Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
Tue, 3/9 3:17PM
17:19
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
augsburg, nursing, dnp, nursing faculty, students, healthcare, family nurse practitioner, program,
patients, department, university, faculty, teresa, college, integrative, grow, deep, holistic, practices,
clinical
S... Show more
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
Tue, 3/9 3:17PM
17:19
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
augsburg, nursing, dnp, nursing faculty, students, healthcare, family nurse practitioner, program,
patients, department, university, faculty, teresa, college, integrative, grow, deep, holistic, practices,
clinical
SPEAKERS
Lisa VanGetson, Joyce Miller
J
Joyce Miller 00:02
Thank you for joining me today for this oral history project on the Department of nursing
for Augsburg University. My name is Joyce Miller and I am the Chair of the Nursing
Department. Could you please introduce yourself for the recording? And tell us what your
position is at Augsburg University.
L
Lisa VanGetson 00:23
Thank you, Joyce. I am Dr. Lisa VanGetson. I am in as assistant professor and program
director of the doctorate of nursing practice in family nurse practitioner program here at
Augsburg University.
J
Joyce Miller 00:38
Great. Before we continue, I would just like to confirm that you consent to be to being
interviewed and to have that interview stored at Augsburg University, which will be made
available to the public.
L
Lisa VanGetson 00:52
Yes, I agree.
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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J
Joyce Miller 00:53
All right. Well, good. Let's begin. Can you tell me where you grew up and who you call
family?
L
Lisa VanGetson 01:00
Sure. I grew up in Midwestern Illinois with my parents. My mother was half Cherokee is half
Cherokee Indian. Her both of her parents were native. In I have four siblings.
J
Joyce Miller 01:15
Awesome, awesome. What led you to the nursing profession?
L
Lisa VanGetson 01:20
I felt called by God when I was in high school to care for sick people. The interesting thing
was that none of us in our family were ever sick. So I'm not quite sure, like I blame God for
this one. And I wanted to attend a girl's Catholic college because I was interested in the
Franciscan vocation. And while I was in high school, the Sisters of St. Francis from the
College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota came in scouted me at a basketball
tournament and offered me a two year basketball scholarship to St. Teresa's.
J
Joyce Miller 01:59
I love it. So you play basketball at went on to state that are at St. Teresa.
L
Lisa VanGetson 02:04
Yes.
J
Joyce Miller 02:06
That's awesome. I didn't know that about. So can you tell for me or describe your
educational background?
L
Lisa VanGetson 02:15
In 1982, I graduated with my BSN from the College of St. Teresa in Winonna. And following
my graduation, I promised God that I would never attend any more college. So I began
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai
my nursing career at St. Mary's Hospital at Mayo Clinic Rochester. My career had a deep
focus on cardiovascular surgery, spending the next 26 years working in a pediatric adult
cardiovascular transplant intensive care unit is a bedside rn. And then later, 10 years later,
actually, as an family nurse practitioner in this in that same department, I grew deeply
passionate about hospital clinical ethics and spirituality in health care. Following a Native
American vision quest, I was led to the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, and enrolled in
graduated in 1995 and receiving a master's degree in theology and spirituality. I continued
to work at St. Mary's in the ICU in in 1997, I was led to study clinical ethics at the University
of Chicago as a paid fellow at the McLean Center for Clinical ethics. In 2002, I attended
Winona State University and obtained my family nurse practitioner certification. In 2007. I
obtained academic rank at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine as an instructor in
Biomedical Ethics. In 2010, I was led by God once again to Augsburg College, to complete
my terminal degree in the DNP TCN program.
J
Joyce Miller 03:59
Well, so that's how you really ended up at Augsburg or how, how did you discover
Augsburg university?
L
Lisa VanGetson 04:07
Well, I had applied to a DNP program at the University of Minnesota. And hey, I had
delayed my admission. And one day while driving to Minneapolis, one of my nursing
colleagues called in said listen to the name of this course. And she shared with me the
name of this course in a DNP program. I said, Well, where's that from? And she said, It's
from Augsburg College. And I said, Well, where's that at? And she said, Well, they have an
educational site in Rochester, and I think the four of us should all go to DNP school
together. And I said, Okay, well, what do I do next? And she said, Well, I know it's Friday
afternoon at three o'clock, but you need to call Dr. Sue Nash and set up an appointment
for all four of us on Monday at four o'clock. I said, Okay, I'm quite sure that'll work. So I
dialed up Sue Nash, scheduled us all an appointment The weekend we spent updating our
CBS and we we were admitted into the program Three days later.
J
Joyce Miller 05:07
I remember that day. I remember the data as soon as I shared that for you walked in. So
what then inspired you to want to teach?
L
Lisa VanGetson 05:21
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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Well, my first academic teaching position was actually 1999, where I taught applied in
clinical ethics in a philosophy department and then later, I taught cardiovascular nursing
in the nursing department. I have always taught in academia and also had a clinical
practice. When I was obtaining my DNP. At Augsburg, I was very inspired by the nursing
faculty. And after our first class, I turned to my four colleagues and said, If I ever teach in
academia, again, it is going to be with this nursing faculty. Why they said, I said well,
because they really have a wide angle perspective, into a health care in nursing and
understanding this transcultural perspective. Of course, as a Native American woman, I
really resonated with that and I connected with how Augsburg provided students with a
variety of practical experiences in the work of trans cultural and holistic nursing. So I
suddenly became inspired again, to integrate clinical practice with academia and
became part of Augsburg's nursing faculty in 2011. So in 2013, I was asked to join the
Augsburg nursing faculty in a meeting to dream and create a additional track in their
DNP program as an FNP. I agreed, as long as we could dream and discuss about having
an FNP track which integrated trans cultural, holistic and Integrative Health. Following
that meeting, Dr. Cheryl Leuning and I began to play in the program, which included
developing the entire curriculum, hiring and mentoring new nursing faculty finding clinical
sites for students in interviewing the first class of students. We began the program was
two faculty and seven students. Today we have over 12 faculty and about 78 DNP FNP
students.
J
Joyce Miller 07:35
Wow, How the program has grown over the last how many years? Incredible. So how
many years then Have you been at Augsburg?
L
Lisa VanGetson 07:44
Totally, I've been teaching at Augsburg since 2011, which I started in the BSN program. And
then in 2013, I entered teaching in the doctorate program.
J
Joyce Miller 07:56
So what courses do you primarily teach at Augsburg?
L
Lisa VanGetson 08:00
I teach classes throughout the DNP FNP program. I am the lead faculty on the seminar
classes in for one of the practices that we take students to Oaxaca Mexico. And I am also
quite passionate about one of the DNP courses on cosmology in in nursing, where we
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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actually begin to challenge our students to look at who they are as healers, and how as
nursing, how we help students begin to understand how health is connected to the care of
the earth and how we are connected with the care of the earth and how in order to to be
part of creating wellness and health we need to recognize that we are one with the earth.
J
Joyce Miller 08:52
Sounds like a great class. So what has been your most memorable teaching experience?
L
Lisa VanGetson 09:00
I'm most inspired by how students will enter our program through what they may call a
vocational call, or called by spirit, to be in our particular program. I'm inspired that I too
have been called to be among students who journey through our vigorous program into a
new life of fulfilling this call, which helps them to understand how their prayers have been
answered. It is in this deep way of knowing that I have always believed since the
beginning of this DNP FNP program that God has grown this program into being we have
been sent excellent FNP clinicians who have grown into their new roles in academia, who
have been clinicians for many years and share their years of clinical expertise in
integrated primary care. It has been and still is an honor to be part of Creating a legacy
program at Augsburg, students and faculty who arrived in our DNP FNP program are
indeed called to create a new face of healthcare through trans cultural, holistic and
integrated primary care lens. It is a blessing to share this time of my life of bridging the
gap between our current healthcare system in integrative complementary and alternative
health care.
J
Joyce Miller 10:29
That sounds incredible. So, when you launched the FNP program, What do you remember
about the beginning of that program or, or just the beginning or the launching? or What
was your biggest maybe understanding or takeaway?
L
Lisa VanGetson 10:52
Well, when I was asked by our nursing faculty to consider being the director of the
program, I remember feeling deeply embraced by how the mystery of God has been
preparing me throughout my professional career for this work. In 2013, was one of the
years of my professional life with the mystery of God placed what I call a constellation of
creative nursing faculty into a particular time of history in healthcare. Our call, and I
believe this is still our calling. It is to be part of a health community to recreate the
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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meaning of health and wellbeing for our patients. As we know healthcare becomes more
and more complex each day, and we are challenged to integrate a holistic and
integrative academic and clinical experience for students. This requires each of us to
reflect on how we enter a trans cultural culture of healthcare.
J
Joyce Miller 12:00
So can you tell me all the emphasis you talked about trans cultural culture care? Tell me
about the emphasis on transcultural, holistic care really aligns with you and your either
nursing or nursing or teaching practices?
L
Lisa VanGetson 12:19
Well, the emphasis on transcultural, holistic and Integrative Health really has been a deep
part of my own nursing and teaching practice for 37 years. As a native woman walking
into worlds walking in the spiritual world, where we turn to Mother Earth, the plants and
animals, our ancestors, the night sky to help us guide in this work of nursing, and also
walking in the world of evidence based practice. And healthcare policy is an effort to
provide the very best for our patients. So walking in this worlds with patients and families,
I believe we are called to serve to be with them in moments of transformation and
healing. To walk with patients through their illness story. This has always been the
emphasis of how I provide patient care.
J
Joyce Miller 13:13
That's incredible. So what should nurses know about practicing from these frameworks?
L
Lisa VanGetson 13:24
Today in health care, nurses are required, in my opinion, more than ever to understand
that trans cultural, holistic, and integrative health care is the road to patient care. These
frameworks, they're not subspecialties, this is what healthcare is today, and it is what
patients want from us. patients want us to understand their illness story through a holistic
lens. nurses, nurse practitioners must come to the patient's narrative, embracing the many
ways of understanding how transformation and healing is part of every single visit we
have with the patient. This is how we need to be providing health care today.
J
Joyce Miller 14:12
So if there would be something that we could improve upon, in our department, would you
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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have any thoughts on that?
L
Lisa VanGetson 14:21
It is important for our faculty to be allowed to grow into be faculty. We can grow our
internal structures faculty to support our students, and to grow our ongoing growth as
faculty. But we need the university to support our outer structure of our programs so that
we can continue to strengthen the core values and mission of who we are as a nursing
department.
J
Joyce Miller 14:51
So where do you see the department in 20 years?
L
Lisa VanGetson 14:55
In 20 years, I would hope that ours students would remember the experiences and
mentors that are provided to them. Through our nursing program, and through our
nursing faculty, I imagine alumni carrying on the deep hearing on the deep legacy of the
mission of our department.
J
Joyce Miller 15:20
I agree. As we both are getting closer to retirement, we do want our students to carry on
we are. So is there anything else that you can think of that I didn't ask or that you would
like to share today, before we close this interview time?
L
Lisa VanGetson 15:44
I guess just in closing, I do believe that, that health care is forever changing in to grow with
the times to grow a nursing department with the times of the changing face of healthcare
is what we have to do. So in 20, and 30 and 40 years, it will look very different. But it will
be aligned with meeting the best needs of where healthcare is today, and what our
patients need from us.
J
Joyce Miller 16:17
Thank you. Well, thank you, Lisa. This was quite interesting to find out about your life and
your passion, and just your teaching practices. So I really want to thank you for your time.
And and very much appreciate you participating in our oral history here at Augsburg
Oral history with Lisa VanGetson
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University. Thank you.
L
Lisa VanGetson 16:38
Thank you.
J
Joyce Miller 16:43
I hope that stupid banging could hear a little thing and I said shut up. Hopefully, so does
it. Transcribe it you're still recording
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