Jewel Yoder

In academic year 22-23, the Department of Nursing graduated 23 new traditional BSN nurses, 12 Family Nurse Practitioner students, and 4 Doctor of Nursing Practice students, and we are so excited to see where this profession takes them. We had two newly appointed faculty this year: Vicki Hershberger MSN, RN with a focus on medical/ surgical and acute care.   Vicki is a great addition to our program and we appreciate having her on our team.  We also were so lucky to have Peter Shenk Koontz PMHNP, RN with his expertise in Psych/Mental health.  We wish him the best as he answers God’s calling to live and serve with his family in Laos in the coming years.

We continue to have an outstanding Goshen College Nursing Student Association,  with students who really worked to give back to one another through study groups and peer-to-peer support. We are in year three of a revitalized student mentoring program led by faculty with student guest speakers and our students really seem to appreciate the chance to hear from one another on topics, such as studying and time management in nursing school, testing tips from upper-class students, imposter syndrome (normalizing feelings of inadequacy), self-care, and other topics.

We look forward to rolling out professional mentors for some of our students in 23-24 in collaboration with Goshen Health. We continue to embrace the diversity of our student body and welcome them all into the profession of nursing – we are blessed to have you!

We are so grateful to our many donors and grants that support our ongoing 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 healthcare environment.”

For 23-24, we look forward to incorporating many new things: Next Generation NCLEX testing models, continuing to develop more simulation scenarios for student growth and assessment, and continued work on the development of competency-based education in nursing.  We have 23 sophomores to date, 23 juniors, and 20 seniors enrolled in our traditional undergraduate program.

Academic year 22-23 saw us graduate four Goshen College nurses through our DNP program and I am so pleased to be serving as lead faculty for one of those graduates.  We anticipate cohort 5 starting in Fall of 2023 and to date have 15 people who have graduated through this program.

22-23:  We continue to offer Part-time and Full-time online tracks of study and are excited to have a cohort of students enrolled in the part-time offering for the Fall of 2023.  It will be great to get this program back up and running after a period of low enrollment due to the pandemic and its effect on the nursing profession.

(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 ongoing for the next four years, Goshen College in partnership with seven other colleges and universities state-wide has 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. To date, we have had 11 students successfully matriculate through our program in part because of the NEEDS2B program.

We are in year three 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.

In the 22-23 academic year, the IN Needs program helped Goshen College hold 4 different nursing salons in which 50 undergraduate students participated.   A big thank you to AAPR to help to fund food at these events.

Goshen College is also excited to be sponsoring a summer camp for students who enroll in the Goshen or Elkhart Boys and Girls club encouraging youth in our community to be “Future Health Leaders” summer camp. This week-long camp exposes middle school students to the disciplines of pre-med, social work, kinesiology, nursing, and public health.  We are excited to share our love of all things health-related with these young kiddos!

For the 23-24 school year, I will be teaching:

NURS 309 Healthcare Ethics

NURS 408 Community Health and covering the associated clinical experiences

NURS 802 DNP project implementation

For the 22-23 school year I will be teaching:

PUBH 410: Senior Seminar

NURS 309: Healthcare Ethics

NURS 500: Foundations for Leadership

NURS 410: Senior Seminar

NURS 510: Health Care Ethics

NURS 802: DNP Project Implementation

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

22-2023: A huge thank you to my tenure and promotion committee for their work and support.  Thank you to the board of trustees at Goshen College for awarding me tenure with this institution. I look forward to my future here and to the growth that lies ahead for us with a new nursing/ public health facility, our expansion into nursing simulation, and perhaps a master’s of public health at some future point in time.

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 ongoing 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 ongoing 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.