Candidates Complete Nursing MSN Program
Members of Latest Cohort Present Capstone Projects Designed to Improve Patient Care
The latest cohort of master’s degree candidates in the School of Nursing saw the ceremonial completion of their program Dec. 18 during a culmination ceremony in the ballroom at the Farragut Inn on campus.
Dr. Prabjot “Jodie” Sandhu, Director of the School of Nursing, commended the master’s degree candidates on their “remarkable achievement,” one that represents not just academic excellence, but dedication, resilience, and a strong commitment to the profession.
Sandhu said the members of the cohort are positioned “at the forefront of the nursing profession.” She said the members of the class are “not just nurses” but are “changemakers, innovators, and advocates who will shape the future of health care for generations to come.”
A Celebration of Student Success
The Class of 2025 MSN Capstone Poster Presentations ceremony coincided with the 10-year anniversary of the School of Nursing.
Jamie Rankin is completing the one-year BSN to MSN program. She marveled at how she was present at the 2024 new student orientation and taking in the scope of the projects presented – and how now she’s presenting her own project: Training on Early Discharge Teaching Improves Nurses’ Perceived Patient Preparedness and Discharge Process Satisfaction.
Rankin said she joined the program “to expand my mind, to help my patients more, and to be a better-prepared nurse.” Now that she’s completing her master’s, she’s ready to move on to the next challenge: Being a member of the inaugural cohort of students to join TUC’s new Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner certificate program, which launches in January.
“I’m excited to continue on,” Rankin said.
Program alumna Jennifer Veler (MSN Class of 2019) presented the Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society poster awards to:
- Felicia Pickett, who earned the Most Visually Appealing Poster Award for her project, Medication Side Effect Education.
- Taylor Tildsley, who earned the Most Inventive Quality Improvement Project Award for her project, Fall Reduction with Hourly Rounding Clock.
- Joanna Maw, who earned the Best Quality Improvement Outcomes Award for her project, Improving Efficiency in the Operating Room.
The poster presentation marks the end of coursework for the current class in the Master of Science in Nursing program at TUC. Their degrees will be conferred after the first of the year, which makes them eligible to march during Commencement ceremonies in May.
Professor Kathy Hahn (Administrative Credential, Education, GSOE Class of 2010), who chairs the MSN program within the School of Nursing, praised the assembled students on their resilience as they moved through the program.
“You made it! And I think a month or two or three months ago you thought, ‘Oh, I’m not going to get there. There’s so much I have to do.’ And look where you are tonight,” Hahn said. “You’ve just done an amazing job.”