Carroll Community College Nursing Program

Here is our latest graduate update...times two!

Ryan Hood and I were dating in nursing school. We graduated together in 2014, continued our education at Chamberlain College of Nursing—Ryan has his BSN and I continued to my MSN. We both work at University of Maryland Medical Center-Ryan’s on Cardiac Surgery ICU and I’m on Medical ICU. We’ve been in our positions downtown for 7 years. We’re now married with 2 kids, one of which was born with a congenital heart defect and is status post complete cardiac repair 9/2022 and then an emergency abdominal surgery to repair diaphragmatic hernia with incarcerated bowel and a bowel resection 2/2023. Because of our education and background in healthcare we’ve been able to advocate for our son and navigate the health system on the other side of things. We are forever grateful for our experience from the CCC nursing program that prepared us phenomenally for our current positions in ICU nursing.

Job Posting:
An elderly man who had a recent stroke and lives in Hampstead needs assistance with bathing, transfers, and some activities of daily living.

If you are interested, please get in touch with Jen at 443-956-0877

Learn more about our graduate Carla DiBartolomeo and what she has done since graduating from our nursing program.

Since graduating in 2009, I started working as a new grad in the Emergency Department at Shady Grove Hospital. In 2013, I became certified as a Forensic Nurse Examiner for adults, and two years after that, I became certified in pediatrics as well. In 2013, I also graduated with my Bachelors of Science Degree from Frostburg State University. I switched jobs in 2016 and started working for Kaiser Permanente in their Advanced Urgent Care Department and continued my forensic career through Carroll Hospital Center. Through my forensic nursing career, I have been able to be a speaker and present at a national conference, and I have been certified, and testified, multiple times as an expert witness for strangulation victims. I went back to school for my Masters Degree in Nursing Education and graduated in 2020 from Capella University. I do a lot of teaching and educational events in the community for at risk populations and victims of violence. My most recent goal is to start my DNP, for which I have an advisor meeting set up early next month to get that process started. As for my personal life, I have two beautiful girls and still live in Westminster. I’m recently engaged to a wonderful man who is a first responder so he understands the demands of my careers, which I think is really important. We love to travel and scuba dive. We have a trip to the Maldives planned in February!
Here are some pictures throughout my nursing career so far and one of me and my kids this past summer at the beach

Congratulations to our grad Amanda Hoffman! We are so proud of your journey!

"I graduated from Carroll’s Nursing program in December 2016 and continued on with Towson for my Bachelor’s. I spent 5 years in the ER as a nurse with Lifebridge and have since graduated with my Master’s in Advanced Practice Nursing in May 2021. Currently, I am a Family Nurse Practitioner with Carroll Health Group, which has been amazing. I started with St. Agnes as a new grad NP and decided to move closer to home after having my son.

I couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to start my educational journey locally at Carroll, and I look back fondly at my experiences throughout Carroll’s ADN program.

Thank you all for everything!"

We are absolutely delighted in introducing our newest full-time faculty member, Professor Amy Yanky. She has been with us as an adjunct clinical instructor over the course of the past couple of years and her expertise is in the emergency department. Welcome Professor Yanky, we are thrilled to have you on board!

Some great pearls of wisdom to share from the student’s huddle board this week.

Our third term students taking a fresh air break this morning!

Our next faculty focus is Professor Jane Schroeder!

Professor Schroeder has been a full-time nursing faculty member here at Carroll since January of 2010 and she worked here as a clinical adjunct before that. She spends most of her time here with second year nursing students and loves to share her knowledge with them.

Professor Schroder has been a nurse for 41 years after starting her education in a community college in a dental assistant program. Lucky for us, she realized that nursing was her passion and transferred to, and graduated from, the University of Maryland. She later received her masters in nursing at Towson University.

Professor Schroeder brings to our program experience in medical-surgical nursing and has spent over 25 years in the PACU. She also has experience working as a delegating nurse, in the office setting as a vascular nurse, and she is a member of the Maryland Responds Medical Reserve Corp.

Besides nursing, her other passion is spending time with her grandchildren. We are so lucky to have Professor Schroeder on our team and want to thank her for her tireless efforts in educating our future nursing workforce.

Here is an update from Loren Steers a 2023 graduate of our RN Program.

Since I graduated, I landed a job in Sinai Hospital’s Cardiac Surgery ICU. Cardiology has always been one of my most difficult topics, especially when it came to learning about Cardiogenic Shock. Not only did I pursue this job to improve my understanding about the heart, but also to challenge myself. My entire job is based on the Formula “Cardiac Output = Stroke Volume x Heart Rate”. Since I have been there, I have learned to distinguish between the effects of preload, afterload, and contractility, and how I can manipulate these measurements as a nurse. Almost all of my patients are in Cardiogenic Shock, and I’ve had plenty of practice with this concept since I began in May.

A large portion of my population are patients undergoing Percutaneous coronary Intervention and Surgical intervention. I tend to get a lot of patients flown over to me for emergencies from Carroll Hospital.

In addition to safely recovering patients from surgery, I also am able to wean and extubate my patients off the ventilator postoperatively, by removing blood off of their arterial line and running a bedside ABG called an EPOC. After I run it by the provider, who is always down the hall 24/7, I get to call Respiratory to have them come over and assist me in extubating.

I will never know everything because I am still a new graduate nurse, but I will say that this position has taught me so much already. A job in ICU right after graduation has taught me so much about time management and critical thinking. If there’s any advice that I can pass on to future graduates, it would be to never stop asking “Why?” or “How?”, teach others always, and keep growing your brain even after graduation. Education in nursing is not limited to receiving your diploma, it is a never-ending process.

Attached are a few pictures over the last couple of weeks, as well as some diagrams of devices and surgeries I recover!

Meet another one of our outstanding graduates! Jocelyn is a 2015 graduate of our LPN to RN program. She was awarded the Malinowski Innovation of the Year Award by the Maryland National Capital Home Care Association this year!

Congratulations Jocelyn!

Personality Disorder Dinner Party...
"6 oh 9 is my favorite time, but fine we will go at 6:10"

Happy Healthcare Simulation Week (this one is a bit late!)

Dr. Shelly Fourhman is one of the simulation faculty at Carroll and has been using simulation since 2016. Dr. Fourhman’s simulation education includes training on Debriefing for Meaningful Learning (DML) a NLN program and levels 1-3 of the Maryland Clinical Simulation Resource Consortium (MCSRC). She is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator.

Dr. Fourhman started at Carroll in Spring 2016. She is the course coordinator for Medication Administration and Nutrition. She was recently promoted to Associate Professor. Her clinical background is pediatrics.

Today we would like to celebrate our May 2022 graduate, Marra Barclay!

"After losing my Mom during the program due to cancer, I wasn’t sure how I was going to make it though nursing school, let alone what kind of nurse I wanted to be. I quickly found my fix when 3rd term hit and we began studying OB-GYN material. I have been working as a Mother/Baby Nurse since July 2022. I absolutely love caring for Mommas and welcome new lives into the world. I know my own Momma would be so proud. Thank you for everything CCC Nursing!"

Marra you are an outstanding example of perseverance and strength. Your mother would be so very proud!

Hello grads! We want to showcase you and the incredible things you have done since graduating from our program. Please send pictures and information to [email protected] so that we can celebrate your accomplishments!

Happy Healthcare Simulation Week!!!

Donna Rohrbaugh is the Allied Health and Nursing Lab Coordinator. She is responsible for managing the simulation labs and assisting instructors to bring simulation into the classrooms. She has been employed at Carroll as a clinical instructor in Nursing since fall 2007 and has been the Lab Coordinator since Sept 2020, although she has assisted in the simulation labs for about 14 years. She loves her job, and is often found talking to her manikins while moving them around campus for classes.

Donna is the most creative part of our sim team! Ask her about moulage!

Today... our twins wore matching outfits. Who is who???

Happy Healthcare Simulaiton Week!

Dr. Tammy Schwaab oversees the Simulation Program and Team at Carroll and has been using simulation since 2010. Her simulation education & training includes attending both Maryland Faculty Academy for Simulation Training (MFAST) 1.0 & 2.0 programs under Pam Jeffries at John Hopkins, the National League for Nursing (NLN) Simulation Leader program in 2018, the NLN Debriefing for Meaningful Learning Workshop, levels 1-3 of the Maryland Clinical Simulation Resource Consortium (MCSRC), and she is a Certified Healthcare Simulation Educator.

Her doctoral project used clinical simulation with medical surgical new graduate RNs to increase their confidence and competence when caring for deteriorating patients. She is additionally a member of the Organization for Associate Degree Nursing (OADN) Simulation Committee, a steering committee member for MCSRC, and International Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL) INACSL Simulation Education Program (ISEP) Facilitator, and President of the Maryland Community & College Simulation User Network (MCCSUN). Her passion is using simulation and reflective questioning to dig deeply into student’s clinical reasoning & judgment.

Dr. Schwaab joined the faculty at Carroll in 2010 and was awarded Professor of Nursing in 2021!

Happy Healthcare Simulation Week!!

Dr. Christine Schlaerth facilitates our Antepartum Clinical Simulation Experience in our Nursing Concepts 3 Course. She enjoys working with the students in the simulation lab to help them apply knowledge from the classroom to caring for patients who are laboring or are postpartum.

The second picture is our birthing manikin - Bertha - along with her newborn. Bertha joined our family of manikins in 2014!

Happy Healthcare Simulation Week from Carroll Community College!!!!

The Nursing Program has been using clinical simulation as a teaching and learning strategy since 2008.
Our clinical simulation experiences (CSEs) use simulated patients (actors), high fidelity manikins (Super Tory - our baby; and our 2 adults), or a combination of both to create valuable learning opportunities for our students.

We value simulation as it is a unique place where students can practice difficult concepts in a safe learning environment. This allows the student to act in the moment without any restriction.

CSEs at Carroll target topics that our students may not have the opportunity to see in clinical practice, more difficult concepts or skills for students to master, or important topics in healthcare.

Our students are encouraged to reflect on their clinical reasoning ability and judgement through discussions in the sim lab. The goal is to have our students work to continually improve their future clinical practice.

We are looking for...
Vital Signs Validation Help - Looking for volunteers to be standardized patients for student validations on October 3rd 2023 and October 4th 2023 for vital signs. Volunteers will should be willing and able to have manual blood pressure, pulse ox, respiratory rate, apical heart rate and pulse taken. Volunteers will be paid at the rate of $15/hr. If interested please complete the sign up genius below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0945AEAE2FA4F85-44350946-vital

Head to Toe Validation Help - Looking for volunteers to be standardized patients for student validations on November 28th 2023 and November 29th 2023 for head to toe assessment. Volunteers should be willing and able to have a full physical assessment completed to include but not limited to lung sounds, heart sounds, musculoskeletal assessment, etc…. Volunteers will be paid at the rate of $15/hr. If interested please complete the sign up genius below.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0945AEAE2FA4F85-44354317-head

We will be highlighting our exemplary faculty, staff, and students on social media this year. For our first faculty focus, we want to share more about our fearless leader Dr. Perry. She founded the nursing programs here at Carroll. The first PN graduation was in 2002 and that program has had a total of 359 graduates. Our first RN class graduated in 2005, and we have since had a total of 1138 graduates in that program. The amount of lives she has touched is immeasurable.
This year, Dr. Perry is being inducted into the Academy of Associate Degree Nursing. This prestigious honor celebrates her exceptional role modeling to students and faculty, as well as her advocacy for the advancement of associate degree nursing. She will accept this well-deserved award in November. Enjoy a few pictures of Dr. Perry wearing the blue seersucker dresses from her diploma nursing program as well as her first and last graduation pictures. Thank you Dr. Perry for all you do for us, and our profession.

We are in need of tutors for 3rd term nursing students! If you graduated in the last year and had a final grade of a B or higher, we’d love for you to lend your knowledge and study skills to our current students. The hours are flexible with your schedule and it is a paid position. Please reach out to Dr. Shelly Fourhman if interested at [email protected]

We want to congratulate Professor Jolynn Minnema on her retirement. Professor Minnema spent the last 16 years serving as an advocate and champion for mental health nursing. She has been an immeasurable resource for hundreds of nursing students and showed us all the importance of fighting the stigma that surrounds mental health issues. While we are sad to see her go, we are very thankful to have her continue to positively impact nursing students in our psych-mental health simulations. We wish her all the best!

It’s skills lab day!

The Carroll Lynx came to class today dressed in scrubs and ready to celebrate our first term students finishing their first week of nursing school strong!

Fabulous First Day!! Welcome and Welcome back! There’s no place like home!!!

First term orientation selfie!

Nursing Student Association Fall 2023 Meeting Times Survey to see which days/times work best for meetings!

Please follow us on Instagram!

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Carroll Community College Receives Gift of Temporal Artery Thermometers View as Webpage Thanks to Exergen Corporation's School of Nursing Thermometer Gifting Program Carroll Community College received a generous gift of temporal artery thermometers. Each student enrolle

Congrats to our new Practical Nursing graduates!!! Woo hoo!!

Job posting:

Seeking friendly home companion for elderly lady in Westminster. Two or three afternoons a week. Light housekeeping, laundry, meal preparation, and conversation. Possibly grocery shopping. $20/hour. References and a background check are required.
If interested, please email [email protected].

Our Transition students today at a blood pressure screening at Timber Ridge Apartments!

Congrats to our grad Elizabeth Agius!!!

Congrats to two graduates - Cathy Rhodes Nye and Ashley Small!!!

Health Care Heroes honorees: Nurse, Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant of the Year - Maryland Daily Record Through June 23, a series of videos will highlight the 2023 Health Care Heroes honorees. This video features the Nurse, Nurse Practitioner and Physician Assistant of the Year categories.

Job Post:
Searching for a caregiver for our elderly mother, who needs someone on-site overnight.
Excellent opportunity for the right student as it includes room within an easy drive of Carroll Community College, and the actual duties are modest.

If interested, please get in touch with William at [email protected].

To our class of 2023

Congrats to all the grads but especially the 55 new nurses!!!

Several hundred students, ages 17 to 70, celebrate graduation from Carroll Community College More than 200 students participated in the 30th Carroll Community College commencement held at the McDaniel College Gill Center Wednesday afternoon.