Student Volunteer Gains Valuable Insights into UMSN Curriculum Decision Making
“As a student, I questioned why certain things are included in a course and now I understand much more about the amount of thought and planning that go into each class,” says Alexandra (Aly) Kreiner, a University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) senior.
Kreiner is serving as an undergraduate student representative on UMSN’s Curriculum Committee. She volunteered to fulfill needed clinical hours for a senior leadership course, but says it’s been an enlightening experience.
“It’s been eye-opening to learn about the different parts of the process,” she says. “Now I see how certain decisions are made, how the faculty address gaps in the curriculum and how they look ahead.”
The Committee
The UMSN Curriculum Committee is made up of eight members. Five members are elected faculty including a chairperson, chair-elect, and representatives of each of the school’s two departments and its undergraduate program. In addition, there are three student volunteers representing various degree programs.
The committee members are tasked with reviewing, revising and developing UMSN’s curriculum. This can mean anything from evaluating emerging trends in health care education to safeguarding standards for accreditation.
The Student Voice
The main duties of the student representatives are to provide feedback and opinions from a student prospective. They also vote on topics related to their degree level.
“Students are our consumers of education as delivered by the curriculum,” says Milisa Manojlovich, PhD, RN, CCRN, a UMSN associate professor and chair of the Curriculum Committee. “Educational offerings must evolve to meet the changing needs of health care, but the faculty perspective of the curriculum is only from one side: education delivery. Faculty cannot provide the perspective of the recipients of the education, so the student voice is absolutely critical.”
Kreiner’s Path
While Kreiner’s focus on the details of curriculum is new, the Long Island native’s interest in nursing is long-standing. Her mother worked as a neonatal intensive care nurse and her father is a doctor specializing in in vitro-fertilization. However, it was her older sister’s Type 1 diabetes that sparked Kreiner’s interest in health care.
“I always saw her with her pump and managing her disease,” she says. “Then I got to go with her to a special camp and later went back as a counselor, so I was exposed to kids with different health care needs. That’s when I fell in love with pediatrics.”
Kreiner says she was worried about the size of U-M and originally was looking at smaller schools. But she was committed to nursing and being admitted directly to UMSN as a freshman was a big draw.
“When I had an internship at Mt. Sinai in New York City last summer, I realized how much more I’ve been able to do compared to students from other nursing schools,” says Kreiner.
Her fears about feeling overwhelmed at a big school faded a long time ago, and she smiled when sharing a recent example of experiencing UMSN’s close community. “I hadn’t met some of the faculty members on the Curriculum Committee before the first meeting,” she explains. “Then the next day, one of the members was a guest lecturer in one of my classes. I probably paid attention a little more than I would have otherwise,” she laughed.
Get Involved
Students interested in serving on the Curriculum Committee should contact Dr. Saint Arnault.
