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June 13, 2024 19 mins
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(00:02):
iHeartMedia Presents CEOs you should know.I am John Dinkell, former president publisher
of the Baltimore Business Journal and nowfounder and CEO of Dnkle Business Development.
This is Iheartradios CEOs you should know, and I'm here today with Vanessa Villas,
Graduate Program Director, School of Nursingat Stevenson University and Stevenson University Online.

(00:22):
Welcome to us, sun and thanksfor being here. Thanks so much
for having me me Hey, lookingforward to our conversation a little bit,
learning a little bit more. Iought to start out with getting to know
you and the organization a bit.So for those who may not be familiar,
could you tell us about Steveson UniversityOnline and it's various nursing programs.

(00:42):
Absolutely. Stevenson University Online has anonline undergraduate nursing program for there two of
them. There's an rn t BSfor working nurses who have an associate's degree
and want to get their backalorate degree. We also have great partnerships with local
community colleges and we have an ATBwhich is Associates to Bachelors where students who

(01:07):
are getting their Associates degree in nursingare also able at the same time to
start working toward their bachelor's degree innursing. And then the other program that
we have online is my program,the Master's in Nursing program, which is
for working nurses who already have theirbachelor's degree and are ready to take the
next step in their education. Wehave four concentrations in the program. We

(01:30):
have Leader Manager Education, Population basedCare Coordination, and Forensic Nursing. Excellent,
excellent, Thank you? And what'syour mission? Stevenson University Online provides
high quality, really accessible and flexibleeducation to working nursing professionals. Our aim
is to enhance their skill and theirknowledge through advanced education and with the ultimate

(01:56):
aim of promoting excellence in healthcare andin patient care. Got it? And
what would you say is Steveson UniversitySchool Nursing known for I think we're really
known for our commitment to developing competent, compassionate, ethical nursing professionals by providing
a high quality education with a personaltouch. I think that personal touch is

(02:22):
really an important part of cornerstone ofour programs. Yeah, I would imagine
that would be especially you know,the going into that particular profession and having
you know, so much contact withthe public. And I imagine having that
personal approach is you know, kindof nice and fits in well with with

(02:43):
the role and the job. Rightit is because nursing is relational and nursing
education is similarly relational. Got it? And how many students does this steveson
University Online Nursing program accommodate. Wecan accommodate as many students as are accepted

(03:04):
in the graduate nursing program. Weoffer start dates in the fall in the
spring, and we can offer morethan one cohort as needed based on enrollment.
And that's true for the undergraduate programsas well. If you are accepted,
we can accommodate you, and wewill open more sections to accommodate everybody
who wants to be here. Gotit? Okay? Yeah, And talk

(03:25):
a little bit about like those advantagesof that online program modality. The online
modality has proven, especially in thelast several years with COVID, incredibly effective
because we are able to be flexibleand accessible. Nurses can continue working while

(03:47):
they are pursuing their degrees, whichis not something that they can do everywhere,
right, right, And are youseeing enrollment numbers climb especially you know,
you know, I know, it'sbeen a couple of years since you
know, uh, you know,the since COVID and the pandemic really hit
and there was a big, youknow, kind of nursing shortage, and

(04:10):
you know, there's just a lotof a lot going on there. Are
you seeing enrollment numbers climbing and whatwhat you feel is the trend moving forward
in the industry? We are weare seeing in our graduate nursing program queries
and application numbers are climbing. AndI think it's partially due to the flexibility
that the online modality offers, andI think it's also partially due to nurses

(04:35):
wondering what their next step may be. Where else could they go in there
with their nursing career. Yeah,because it became really big, the kind
of traveling, the nursing opportunities,I guess for a lot of folks,
right, is that still kind oftrending? And are you seeing some people

(04:56):
getting into the profession because they can, you know, do six months in
Colorado, I go to do sixmonths somewhere else. Is that still a
thing or not as much? Toanymore? It is less a thing now
than it was during the peak ofthe pandemic. Travel nursing has been and
will continue to be something that isa real thing in nursing, and fewer

(05:20):
nurses at this point are looking todo travel nursing. I actually teach some
of the incoming freshmen in the falland one of the things we ask them
on their first day is why nursingAnd some of them say because I want
to be a travel nurse and travelaround and most of them don't. Interesting.

(05:41):
Okay, thanks, appreciate you goingover that. Can you explain the
concentrations offered in the Master's Nursing programand how they influence the care path that
graduate state after graduation. Absolutely so. The Masters in Nursing Education students learn
topics like curriculum development and evaluation,innovative use of technology and education, and

(06:06):
how to assess learning and offer feedback. And graduates from the education concentration work
as educators in hospitals or in nursingprograms, and we also offer a Nursing
Education certificate. The second concentration isNursing Leadership and Management, where students focus

(06:28):
on the business of healthcare in courseslike healthcare Finance and organization. You're in
healthcare and graduates from this concentration workas nurse managers, program directors, directors
of nursing or chief nursing officers.Got it, neat? What are what
are the most popular concentrations? Andin your opinion, you know, what

(06:49):
do you think studentscribtate to this?We have two more concentrations I haven't gotten
to mention to you yet. Ourthird one is popular based Care Coordination,
which is a population health focus whichhas nurses working outside of the acute care
setting as working in epidemiology in healthcarecenters, in the health department. And

(07:15):
then our final concentration is forensic nursing, where nurses after graduating, they will
work as sexual assault forensic nurse examiners. They'll work in emergency departments. One
of our graduates works with the policein anti trafficking. They're just great.
And so our two largest concentrations arethe Nursing Education concentration and Nursing Leadership and

(07:42):
Management concentration. I think that thoseare the more traditional roles that nurses tend
to look toward and end up in, is as an educator or a leader.
Gotcha, okay? And what's theCoen scholars program and what kind of
students does that appeal to The Coenscholars program is a wonderful opportunity funded by
Maryland's Nurse Support program. In Maryland, the state supports nursing in ways that

(08:07):
other states don't. We're very luckyhere. And the Coen Scholarship is designed
for high achieving nursing students who demonstratepotential in education and a commitment to teaching
in nursing, either in a nursingprogram or as a nurse educator in a
hospital after graduation. It offers themfull tuition, support and mentoring and a

(08:30):
lot of benefit while they're in theprogram in return for service payback in the
form of teaching after they graduate.Got neat, thanks for sharing that.
And I know we talk a lotabout the programs, but who's a typical
nursing student at seams in the universityonline. Our nursing students are. They're

(08:50):
working professionals. They are currently workingas either bedside nurses or they may have
already started to work in education,in population health or as a leader,
and achieving their masters helps them havethe competencies to do those roles even better.
And they are people who are managingall of the complexities that we all

(09:16):
manage in our lives. They carefor children or parents, they work full
time, and they often are choosingour program because of the flexibility that allows
them to continue to work and tobalance work, study and personal commitments.
They can really study at times atwork for their life. They don't have
to take time to commute, andconnecting with their faculty, their peers,

(09:37):
and the educational content is as easyas logging into their computer wherever they are.
Got it cool. Thank you appreciatesharing all that. So switch gears
a little bit. Tell us alittle bit about your background and how you
gotten this point in your career.Yeah, So I started as a pediatric
intensive care nurs I had a personallike experience where my best friend's daughter was

(10:01):
in the pediatric intensive care and thenurses knocked my fox off, and I
was enrolled by nursing school by thetime that little girl was home. And
so I was working in the pediatricintensive care and found myself doing a lot
of teaching in the form of mostlyat that time, teaching new nurses at

(10:24):
the bedside. We call that precepting, and I loved it, and I
taught them at the bedside and thenI started teaching in the unit's nurse residency
program. I also started teaching inlocal nursing programs, either in the classroom
or in the clinicals, and Ifound that I just it really made my
soul sing, and so I continuedmy education, got my master's and my

(10:45):
doctorate, both focusing on nursing education. And I have been here at Stevenson
for two years and absolutely love gettingto work with nursing professionals taking their next
step. That's awesome. I lovethat. Yeah, thanks, I appreciate
you sharing your story a little bit. I just like talking about kind of
leadership on the show, and youknow, how would you describe your leadership

(11:09):
style. We talked about how nursingand education are both relational, and it's
funny my nursing highly relational as well. It's very inclusive, it's very supportive.
I focus on empowering the people aroundme, fostering collaboration, and always

(11:31):
encouraging continuous improvement. And with thegeneral threat of the pandemic over I know,
obviously we're probably be living with itfor the rest of our lives.
But if you were to look backover the past two or three years,
you know what do you feel youlearned most about communication and you know,
managing people. Yeah, the pandemictaught us a lot, didn't the leading

(11:56):
during the pandemic, The most valuablelessons I came away with were being flexible
because the information was changing around usmoment to moment, and so the team
I was leading at the time,they couldn't really count on anything because everything

(12:16):
I would say would be changing,but they always knew that what I was
giving them was the most up todate information. So that kind of flexibility
to be continuously adapting, and thenespecially to be agile. We needed to
be able to shift and pivot howwe were doing things to be able to
continue to provide effective care to ourpatients, So being flexible, being agile,

(12:39):
and adaptive, and then for me, the importance of clear communication and
transparency that those daily meetings I hadwith my team to tell them what the
update for today was and what theup to date update for this afternoon is,
so that they always know what isthe information that they need that impacts
them and the work they need todo. I think the pandemic it really

(13:01):
highlighted the need for adaptive strategies andespecially for us to support staff re vialiency
through unprecedented challenges, and to supportthem in ways we hadn't been able to
or even thought to in the past. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting.
You bring up a good point,or a lot of good points, but
one that kind of sticks out tome is a transparency piece. And I

(13:24):
hear this every now and then whenI'm talking to other you know, leaders
and organizations about you know, thepandemic almost taught us how to be a
little bit more transparent because we kindof we had to. We had to
communicate better. We had to communicateopen and openly and honestly and just try
to be transparent about what's happening andwhat's going on because it just, you

(13:48):
know, affected your employees so inso many ways. And so I think
that's a really good Now we've alwaysbeen a fan of being as transparent as
possible and you know, and leadingthrough that because you know your your team
and you should have that obviously,that all that information at your disposal,
and they should be given that informationso they not only can do the gods,

(14:13):
but also just be they know they'rea part of that. You're they're
a part of the success, andthey're part of downtime sometimes and all that,
and I just I'm such a bigbeliever in that stuff. Absolutely.
I think that transparency and it wasinteresting for me when I was a younger
leader learning about transparency. For me, it really it's not telling everybody everything.

(14:33):
It's making sure that everybody knows theinformation that impacts them and the work
they're going to need to do.Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
exactly, Yeah, thank you appreciatethat. I love that. So we'll
get too excited about the seams inuniversity online nursing programs, Yeah, it's

(14:54):
really exciting. We continue to innovateour programs. The graduate nursing program is
undergoing a full curricular overhaul to ensurethat our educational experience is rich. That
we're leveraging the experience and the valueour students bring to the table, and
we'll use that as foundational content tobuild their knowledge and to demonstrate their learning

(15:18):
in new and creative ways. Andwe're also layering in innovative ways for students
to meet the learning objectives. Forexample, an assignment might say, here
are the things that here the objectivesfor this unit. Show me how you've
met them, and here are thefour different options you can choose to do

(15:39):
it. It's not always just writinga paper and writing a paper and writing
a paper. We're giving them optionsfor what works best for you and your
learning style and how do you wantto show me this? Yeah, that's
cool. Where do you see,you know, artificial intelligence, you know,
kind of coming into your programs ifat all? Oh, absolutely,

(16:00):
it's there. So for all ofour concentrations, it's there because it's a
great tool, and it's incumbent onus to help our students learn how to
use it effectively and ethically. Sofor students who have different learning differences,
who maybe have trouble getting started writing, generative AI might really be useful in

(16:22):
helping them write an outline to kindof get their thoughts moving right. And
it's really about showing helping them understandhow to use it to their benefit and
make sure that the work that they'reproducing is really their own. At the
other end of it, and thenin our education concentration, another aspect of
it is how do we teach ourfuture educators to teach people about AI and

(16:45):
how do we teach our future educatorsto look for AI in the work that
their students are submitting. So that'sanother component that we're looking at in the
education concentration. Got it very cool, Thank you and ask you about kind
of what gets excited? So whatkeeps you up at night? Yeah,
so there's always that too, rightthe other side of the coin, I

(17:07):
think the major challenge in nursing educationis keeping up with the rapid changes in
healthcare and in editation technology. Healthcareeducation doubles rapidly. I think there was
something and it used to be calculatedmore frequently. I haven't found an update
since like twenty fourteen, but healthcareinformation, I think in twenty fourteen was

(17:30):
estimated to double it in like fortytwo or fifty two days. And we
know that that has continued to advance, and we know that the pandemic accelerated
that even further. The challenge forus, with healthcare changing as rapidly as
it does, we need to changeas well the changes in healthcare and also

(17:52):
in education technology to make sure thatwe are current and relevant. And long
term challenges involved really meeting the evolvingneeds of the healthcare workforce. Who's coming
to nursing, Who are our nursesright now? And is our program meeting
them where they are? And that'sthe way that we can ensure that our
programs remain both relevant and rigorous.Got it, Got Thank you appreciate sharing

(18:17):
that. Well. To wrap thingsup, is there anything else you'd like
our listeners to know about you andthe SEC and University onlinees various nursing programs.
I think the really important thing Iwant working nurses to know. I
really want them to believe me whenI say you can do it. We

(18:40):
are here to help you. Iknow it can be daunting to go back
to school to consider adding more toyour already full plate. We know that
we can help you and you cando this. Awesome. And lastly,
tell us how to find more informationabout SCENES and University Online and it's nursing
programs. You would go to Stevensondot edu slash online to find more information

(19:06):
about our online nursing programs and toconnect with an enrollment counselor who can walk
you through the application process. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for
that. That was really a pleasuretalking to you and learning more about students
and university's nursing programs. And Iactually on the President's Advisory Council there.
It's a great organization. Great schooland you guys do a lot of great

(19:26):
work. So thank you so muchfor taking the time to talk with me
today. Thank you so much.It's been a pleasure to talk to you.
This has been iHeartMedia CEOs. Youshould know
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