College of Nursing welcomed New Zealand nursing scholar

Dr. Spence, right, joins for a photo after observing senior nursing students and faculty Michelle Kelly, MSN, CRNP in a pediatric asthma scenario.

The College of Nursing was pleased to host Deb Spence, PhD this fall. Dr. Spence is responsible for both graduate and undergraduate students in the nursing program at her college – AUT University in Auckland, New Zealand. She was traveling in the United States this semester on a sabbatical to learn more about advanced practice nursing (APN) education and clinical practice and the use of simulation in nursing education. During her time in the United States, she was visiting a variety of educational and clinical locations to explore different teaching strategies, our approach to a culture of safety, and nurse-managed community clinics. She was particularly interested in seeing how low/high fidelity simulation can be used for undergraduate instruction especially mental health nursing scenarios and in APN education for enhancing clinical preparation and decision making.

Dr. Spence’s areas of teaching are advanced practice nursing, culture of safety and philosophy of science. In her faculty role, she provides research supervision for master’s and doctoral students in nursing and other disciplines who are conducting qualitative research especially using hermeneutic phenomenology.