Julie Vognsen completed dissertation research

Julie Vognsen with doctoral committee (L: Dr. Edward
C. Fletcher and Yi-Hsin Chen - R: Dr. Rosemary Closson
and Victor Hernandez)

Congratulations to Julie Vognsen who successfully defended his dissertation entitled, Nurses' Attitudes Toward Death: Examining the Relationship with Background and Palliative Education and Training Variables, on March 21, 2017.

The purpose of her study was to describe Registered Nurses’ attitudes toward death and their perspectives on education and training related to death and end-of-life patient care. A complementary goal was to determine whether nurses’ attitudes and perspectives were associated with background variables. The three attitudes toward death included anxiety, escape, and neutral attitudes. The background variables of the nurses included formal educational level, age, gender, ethnicity, years of nursing practice, state of residence, and area of nursing practice. Her doctoral committee included Dr. Victor Hernandez, who served as her Major Professor; Dr. Edward Fletcher, Dr. Yi-Hsin Chen, and Dr. Rosemary Closson. To facilitate the dissertation defense, Dr. Chen served as the Outside Chair.

Julie has an extensive career in nursing and is currently serving as Off Tour Coordinator at the Department of Veterans Affairs in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina AreaGovernment Administration. During her career, she realized that for many nurses, death is a very difficult subject to talk about and developed expertise in related education and training. As such, she taught classes and conducted workshops at conferences on death and dying to novice and expert nurses. Building on her professional background and interests, and upon joining the Doctoral Program in CWE at USF, Julie set out to determine nurses’ attitudes toward death and whether there is a relationship with extent of palliative education and training and background variables, as the basis for identifying implications for educational programs. Specifically, her dissertation research was driven by the following questions:

1. What is the nurses’ profile of attitudes toward death (anxiety, escape, neutrality)?

1. What is the extent of nurses’ education and training on palliative care? 

1. What background (age, gender, years of experience, nursing area, ethnicity, state of residency) and educational and training variables has impacts on nurses’ attitudes toward death (anxiety, escape, neutrality)?

1. What is the best set of background and education and training variables explaining attitudes toward death (anxiety, escape, neutrality)?

1. What are the nurses’ perspectives on study results regarding attitudes toward death and relationship with background and education and training variables?

To learn more about Julie's study regarding conceptualization, methods, findings, and implications for practice and further research, you may visit his dissertation posting here.

Congratulations!

Dr. Stephanie Holmquist Received USF College of Education 2016 Distinguished Alumni Award

Dr. Stephanie Holmquist, center, at the award ceremony with
CWE@USF program faculty 

Dr. Stephanie Holmquist received the 2016 USF College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award on October 7. In addition to completing a bachelor’s degree at USF, Dr. Holmquist holds a Master’s degree in Career and Technical Education and completed thePh.D. in Career and Workforce Education in 2014. The title of her dissertation is, A multi-case study of student interactions with educational robots and impact on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) learning and attitudes.

Each year, the USF College of Education recognizes alumni as part of the USF Homecoming events, and Dr. Holmquist was a clear choice as recipient of the Spirit of Partnership Alumni Award due to her remarkable support to the College of Education over the years.

Dr. Stephanie Holmquist is President and CEO of Holmquist Educational Consultants, Inc., a national consulting and sales organization specializing in the areas of Career and Technical Education and STEM education, with an emphasis on robotics and teacher training. She has served as a consultant for various topics in education such as STEM education, classroom management and robotics.

Dr. Holmquist holds two degrees from our program in career and workforce education and we join the college in recognizing her spirit of service. Congratulations on receiving the Spirit of Partnership Alumni Award!

To learn more about the Award event, see the related College of Education announcement of awards.

Jake Prokop Appointed as Director of the Pinellas Technical College

Congratulations to Jake Prokop. He was appointed as Director of the Pinellas Technical College, Clearwater Campus, and began serving in this capacity on July 1, 2016.

The college has a full-time instructional of 44 and over 90 part-time instructors.  The administrative team consists of the director and two assistant directors at each campus.  PTC provides a variety of technical training, certificate programs, with over 60 programs in over 40 career fields across both campuses, Clearwater and St. Petersburg.

Some of the programs at the Clearwater campus include: Automotive Service, Welding, Marine Service, Nursing, Administrative Assisting, Machining, Early Child Care, Computer Repair, Network Support Services, Electricity, HVAC, Cosmetology, Commercial Foods, and others. To ensure student success, the college also provides ancillary services such as a testing center, adult basic education, and industry services division (customized training and short courses).  In addition, the college has a full service Student Services Center, which provides financial aid and counseling services.

The Clearwater campus has over 1000 students enrolled in full-time, part-time, traditional (face to face), online, and hybrid delivery programs.  The college also provides multiple registered apprenticeship programs.  Since 1964 the Clearwater campus has been an icon in Pinellas County for technical training.  Today, PTC continues this tradition by focusing on the college's vision of being the community’s number one choice for technical training.

Jake Prokop is a doctoral candidate in career and workforce education at USF. He is currently working on his dissertation research seeking to determine whether participation in engineering career academies in middle school makes a difference on academic performance compared to participation on academic tracks.

Kudos on the appointment as Director of the Pinellas Technical College, Clearwater Campus!