Many Michigan State students were out on the frontlines fighting the pandemic, including those in the Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs in the College of Nursing. These students serve in communities throughout the country and get hands-on experience in healthcare. In the last year of the DNP program, students work with community organizations to address a need that is a priority for that community.

“The CNS student is able to take all their education and learning and the things they’ve done in practice and clinicals to really develop a quality improvement or evidence-based practice change into that community hospital,” Program Director of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Program Jackeline Iseler, DNP, said.

Coordinating these efforts was a major challenge during the pandemic, with each hospital and organization having separate guidelines for student volunteers, but the projects were more important than ever. Former student and now instructor in the College of Nursing, Michael Martel centered his project around resilience for healthcare workers. Even outside of a global pandemic, healthcare workers are under huge amounts of stress and run the risk of burnout. Martel’s project took inspiration from the U.S. Army Battle Buddy Program and addressed the need for self-care for nurses. The project was initially designed for McLaren Hospital, but when that was canceled due to COVID-19 restrictions, it was adapted to be used in the College of Nursing for fellow students who were also coping with the stressors of the healthcare system.

It is about more than a grade for these students, and every project helps push progress forward in the field of medicine. “It is meaningful for the organization and it’s something that is sustainable and can continue to grow and improve. It’s never done,” Iseler said. Future students can expand on past projects, as a current student is now doing with Martel’s resiliency efforts for a different organization. In the time since presenting his project to the College of Nursing, Martel has been able to go back to McLaren and present it there.

There is ample room for innovation in the world of healthcare, and MSU students are working with community organizations to innovate and improve the system every year.

You can read more about Martel’s project in MSUToday.