NLN's Peer Reviewed Journal Nursing Education Perspectives Offers Glimpse into Nursing Education in a Post-Katrina World
Dr. Jane Sumner, a member of the NLN Board of Governors and associate professor and acting associate dean for undergraduate programs at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing tells the remarkable story of how this school of nursing in New Orleans fought to regain its footing
New York, NY (PRWEB) July 23, 2007
In the latest issue of Nursing Education Perspectives, the respected peer-reviewed bi-monthly journal of the National League for Nursing, Dr. Jane Sumner, a member of the NLN Board of Governors and associate professor and acting associate dean for undergraduate programs at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, recounts the dramatic story of how students, faculty, and administration struggled to function off-site for a full year before returning to their home in New Orleans, following the devastating destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina.
From the time the levees were first breached in August 2005, recalled Dr. Sumner, the commitment to educating the next generation of nurses and nurse educators remained unwavering, even if that meant operating for a time in makeshift facilities and relying on the kindness of colleagues in other academic and clinical settings for a variety of critical needs.
Of the year spent in Baton Rouge, Dr. Sumner writes:
"It was an odd experience to teach in a movie theater. We felt dwarfed by our PowerPoints, which loomed overhead on a huge screen, while with no place to put material we did an odd sort of juggling dance to follow our own notes, manage the PowerPoint, and ensure that our students remained engaged.
"But, even as we functioned during that first year, we discovered the loneliness of not having a formal organization and a building to go to on a regular basis. We had not appreciated the function of the ordinary socialization that happens when colleagues gather."
While now back in New Orleans, a city far from restored to normalcy, the LSUHSC School of Nursing continues to provide a first-rate education. As Dr. Sumner observed, program undergraduates are returning to take master's and doctoral level courses, in tribute to their remarkable teachers who have modeled professional dedication. She noted:
Once again we are using evening and night shifts with clinical part-time faculty. But we are managing, and the students are gaining excellent experience. They are learning, in a very direct way, the flexibility, adaptability, and agility needed for practice in nursing today.
Dr. Sumner's full account in Nursing Education Perspectives of how, in those early days after the hurricane, nursing education kept on course within the LSUHSC system and how, surprisingly, the catastrophe provided a unique opportunity to plan a refashioned school of nursing, is attached.
Reporters/Editors: For interview opportunities, please call Karen R. Klestzick, chief communications officer at the NLN, at (212) 812-0376 or email kklestzick@nln. org.
Dedicated to excellence in nursing, the National League for Nursing is the premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education offering faculty development, networking opportunities, testing and assessment, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 22,000 individual and 1,100 institutional members.
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