McNeese Students are Career Ready

McNeese State University graduate nursing, psychology and dietetic students gain experience working with their professional peers through activities like the Interprofessional Education Clinic hosted by the College of Nursing and Health Professions.

This annual event pairs graduate students from each discipline to collaboratively develop a care plan for a simulated patient. Each year the description of the simulated patient changes and new modules are added to the scenario. This was the first year that students assessed a patient hypothetically receiving care in their home.

“This is another important aspect of education our students gain here at McNeese,” says Dr. Ann Warner, co-head of the Department of Graduate Nursing. “Students work with many other professionals during their careers and being able to experience that interaction now helps them develop the teamwork and communication skills that are critical when contributing to a health care team.”

According to Warner, similar educational experiences have been implemented by a number of healthcare programs in response to Institute of Medicine studies that showed safe medical practices could be improved among clinicians if they could collaborate with other disciplines to care for a patient more effectively. The clinic gives future practitioners a chance to experience working with others that hold different educational and professional backgrounds.

The 2019 McNeese family nurse practitioner, psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioner, counseling psychology and dietetic graduates all had a 100% first-time passage rate on their national credentialing exams.