04-14-2024 Education - Flipbook - Page 4
4 The Baltimore Sun | Sunday, April 14, 2024
Preparing for the
global demand
Maryland colleges and universities
on the map with valuable global programs
By Lisa Baldino, Contributing Writer
T
oday’s higher education graduates
require a whole new set of skills to
hit the ground running in the global economy. Not only are soft skills
evolving to include cultural differences and mutual respect, but foreign language
and global issue-specific technical skills have
increased in importance for corporate employers. What is higher education doing for students
to prepare them for an interdependent, intercultural workforce?
Local colleges and universities are already
including boosts in curricula that include foreign
language classes. “The ability to speak multiple
languages is important,” says Catalina Shorkey,
adjunct professor of the new Spanish for social
services course offered in the department of
modern languages, linguistics, and intercultural communication (MLLI) at University of
Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).
Student feedback is the main reason for the
idea of this course, she notes. “When you have
people from Spanish heritage, how do you provide sensitive information in the right way? The
course teaches intercultural components and
how to be more sensitive to the culture. There
are obstacles the Spanish population encounters,
and we should understand them and advocate
for them.”
Students in these courses have access to
COIL (Collaborative Online International
Learning) that allows them to achieve a global
experience through virtual meetings. A UMBC
partnership with the University of Mexico puts
them in touch with students and instructors
who are also studying social service.
Sean Carmody, who also is an instructor in
UMBC’s MLLI department, created the course,
intermediate Spanish 2 for healthcare professions, to support students pursuing health-related fields. The course will debut this spring and
already has 13 students enrolled, most of whom
are in the pre-nursing program, Carmody says.
Spanish 101 and 102 are prerequisites for the
course, and its capacity is 25 students. “These
are going to be the students most interested in
Spanish,” Carmody says. “Content is key, so we
created what we think will be successful,” he
says, referring to the absence of updated textbooks encountered by both professors.
The traditional “study abroad” experience
has taken on a global campus twist at Salisbury
University (SU). The school began pilot programs to establish remote campuses in global
countries that would connect its Maryland students to places like Scotland, Spain, Costa Rica,
Austria and most recently, Kenya.
“This is a new concept for SU,” says Brian
Stiegler, Salisbury University’s assistant provost for international education. “We are try-
ing to develop remote campuses. Faculty go
to campuses to teach and to learn the culture
and students and faculty all share a common
experience.”
Beginning with the pilot at the University
of Stirling, Scotland, in June 2022, the program
rolled out to the other countries during summer and fall of 2023. Students from Salisbury,
along with faculty from the school, made the
inaugural trip to Scotland, where the students
took academic classes with their professors
from Maryland and were hosted by the foreign
university partner. The program included visits
to local cultural and historic attractions to learn
about the Scottish people.
This summer, the study abroad program in
Spain will feature general education courses in
biology, English creative writing, and upperlevel courses for majors and minors in Spanish
and business, all taught by Maryland professors.
Above: Salisbury students have ample study abroad options; UMBC students come from all over the world; Morgan State's Mya Sharpe presents her project on oyster DNA.
All students take a Spanish language course
across disciplines.
“We want to create opportunities for more
students,” Stiegler says. “We always want to be
in the places where students can go back for
full-term semester study and can connect to
other people.”
Those connections are valuable for students as they make career decisions. The study
abroad program changed the pathway completely for Monica Bailey, now an SU senior. On her
first visit abroad, she experienced some “a-ha”
moments. “I took advantage of a program they
[SU] had. There was a huge cultural difference
[in the classroom]. People in my classes were
from around the world – China, Spain, U.S.,
Sweden and Japan,” she explains.
Bailey says she came to SU to study business, but she did an about-face after her visit to
Global demand,
continued on page 8
A strong job outlook
Area nursing schools ramp up
programs to meet the need
By Carol Sorgen, Contributing Writer
W
ith an ever-aging population,
nurses specializing in palliative
care at University of Maryland,
Baltimore, are in demand more
than ever, according to Joan
Carpenter, Ph.D., assistant professor in the
University of Maryland School of Nursing’s
(UMSON) department of organizational systems and adult health.
Carpenter explains that palliative care provides essential support for people with serious illnesses, helping them cope with symptoms, understand their diagnosis and treatment
options, and make informed decisions.
“It’s important that people learn as much
as they can about their illness as early as they
can so they can avoid serious complications
and, hopefully, hospitalization,” says Carpenter.
“Many people don’t get the information they
need until they’ve wound up in the hospital.
Palliative care nurses want to help you avoid
that.”
According to Carpenter, UMSON is one
of the only undergraduate nursing programs
that has a unit on palliative care, which was
established in 2023. “This mandatory class gives
students the skills not only to address symptoms, but to have conversations with patients
about managing their disease,” she says, adding
that the medical profession hasn’t always done a
good job of taking care of people who are seriously ill outside of a hospital setting.
“Advances in technology and treatment
options mean people are living longer, even
with serious illnesses,” says Carpenter. “We
need to take the time to build relationships
and trust so that we can provide care outside
the hospital. By starting services early, we can
make people aware of what palliative care is,
how to access it, and how to have their best life
possible.”
New Nursing Program Offered at McDaniel
McDaniel College recently received
Maryland Board of Nursing approval for its
new Bachelor of Science in nursing program to
begin in the fall. McDaniel is also partnering
with Carroll Hospital in building the program,
which is helping to address the nursing shortage
in Carroll County and the surrounding region.
According to Heather A. Gable, McDaniel’s
inaugural nursing program director, there is
a clear need for more nursing graduates and,
as a community anchor institution, McDaniel
can play a role in addressing this need.
McDaniel’s new nursing program also aligns
with McDaniel’s five-year strategic plan and
the college’s continued focus on new program
development to prepare students for careers
in growing fields. This program builds on the
popularity of McDaniel’s health sciences major,
which is one of 13 new majors (including nursing) that the college has added since fall 2020.
“I think what is most exciting about
McDaniel’s nursing program is that it is grounded in the liberal arts, fostering critical thinking
and decision-making abilities, while also incorporating the technical knowledge and skills
required of nurses who are practicing in diverse
health care settings,” says Gable. “This focus
provides opportunities for inter-professional
education and the integration of the liberal arts
experience from the first semester our students
are on campus until they graduate.”
The nursing program will offer both direct
admission and the opportunity for current
students wishing to major in nursing to join
the program in their third year. This will give
students the chance to make immediate connections with nursing faculty before nursing
courses are started. “Students will receive guidance and support, which allows for building
success and community,” says Gable.
McDaniel is expecting to enroll over 25 students in the first cohort this fall and will be gradually increasing the number of students admitted
into the program, with new cohorts admitted each
fall term. Students will spend the first two years
taking their general education and prerequisite
courses and will enter the nursing courses in their
third year of study.
Gable observes that the new program will
help increase the nursing workforce pipeline both
nationally and within Maryland. “COVID-19 only
exacerbated what was already a looming nursing shortage, driven by an aging population with
increasing health care needs and an aging nursing
workforce nearing retirement,” says Gable. Bureau
of Labor Statistics predict job opportunities in
nursing are expected to increase by 6% through
2032 nationally and in Maryland, this number is
anticipated to be 193,100.
“McDaniel College's dedication to excellence,
inclusivity, and the overarching mission aligns
seamlessly with my values and commitment to
a student-centered learning environment that is
enriching and supportive,” Gable adds. “McDaniel
is a special place, and it is a privilege to have the
opportunity to build a new nursing program in the
State of Maryland at an institution that prides itself
on these values and encourages both innovation
and collaboration.”
At Notre Dame, students in the nurse practitioner master's degree program practice hands-on skills with simulated
patient interactions in the state-of the-art Center for Caring with Technology lab on campus.
Nurse Practitioner Program Offered at Notre Dame
of Maryland University
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that
the field of nurse practitioner will be one of
the fastest-growing health care professions in the
next decade. To address that need, Notre Dame
of Maryland University (NDMU) provides highdemand degree programs to help students succeed
in a wide variety of health care fields, including
nurse practitioner studies.
NDMU’s nurse practitioner program opened
in fall 2022, with the first graduating coming in
December. “Following our first cohort, we have a
progressing cohort of students, and the program
is continuing to grow,” says Rachael Crowe, associate professor of nursing and NDMU’s director of
graduate nursing programs.
The program has been designed for Maryland
nurses who wish to advance their career, with
the goal of increasing access to primary care for
underserved communities, especially in Baltimore.
Crowe explains that both registered nurses
and nurse practitioners provide care for patients
in a wide variety of settings. The difference is that
nurse practitioners hold an additional advanced
degree, license, and board certification, which
enables them to diagnose conditions, order tests,
and prescribe treatments.
The students in NDMU’s program specialize in
either family nurse practitioner or adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioners. Both specialties perform the same care, but for different patient
populations. While adult-gerontology nurse practitioners care for adolescents through the elderly,
family nurse practitioners care for patients across
the entire lifespan. “Students take core graduate
nursing courses to establish a foundation grounded in caring science, which is a unique perspective
of NDMU,” says Crowe, adding that the students
then progress to advanced practice coursework
including pathophysiology and pharmacology. In
the second half of the program, students take medical management courses where they learn how to
care for patients with a wide variety of conditions,
while simultaneously completing over 750 hours of
patient care experience with a preceptor in a clinic
setting. Throughout their program the curriculum
is tailored to especially focus on prevention, wellness, primary care and serving the underserved.
Aaliyah Derry is one of the nurse practitioner
Nursing,
continued on page 8