Susan LaRocco, dean of Mount Saint Mary College's School of Nursing, will continue this semester's Investigating Research on Campus (iROC) series with her talk, "Male Nursing Students in Obstetric Clinical Experiences," on Thursday, March 11 at 4 p.m.
The talk will take place virtually via Zoom. It's free and open to the public, but you must register to attend. Register at www.msmc.edu/iROCLaRocco
The Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing for men was a now-defunct nursing school and hospital in Chicago. In the 1950s, male nursing students were not required to have an obstetrical clinical experience. When they took the licensing exam, they were allowed to substitute urological nursing for the section on obstetrics. As requirements changed, the Alexian Brothers had to work with other hospitals to allow the men to have this clinical experience.
LaRocco's upcoming presentation will describe the variety of arrangements that were made and the experiences of the male students as the changes occurred.
The talk started as an invited presentation at the Midwest Nursing Archives in Chicago. It's based on research funded by the Karyn and Terrance Holm Visiting Scholar Award. This presentation is part of a larger oral history project focused on the men who graduated from the Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing. Other aspects of the project have focused on the men's choice of nursing as a career, their experience as nursing students, and their subsequent careers.
LaRocco's research interests include the recruitment and retention of men in the nursing field. As a Fulbright Scholar during academic year 2014-15, she taught qualitative research and professional writing at the University of Jordan in Amman, while also researching where male Jordanian nurses fit in to their profession and culture.
LaRocco received a bachelor's degree from Boston College and a master's degree in Nursing Administration from Boston University. Her PhD is from the University of Massachusetts Boston where she received the Brenda S. Cherry Doctoral Dissertation Award. In addition, she holds an MBA from New York University. She is a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE) and has certification as a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL).
She has published extensively, including clinical articles in Nursing and the American Journal of Nursing. In 2010, she received the Mary Ann Garrigan Award from the Theta-at-Large Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International, and in 2014, she was inducted as a Fellow in the National Academies of Practice.
Mount Nursing students consistently score higher than the state average on the NCLEX-RN test, and they benefit from state-of-the-art simulation labs and learning resources, clinical relationships with dozens of area hospitals, and passionate faculty. Mount-trained nurses have become known locally and beyond for their compassionate and skillful care.