Charting a New Course for Health Professions

As senior vice president and chief learning officer Kathleen Gallo, PhD, RN has created and implemented a comprehensive learning strategy at the North Shore-LIJ Health System via the Center for Learning and Innovation (North Shore-LIJ’s corporate university) and the Patient Safety Institute.

Now, Dr. Gallo will serve as the founding dean of the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions. Upon approval from the New York State Department of Education, the program will address the need for advance practice nurses as a result of health care reform.

Question from interviewer: You were recently named the founding dean of the new nursing school that will be established at Hofstra University. Tell me about the new school and its programs.

Dr. Gallo: When the Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine was founded, we knew that this was the first step and that we would need a school of nursing to align with it. We also knew that it was the beginning of redefining health professions education.

The Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions is different. First, we will be a graduate school and we will be graduating nurse practitioners [NPs]. Second we are fortunate that Hofstra already has well-established undergraduate and graduate physician assistant [PA] programs.

We will have the PA programs within the School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions. Now we have the opportunity between the School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions to implement an interprofessional education model.

Q: You talked about the nursing program being different. Will you eventually expand to include an undergraduate nursing school?

Dr. Gallo: Our plan is to offer graduate programs in nursing. There is no desire to have an undergraduate program. There are schools in the region that offer excellent undergraduate nursing programs, and we don’t think that we need to be in that space.

Unique Take, Unique Tactics

Q: How will you approach the programs differently than other nursing schools across the nation?

Dr. Gallo: With the School of Medicine and the School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions, we have the opportunity to respond to the Institute of Medicine’s sentinel work, “To Err Is Human” which focused on patient safety, as well as the Carnegie Foundation’s recommendation to integrate the health professions in education before they become employees. These are just two national institutions that are calling for changes in how we currently educate health care professionals. It is critical to patient safety and quality.

One advantage that our new schools have is that we have no legacy. Therefore, we have no minds to change. NP students, PA students and medical students will learn together at certain points in time.

Another difference is related to the teaching methods we will use. The School of Medicine is founded on how learners learn, not how teachers teach. The new graduate school will be very learner-centric as well.

Q: What degrees will you grant?

Dr. Gallo: We have applied to the New York State Department of Education and upon their approval we plan to offer a Master of Science degree with a major in nursing. The program will offer two tracks: family nurse practitioner or adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner.

To see more of this interview, click here: http://bit.ly/1FxgQf1

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