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Georgia Southern project to be funded by $50,000 Teagle Foundation grant

Georgia Southern University Associate Dean of the College Arts and Humanities and English professor, Teresa Winterhalter, Ph.D., and her team have been awarded a planning grant of $50,000 by The Teagle Foundation for their project, “Narrative Competence for Nurses: The Liberal Arts in the Professions.” The project is a humanities-based, eight-week module that will supplement the gateway course for students entering the nursing program.

Teresa Winterhalter, Ph.D.

“Not only does the project align with the Teagle Foundation’s theme of fostering the relationship between the liberal arts and professional majors, but it also advances our university’s expanding mission,” said Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Carl Reiber, Ph.D.

The interdisciplinary module will address three key learning outcomes for nursing majors. It will integrate knowledge from the liberal arts as the basis for professional nursing practice; it will enhance students’ opportunities to discuss legal and ethical accountability, responsibility and behavior as it relates to patient care; and it will emphasize effective communication skills that maintain the humanity in professional relationships.

“As participating humanities and health sciences departments recognize the potential such curricular redesign has to boost enrollments in professional and humanities-based minors and majors, the grant planners anticipate this program becoming self-sustaining and expanding beyond the nursing program into our general education offerings,” Reiber said.

Winterhalter’s team consists of history professor Felicity Turner, Ph.D., nursing professor Catherine Gilbert, Ed.D., Associate Dean of the College of the Arts and Humanities, Norton Pease, MFA, and nursing professor Helen Taggart, Ph.D. They will begin work on the module on June 1 and anticipate completion on May 30, 2021.

The Teagle Foundation works to improve teaching and learning in the sciences and arts while focusing on accountability and financial sustainability in higher education.

Georgia Southern University, a public Carnegie Doctoral/R2 institution founded in 1906, offers 141 degree programs serving nearly 26,500 students through nine colleges on three campuses in Statesboro, Savannah, Hinesville and online instruction. A leader in higher education in southeast Georgia, the University provides a diverse student population with expert faculty, world-class scholarship and hands-on learning opportunities. Georgia Southern creates lifelong learners who serve as responsible scholars, leaders and stewards in their communities. Visit GeorgiaSouthern.edu.

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