Dr. Jennifer Styron

Educational Background:
The University of Southern Mississippi (2013) PhD Instructional Technology and Design Minor in Educational Research The University of Southern Mississippi (2007) MEd Counseling and Personnel Services (College Student Personnel) Northwestern State University (2003) BS Hospitality Management & Tourism Minor Housing & Interiors.

Research and/or Professional Experience:
Dr. Styron is an Instructor in the College of Nursing at the University of South Alabama and has five years experience in training faculty and K-12 administrators to effectively utilize and integrate technologies into daily practice. Dr. Styron has also worked with The University of Southern Mississippi’s Instructional Leadership Center, where she helped develop and provide trainings on various educational uses of technology and assisted faculty in the design and development of distance education courses.Her previous experiences with distance education include monitoring and revamping Distance Education programming; coordinating marketing projects for online learning; guiding administrators and faculty in the design and development of distance education courses. Dr. Styron’s previous research focuses on technology adoption and distance education including the diffusion of online tools in Web-based courses; Web-based assessments; factors impacting administrators’ decision making regarding the adoption or expansion of distance education; connecting technology and student achievement; and technology integration specific to school leadership.

Dr. Sheila C. Whitworth
 
Educational Background:
MSN, University of South Alabama BSN, University of South Alabama.
 
Research and/or Professional Experience:
Adolescent Health Inpatient Obstetrical Nursing Children with Special Health Care Needs Classes Taught: Childbearing/Childrearing Theory Childbearing/Childrearing Clinical Diet Therapy Foundations in Nursing Pediatric Health Clinical Nurse Specialty - Practicum Health Care Policy and Economics Affiliations: Sigma Theta Tau International Association of Women’s Health, Obstetrics, and Neonatal Nurses, Mobile-Baldwin Chapter Phi Kappa Phi Student Nurses Association - University of South Alabama - Faculty Advisor.

This project focused on a pilot project implemented during the 2013-2014 academic year. The overall purpose was to facilitate interprofessional collaborative practice innovations, through the development of leadership, core competencies, and the use of technology, especially among nurses. Nursing, medicine, and physician assistant students were educated on the IOM competencies for interprofessional teams and the core competencies identified by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel [1] to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to practice in the collaborative practice environments. The project addressed four goals: Develop faculty expertise and leadership in interprofessional collaborative practice to provide a current, high quality education to nursing, physician assistant and medical students; Implement a culturally responsive and respectful collaborative interprofessional practice curriculum to prepare nurses, physician assistants, and medical students to deliver high quality, efficient, team-based care in a dynamically evolving environment; Focus interprofessional collaborative practice education on models and practices that lead to improvement in patient outcomes; and Evaluate the program and disseminate best practices. Findings from this pilot include strategies to engage different health professions’ students and faculty, partnering with community agencies, building an effective interprofessional team to guide the project, and seeking funding for extension and expansion of the offerings. 
 
[1] Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2011). Core competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Report of an Expert Panel. Retrieved from http://www.aacn.nche.edu/educationresources/ IPECReport.pdf