Skyfactor's 2020 Assessment & Impact Award: Nursing Winners Announced!

[Jacq_Rosenbaum]

Undergraduate nursing programs play a vital role in helping to prepare the next generation of nurses in an effort to fill the increasing demand for new professionals. While nursing programs have been focused in recent months on continuing these efforts and working to support students and staff during a global pandemic, many have been making adjustments to curriculum, learning experiences, and engagement opportunities well before COVID-19.

For the second year, Skyfactor Benchworks, a Macmillan Learning Company, recognized two colleges - Montclair State University (MSU) and The University of Scranton (Scranton) - with an Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education. 

“From the classroom to students' living areas, the college experience is undergoing a significant amount of change this year. It’s more important than ever that colleges are able to make informed investment decisions. …MSU and Scranton are strong examples of how nursing education programs can improve the student experience and support their accreditation efforts through strategically using data and we’re excited to recognize them for their efforts,” said Steven Ray, Vice President, Macmillan Learning. 

The Assessment and Impact Award for Nursing Education was established in 2019 to recognize colleges that have successfully used data to analyze and make changes to better their undergraduate nursing programs. Previous winners were Bloomfield College, Colorado Technical University, Roman University, and Seton Hall University.

Though the assessments took place prior to COVID-19, many of the insights and resulting decisions benefit students' academic experiences, even today. For example:  

• Montclair State’s School of Nursing exhibited high performance in multiple factors: Course Interaction, Facilities, Professional Values, and Core Competencies. The new School of Nursing’s growth initiatives were guided by pairing exit survey results from their very first cohort of graduates with course-level evaluations and direct measures. The data has helped contribute to a data-driven culture focused on continuous improvement. The data has helped contribute to a data-driven culture focused on continuous improvement.
• The University of Scranton’s Department of Nursing exhibited high performance in satisfaction with instruction. An analysis of the program’s data highlighted the value of faculty efforts to build strong relationships with students as well as the impact of instructional changes that increased hands-on experiences in their curriculum.

The 2020 winners were chosen this summer through a careful analysis of multiple years of data from the AACN/Benchworks Undergraduate Nursing Exit Assessment. The Skyfactor Benchworks Analytics and Research Team first conducted a quantitative analysis and review of applications, followed by interviews with finalists to learn about improvements in their nursing programs. Those applications and interview notes were then blind reviewed and evaluated on a rubric by an external panel of experts in the nursing education profession. 

Please drop a comment below to congratulate this year's Assessment & Impact Award Winners!

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Benchworks assessments are the most widely used programs in nursing education. Benchworks has partnered with the Association of American Colleges of Nursing (AACN) for two decades to offer benchmarking assessments that empower nursing administrators to better understand the program components that most significantly impact these important stakeholders. The various AACN/Benchworks Nursing assessments are used by more than 250 nursing programs each year, and is one of more than 50 different assessments from Benchworks on topics important to college success, including housing, orientation, and student affairs and service. The survey includes questions about student happiness, safety, diversity and inclusion, facilities, costs, sense of community, and time management, among others.