Bruin Brief 2022-03-04: Handbooks for faculty and students
- Paul Macey
When I bought my last car, I knew there would be an owner’s manual tucked into the glovebox. I resolved to read the manual straightaway, so I would know how to use all the gadgets from the start. I planned to learn about tire pressure before I got a flat. Maybe I would get into a DIY mood and learn how to replace a burned-out headlight. At the least, I was eager to read up on which levers push so I could fold up and flatten the back seats. You never know when you will snag a stuffed yak’s head at a garage sale and need expanded trunk space.
Like most drivers, I never cracked the owner’s manual. Not once. Until the day I was late to work and a red alarm light blinked to life on the dashboard. Suddenly that owner’s manual was in my lap at the next stoplight.
At the UCLA School of Nursing, our version of the owner’s manual is comprised of four volumes: The Faculty Handbook, the BS/MECN/APRN Student Handbook, the DNP Student Handbook, and the PhD Student Handbook. Rather than wait for an emergency, you may wish to visit the various Handbook sites now to learn about how SON gadgets work. Or you can wait for a yak-head sized problem with alarm bells. Whether early or late, now or in a pinch, the Handbooks will be there for you.
Why handbooks are important. The Faculty Handbook is important because it orients us to where we work, including our philosophy, mission, vision, strategic plan, and accreditation. That may sound like boring detail, but you will be asked one day by your mother or a neighbor why UCLA School of Nursing is better than the last place you worked. You will be prepared for that conversation if you are familiar with the philosophy and values we espouse. Then you can speak convincingly about our commitment to person-centered care, active learning, and the ethical foundation of nursing that encompasses diversity, equity, and inclusion in all we do.
I kept track of my own use of the Faculty Handbook this month, and recorded the Top 5 Reasons I return to the handbook time after time.
1 Vacation and Sick Leave [link updated Mar 14, 2022]. I am a big believer in taking vacations, and I hope you are too.
2 Syllabus guidelines to figure out what I can and cannot change in my syllabus.
3 Comprehensive Examination policy for master’s (APRN and MECN) students.
4 Teaching workload guidelines for academic senate faculty.
5 SON Bylaws (which I realized are in revision once I looked them up).
The future of the faculty handbook. The Faculty Handbook is transitioning from the office of the Academic Dean to the Faculty Executive Committee for maintenance. We’re working to make it accessible, complete, accurate. Our vision is a dashboard-style web page that will have all the different materials that are needed. It will be look something like these examples:
https://mednet.uclahealth.org
Preceptor Handbooks. In addition to handbooks for faculty, preceptors are also provided with handbooks outlining procedures for handling student injuries in clinical areas, student behavioral expectations, and the line of communication between preceptors, faculty, and program directors.
Student handbooks. Students can find definitive answers about degree requirements, policies for written and oral exams and other milestones along the academic journey, and advisement. Prelicensure students often have questions about how Kaplan exams work, when and how OSCEs take place, and what the consequences are for unsafe student clinical practice.
Shelli Shepherd, Director of Student Services, provided this visual at student orientation to explain that student handbooks collate policy from the California Board of Registered Nursing, the School of Nursing, and UCLA as an institution. We are answerable to our students and our governing bodies for School policies that align with government regulation and University policy as well.
Example of vitally-important information in the student handbook. What is a passing grade in BS and MECN classes? This is a frequently asked question by students. The answer is on p. 19 for BS students. On p. 27 there is a similar answer for MECN students. “Students must satisfactorily pass both theory and clinical components of the course with a “C” (at least 74%) or better to pass the course and progress to the next clinical-theory courses in the MECN sequence.” A C- is not a passing grade, nor is anything lower than C-. Students who receive a non-passing grade must re-take the course and pass it in order to progress.
Our current handbook challenges. Everyone enjoys a good stuffed yak’s head. A rare treasure. The perfect gift. A conversation starter, always on the ready with no need for tending or upkeep. Our handbooks? Not a chance. We have over 700 pages of handbooks to tend every year, with an endless cycle of updating, reconciling, and indexing. And then where do those handbooks go? Unlike a yak’s head, they are seldom on display for community admiration and remain infrequently consulted, even when they should be.
Because of these challenges, we have handbook neglect, slippage, and even some bloopers. Not anyone’s fault! Just part of the challenge of managing all that information. I was entertained to read this evening that students must stow their “cellular devices,” turned off, in their “book bags” during class. That’s a student behavioral expectation I didn’t know about. And I had to read it twice. A cellular device? A book bag? Really? So we have work to do. We want our handbooks to be short, accessible, clear, and accurate, and it will take all of us working together to make them so. If we’re lucky, our handbooks will become as precious to us as a user’s manual when we have a blinking dashboard light. Or as treasured as a yard-sale yak’s head stuffed into the trunk.
Lauren Clark, RN, PhD, FAAN
Professor and Shapiro Family Endowed Chair in Developmental Disability Studies
Associate Dean Academic and Student Affairs
School of Nursing
Office: 310-267-5923
Mobile: 801-503-4755