News
IU School of Nursing Senior BSN Student, Tuesday Majors, Wins National League for Nursing Essay Competition, to be Honored at Education Summit
Tuesday Majors, IU School of Nursing senior BSN student and scholarship recipient, won the National League for Nursing (NLN) 2011 Student Excellence Paper Competition with her essay entitled, “IU School of Nursing – Excellence in Nursing Education.”
“As soon as I got off of the phone with Chandra [Dyson], I called my husband with the news,” said Majors. “It is still crazy for me to think that my paper was chosen. It is a great accomplishment, and I feel honored to be selected.”
In her essay, Tuesday explains what it is like to be an honors nursing student at the IU School of Nursing and how what she does today will impact both her future as a nurse leader and the profession of nursing.
“With the guidance of my professor, Dr. Janice Buelow, I’m researching the correlation of social support and parental empowerment in parents of children with epilepsy and significant learning problems,” said Majors. “The end result would be that Dr. Buelow will be able to use the data to create interventions that really help these parents become successful in managing their child’s disease.”
According to Chandra Dyson, Assistant Dean of Students, Majors has been a stand-out student at the IU School of Nursing on the IUPUI campus. She is currently the president of her December 2011 class, takes several honors courses and has even successfully changed the way some IU School of Nursing classes will be administered in the future.
“It is nice to know that our opinion matters,” said Majors. “The input we provide at the end of each semester is part of the process to continually improve the program.”
Tuesday will attend the NLN Education Summit in September to have her achievement nationally recognized, and her essay will be published in NLN’s journal Nursing Education Perspectives this winter.
“The NLN Education Summit is the annual national nursing faculty conference that draws almost 2,000 nursing faculty,” said Judith Halstead, Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. “Tuesday's attendance at the NLN Summit will allow her to be recognized by these faculty at the National Nursing Faculty meeting where she will be able to personally accept the award from President Cathleen Shultz and CEO Beverly Malone on a national stage.”
The NLN hosts this annual competition to give students enrolled in any of the 17 Center of Excellence (COE) schools the opportunity to reflect on and share their thinking about excellence in nursing education, how this excellence is fostered in their own institution, and what it means to them to be part of a COE school. The three IU Schools of Nursing that comprise the core school— Indianapolis, Bloomington, and Columbus—have been distinguished as a National League for Nursing Center of Excellence since 2006 in recognition of the pedagogical expertise of the faculty.
“Having the large variety of hospital facilities, the simulation lab, the honors program, the president's council, the evaluation system, and the faculty helps create a well-rounded experience at IUSON,” said Majors. “I feel that with these available to students, it is the avenue towards success.”
The Indiana University School of Nursing is one of the largest nursing schools in the nation with programs ranging from the Bachelors in Nursing and eight tracks in the Master’s program to the PhD and DNP. The school was recently ranked #9 for National Institutes of Health funding and U.S. News & World Report ranked the graduate programs 15th in the nation. For more information, visit the IU School of Nursing web site.
The National League for Nursing, founded in 1893, was the first nursing organization in the United States and is the preferred membership organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education. The NLN offers faculty development programs, networking opportunities, testing and assessment, nursing research grants, and public policy initiatives to its 33,000 individual and 1,200 institutional members. For further information, visit the NLN web site.
