News Story

Georgetown Doctor of Nursing Practice Students Selected for AACN Digital Innovators Program

January 14, 2021 – Amanda Boys (G’14, G’21) and Shannon Lyons (G’21), students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, have been selected for the Digital Innovators Program of the Graduate Nursing Student Academy of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

The program accepted 30 students, in the form of 15 pairs, for participation.

Amanda Boys in a portrait-style photograph
Amanda Boys (G’14, G’21)

According to the GNSA, the program will “offer participants modern approaches and creative methods to educating the future nursing workforce. This team-based mentored program will focus on developing digital creators through a series of virtual sessions twice a month that will help build a skillset in preparation for a final digital showcase. Content will be delivered by Apple Education’s leadership and learning teams.”

Student teams will be advised by a faculty mentor, and the program runs until August of this year.

‘Engaging and Memorable Content’

Lyons said she is looking forward to participating in the program, especially given the way the COVID-19 pandemic has altered approaches to education.

“I am hoping to be able to develop engaging and memorable content for both online and in-person classes through participation in the GNSA Digital Innovators Program,” she said. “COVID has rearranged the way we think about interaction and education, and the tools and skills that are taught in this program will be instrumental in creating material to capture a learner’s attention regardless of the classroom structure.”

Boys is looking forward to participants gaining the skills “to develop as digital creators.” She added, “The digital mobile technology that we have available at our fingertips gives us the opportunity to make nursing education more accessible.”

Shannon Lyons (G’21)

“We want to enable students to be self-directed, lifelong learners and to assimilate new knowledge and technologies in order to have an impact on the continuously changing environments in which the profession of nursing is practiced,” said Boys, who also earned her master’s degree at Georgetown in the Nurse-Midwifery/Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner Program.

Positive Experience

Boys said she is happy to be back at Georgetown pursuing her doctoral degree.

“I called the professors that I had the honor to work with in that program ‘midwife royalty’ because of their accomplishments in the field of midwifery,” she said. “I could not believe that I had the opportunity to learn from these women. I so enjoyed my time at Georgetown during this program that I decided to return to obtain my DNP. I have continued to have the same amazing experiences with courses and most certainly the professors.”

Lyons agreed. “The DNP Program at Georgetown has been an incredible experience so far,” she said. “The professors are outstanding, and interactions with my cohort and other classmates keep me motivated to push harder and accomplish my goals. The program has been everything I hoped it would be when I decided to pursue my doctorate.” 

By Bill Cessato