What does it mean that he isn't hiding under his desk?

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Originally posted by: Bygones
"It means that the tide has turned.  Deal with the old grudges later.  For now, let's get rid of this demon in the dome and take all the help we can get from wherever we can get it.
Time to talk about Nursing some more."

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I absolutely agree with you, BG. Now is the time for all Liberal Arts faculty and administrators to come to the aid of....themselves! A thumbs up for ole Pood...it may have taken him over a year, but perhaps he's finally seen the light (and realized it's a SFT-approved train coming right at the COAL faculty!).

NO QUARTER, NOT NOW and NOT EVER!

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Originally posted by: Bygones
"It means that the tide has turned.  Deal with the old grudges later.  For now, let's get rid of this demon in the dome and take all the help we can get from wherever we can get it. Time to talk about Nursing some more."

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Thanks for reminding me, Bygones.  Nursing was discussed at the CoAL meeting.  Joe Parker spole out strongly against what is happening to Nursing and asked the group, "Why do we not hear anything from the MDs in town about what is happening to Nursing".  Kevin Walters was very busy recording this.  A senator told me that K.W. is on top of the Nursing story and he was shocked that it is worse than reported here.  Although people speak to him, he can't get anyone "on the record".  He can't get the message out until someone can be quoted.   

Wouldn't it be enough to report the scores, report the accreditation rules and record the no comments from the dome?

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Originally posted by: KW fan
" This is true. Until someone in Nursing is willing to go on record, the story will go nowhere. Someone please be brave enough to speak up!"

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Perhaps some of the nursing faculty who retired and joined the faculty at William Carey would be willing to speak with KW. The fact that several of them opted to retire because of the current administration and its total disregard for the program enhances their credibility as sources to speak on the record, IMO.

Would the 2003-2004 Babb's list be a good place to start?

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Originally posted by: Bygones
"Would the 2003-2004 Babb's list be a good place to start?"

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Nursing departures from Babbs' 2003-2004 list:

1. Wanda Dubuisson - William Carey College


2. Joe Farmer - University of South Alabama


3. Sharyn Janes - LSU


4. Sarah Powell - U.S. Military


5. Betty Sylvest - Mountain State University


6. Vicky Walley - William Carey College

Sorry, this is a long post but we are responding to questions about contacts for school of nursing.  Thanks to everyone for your concerns!

Kevin Walters should have the NCLEX data from the IHL web site and Mary Ware (see below) has the 2004 data; he can go to the following web sites for info about nursing faculty shortage, extreme NURSING shortage (Mississippi meeting only about 1/3 of market need for BSNs), and background on how many qualified students were turned away from U.S> nursing schools in 2004.

 http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Media/NewsReleases/2005/Enrollments05.htm (just released on students being turned away due to faculty shortage)

 http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/WhitePapers/FacultyShortages.htm (on faculty shortage)

  Dr. Mary Ware, IHL Director of Nursing Education, should be contacted as she is the official in charge of all schools of nursing in the State (ADN and BSN, MSN) and their compliance with State Standards.  IF a SON in Miss does not meet State Standards (not national such as NLN or CCNE), their graduates CANNOT sit for the NCLEX exam. Mary is the one person who needs to be interviewed; she is responsible for all NCLEX data, admissions, etc. data on the IHL web site. 

Dr. Marie Farrell is Dean at   California State in Bakersfield and can be contacted at  661-664-2060 and mfarrell@csub.edu.  She keeps up with USM and was in the very middle of everything that happened; she resigned in May after being fired along with other Deans.

Dr. Sharyn Janes, former "dean", Director and at one time, Chief Nursing Administrator (that was Joan Exline's idea) is at LSU as associate dean and can be reached at sjanes@lsuhsc.edu and  504-568-4111.   I feel certain that both Sharyn and Marie will talk to Kevin, as will Wanda Dubuisson who was Assistant Director for undergraduate programs when she left for WCC.  Wanda has been at USM since 1974 or something and loves the SON and USM passionately.  Her leaving was a real tragedy. She can still be reached at her USM email as she is a doctoral student: wanda.dubuisson@usm.edu. She is in the Hattiesburg directory (husband Fred) and works PT at WCC.  Dean Gerry Cadenhead is in Hattiesburg, retired, and married to Col. Tyler Fletcher, former chair of criminal justice.  She does not have email but their number is in the Hattiesburg book (she kept her maiden name).  The second Dean who succeeded Sister Harkins is Dr. Jerri Laube and she also lives in Hattiesburg, owns a counseling business.  Dr. Pat Kurtz (in book under either Pat or Estelle Kurtz), former assistant dean for graduate studies, also lives in Hattiesburg, long time faculty member.  She is in the phone book and would talk to Kevin as would Dr. Mary Huch, professor emeritus, who is also still in Hattiesburg (her husband Don, is in the book). 

The students have been warned not to talk to the media after last week.  The faculty will not talk to the media either, sorry.  Fos might, Dr. Nugent should.  Other recommendations for interviews:  Dr. Savina Schoenefer from Alcorn (Assistant Dean of Graduate Nursing) who is active in AAUP State (officer?) and a nationally known nurse theorist well respected leader in the field.  She will most certainly talk to Kevin and knows SACS and CCNE accreditation very well.  In fact, Kevin should make sure that he contacts CCNE; they are VERY responsive to community questions and issues and already know about the SACS probation.  Contact person at CCNE:  Marge Jackman at phone number (202) 887-6791 ext. 253 and mjackman@aacn.nche.edu.   Dr. Sherry Hartman currently a faculty member at USM (long time Associate Professor) might talk to reporter. Also, retired faculty Raylawni Branch lives in Hattiesburg and usually talks to reporters, left USM two years ago.  Also, Dr. Jean Haspeslagh, retired professor, created the psychiatric nurse practitioner program.  She will talk more than likely also; her name is in phone book.   Dr. Kay Lundy, Professor, will talk to Kevin about CCNE (she is a team leader and evaluator for CCNE).  She was the chair of the CCNE Accreditation Self Study/visit along with Marie Farrell back in 2002 and wrote the piece for the HA some time back about the SON.  If Kevin is serious about talking to these people and someone can give him all this info, they need to be contacted off the board to avoid being surprised.  Someone let us know, please, so that can happen (the contacting).

Students are really upset.  Rumors are out that we are not accredited, on probation, etc.  None of those are true; we are fully accredited by CCNE and State. No probation except SACS, a very big deal for our school.  (USM is NOT on probation for NCLEX, but will be next year if our per cent passing again falls below 75 %.)  Use the data from the IHL web site, there is the story.  We are by far the largest (in terms of all graduates and present students) and have the highest faculty/student ratio (not good).  Our main problems are little to no resources, fleeing faculty, replaced with part time and MSN instructors, few to no tenure track applicants and the biggest, three deans/directors/chief nursing administrators (love that one-sounds like a hospital yes?) in three years and removal of college to school status, which for us meant loss of autonomy as a professional school and Gulf Park problems which are similar to all other departments.  But the nursing department at GP seems to be getting all the "goodies", building, etc.  Oh, almost forgot, our building should be condemned, designated a "sick building" by EPA some years back, frequent flooding and sealed tight as a drum, lots of fungus, mold, stuff to make you live on antihistamines.   A SON building is one of the highest risks for infection transmission anyway since students and faculty come in and out of building from the hospital day in and day out, so it is easy to see how creepy the situation is (and why CCNE was told we would be moving into the Albertson’s building the next year).  Have him ask about the many potential "breaks" in the heating/cooling/plumbing system being monitored.  Hot water floods us about twice a year, great place for a science project.  And in all this negative publicity, we have had a fine College of Nursing, outstanding students, graduates, faculty who are accomplished with federal grants, national book awards, two new books recently published by faculty, other publications as necessary for our rank.  Our Deans have been prominent national nurse leaders (three who are American Academy of Nursing fellows, we have more still than any other program in MISS- now just two faculty Academy members left, UMC has four as of this year including Dean.  There are less than ten Academy members in the entire State (this is indicated by FAAN after their name).  Sister Harkins was in the first charter group of about 22 chosen for the first American Academy of Nursing.  For Mississippi at that time, it was nothing short of amazing.  Dr. Marie Farrell is still on faculty at Harvard (and is graduate) and with the Brookings Institute for doctoral study.  She was the director of European Nursing for WHO for many years. 

Hope this helps.  Please, please, see that Kevin Walters gets this or someone at Independent?  Avoid any references to present faculty; they are not in a position to say anything.  Hmmm.  Don't know where such comes from.

 PS Some asks why MDs won't speak up.  Perhaps you don't know them like nurses do.  They don't speak up for much of anything in the press and I wouldn't count on even the ones who are supportive of USM/SON saying anything in public.  Not going to happen.  You might try the VP of Patient Services and Director of Nursing at FGH, Ora Shaheed.  She is a graduate of both BSN and MSN programs, so is her daughter, and she has been a strong USM advocate for 20 plus years. 

 

 

Thanks Silent Flo's.  Kevin has it.

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Originally posted by: LVN
"I'm both confused and concerned about the statement that students were warned not to talk to the media after last week. Obviously I missed something.
Who can forbid students from talking to whomever they choose?"

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People who are grading them or have some control over their professional futures. That said, this is the most appalling thing about the Thames administration, and it is the proof that they know they are screwing up and/or deliberately hurting USM. If they have to cover up information and threaten people into not telling the truth, something is very very wrong.

SPEAK UP NOW. Remember Frank Glamser's favorite poem:

First they came for the Jews . . .

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Originally posted by: LVN
"I'm both confused and concerned about the statement that students were warned not to talk to the media after last week. Obviously I missed something. Who can forbid students from talking to whomever they choose?"

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That statement by the previous poster was presented without all of the circumstances .

Last week Nursing Students had issues with some proposed curriculum changes. It was a reaction to some changes faculty are trying to make to address the NCLEX score problems. One way is to change the grading scale.  We have a 10  pt grading scale.  All other Schools of Nursing in the state use a 7 or 8 pt scale. Their pass rates are much higher.  We changed our scale so that 76 or below is a D.  A "C"  is passing in Nursing.

We do not expect this one change to address all of our problems.  We know we need more good professors and more resources also, as this is a system problem. Students are concerned that the quality of teaching and resources within the School are not sufficient to help them make at least a 77 in some courses.  Courses that have been problematic due to faculty turnover, lack of faculty experience, overwork, etc.  It is only one of many changes the School of Nursing is making to address our low pass rate. 

The problem: The students went immediately to the media without bringing thier concerns about this to the faculty or the Director.  No chain of command to try to answer thier concerns or questions was followed.   Chain of command is important in nursing.  Nurses are educated to work systematically to problem solve. If there is no satisfacition after discussion and exhaustion of system options for advocacy, then more drastic measures may be employed, and these drastic measures are considered ethical and appropriate by the profession.  It is, after all, how we protect patients.   

The students were told by the Director that they needed to talk to the faculty about their concerns first.  I cannot believe that she forbade them to speak to the media, she just encouraged them to speak to faculty first. Indeed, the students were invited to our Faculty Organization and spoke eloquently about their conerns. The faculty actually applauded (physically and literally) the students after they spoke to us. They had very valid, well crafted arguments. We needed to hear them.    Their self-advocacy is very encouraging to us.  We work hard for them to be great and brave advocates for their patients, all of the Public, and their profession.    USM Nursing students are not easy to intimidate.  They make great nurses.

However, there is a great deal of sensitivity about protests and going to the media, etc. because of the fallout and loss of resources the SON (Hattiesburg) experienced under Tim Hudson/SFT after Nursing Students outspokenly and publicly protested the reorganization and loss of College (and professional automomy) status. We still have not recovered from the fallout. Our Director is trying to address SON problems, and walks a fine line to make headway without jeopardizing our program.

By the way, the faculty, after presentations by students, and lengthy discussion by both faculty and students, voted to change the grading scale starting Fall 2005.   One piece of data presented was that those students passing Nursing classes with scores of 70-75 consistently did not do well on NCLEX exams. We also wanted to get in step with other SON in MS and the USA. 

  If you do not pass NCLEX, you have a worthless Bachelor's degree.   

And that is the rest of the story. 

 

That explains why students were warned about the direct media contact, they must follow the chain of command LIKE ALL OTHER STUDENTS AT USM, not just nursing students. That is immature and inappropriate, so thanks for the additional info about "the rest of the story".

After reading Athena's post, I understand the earlier statement about NURSING students not speaking to the media. They have a very complicated situation. However, this poster's comment, above, is ridiculous. There is no "chain of command" for other students at USM, many of whom are working adults, professionals, people in their thirties and forties or older. Students have an obligation to speak out for the good of their school. Students are not employees and are completely free to say whatever they like.

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Originally posted by: notgetting$'sworthinnursing
"I am a student at USM's nursing program.  There is no chain of command.  You can't get an appointment with Dr. Morris, Dr. Nugent and especially not the Dean of College of Health Dr. Foss (who by the way never shows his face in the nursing building).  They are all either: on vacation, out of town etc. etc, but yet you see them walking around the hallways the same day they are supposed to be out of town.  There have been very few nursing students who have actually talked to Dr. Morris but when they did,  it did NO GOOD!  She said things would be changed and I have yet to see the SLIGHTEST change be made, so I don't blame my fellow students for talking to the media because if they wont talk to you how else are you supposed to get thier attention.  Also another student went to her and said she was not getting her money's worth having to teach herself nursing becuase all teh professors do is read to us.  Dr. Morris told her that Nursing school is self study.  Escuse me, then why the heck am I paying thousands of my hard earned dollars every semester for someone to teach me if I'm expected to teach myself.  They may as well offer this degree online.  Heck, I'm getting so good at teaching myself I might as well be teaching the class.  I have more teaching experience by teaching myself than most of our teachers. 
On another note, they changed our grading scale which would be okay if we had teachers that were worth a you know what.  Don't get me wrong we have a FEW great teachers but some of them who are teaching us have never taught school before and have no clue as to how to help us learn.  Our teachers are nurses with Masters degree's.  From reading on the school of nursing website, most of them have no degree or classes in how to teach.  You can be the greatest nurse on earth and still not know how to teach a class.  One of the classes at the nursing school has a professor who makes one of her student email the class all the information about the lectures and grades because she "Does not get paid enough to put everyone's email address into her computer and email stuff out every week."  Well go back to being a nurse at the hospital then because it should not be the student resposibility to email the class, they aren't getting paid a dime.  If anything the students are paying the professors/administrations light bills.  Without our tuition they would not have a pay check, yet they refuse to listen to us when we have a complaint. 
They will see when everyone keeps failing the NCLEX even though they changed our grading scale because THAT"S NOT THE PROBLEM!!  They changed so many variables at one time they are not going to know which variable had which effect.  We are already doing a new website where we have to spend so much time doing NCLEX questions, and that's suppost to help our scored too.  I tell you one thing, our scores are not going to come up until you get some professors in there that know how to teach and care about their students and some administartion that is not constantly "on vacation" everytime a student wants to have a meeting with them. 
And yeah the nursing students are afraid to talk because the administrators and their suck up students went around telling everyone that if anyone said anything to the media that there would be "serious reprocussions".  One student even told me that a 4th semester student came to her and said  if anyone said anything to the media that "they would have their head on a platter." So if they want to talk about beng professional and moving up the "chain of command" so to speak, they need to look at what they are saying. Putting someone's "head on a platter" for using their freedom of speech (which is a lawsuit they should stay far far away from) is about as childish as it get's and until they learn to be more professional the student will prbably continue to find other ways to help their education.....after all they are paying for it."

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The Sunday Hattiesburg American had a small "quote" from Dr. Thames. Perhaps you should make an appointment to see him?

Dear Not getting...

As a student, you have much more power than you know.  The faculty as you can tell from these postings are reluctant to speak up, having learned a very hard lesson for doing so.  The school of nursing like many other departments at USM is in the mess you describe BECAUSE of the present university administration.  You lost your College of Nursing and a very fine and respected Dean, Dr. Farrell, in one fateful Friday morning, when President Thames, without warning or input, fired all the Deans and destroyed the College of Nursing.  I don't know if you were at USM at the time but everything that has happened-- losing nursing faculty, especially senior faculty (experienced faculty with credentials,) at unprecedented speed, and losing major resources and support to the College of Health (yes, staff were moved to the CoH FROM the former College of Nursing along with a good part of the budget)--is a direct result of this poor decision.  The School of Nursing has lost much of its autonomy and status in the State.  USM's College of Nursing was and is the largest in the State.  Yet, with re organization, the SCHOOL of Nursing is expected to run the same, as before, we are the same size, same needs, with a fraction of staff and money.  You may know that nursing faculty with doctorates are very difficult to recruit and THEY are leaving USM in droves not COMING to USM.  Why would they?  Would you come to a SCHOOL of Nursing with the chaos of this university when you can go anywhere for a much higher salary and much less stress???  With the same number of admissions per semester, the nursing administration has to hire faculty, and the only ones that they can find to teach are masters prepared and inexperienced at that.  Blame the appropriate person...all of this has happened in three years since President Thames came into office.  NCLEX rates have fallen (check the IHL web site, USM has always had excellent rates until the past two years, hmmm, what is different???  not the students.), we have been promised a new building just to see that vanish so students and faculty have to put up with a "sick building" with no help in sight.

As suggested by a previous post, do something!  Call a meeting for ALL nursing students; request that administration, including Dean Fos. be there.  Make sure all nursing students, including graduate students and RNs, are invited.  Find a place big enough for the entire student body, announce it via flyers and invite all administrators to discuss YOUR concerns.  If they do not show, then you should release details of meeting to the press.  In addition, invite the faculty...they do care about your success.  They are in turmoil and chaos and frustration also, there are demands made on them as well which sometimes make it hard to carry out their teaching role effectively.  Many are wondering why they continue to stay, others are retiring early.  Without any tenure tract faculty interviewing for positions, it will be hard --if not impossible-- for USM to continue offering graduate degrees as before.   If students believe they are not being heard and not getting the kind of nursing education that should be happening, make your voices loud enough to be heard. 

No one is listening to faculty.  IF they speak up, they just might return to a locked up office and a confiscated computer. 

Do what it takes to see that your concerns are addressed.  There are those who CAN and WILL listen..and do something about it.  However, little will change, if students do not make it happen.  USM has a great nursing program; our graduates are valued throughout the State and region.  Don't let these past three years determine the future of this once great College of Nursing.