Dr. Kathryn Shaffer & Team Receives Teagle Foundation Award

Kathryn Shaffer, EdD, RN, MSN, CNE, Assistant Professor in the Jefferson College of Nursing, and a team of interdisciplinary professionals were awarded a $25,000 grant from The Teagle Foundation for their project, "Partnering Liberal Arts Education in Nursing". The Jefferson College of Nursing and Hallmarks Program for General Education will collaborate to develop robust partnerships with three referring community college partners to bolster the liberal arts foundations of the all-transfer student population while increasing student diversity.

Through the creation of curricular and faculty development structures, liberal arts education will be combined with training in skills that are essential for the new-to-practice nurse, such as emotional intelligence, social and cultural awareness, clinical competence and reasoning, adaptability, self-awareness, professionalism, interprofessional leadership and innovative thinking.

The project builds upon Jefferson’s innovative approach to undergraduate general education, the Hallmarks Program, leveraging its curriculum, its learning goals and its internationally-recognized e-portfolio system to develop lifelong habits of mind that allow students to develop more nuanced and holistic thinking that prepares students to advance as leaders in the community and in the profession. The initiative aims to evolve nursing education away from task performance, positively impacting approximately 240 students during the first year.