University of Detroit Mercy faculty member Rosanne Burson recently received a prestigious 2019-20 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Grant. This is her first Fulbright Award.
She is the program coordinator for the University’s College of Health Professions (CHP) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). She is also an associate professor in the CHP’s McAuley School of Nursing and joined the University in 2001.
Beginning in January 2020, Burson will spend three months at the Centre for Integrated Care in the School of Nursing and Human Sciences at Dublin City University in Ireland. She will work closely with Pamela Hussey, Ph.D., and Catherine Corrigan, DNP, in what Burson described as a “collaborative, two-way education.”
“I plan to focus heavily on advanced practice nursing within the competencies of informatics and chronic disease self-management,” she added.
Other activities during her Fulbright period will include assessment of current advanced practice nursing roles and educational preparation that could address specific geographic healthcare needs; identification of specific regional healthcare challenges and opportunities for advanced nursing practice roles; advocating for advanced nursing competencies education that adds value and leads to demonstrated outcomes; providing teaching expertise and role modeling for students at Dublin City University as identified by faculty and administration in the area of informatics and self-management; and providing faculty development activities to promote the practice doctorate level education as identified by administration and faculty.
Burson’s interest in the Fulbright Award increased in 2018 when she began working with a global team of advanced practice nurses exploring the international progress of advanced practice and the practice doctorate (DNP) to improve health outcomes.
“Our group began to network and develop a plan for immersion when we received the invitation,” she said. “One of the group members, Dianne Conrad, DNP, will initiate the work in fall of 2019 and I will follow up. This award is an individual award and we applied separately. It’s really amazing that we both received the award and will be able to follow through as we envisioned.”
Neal Roseburg, dean of Detroit Mercy’s CHP, said that Burson’s scholarship, dedication to her field and love of teaching made her an easy choice in his eyes.
“The potential significance of this project is multi-faceted. As nations explore containing health care costs, Dr. Burson’s current work and advocacy for educating advanced practice nurses to serve frontline, alongside physicians, may serve as a necessary conduit of global health care delivery transformation.” he said.
Burson also anticipates that such an opportunity will continue to positively impact her teaching at Detroit Mercy.
“There are so many aspects of working at Detroit Mercy that I love,” she explained. “At the top of the list is the opportunity to mentor doctoral students to achieve their objectives. The faculty is top notch and work extremely hard to offer students a great experience. The environment is a match with my philosophy of relationship based education.”
For more than 70 years, the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) has administered and awarded Fulbright grants to individuals based on academic excellence and a commitment to their field of study. The Fulbright Scholar Program is the country’s flagship academic exchange effort and is coordinated on behalf of the United States Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA). For more information, please visit https://www.cies.org/about-us/about-cies.
To learn more about Detroit Mercy’s College of Health Professions and McAuley School of Nursing, please visit https://healthprofessions.udmercy.edu/index.php.