Dr. Karen Gorton, Associate Dean at the University of Wyoming, and Dr. Oksana Wasilik, an instructional designer/educational developer also at the University of Wyoming presented at the QM Quality in Action conference. The title of the session was “From Quality Assurance to Benchmarking – Our Journey.” Wasilik is the Quality Matters (QM) coordinator at the institution. Both are interested in QM and quality nursing education. Their accrediting institution released new essential core competencies, and they wanted to implement QM across the curriculum. Gorton spoke about their community college partners and how they have worked together. Gorton also noted that they had supportive administration that helped them pursue QM certification of the Bachelors degrees in nursing. The team “mapped and gapped” courses and created a template. They used this approach to help the faculty use common templates and thread ideas. The team aligned the CCNE and QM standards. Their design cycle has analysis, big picture design, content development, and review & revision phases in a sixteen week period. The courses are eight weeks long and two credits. Courses are taught two times per semester and once in the summer. Wasilik spoke about the QM implementation model and the remaining steps to get so many courses QM certified. There were several questions about how much certification to pursue with budget cuts… and also the opportunities for more revenue with online education.
