Departmental Self Review - UCLA Academic Senate

advanced practice nurses, and educators) who serve as faculty for the clinical subgroup and work with thestudents during the shift the students are present on the unit. All CLs with a MSN degree have beenapproved as Assistant Clinical Professors at the UCLA School of Nursing and assist the UCLA faculty ofrecord for the course in identifying expert (bedside) nurse clinicians for the MECN and generic BSstudents. The CLs work with the expert nurse clinicians to make patient assignments for the students. TheCLs, in close collaboration, and with support from the UCLA course faculty, assess the students’competence in all clinical skills and content knowledge as specified by course evaluation forms. The CLs,along with the UCLA faculty, conduct post-conferences with assigned students and follow the students’progress throughout the quarter. All UCLA faculty and CL are approved by the BRN.Enthusiasm for our graduates from clinical partners has been high, with approximately two thirds(62%) of MECN graduates who want to stay local accepting employment at Clinical Partner hospitals.Students are not required to take the CNL certification exam which was offered April 2008. Of the 30students who sat for the 2-part examination, 25 passed, for an 83% pass rate. UCLA MECN studentspreformed at the national mean or above in five key areas: nursing leadership, clinical care outcomes, careenvironment outcomes, decision making, and information gathering. As far as weaknesses, it is difficultto assess weaknesses of this important new program until we can evaluate pass rates from the NCLEXexamination and survey graduates and employers for evaluation of their performance post-graduation.3. Student Enrollment and Recruitment. Since its inception, the MECN program has hadmany more applications than available positions. In the first two years of enrollment, we averagedapproximately 300-350 applications for 50 positions required to receive state funding from the NurseEducation Initiative; we enrolled 57 and 58 students respectively. The admissions standards are patternedafter those for the MSN specialty programs with modifications for pre-licensure students. In this lastacademic year, the FEC and the Faculty developed and reviewed and updated our policy on graduateadmissions process, which is included in the Announcement (Appendix B) and the SON Pre-licensureStudent Handbook (Appendix K). Recruitment activities include information sessions offered four timesyearly to describe the MECN program and offer information about the application process.4. Student Advisement and Career Planning. In August prior to entering the program, theStudent Affairs Office provides an Orientation Day which includes an overview of campus offices andsupport (Graduate Division, Graduate Students’ Association, Student Health, Psychological Counseling,Biomedical Library) as well as breakout group meetings with students in the MECN program. Eachstudent is assigned an Academic/Faculty advisor who addresses academic issues facing students, as wellas assists students in their social, psychological, and clinical development as professional nurses.B. MSN Advanced Practice Degree Program1. Goals, Rationale and Structure. The Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) MSN program remains ourlargest program with a total of 232 students in 2007, representing 45% of our total student body of 514students. In 2008, MSN enrollment is projected to be 232 students; representing 40% of the total studentbody of 586 students. The APN program prepares students for advanced practice as nurse practitioners,clinical nurse specialists, and nurse administrators with an extensive body of nursing knowledge and a highlevel of competence in a specialized area of nursing and a field of clinical practice. The major areas ofclinical specialization include Acute Care, Oncology, Family, Gerontology, Nursing Administration,Occupational and Environmental Health, Pediatrics, and a subspecialty of Neuropsychiatric Nursing and asubspecialty of Underserved Populations. Due to declining enrollment, since our last review, the NurseMidwifery program was closed to admissions due a loss in funding.The curriculum of the advanced practice areas of study continues to be organized around a primary carecore of courses required of all students (See Appendix B, pages 22-23 in the School of Nursing15