Among the six doctoral students who’ll graduate from the WSU College of Nursing Friday are Anas Mohammad and Yasmin Musa Al-Shannaq, a Jordanian couple who met in nursing school and came to the United States together to pursue graduate degrees.
Just a few weeks later, they’ll leave Spokane and the U.S. to begin faculty positions at Jordan University of Science and Technology in Irbid.
The WSU College of Nursing was their first choice among several options available to them after receiving their master’s degrees from the University of Michigan, Mohammad said.
WSU is “an internationally known leader in simulation” as a teaching and learning strategy, he said. Mohammad’s doctoral research is on the use of simulation and he plans to introduce new simulation-based teaching methods in Jordan to alleviate a shortage of clinical placements.
He and his wife also found a welcoming community and a dedicated College of Nursing faculty who were intent on helping them succeed, they said.
“Moving to a new country, it’s a completely new world and it’s difficult to get accustomed to a different culture,” Mohammad noted. The couple has two young children so they were also dealing with all the normal stresses of a two-career couple as they pursued their doctoral degrees.
In addition, Mohammad competed in the 3-Minute Thesis program, was a research assistant and was involved in the peer-review process; he’ll be honored with a Chancellor’s Award during Spring Commencement. He said the WSU College of Nursing faculty and staff offered flexibility, support and encouragement that helped the couple manage the many demands on their time while on their “PhD journey.”
As they begin packing to leave, they’re looking forward to going home and being around family again, they said. The one thing they’re not looking forward to: the 20-hour plane ride to Jordan with two kids in tow.
Said Mohammad, smiling and gesturing to the iPad his daughter was playing with, “the tablet is magic.”
The College of Nursing’s PhD recipients for Spring 2017 and their dissertation topics are:
- Yasmin Musa Al-Shannaq, “The Psychosocial and Quality of Life Experiences of Jordanian Women with Breast Cancer”
- Ruth Ann Bryant, “Factors Associated with Adverse Outcomes in Patients Hospitalized with Pressure Ulcers”
- Caroline Jacobs, “Betrayal by Comrades-in-Arms: VA Health Care Experiences of Women Survivors of Military Sexual Trauma”
- Anas Mohammad, “High-Fidelity Simulation: A New Method for Improving Medication Administration Skills of Undergraduate Nursing Students in Jordan”
- Victoria Sattler, “Psychometric Analysis of a Scale Used to Measure Patient Perception of Cultural Competency”
- Donna Watson, “Enhanced Recovery after Surgery, Perioperative Safety Issues, and Wrong Site Surgery”
In addition, receiving an Interdisciplinary PhD:
- Mason Burley, “Evaluating Risk for Psychiatric Re-Hospitalization: a Recurrent Event History Analysis”
For information on the WSU College of Nursing’s PhD program, visit https://nursing.wsu.edu/academics/phd/
