Academic Educator Cherie A. Mavissakalian M.S., RN Niagara County Community College Nursing Division Chair & Professor
Qualifications, Experience and Credentials Cherie A. Mavissakalian M.S., RNearned her Masters of Nursing from SUNY at Buffalo in 1978. She began teaching at NCCC in 1981-1982 school year and has been there ever since. Cherie did have some temporary breaks in service with a couple of leaves of absence to raise her children. Cherie has taught in every semester of the A.A.S. RN program and her areas of expertise include maternity, pediatrics, medical-surgical, math, nutrition and endocrine.
Highlights of the Academic Educator Role Cherie reflects on highlights of her career including “watching the students grow and become nurses realizing their dreams. Succeeding in this rigorous RN program is not a walk in the park.” Cherie looks forward to the nine month post-graduation survey results that inform her where the students are working and if they are continuing their education. She also reviews the state board for nursing results regularly.
Other highlights of Cherie’s career that were not mentioned during the interview include two awards for teaching excellence: The Chancellor’s Award for Academic Excellence which she received in 2014, and the Dr. Carol Jamieson Award received in 2012. This information was found on the NCCC website. The Niagara County Community College (NCCC) Advisory Board for Academic Excellence selected Mavissakalian as the seventh recipient of the Jamieson Award (NCCC.edu). Criteria for the Jamieson Award include; mentoring and support given to other faculty, continuous growth in the field of study, ability to inspire in students independent and original thinking, enthusiasm and vitality in learning and teaching, dedication to the support of academic excellence, and dedication to the college (NCCC.edu). The committee that reviews all materials and makes the final decision based on this criteria includes letters from past and/or current students. According to NCCC website, “Mavissakalian was nominated and selected based on her passion for teaching, engaging students in the learning process, enthusiastically motivating students to participate and advocating for student leadership” (NCCC.edu).
Challenges of the Academic Educator Role Cherie said that students today “sometimes have this attitude of entitlement and want things without putting in the work…students have changed over the years.” Cherie went on to say that there are clear expectations and milestones set and in order to reach the milestones to become a nurse students must adhere to the expectations. Cherie spoke about NCCC’s large nursing program: "The larger you get, the more you risk diluting your standards, the more difficult it becomes to weed out the maybes among the students who want to become nurses," Mavissakalian said (NCCC.edu).
Another issue that is a challenge that we talked about was getting qualified faculty. As the largest nursing school in the area, 217 students are expected to begin the nursing program in the fall of 2015 and the maximum capacity is 230. This interview occurred one month before the semester commences and several vacancies for clinical faculty remain. For accreditation to occur, all faculty including adjunct must be enrolled in a Master’s program. I asked her if once all resources are exhausted is it possible to employ BS or BSN prepared nurses and she said that they did resort to that last year however, they are facing re-accreditation in two years and the surveyors will look at faculty qualifications. Cherie expressed frustration with this because all faculty have to be is enrolled in a Master’s program and many nurses are unwilling to do that.
Future Plans Future Plans for Cherie include retirement. Cherie will step down as the Chair of the Nursing division at NCCC on August 20th 2015, but she has committed to remain involved as a part-time instructor and teach math in nursing in the lab. Cherie’s husband has already retired and she wants to spend more time with her family. The college has asked her to stay on another year but she has decided it is time. She loves to teach math in nursing so she has agreed do that part-time. Cherie she will also serve as a resource to her replacement as the new division chair transitions to her new role. Cherie would also like to do some volunteer work with her church.
Advice to the MSNE Student Cherie’s advice to me as a new nurse educator changing career trajectory is to maintain my high standards for nursing and remember we are the gateway to the nursing profession. We need caring individuals that are in tune to the patient. Students today are “on their computers and phones too much” and it feels as if there is a generation that does not know how to communicate in-person let alone with patients at their most vulnerable time. Cherie also stated that safety including infection control is so important to protect our patients, and relayed a private story about a recent visit to a hospital with her husband.
REFLECTION Cherie is one of those people that you can sit and have a conversation with and feel as though you have known her your entire life. The students fondly refer to her as Mrs. Mavi. The interview was informal and easy. At different times since 1992, I have personally worked with the RN and LPN students at NCCC in the lab and in the clinical setting with Cherie as the Nursing Division Chair for some of those years. One of Cherie’s duties was to come to the clinical sites for the evaluation of adjunct faculty, and she has always been supportive and available for questions or issues. Cherie is an accomplished and award winning Nurse Educator and I was fortunate to have this interview before she retires.
Clinical Educator Cynthia O’Keefe M.S, RN Niagara County Community College Associate Professor of Nursing
Qualifications, Experience and Credentials Cynthia O’Keefe M.S, RN earned her BS in Nursing at Niagara University, and herMS in Nursing Education from D’Youville College. Cindy was employed as an RN at Mount St. Mary’s Hospital ICU for 20 years while at the same time teaching part-time in the clinical setting for both the RN and LPN program. After completing her MSN with a focus on community nursing and education, she joined Niagara County Community College (NCCC) and has been an Associate Professor at NCCC for 13 years. Mrs. O’Keefe is currently the Program Coordinator for freshmen. Mrs. O’Keefe teaches in the A.A.S Nursing program in the first and fourth semesters, so she has the students at the very beginning and at the very end of the program. Her areas of expertise include Medical Surgical Nursing, Oncology and GI medicine, as well as Geriatrics. She often picks up clinical rotations in the L.P.N. program through NCCC in the summer months.
Highlightsof the Clinical Educator Role One thing that Cindy feels is a highlight in the educator role is always learning in order to teach. “There is never a time when you can stop learning while you are teaching and this is very rewarding” and “I am more of an expert on certain subjects now than when I was a staff nurse in the ICU when I should have known some of the things I have learned.” She went on to say “I love to role model caring behaviors… some may say that caring behaviors are something you either have innately or do not have, but it is up to us as nurse educators to show the students why we do what we do, that they may not understand caring behaviors but we need to show the students what we mean.” It is a highlight to my career when I see that role-modeling has made an impact and the students adopt caring behaviors.
Challenges of the Clinical Educator Role Challenges as stated by Cindy are “the students expect you to do it all, they sometimes think that it is the teacher that will give them the answers all the time but they have to be taught to look for the answers themselves.” She said that we need to help them more at first but they need to become autonomous by the end of the program. Another challenge Cindy mentioned is the students that keep her awake at night; “sometimes you have a student that is excellent in clinical but does not do well on exams. You know that they will be excellent nurses but they are unable to pass the written tests.” I shared a research study that I had recently read about NCLEX preparation through self-directed modules to help those very students and will e-mail the article to her.
Future Plans Cindy is currently an Associate Professor and is working toward Professor within the constraints of a union environment. She hopes to achieve this rank within the next year or two. Her plans are to stay at Niagara County Community College until retirement. She is looking forward to see what impact a new division chair will have on the program.
Advice to the MSNE Student “Remember your own origins and that the students are learning. We sometimes forget that we have already grasped concepts to the point where we no longer think about them they just sort of come natural, but the students need someone to facilitate the learning.” Cindy said she tells the students “Yes I am here to evaluate you but more importantly I am here to guide you so please ask questions and I will do my best to help you to understand.” Cindy chose to relay this to me because she said it is something that she has to continuously remind herself stating “I teach students in the first semester and in the last semester and I have to remember that I cannot expect the same thing from a first year student in the clinical setting as the students in the clinical setting who is poised to graduate.” She said that she must remember not to push too hard with the freshman.
I noticed while reviewing the college website prior to the interviews for background information that the NCCC RN program outcomes were recently updated to reflect QSEN initiatives. I asked Cindy about this and she said that they updated the program outcomes with QSEN in mind, but also because they had not been updated in many years and it was time. Cindy relayed that she has been working as the freshmen program coordinator and sometimes this is a difficult job because to get all the faculty involved and on the same page to get things done is challenging. As program coordinator, she wants everyone to remember the level of the student when planning for things such as tests and remember that a Master’s degree prepared nurse may think on too high a level to do even simple things such as creating test questions. This becomes even more profound when working with faculty that are studying for their PhD.
Another challenge is creating continuity between clinical and classroom. There are many more part-time adjunct faculty in the clinical setting. To improve this discord Cindy has developed a means of informing the adjunct faculty exactly what is taught in class for each clinical week so that the focus of clinical instruction can be congruent.
REFLECTION I have known Mrs. O’Keefe for many years and this interview was like a reunion of old friends, easy and relaxed. Cindy and I worked at the same hospital and each of us worked there for twenty years. We have served as co-faculty at NCCC, working closely in the 1990’s in the LPN program. She has been at NCCC for 13 years full-time. We met for lunch for this interview after I e-mailed her with the subject line “Mrs. O’Keefe -It’s your long-lost friend Mrs. Ostwald.” Student’s code of conduct requires them to use our surnames at NCCC. It was nice to reconnect with her and get her take on the current issues in nursing education. We really could have talked all day and I look forward to learning from Mrs. O’Keefe in the next two semesters.
FINAL REFLECTION SYNTHESIZING BOTH INTERVIEWS There are similarities and differences between the academic educator and the clinical educator. Both of the Nurse educators have held both roles but when I sat down with them I had them focus on one aspect. Both educators are truly dedicated to the education of nurses.
Cherie spends her days overseeing the entire program, gives lectures, guides new faculty, holds meetings, goes out to supervise clinical rotations, handles issues, conducts interviews, and makes herself available for students and faculty. Cherie feels that the academic setting is where the student get the fundamental knowledge to make sense of what they will do in clinical. Cherie feels that the entire curriculum needs to be updated but regards this as a daunting task, stating that it would be wonderful if the faculty were afforded time to go on sabbatical for that purpose because there isn’t enough time in the typical day to consider such a goal. The academic setting is also where students get much of the knowledge to pass the NCLEX. Students don’t always get to see every diagnosis they learn about, but they need the exposure. Another aspect of her job is grading and summative evaluation combining exam grades and clinical success, and she reports back to the faculty the results of their efforts from the nine-month survey and board pass rates.
Cindy plans the classes and for ways to connect clinical to the classroom by writing out the calendar so that clinical faculty have a focus each week. She orients new adjunct faculty, writes tests, and conducts literature searches to keep current while also spending one 12.5 hour shift with the students on a medical surgical floor. While in the clinical setting, she is responsible for maintaining healthy relationships with the clinical site, getting the students their assignments, conducting pre and post conference, making sure the students know what they are doing and mentoring and supervising them while they care for patients. She looks for caring, patient-centeredness, collaboration, accountability and safety. Cindy feels that the clinical setting is the fun part of nursing for the students, and although it can be stressful, this is where the connections happen with the right instructor. She champions for the students that do so very well with patients but struggle with tests. She approaches clinical as a role model for caring behaviors. In the final clinical rotations of the AAS degree program, the students are expected to be leaders throughout and get the assignments for each other and act as the charge nurse and the faculty take a step back. Cindy provides feedback to students weekly with an evaluation tool that has skills and objectives listed for every students to meet. At the end of each rotation, a final summative evaluation is given that can either be very easy or extremely difficult.
In nursing programs, as pointed out by the two nurse educators, there is a need to have both academic and clinical knowledge and establish connections between the two. Both educators are engaged with students with the main goal of creating caring and knowledgeable nurses, they actively plan teaching strategies and constantly evaluate progress. They both seem ever critical of themselves and are looking for ways to improve whether it is the entire program or introspection for how they could have handles things better.
Educator Interviews was an assignment for the completion of course 625 in my Masters of Science in Nursing Education that I feel was rewarding because it helped to solidify some of the concepts I have been learning. I chose the interview at NCCC because I am an alumni from 1992, and because I have taught in the lab and clinical rotations there over the years. This assignment has me thinking about the lofty goals set forth by the leaders in nursing and I wonder if anyone else see them from my personal perspective. The goal from nursing leadership in this country is to make the minimum requirements for nursing to earn a baccalaureate degree. While I agree with this for the patients, I think that there is a place for AAS degree nurses in the nursing workforce as an AAS program brings people that may otherwise not get started in nursing if an immediate four year degree is the only option. I believe in partnerships with Universities and Community College for seamless transition in education.
Every student has unique circumstances, finances and backgrounds, and community colleges give diverse populations opportunities that they otherwise may not have. It is easy for leaders to stand in the ivory tower and look down while contemplating the ideal, but perhaps they need to walk a mile in the shoes of those nurses that have had their start at community college, including me. I come from a family with a single Mom and three children who struggled to make ends meet but made too much for us to get financial grants for college. I was a single Mom myself at age 18. My path to education has been step by step in small increments while prioritizing my family first. I am thankful for NCCC AAS Nursing program that propelled me into furthering my education and a rewarding career. As a nurse educator, I choose to begin again at NCCC, and give students the same start in life that I am blessed to have had.