Message from the DNE Program Directors

Dear DNE Students:

Welcome to our new and innovative Doctor of Nursing Education (DNE) program! We are so pleased to work with you as you build competencies at the highest level of nursing education.

Our DNE program has been informed by 15 state-level, national, and international standards of excellence, including the NLN Core Competencies for Nurse Educators (Halstead, 2019). You will see that it has been designed collaboratively with instructional design experts in the OSU Office of Technology and Digital Information (ODTI), including the use of Quality Matters™ standards of excellence in higher education. Core threads in the program include:

  • EBP and Wellness courses, such as DNE 8115 Wellness & Resilience in Nursing Education & Professional Development
  • Nurse Educator Essentials courses, such as DNE 8537 Assessment & Evaluation in Nursing Education & Professional Development
  • Curriculum, Innovation, and Quality Improvement courses, such as DNE 8441 Innovation in Nursing Education and Professional Development
  • Toolbox courses, such as DNE 8462 Publication and Grant Writing in Nursing Education
  • Track-specific courses, such as DNE 8442 Leading, Mentoring & Collaborative Partnerships in NPD; and DNE 8522 Design Thinking in Nursing Education

Clearly, you have a passion for nursing education in academia or practice and are here with us to blaze a trail. We understand as that same passion has driven us for the past five years–to conduct a national needs assessment study about terminal degree preferences for nurses (King et al., 2020), build this innovative program based on the results, and see it through various levels of approval. We will use the same tenacity and creativity to dream big with you and help you to achieve what others may think is improbable to impossible. Throughout the DNE program, you will receive the proper balance of challenge and support and we will be with you every step of the way as you reach your aspirational goals.

We look forward to seeing the results of your final projects, solving some pressing and intractable problems in nursing education, and assisting you in disseminating this information. We are wholly confident you will make a meaningful, significant, and positive impact on nursing education.

Most sincerely,

Tara Spalla King, PhD, RN
Director of DNE Program
Associate Clinical Professor

Tara O’Brien, PhD, RN, CNE
Co-Director of DNE Program
Distinguished Educator in Gerontological Nursing/National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE)
Center for Healthy Aging, Self-Management and Complex Care
Assistant Professor

 

Meet your DNP Program Directors, Dr. Tara Spalla King and Dr. Tara O’Brien.

 

References

Halstead, J.A. (2019). NLN core competencies for nurse educators: A decade of influence. Wolters Kluwer.

King, T.S., Melnyk, B.M., O’Brien, T., Bowles, W., Schubert, C., Fletcher, L. & Anderson, C.M. (2020). Doctoral degree preferences for nurse educators: Findings from a national study. Nurse Educator, 45(3), 144-149. https://doi.org/10.1097/NNE.0000000000000730.