Dr. Kelly Smith was there when it was nothing but bare walls and floors.
In the fall of 2021, Dr. Smith, Dean and Associate Professor, School of Nursing at Southern University at New Orleans (SUNO) was the first faculty member hired to start a brand-new undergraduate Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program.
And once the program was approved, it was full speed ahead.
“We received initial approval at the end of June 2022,” explained Dr. Smith. “And the Chancellor was anxious to get started, so he wanted us to admit the first cohort to start in the fall semester of 2022.”
According to Dr. Smith: “We were building it and driving it all at the same time.”
The inaugural cohort admitted in August 2022 was made up of 10 students, all of whom are still in the program. Dr. Smith calls them “The Tenacious 10.” The number of students who were admitted to the program in year two more than doubled to 24.
Increasing Diversity in the Nurse Workforce
SUNO is unique in that it is the only public HBCU (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) in the Greater New Orleans area offering a BSN program. The traditional BSN prelicensure program makes the degree very affordable in comparison to other nursing programs offered in the area.
“Our mission is to provide a pathway to attract people of color and increase the number of diverse nurses in the workforce to serve the predominantly African-American community in the Greater New Orleans area,” said Dr. Smith.
“So, along with satisfying and helping them be a solution to the workforce shortage, we want to increase the number of diverse nurses that are entering the profession to serve a community that also looks like them.”
Elsevier 360 Covers the Full Nursing Learning Journey
Fortunately, Dr. Smith found a great partner in Elsevier. Their 360 program solution provides the support students need at every stage of the learning journey, from building foundational knowledge and learning to apply clinical judgment to assessing content mastery and preparing for the NCLEX® and clinical practice.
“The infrastructure needed to be built out, we had to develop the course objectives, we had to look at the curriculum and how it would build going from basic nursing concepts to more complex, involved in-depth knowledge of nursing practices,” Dr. Smith remembers.
“As the [Elsevier] rep started introducing me to all the different books and I did some comparison with other publishing companies, it just made a lot of sense to be consistent across the curriculum,” says Dr. Smith.
“But not only that, when I was introduced to the digital products that Elsevier offered, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a no-brainer’ as an adjunct or a supplement to what we’re teaching in the classroom and through the actual textbooks. We know that students will need additional support.”
“360 was just a great solution that we needed to stand up the curriculum and get started rapidly,” she added. “Elsevier provides the technical support. They’re patient, and they provided nurse educators to help us get up to speed rather quickly.”
Elsevier 360 Offers Flexibility for Students
As the majority of students at SUNO are “non-traditional” students and have many other commitments in their lives, they appreciate the fact that they can log in to complete assignments when they have time in their busy schedules.
“They really value the products in that it helps them to build confidence. They like the ability to also enter into those assignments and work at their own pace,” said Dr. Smith. “It also gives them the ability, if they miss something in class, to come back and seek clarification. It is an extension of the pedagogy that we’re trying to impart in the classroom.”
“They’re able to work through the concepts, learn the concepts, understand the concepts, because there’s just not enough time in the classroom for that.”
And it’s not just the students who appreciate Elsevier 360.
“Faculty love it because it is a complement to what we are trying to transfer over to the students and they value it because you do not have a lot of class time to take a deep dive into all of the concepts,” Dr. Smith adds. Faculty would have an uproar if we tried to do something different.”
Dr. Kelly Smith
As an administrator, Dr. Smith appreciates the robust tools in the Elsevier 360 platform, including the Program Success Dashboard. “Another beauty is the ability to have a dashboard to trend data and identify gaps or weaknesses in our curriculum and go back and reassess and actually make some changes for the better,” she says.
Dr. Smith concluded: “Every year we are building and opening new courses until we have the full complement, which won’t be built out until May of 2025.”
As the Nursing program at SUNO grows, Elsevier 360 will be there with them.
Request a demo to learn more about how Elsevier 360 can support your nursing students and faculty.
