02-02-2025 Edu - Flipbook - Page 4
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The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, February 2, 2025
Notre Dame’s nursing program provides opportunities for students to interact with other health care students.
Every first-time student at Salisbury is required to take the new First Year Seminar course.
NDMU nursing students collaborate with Loyola's speech pathology students.
Experience matters
Experiential learning programs attractive
for students and employers
By Lisa Baldino, Contributing Writer
T
here is no question that experiential
learning is critical for today’s job seekers.
“Experiential learning” is just as it sounds
– learn from experience. The programs
are taking the academics and theory students
have learned and giving them the opportunity
to apply that knowledge in a real or simulated
setting. It’s on-the-job training – before the job.
Three local universities offer full-bodied programs to meet experiential learning demands.
The programs are rich in skill-building and
advanced in confidence-giving.
Salisbury University introduced a new general education curriculum this fall that includes
significant updates to current classes and several
fresh courses designed to expand the ways that
students think. Melissa Granger, assistant vice
president of academic affairs and student success, says every first-time student is required
to take the new First Year Seminar course. For
this course, faculty have turned their passions
into an experience that introduces the students
to college-level thinking and prepares them for
success in their subsequent courses, Granger
explains.
Acknowledging the volume of work by the
Salisbury University faculty to bring this program to fruition, Granger says, “Every general
education course offered this fall has been reinvented and reevaluated – even the ones they’ve
been teaching for years. It’s been difficult but
important work, and our students will benefit
greatly.”
The new curriculum reflects the university's
values and mission, which include the key tenets
of civic and community representation, diversity
and inclusion and environmental sustainability.
“The general education program is focused on
student learning outcomes. We want students
to be intellectually curious and have critical
thinking and reasoning skills,” Granger says.
“We surveyed students, faculty and alumni as
we developed the program. It took a decade to
create and implement the new curriculum.”
Jennifer Nyland, faculty in biology, agrees
with the thorough approach to the new curriculum, noting, “This demonstrates the commitment Salisbury University has to educate
students to be good citizens of the community.”
She explains that the second new requirement
for all general education students is an upperlevel experiential learning course or capstone.
“It’s not necessary for the project to be within
their major,” she explains. “In fact, showing how
their studies apply in the real world outside of
their major goes back to the goal of improving
critical thinking.”
The University of Maryland, Baltimore, has
implemented a fellowship training program for
school-based mental health services that has
proven beneficial to both students and the
health community. Students who are pursuing
degrees in social work are placed in Maryland
K-12 schools, where they can supply high-level
mental health support. Students must commit to
working two years in a community school after
graduation.
Director of Social Work Community
Outreach Services (SWCOS) Student Education
at The Center for Restorative Change Temeka
Bailey, Ph.D., says everyone wins with this
training. “K-12 students benefit from increased
access to mental health services from qualified
individuals who reflect their race and cultural
identities; graduate fellows benefit from assistance in mitigating the financial barriers in education and receiving relevant training to prepare
them for their role as well rounded school-based
social workers; and community partners benefit
from the pool of potential new hires who are
specifically trained to address the mental health
needs of marginalized students.”
Thanks to grant funding received in 2022,
the university can offer a fellowship of $15,000
with a stipend of $8,000. The program graduated 17 students in 2023, and demand is growing.
Nia Speaks, senior business manager working
with Bailey, notes that the school’s goal is to
train 105 students within five years. “We have
more students applying than we have slots.
We are selecting students who believe in social
justice, empowerment and culturally responsive
mental health service in K-12 schools,” Speaks
says. The coming 2025 semester already has a
full roster of 30 students, chosen from among
70 applicants.
The directors say the school will need
additional funding to continue. According to
Speaks, 10 out of 11 students who completed
the program are employed. Some get hired
from their internships and others use the university’s resources to access a network of contacts. Through a partnership with UMBC and
Coppin State University, students are identified
for the work program, the school presents a
virtual career fair, and students have access to
the program after graduation as they pursue
their licensing.
“We want to eliminate barriers that hold
back seriously genuine students – issues like day
care, transportation or materials. They learn
from each other. They foster a community,”
Speaks explains. “We provide support to students from the starting line to the finish line.”
What better learning experience can nursing students get than their clinical rotation at
local medical organizations? At Notre Dame of
Maryland University’s school of nursing’s center
for caring with technology, students are preparing for the evolving nursing profession with the
implementation of technology in their daily
practice. The center is a simulation lab, presenting students with expected scenarios using
technically savvy state-of- the-art mannequins
that are responsive to student care.
The center boasts two health assessment
rooms, two medical-surgery rooms, and 12
mannequins programmed to present with
The Caroline Center's certified nursing assistant students work with NDMU's school of nursing students.
Christina Dargakis, third from right, is a nursing student in her junior year at Notre Dame.
symptoms and respond by talking to the student nurses. It also offers state-of-the-art 3G
simulation. Jeanie Anastasi, clinical simulation
lead educator for the center for caring with
technology, says students use the health assessment rooms to learn about certain symptoms
displayed by the mannequins. The students have
treatment supplies, and they recommend care
based on the symptoms. They then debrief, with
the entire process happening just like in real life.
Christina Dargakis, a nursing student in
her junior year at Notre Dame, says, “The highfidelity mannequins are set to perform things
like crying or displaying heart symptoms. The
functions allow us to work with technology and
they are beneficial to our experience. It allowed
me to identify problems with the patient and
sharpen my skills before going to live patients.”
Anastasi says the nursing program also
realizes the importance of the interprofessional component of treatment, and it provides
opportunities for students to interact with other
health care students. The school specifically
partners with The Caroline Center’s certified
nursing assistant students and Loyola University
Maryland’s speech-language pathology students.
“I had a wonderful experience with the Caroline
Center,” Dargakis notes. “I learned special skills,
and we all learned from each other by taking
care of a simulated patient.”
Anastasi notes these interprofessional
opportunities will be further emphasized when
the school gets mannequins that simulate stroke
patients this fall. In stroke cases, “it is crucial
that everyone works together within their roles.
They’ll learn how to do that and keep the patient
safe.”
She continues, “We want our nurses to have
the skills, clinical knowledge and practice partners to allow them a more holistic approach.
We want them to start their careers with a full
understanding of the caring science approach
to nursing.”
What more can one ask for in an experience?
