Jewel Yoder

Taking over as the newly appointed Department Chair for 20-21 in the midst of a global pandemic made for a challenging first year.  However, I am so grateful to our partner institutions: Goshen Health System, Beacon Health System, Parkview Health System, Oaklawn and our various community partners in working with us to get clinical experiences for our students while keeping them as safe as possible.  We graduated 21 new nurses and are so excited to see where this profession takes them. We had two newly appointed faculty this year: Lisa Helfrich MSN, RN with a focus on medical/ surgical and holistic assessment and Katie Schramm MSN, FNP-BC with a focus on pediatrics.  We had an outstanding Goshen College Nursing Student Association who really worked to give back to one another and to the bedside nursing who serve as such great mentors to them. We revitalized a student mentoring program lead by faculty with student guest speakers.

We continue to be inventive and find ways in the midst of a pandemic to serve our students through virtual tools and live in-person simulations.  Parkview served as a good partner helping us launch simulation in pediatrics and psych/mental health clinical.  We are so grateful to our many donors and grants that support our on-going endeavor to meet our departmental mission,

“Within the community of faith and learning at Goshen College, the nursing program nurtures students in the process of becoming informed, articulate, sensitive and responsible professional nurses. As a ministry of the Mennonite Church, we seek to prepare graduates to engage in life-long learning and to practice in an ever-changing health care environment.”

For 21-22 we look forward to incorporating many new things: Next Generation NCLEX testing models, continuing to develop simulation for student growth and assessment, and  a new call to competency based education in nursing.  We have 25 sophomores to date, 28 juniors and 24 seniors enrolled in our traditional undergraduate program.

(21-22) Finds the nursing profession ravaged by the burdens of the Covid 19 on-going pandemic. With nurses working long hours, facing short staffing we have struggled with recruiting for this coming academic year.  We have 5 online students who will complete this track of study in April of 2022.  We continue to offer Part-time and Full-time online tracks of study.

(20-21) In a year with a global pandemic nurses are called to the beside, we plan to offer an online part time track and continue to recruit for this program.  We have 16 online students who will complete this track of study in April of 2021.

(19-20) We have a Fall online and hybrid start at Glen Oaks for a total of 18 new students.  Additionally we have 24 students from three other existing cohorts who will graduation in 2020! We value our on-going practice partnerships with Goshen Health, Parkview Health System, Glen Oaks Community College, Ivy Tech Community College and Ancilla College.  Thank you to Devon Miller, Micah Towery, Kylee Rohatgi, Emily Plant, Todd Kirkton, Phil Waite, Jody Srof, and Gretchen Sauder for their teaching expertise and help in educating and getting to know all of our amazing RN to BSN students!

(18-19) Looking ahead to the coming academic year we start with 40 incoming students and will look to add 5 new starts throughout the year.  My goal is to house 100 students in the RN to BSN program and due to on-going supportive partnerships with Glen Oaks, Goshen Health, and Beacon Health this is very feasible.  I am looking  forward to our newest partnership with Parkview Health System for the 18-19 academic year.

(17-18)  This academic year the RN to BSN program has set a program record with 52 students graduating and another 40 students enrolled in the program!  We offer 4 different formats for education; face to face, online and as of 2018, hybrid at our Elkhart General and Glen Oaks locations.  For the 17-18 academic year we ran 10 different cohorts, 3 groups at Goshen College, 2 groups at Elkhart General,  2 groups at Glen Oaks and 3 online groups.  This program is run in part by our amazing adjunct faculty (13+) who help support our educational programming.  Thanks goes out to: Phil Waite, Devon Miller, Jamie Lauver, Renee Miler, Abigail Evans, Emily Plant, Jared Beasley, Anna Kridler, Jonathan Kirkton, Todd Kirkton, Linda Kline and Micah Towery for all you do to support and educate all these amazing nurses!

(16-17) My large project for the RN to BSN program is working with Capital Education, a learning management system, to offer our program in an online format. As this program continues to grow, I spend my time managing our four locations: Goshen College campus programing on Monday nights, Elkhart General Hospital location on Tuesday nights, Glen Oaks community college location on Thursday nights and our virtual campus.  This program has twenty one faculty involved in the provision of education; covering Nursing, Religion, Art, Peace and Justice studies, Psychology and Communications. For the 16-17 academic year we will have 40 individuals graduating! It has been a great year.  We have partnered with Goshen Health System in providing our RN to BSN completion program to their nurses, for the enhancement of care in our community.

I represent Goshen College as part of the Indiana Nursing Education Equity and Diversity Statewide grant (IN NEEDS) through the Indiana Center for Nursing (ICN).  This 2019 grant was awarded through the Center to Champion Nursing in America (CCNA),  Innovations Fund. The focus is on increasing diversity in the nursing workforce in the state of Indiana; through holistic admissions, mentorship and funding. We will need more nurses in order to meet the demand for healthcare in our future aging population.  Of primary interest to me is how to increase diversity within nursing; which is not limited to ethnicity but expands to gender, sexuality, educational opportunities and  socio-economic status.

In 21-22, and on-going for the next four years, Goshen College in partnership with seven other colleges and universities state-wide have been awarded one of the  U.S. Health Recourses and Services Administration (HRSA) Nursing Workforce Development grants.  Our grant is entitled NEEDS2B and has grown out of the work of the ICN.  Beth Miller, Associate Nursing Faculty, will be the program liaison for Goshen College.  The grant will offer 24 scholarship/stipend packages to diverse nursing students to help with matriculation into the profession of nursing.

We are on year two of implementing mentorship in our nursing program, knowing that students thrive when they have the support, resources, and fortitude to persevere through the rigors of nursing school.

For the 21-22 school year I will be teaching :

NURS 309: Healthcare Ethics with Susan Setiawan

NURS 510: Healthcare Ethics (graduate level)

NURS 410: Senior Seminar

For the 20-21 school year I will be teaching :

NURS 410: Senior Seminar

NURS 211: Fundamentals of Nursing

NURS 212: Holistic Client Assessment

For the 19-20 school year I will be teaching:

NURS 331: Philosophy and Theories of Nursing

NURS 433: Research in Nursing (2 sections)

NURS 438: Community Health

NURS 211: Concepts and Strategies in Nursing

For the 18-19 school year I will be teaching:

NURS 331: Philosophy and Theories of Nursing (2 sections)

NURS 433: Research in Nursing (3 sections)

NURS 449: Leadership in Nursing (1 section)

For the 17-18 school year I  will be teaching:

NURS 331: Philosophy and Theories of Nursing (2 sections)

NURS 433: Reseach in Nursing (both online and face to face) (3 sections)

For the 16-17 school year I will be teaching the following courses:

NURS 331: Philosophy and Theories of Nursing (both online and face to face)

NURS: 447 Issues Seminar (a capstone project)

NURS: 449:  Leadership in Nursing

NURS 409: Leadership in Nursing and clinical (traditional program)

NURS 308: Gerontology (traditional program, shared with Joyce Hoffman)

For the 15-16 school year I taught the following courses:

NURS 331: Philosophy and Theories of Nursing

NURS 312: Clinicals (at Elkhart General) for one section of Pediatric Nursing

NURS 447: Issues Seminar

NURS 449: Leadership in Nursing

I am honored to have been awarded a President’s Innovation Grant for my scholarly work in the DNP program for the 18-19 and 19-20 academic year.  I also received the Mininger Grant for faculty development in 17-18, 18-19, and 19-20, which will also support my on-going academic growth, as I progress through my Doctoral program.  Thank you to the Nursing Department for assistance through the Nora Martin Scholarship for funding my education, as well as, your on-going support, as I pursue my terminal degree!

I am pleased to have been the recipient of “Nursing Excellence in Interdisciplinary Relationships” award in 2009 at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood, Colorado. I was proud to be nominated two consectutive years for “Leader of the Year” award in 2010 and 2011, at Rose Medical Center in Aurora, Colorado.  I was also awarded the “Courageous Leader under Pressure” award in 2010 as Rose Medical Center opened its 24 bed level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit after being remodeled into private rooms for the tiniest patients.