77 BC3 R.N. students to present research findings to public Friday
Nearly 80 students who expect to graduate in May from Butler County Community College’s associate degree career program in registered nursing will present to the public and to potential employers Dec. 5 their findings about 18 health care topics.
Their evidence-based practice research presentations will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the lobby of the 25,000-square-foot Victor K. Phillips Nursing and Allied Health Building that opened in August 2023 on the college’s main campus in Butler Township.
The presentations by 77 BC3 registered nursing students are free and open to the public, and required in the 70-credit selective-admissions program.
Topics will include de-escalation training for emergency department nurses; standard suicide risk assessments in emergency department patients; effects of nurse-to-patient ratio; fall prevention interventions for senior citizens; and effects of caffeine on the nurse’s body.
“This will show that we as nursing students have been educated about how to care for patients, how to care for the community and how to provide education to better equip everybody,” said Elizabeth Daugherty, a 20-year-old BC3 registered nursing student. The 2024 graduate of Butler Senior High School said she has accepted a position that will start in July with UPMC Presbyterian, Pittsburgh, following her passing the post-graduation National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.
Most two- or three-year programs do not require their students to “do this type of research project,” said Kris Kenny, an assistant professor in BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health. “This is usually done in a bachelor’s degree program. So that’s why we are a little bit different. We have them do this project and we incorporate it into every course.”
Students have completed about 450 hours of clinical experiences in their first three semesters, Kenny said, and at facilities such as Allegheny General Hospital, Pittsburgh; Allegheny Valley Hospital, Natrona Heights; Armstrong Center for Medicine and Health, Kittanning; Independence Health System’s Butler Memorial Hospital, Butler; Sunnyview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, Butler; and UPMC Children’s Hospital, Pittsburgh.
“They begin to wonder about things such as ‘I know that at this facility we do things this way and at another we do things another way,’” said Heather Darrington, also an assistant professor in BC3’s Shaffer School of Nursing and Allied Health. “So they think about how those correlate, especially related to what we are teaching them about evidence-based practice in our classes. And they think about how they can relate that to taking their National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses.”
Students also have an additional 150 hours of clinical experiences in the first 10 weeks of the spring semester at regional health care facilities and a 96-hour preceptorship, in which they are paired with and mentored by a nurse, Darrington said.
The topics she and her class will discuss Friday, Daugherty said, “reflect what we are seeing in the hospitals and seeing in the communities. So we are trying to find solutions, better ways to manage things and show our research behind it.”
Bill Foley is coordinator of news and media content at Butler County Community College.
