Along with all sophomores and juniors in the nursing program, this group attends the Kansas conference each fall and every year Southwestern has had one of our members serve on the state board of directors. Attendance at the KANS conference is also a required part of one of the Professional Nursing Roles course. In this course the nurses learn the value of professional development and networking to their career as a registered nurse. Over of the courses have a practicum element. Students have pre-arranged practicum experiences in highly structured settings in the majority of courses.
Students also have complete control over their practicum experiences in other courses.
The practicums focus on all areas and applications for nursing-not just hospital care. Southwestern's location also allows students to experience rural nursing in a small hospitals like Winfield and Wellington where nursing care is more generalized to specialized nursing care in urban hospitals like Wesley Hospital in Wichita. 2-hour course typically held in May where the students meet one week as a class and then use another required week in the summer to work in a health care facility that serves a population of a different culture. Students can also choose to spend the entire summer in this experience. The student has major input into where this week will be staged.