Marcie Baird pursued Ball State’s doctorate in nursing practice (DNP) because she knew the professors were masters of the online classroom and fully supportive of students working in the online format.
“I have great respect for the faculty.”
FACULTY MADE ONLINE CLASSROOMS A DRAW
Marcie Baird credits great teaching with drawing her to Ball State’s online doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) program.
“I have great respect for the faculty,” says Baird, who teaches undergraduate nursing at a private university in central Indiana and serves as a nurse practitioner at a community clinic.
Because she had graduated with an online master of science in nursing from Ball State in 2009, Baird knew the quality of the online classroom when she enrolled in the DNP program.
PROFESSORS COULD BE COUNTED ON
“Professors could always be counted on,” says Baird, “to respond on time to assignments and questions.” Video presentations featuring faculty consistently made class content come alive. She also has high regard for the director of the DNP program and her advisor, Beth Kelsey.
“With her guidance, I grew as a student and a professional,” says Baird, noting that she worked with Kelsey on an article for an advanced practice journal that grew out of her DNP capstone project.
CAPSTONE PROJECT IS DNP DISTINCTIVE
Required of all students, the capstone project is the signature of the Ball State DNP and consists of a scholarly plan to improve health outcomes in a healthcare system, clinical practice, or community setting.
Baird pursued her capstone, “Improving HCV Screening in a Free Clinic,” at her community clinic, which serves the uninsured. This project grew out of the faculty-supervised clinicals she performed at the same clinic where she discovered a population increasingly testing positive for Hepatitis C.”
She says the DNP degree has been a boost to her roles as a nursing professor and a nurse practitioner.
“Evidence-based practice is the foundation on which projects were built. Research was woven throughout the whole program,” says Baird. “It also brought a deeper dimension to teaching nursing.”