April 9, 2021
Ursuline's Breen School of Nursing and Health Professions together with Cleveland Clinic received the 2021 Ohio League of Nursing (OLN) Innovation Award in recognition of a perioperative immersion experience jointly developed for nursing students.
The award was officially presented by Dr. Deborah Lindell, Chair of the OLN Awards Committee, at the OLN Virtual Awards Ceremony on April 8, 2021.
“The OLN’s Nursing Innovations Award is a fitting tribute to the group effort, led by Associate Professor Laura Goliat, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, to expose our students to the perioperative environment, from scrub-in, to operating room, to recovery," said Patricia A. Sharpnack, DNP, RN, CNE, NEA-BC, ANEF, FAAN, Dean and Strawbridge Professor. "Dr Goliat and her colleagues continually seek innovative ways to bridge the gap between nursing education and nursing practice so as to advance our profession and ensure that our graduates are as prepared as possible to launch their careers as members of health care teams."
Dr. Goliat explained the Immersion Experience is an innovative approach to ensuring Ursuline's undergraduate nursing students are educated in the perioperative setting, integrated from sophomore through to senior year. "We are one of two schools in this region, and likely statewide, that afford our students this excellent experience, and the only college to intentionally integrate the perioperative experience throughout the curriculum."
Students attend classroom sessions taught by operating room nurse-educators at Cleveland Clinic and then are paired, one-on-one, with a perioperative nurse, actively caring for patients together.
"Research has shown that this type of experience improves teamwork and collaboration skills, communication skills, critical thinking skills, and safety and infection control competencies," Dr. Goliat said. "Students continue to rate the experience as extremely valuable to their learning. Being placed at the point-of-care directly with a perioperative nurse has been beneficial to their confidence levels and the care they provide to the postoperative patients on their assigned clinical units."
Linda Gardner, DNP, MEd, RN, CNOR, Surgical Nursing Education Manager at Cleveland Clinic, accepted the OLN award on behalf of the Cleveland Clinic.
The OLN Innovations Award description reads: "The BSONHP, together with the Cleveland Clinic, received the 2021 Ohio League for Nursing Innovations Award on April 8, 2021. This coveted Award recognizes valuable, collaborative accomplishments that have made significant contributions to the emerging frontier in healthcare and to the nursing needs of the people of Ohio."
Dr. Sharpnack added, “I thank Dr. Goliat and the following faculty who have worked diligently to make this innovative combined classroom and clinical experience so meaningful: Ebony Drummer, MSN, RN; Shannon Pifher, MSN, RN; Bonnie Fellows, MSN, RN; Kimberly Dillon Bleich, PhD, RN; Laura Tramer, MSN, APRN, CNP; and Kendra Duran, MSN, RN, CNML.
"Everyone on these academic and practice teams demonstrated outstanding and innovative leadership skills by effectively collaborating together to develop various aspects of this student immersion project including, but not limited to: 1) developing perioperative modules and stations for students to gain practice in safety and sterile technique, 2) facilitating student interaction with members of the interdisciplinary team, 3) engaging students, one-on-one, with preoperative area, intraoperative and postoperative nurse preceptors, and many other areas," Dr. Sharpnack said.
