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40 Years of Nursing Campaign: $500,000 needed
Messiah University has been educating nurses for four decades. During that time, our program has earned a reputation for producing competent, ethical, and conscientious nurses who are well-equipped for the challenges they face as they enter the workforce in a complex healthcare system. Our graduates embody what it means to be the hands and feet of Christ in the vocation of nursing. Messiah nurses are highly sought after, with the regional healthcare systems all vying for them well in advance of their graduation.
The Future of Nursing Report 2020–2030 (National Academies of Science, 2021) reports that by 2030, 21% of the US population will be over 65 (73.1 million) and that more nursing care will move beyond the hospitals into the community. The Messiah nursing faculty are preparing for this shift by offering advanced simulations and clinical experiences that interface our students with complex clinical experiences that help them connect the trajectory of care from hospital to home. That’s why we’ve created a nursing campaign with a goal of $500,00.
EQUIPMENT
Foundational to our nursing curriculum is our use of simulation to expose students to a variety of clinical scenarios. The Patient Simulation Laboratory (PSL) at Messiah is equipped with three adult high-fidelity simulators housed in three rooms to mirror an actual hospital environment. Faculty monitor student performance from a control room, and cameras record the students performing the simulation for the purpose of de-briefing their skills during the play-back. This type of formative learning allows students to correct errors and enhance their skills in a safe space that fosters competency. Labs in the lower level of the Kline building house three high-fidelity simulators including a birthing mother, a child and an infant. Each of these simulators can be programmed to mimic real life scenarios such as an infant resuscitation, a post-partum hemorrhage, or a child with cystic fibrosis.
Originally purchased in 2011 and 2015, the technology of the adult simulators is outdated. Part of the campaign funds will go toward two new simulators with maintenance support. Messiah University must keep pace with new simulation technology in order to stay competitive as we seek to attract, recruit and retain nursing students.
STAFFING
At Messiah University, the department of Nursing has historically enjoyed a steadfast and dedicated faculty where faculty consider their work a calling in Christian service. The nursing faculty are fully committed to the work of educating the future nursing work force. Most of the nursing faculty continue to engage in their own clinical practice jobs outside of their full-time faculty role in order to maintain their clinical knowledge and skills. We are privileged to attract a high caliber of faculty who have distinguished themselves in their areas of expertise and research through publication, book authorship, and community service.
There is a nationwide faculty shortage that is expected to worsen as the baby-boomer generation of current nursing faculty retire and the salary disparity between academic nursing and clinical practice widens. Paramount to our success as a small faith-based university is the ability to recruit and retain highly qualified and experienced faculty who profess a Christian faith. The pool of qualified faculty candidates is small. Our accreditation body (CCNE) mandates that nursing faculty are required to be academically and experientially qualified for the specialty areas in which they teach. Specific specialty areas such as pediatrics and psych-mental health nursing are particularly challenging specialties to fill.
One potential solution to attract faculty would be to support scholarships for nursing graduate students, which would be covered by a portion of the campaign funds. Messiah BSN alumni could be targeted to attract students to return to Messiah for the MSN to become future nurse educators. This would ideally facilitate creating a pipeline of Christian nurse educators.
The remainder of the funds will go toward the Macha Hospital’s neo-natal unit’s expansion. (See sidebar.)
With your help, we can continue the reputation of nursing excellence for which Messiah is known.
MACHA-MESSIAH CONNECTION EMBODIES EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
Messiah University has a long and rich history with the village of Macha, Zambia, dating back to 1957 when Dr. Alvin Thuma founded and established the Macha Hospital. Thuma’s legacy continues today, and the hospital is still operated by the Zambian BIC church within the Zambian Ministry of Health. In the rural southern Province of Zambia, the hospital provides care to more than 160,000 people in a 35-kilometer catchment area, receiving referrals from as far away as 80 kilometers.
With 200 beds filling many brick buildings connected by covered walkways, the hospital consists of various wards added over the years: male surgical, female surgical, pediatrics, maternity, primary care, antiretroviral therapy for HIV patients and outpatient primary care. In 2021, an operating theater was added.
In 1966, the school of nursing began in Macha, with the first class graduating in 1969. Now known as the Macha School of Nursing, it remains a three-year R.N. program that prepares students to be general nurses. Students also can opt to pursue a nurse midwifery track.
Messiah is committed to providing students with a global perspective through experiential learning. In the early 2000s, a group of Messiah students traveled to Macha to take a course, Healthcare in the Developing World, created by Larry Mylin, professor of biology. In 2007, Wanda Thuma-McDermond, professor of nursing and the daughter of Alvin Thuma, took the first group of Messiah nursing students to Zambia for a clinical cross-cultural immersion experience. Born in Zambia to missionary parents, she has a deep love and respect for the Zambian people. As of 2024, she has taken nearly 200 nursing students to Zambia. Year after year, nursing students report the trip to Macha was transformational. There is an urgent need for a neonatal intensive care unit to be added to the hospital. With nearly 50 babies delivered each week, the current space dedicated to caring for the high-risk newborns is overcrowded and under-resourced to meet the needs of the preterm infants.
–Staff report
