program? 40. Do ICC sessions for Professional Development adequately support your program? 41. Does the department of Financial Aid adequately support your program? If no, explain why. 42. Does the Student Success Center area of Advising adequately support your program? If no, explain why. The large number of pre-nursing advisees(1500 plus) are very difficult to manage. This past year academic advisors became active in assisting with this process. The bottom line is for entering freshemen regardless of degree requires a math, english, science, humanities, fine arts. Once the students enters the nursing program then an appropriate nursing advisor is assigned. We are moving in that direction. Nursing faculty are assigned curently enrolled nursing students. I hope to continue to strengthen this process across the college. 43. Does the office of Registrar and Admissions adequately support your program? If no, explain why. ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 10 of 14
44. Does the Student Services area of Career Planning adequately support your program? Continue to strengthen the relationship of this opportunity. WE want students to be successful but also realistic with the decisions. 45. Does the Student Success Center area of Tutoring adequately support your program? Currently no services to provide tutoring in the nursing courses. 46. Does the department of Supportive & Disability Services adequately support your program? 47. Does the Bookstore adequately support your program? 48. Does the Student Services area of Housing adequately support your program? 49. Does the department of Student Affairs adequately support your program? ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 11 of 14
50. Does the department of Public Relations and Publications adequately support your program? VII. SACS Principles Compliance Survey Institutional Effectiveness 51. Is there evidence that the effectiveness of instruction is periodically evaluated? 52. Are research-based evaluation processes (e.g., surveys, interviews, analysis of data) used for assessing this program? If yes, list the instruments and other processes used by the program for evaluating effectiveness. 1. course evaluations 2. end of program evaluations 3. graduate questionnaire 4. employer questionnaire 5. 53. Does the use of evaluation processes result in continuous improvement in the program/unit? If yes, describe some of the recent improvements that have come about in response to needs identified through these evaluation processes: 1. A curriculum revision to combine peds/ob and geriatric content to provide more med-surg clinical opportunities during the third semester. This was a result of data from course and graduate evaluations. 2. College algebra as a pre-requsite (effective Fall 2012) was added to allow graduates to complete requirements for their Bachelor degree. This came about through information obtained in graduate evaluations. 3. E-books availability fall 2011 came about from course evaluation information. 4. Smaller classes were implemented from course and program evaluations. 5. Exit exams to improve NCLEX pass rates were a result of employer and graduate evaluations. ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 12 of 14
54. Does the program/unit identify expected annual outcomes for its services; assess whether it achieves these outcomes; and provide evidence of improvement based analysis of those results? Financial Support Facilities 55. If an outcome is not achieved, are documented modifications or improvements made in the unit? 56. Is the number of full-time faculty members employed to teach in this program adequate to support the program effectively? 57. Are there adequate faculty resources provided to the faculty of this program to ensure the quality and integrity of the program? 58. Is adequate financial support available to meet the needs of this program? 59. Is the budget information available on-line to department/division heads? 60. Does the institution operate and maintain physical facilities that are adequate to serve the needs of this educational program? 61. Does the institution take reasonable steps to provide a healthy, safe, and secure environment for this educational program? 62. Are the physical facilities (classrooms, laboratories, etc.) accessible to disabled students? N/A 63. Is the instructional equipment used in this program similar to that used in the workplace or at a higher level of instruction? N/A 64. Does the institution provide and support student and faculty access to adequate library collections as well as to other learning and information resources consistent with the degree offered in this program? ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 13 of 14
SACS PRINCIPLES COMPLIANCE SURVEY (Action Plan) ANY ITEMS ANSWERED WITH A NEGATIVE RESPONSE IN THE SACS COMPLIANCE SURVEY SECTION INDICATE THAT THE INSTITUTION IS OUT OF COMPLIANCE AND MUST BE ACCOMPANIED WITH A WRITTEN PLAN FOR COMPLIANCE ON EACH ISSUE. Provide discussion below for any questions that was assigned a NO answer on the Principles Compliance Survey, and then provide a plan of improvement for each of those questions in the space below. Indicate the question number, your discussion, and the plan of action. ICC Program/Unit Five Year Review Page 14 of 14