Bernadette O'Halloran

Bio

Dr. O’Halloran has worked at various capacities as a staff nurse, charge nurse, Diabetes Nurse Educator Consultant, Staff Development Nurse, and Practice Manager in many healthcare settings. These include acute care/ICU, school, home care, skilled facilities, cardiac rehab, Interventional Radiology, and Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases/Travel Medicine practice. 

In 2004, she began her career in academia serving students in the accelerated, bachelor and associate degree nursing programs within the community colleges and universities across CT. In 2018, Dr. O’Halloran joined MSMC to teach both the undergraduate and graduate nursing students. She enjoys the use of educational technology in a face-to-face, hybrid, or fully online learning environments including simulation. She continues to guide and support nursing students in their application of various test-taking strategies in preparation for the NextGen NCLEX-RN state board examination. Dr. O’Halloran maintains a huge interest in developing the critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment skills of nursing students to help reach their full potential in the nursing profession.

Outside of teaching, she loves to travel both local and international, biking, hiking, reading, and meeting new people with like-minded interests and passion to further personal and professional growth and development.

Degrees
EdD in General Education, Northcentral University
Master Cert. in Business Mgmt, Tulane University A.B. Freeman School of Business
MSN in Nursing Education, University of Hartford
BSN, University of the Philippines

Courses
NUR 5040 Human Diversity/Transcultural Nursing
NUR 3013 Adult Health I
NUR 3022 Adult Health II
NUR 2025 OL Intro to Nursing Informatics

Specialization/Areas of Research Interest
Use of educational technology in teaching and learning
Concept Mapping and Simulation
NextGen NCLEX-RN Test Item Writing
Writing for publication

Memberships and Professional Associations    
National League for Nursing (NLN)
Sigma Theta Tau International, Inc. (STTI)
International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL)
Healthcare Simulation Network of CT (HSNCT)

Achievements / Awards 

• International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL)
                 - Abstract Reviewer: INACSL Summit (June 2023)
• Poster Presentation: National League for Nursing (NLN) Education Summit 2022 on "Assessment and Evaluation of the Critical Thinking Skills and Interest in Learning Geriatric Nursing by Baccalauteate Nursing Students in the Classroom"
• Speaker/Presenter: CT League for Nursing 40th RN Student Day (Virtual - Nov. 2020)
  Podium Presentation: Nursing Education Research Conference sponsored by Sigma Theta Tau/NLN (April 2018), Washington, D. C. “Learning Experiences of associate degree in nursing students Using a 
  Concept Map with Simulation” Link: https://stti.confex.com/stti/nerc18/webprogram/Paper89250.html
• NCLEX-RN Test Item Writer for the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) in Chicago: May 2007
• Manuscript Reviewer: Fundamentals of Nursing (7th ed.) by Potter and Perry and Basic Nursing (7th ed.) by Potter and Perry

Publications    

• O’Halloran, B. (May/June 2022). Strengthening critical thinking skills in associate degree nursing 
  students through combined pedagogies of concept mapping using the nursing process and 
  simulation. Nursing Education Perspectives. 43(3):E10-E12. doi: 
  10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000916
• ProQuest Publication 10287836: "Using Concept Maps with Simulation: Learning Experiences of Associate Degree in Nursing Students"