Joey Wahler (Host): It's helping shape our future nurses, so we're discussing Mount Carmel College of Nursing's Outlook and Strategic Direction. Our guest, Todd Ambrosia. He's President of Mount Carmel College of

Host: Nursing. This is Careers in Care, a Mount Carmel College of Nursing podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. I am Joey Wahler.

Joey Wahler (Host): Hi there, Todd. Welcome.

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Hello there Joey.

Host: Great to have you board. So first, we hear so much about a nursing shortage in recent years in this country. Let's start with maybe you providing more details about the new programs being introduced such as a two-year Associates degree in nursing.

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Absolutely, and thank you for that question because there is the ongoing nursing shortage and our opportunity here at the college being a baccalaureate preparation institution is that we've got two programs. We've got a, an accelerated program for those that already have a bachelor's degree to complete the program in 13 to 18 months.

And we also have the traditional baccalaureate program where the students take four years to complete their baccalaureate. So we are planning on a two-year associate degree program in nursing to meet the challenge of the need for nurses at the bedside as well as in our clinical areas, and also to provide the students an opportunity to get into the workforce sooner and have their employer pay for the remaining two years of the baccalaureate program.

Host: Well, that's certainly great to hear there. How about the surgical technologist offerings?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: So as we're moving out of the single focus nursing program here at the college; we are expanding into Allied Health to also meet the Allied Health Program shortage. We are moving into the surgical technologist space because we see an extreme need within our ORs and an opportunity for professionals in the operatory to assist our surgeons and nurses to provide good surgical care.

There is the need for most health systems to put a pause on surgeries or to reschedule surgeries that are of a non-urgent nature because we don't have enough staff, both nursing and surgical technology in our ORs.

Host: How about what's being offered for the Certified Nurse Anesthetist program?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Yes. So our CRNA program will be a compliment to our current doctoral program. We are expanding into allowing nurses who have a bachelor's or a master's degree to come into our doctor of nursing practice program with a focus in nursing anesthesia. As nurse anesthetists become certified to provide anesthesia care, they must be prepared at the doctoral level now.

So our doctor of nursing practice program would support that as well as engaging in the need for nurses in the anesthesia care arena. We are also seeing an extreme shortage of this professional in our ORs to again, assist our surgeons and anesthesiologists to provide anesthesia care to our patients. We are going to be one of several programs in the central Ohio area. However, we are going to have a focus on the level of caring for patients that are in areas of need, like the inner city and the rural settings. So we're providing an opportunity for our anesthesia care nurses to not only provide anesthesia, but also to assist in pain management and to assist in critical care needs across central Ohio.

Host: So you're talking there, of course, about meeting the needs of the profession these days. That being said, how are the college's programs designed to ensure that smooth transition from student to healthcare professional within the Mount Carmel Health System?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: So we're looking at a Pathways Program. We're at a point where we engage our learners even in the point of admission where they are engaged with an HR professional. On their letter of admission, it's identified within the Mount Carmel system who their human resources representative is. They engage early on in the student's tenure.

And they maintain a communication and a conversation in almost a mentorship to the point where we'll engage our human resources professional with practicing nurses in the health system when the student identifies a specialty of interest like pediatrics, or women's health or surgical care. So we start from the very beginning to assess interest and we continually assess that interest as interest changes, with learners as they move through the program to assure that they get those experiences as a student. And also that they engage with nurse managers and nurse leaders in those areas as they move toward graduation and entry to practice.

Host: So you've covered for us those, relatively speaking, just starting out.

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Yes.

Host: Toward working in the profession. How about opportunities that are available for current healthcare professionals to upskill and really advance their careers that are already underway through Carmel College of Nursing?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Great question, and thank you for that because we, as I said earlier, work on our Pathways program, so we're hopeful that those that do not have a bachelor's degree in nursing will come to us to complete their baccalaureate education on our RN to BSN program. Also, we've got several advanced practice master's programs in nursing for family nurse practitioner and adult gerontology acute care nurse practitioners. We also have, as I said, the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, which currently allows nurses to come into our program for increased professional development and leadership skills so they can move into nursing management and leadership positions. We also have certification programs, whether it be in nursing leadership, wound treatment associate and also our periop program for nurses. So nurses can continually upskill, be up to the minute on leading edge procedures in nursing, as well as potentially move into new areas to advance either their current practice or move into different roles in nursing. And that's great because the portability of nursing allows us to really look at engaging in where our passion and our interest lies, but also to move beyond that as we become, I would say, wet our appetite for different experiences within nursing, whether it be travel nursing, periop, pediatrics, community health.

Host: Certainly sounds as though there are more opportunities than ever. You've done a great job so far, Todd, of getting into some specifics. In a more broad sense though, how would you say the college demonstrates its commitment, not just to students you've discussed, but the health system and the broader community overall?

What would you want or what is in fact the reputation of what goes on for you and yours? What do you really hang your hat on that you want people to know about?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Thank you again. That being one of our legacy opportunities is how we support the health system based on our founders, the Sisters of the Holy Cross, providing support to the community and our hospital system by allowing our students to complete community service, to engage in service opportunities across the health system, to engage in employment opportunities to provide ancillary services as students based on their schedule and the opportunities that exist within the health system to support environments of need. And also to be sure, we touched upon earlier that there are certification, continuing education, and professional development programs here at the college that support our colleagues in the health system.

Host: As President, you of course are the overseer of what's to come next, what's on the drawing board for the future. So what would you say are maybe the top three achievements that college aims to accomplish in the next year or so?

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Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: So we're looking at providing enhanced community support through our service organization here at the college with our students and faculty working together, and also provide that level of support to our health system, which is Mount Carmel Health System in the greater Trinity Health System, which Mount Carmel Health System is part of in engaging our level of resources and scaling them across all of our hospitals and up into the Trinity Health System to engage our colleagues as potential learners and to support their professional development and allow our students to have an excellent experience as students and move into the Mount Carmel Health System as colleagues.

So we are big on the adage of our student today, our nurse tomorrow. 

Host: A couple of other things. How about the way in which the college works with the HR department of the health system to create kind of a talent pipeline, right, for healthcare professionals? You mentioned how you prepare these nurses to be, what about when they're ready? How do you get them out there and get them helping?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: So it starts day one, as I mentioned. We connect students with HR on their entry, but we keep that conversation going. We're intentional about their clinical placements. We're intentional about making sure that those placements are relative to their needs moving forward. So we've built dedicated educational units within the health system, which are functional units that provide nursing education with faculty embedded in the clinical units that take students on a regular basis, provide them an opportunity to experience the unit, not only as a nursing student, but a functional nurse that's working at the bedside with a nurse that's their mentor. So we're not taking faculty that are outside of the organization and trying to socialize them into an area that they're not familiar with.

They're learning with nurses that work on those units, and it's intentional in the fact that when they're working with nurses that are functional in the unit, the student feels more supported and they feel more readily able to move into an employable situation in those units.

Host: It seems in interviewing healthcare professionals, so many of them, Todd, hearken back to that first mentor or two that they had early on as being very influential in whether it's the direction they chose to go in or what have you. Right? So that can be a key part of the career to come. Am I right?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Absolutely. To your point, I still remember my mentor to this day. We still have a great relationship. It is something that you absolutely do remember. It could be engaging or it could be disappointing. So we like to be sure that we provide understanding of what the students need, what the mentor is capable of, and pair the students appropriately.

Host: Then finally here, Todd, in summary, nurses of course have long been considered among the unsung heroes, so to speak, of the healthcare world. So much of what they do goes relatively unnoticed, at least to the general public. For you and yours, to be the ones responsible for helping prepare that next group to go out into the world and serve the community in this very special way. How rewarding is that?

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Absolutely. I feel like the extension of myself as a nurse practitioner exists in those students that I am assisting to prepare and move into patient care, knowing that when they're prepared, educated, and evaluated here at Mount Carmel College of Nursing; they're at the bedside as top-notch professionals providing compassionate care with the understanding that they have those lives in their hands, and when life is your life's calling, there's nothing more important than that.

Host: Well folks, we trust you are now more familiar with the Mount Carmel College of Nursing, Todd Ambrosia, keep up your great work, helping develop the nurses of tomorrow, and in some cases it literally is the nurses of tomorrow. Right? And thanks so much again.

Todd Ambrosia, DNP, MSN, MBA, FNP-BC, FNAP: Thank you, Joey. I appreciate it.

Joey Wahler (Host): To learn more about the programs offered at Mount Carmel College of Nursing, as we've discussed, please visit mccn.edu. Now if you found this podcast helpful, please do share it on your social media. And thanks again for being part of Careers in Care, a Mount Carmel College of Nursing podcast.