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> CON Office of
Research & Scholarship >Supported Projects
Enhancing Rural Health with Clinical Nurse Specialists
PI: Charlene “Charlie”
Winters, DNSc, APRN, BC
Associate Professor
winters@montana.edu
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CO-PI: Wade Hill, PhD, RN
Assistant Professor
whill@montana.edu |
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View The College of Nursing's CNS Option click here |
| The purpose of the proposed project is to enhance
advanced nursing education and practice by developing, implementing
and evaluating a new distance-delivered Clinical Nurse Specialist
option with two specialties: Community/Public Health Nursing
and Care of Adults with Complex Acute and Chronic Health Problems.
The project addresses issues of quality and culturally-sensitive
health care for citizens in one of the most remote areas of
the nation. The objectives of the project incorporate the goals
of Healthy People 2010, National Goals I and II and linkages
with health care and educational organizations to accomplish
the following: 1) Improve access to quality, cost-effective
health care for rural and under-served populations by increasing
the number of students who enter, graduate and become certified
as clinical nurse specialists. 2) Expand geographic access
to graduate education for place-bound nurses in Montana. 3)
Develop an ongoing assessment system for evaluating distance-delivered
graduate instruction for clinical nurse specialists. 4) Contribute
to quality health care for under-served minorities by increasing
access to a culturally competent and sensitive workforce,
and 5) Increase course offerings and opportunities to prepare
graduates for nursing education roles.
To achieve the purpose and objectives, project activities
are designed to develop, implement and evaluate CNS curricula
that will prepare students in both specialties to take ANCC
certification examinations. Project staff will: garner student
and program support from the health care and nursing education
community; distance-deliver CNS education to four campuses
of the College of Nursing using a variety of synchronous and
asynchronous distance education technologies; and partner
with Carroll College to add a delivery site in Helena, Montana.
Other major project activities focus on increasing culturally-relevant
content in the curricula and recruiting minority students
and faculty. Funding preference and special consideration
are requested because the project will substantially benefit
rural and under-served communities and populations and will
increase access to advanced nursing education for place-bound
rural students through the use of distance strategies. |
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