Speaker: Jennifer Johnson Edwards, Interim Associate Dean/Associate Professor, Fayetteville State University
What new learning strategies & resources have you implemented to prepare nurses with stronger skills in leadership, well-being, & self-care?
Jennifer Johnson Edwards: Since receiving grant funding from AACN and Johnson and Johnson, we have been able to implement a number of strategies and use new resources in the School of Nursing at Fayetteville State to support resilience, leadership well-being. We completed stress first aid training with over 100 individuals on our campus and from across the region, we have implemented a wellness journaling competition for students and provided the journals, we provided them with several books on wellness and resilience. We also have to been able to develop a meditation and wellness focused room for staff. We also have done multiple lunch and learn sessions with both students and faculty to support this initiative.
What AACN Essentials competencies are you preparing nurses with these new learning strategies?
Jennifer Johnson Edwards: In our project at FSU, we were focusing on two very specific domains and very specific sub competencies. The first domain that we were focusing on was domain two: person-centered care. And within that domain, we were focusing specifically on sub competency 2.8, which was promoting self-care management. Additionally, we were focusing on domain 10, which is personal, professional and leadership development. And within that domain, we focused on sub competency 10.1, which was demonstrating a personal commitment to health and well-being.
What have been the greatest successes or surprises you have had during the implementation of these new learning strategies?
Jennifer Johnson Edwards: I think that our most impactful success was the stress first aid training that we collaborated with a number of partners in bringing to our campus. We partnered with our State Nursing Organization and the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Council, as well as our Department of Social Work, multiple student organizations, and the Office of Student Affairs, and being able to provide this interprofessional training for close to 125 individuals for free. And so that was very impactful, we believe, and probably the most impactful in terms of numbers reached. Another success was just the fact that faculty and students were enthusiastic about learning more about how to be resilient and how to be well and enhance self-care. That was very exciting to see.
What partnerships or collaborations are your nursing school leveraging to extend & sustain the integration of your school’s new curriculum?
Jennifer Johnson Edwards: We have a number of initiatives that we are seeking to sustain as we move out of this project. We have established a wellness room for faculty that houses a massage chair, red light therapy, aromatherapy. We also also are seeking external funding to support the development of a learning enhancement center for students, and if that is developed, we will have a wellness and self-care resilience-type component for students within that center. We also are continuing to build our academic practice partnership focus to carry these things over into practice. We have a clinical instructor partner program and with our local healthcare center and we are working actively with two CIPs this semester that are employed with the hospital and they're teaching clinical for our students.
How do you envision these new skills and competencies benefiting nurses entering professional practice and the healthcare system as a whole?
Jennifer Johnson Edwards: I believe that the skills and competencies that we have focused on in this grant project will be extremely impactful for new nurses and and greatly enhance the health care system and the quality of care that they provide. As nurses, we're taught to care for self as we would our patients. But given the demands of the profession, such as nurse patient ratios, many times it's challenging even for seasoned nurses. So, it's especially important in new graduates and new nurses entering the profession, have to stress to them to care for themselves. Doing so and going into the workforce is going to enhance the safety of the care, the quality of the care that's provided, and overall, the health care outcomes for the patients and populations that are served.
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