Nursing Professor Authors Workbooks, CDs for Textbook Publisher
Tuesday, June 13, 2006
Dottie M. Mathers, an associate professor of medical/surgical nursing at Pennsylvania College of Technology, has written three workbooks to accompany medical-surgical nursing textbooks.
The workbooks, titled "Virtual Clinical Excursions 3.0," are adapted for textbooks published by Elsevier. An accompanying CD features a virtual hospital with five patients.
Mathers developed lessons that encourage students to use critical thinking as they assess the virtual patients and plan, implement, and evaluate nursing interventions. Students also evaluate diagnostic results and critique physician orders. There are 25-30 lessons in each workbook.
The "Virtual Clinical Excursions" workbooks were written to accompany "Medical-Surgical Nursing: Assessment and Management of Clinical Problems" by Sharon Lewis, Margaret Heitkemper and Shannon Dirksen; "Medical-Surgical Nursing: Critical Thinking for Collaborative Care" by Donna Ignatavicius and M. Linda Workman; and "Medical-Surgical Nursing: Clinical Management for Positive Outcomes" by Joyce Black and Jane Hawks.
Mathers also developed a companion CD for the textbook, "Pharmacology and the Nursing Process," written by Linda Lilley, Scott Harrington and Julie Snyder and published by Elsevier. This CD provides National Council Licensure Examination practice questions, procedural checklists and guidelines to prevent medication errors.
Mathers started her teaching career at Penn College as an adjunct instructor in 1991 and has been part of the college's full-time nursing faculty since 1994.
She earned a master's degree from College Misericordia in 1994 and a bachelor's degree from Eastern Washington University. She received an associate degree from Northampton Community College. She has been in nursing for 31 years and, while employed as a full-time faculty member, continues to work at the Williamsport Hospital & Medical Center.
For more information about the academic programs offered by the School of Health Sciences at Penn College, call (570) 327-4519, send e-mail or visit on the Web.