SINCE ITS INCEPTION more than 90 years ago, Our Lady of the Lake College has been known for both its academics and its emphasis on service. Today, officials are optimistic about the school’s future as it transitions into a university, aptly named Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University.

The University’s roots go back to 1923, when the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady established a nursing school in conjunction with the creation of Our Lady of the Lake Sanitarium in the Capitol Lake area of downtown Baton Rouge—the predecessor of the medical center that is now located on Essen Lane. The school evolved over the decades to incorporate advances in the nursing profession and ultimately became Our Lady of the Lake College in the 1990s.

Further expansion of programs in the non-nursing health professions and the liberal arts and sciences at the associate, baccalaureate and graduate level, and more recently at the doctoral level, has prompted the College to adopt a name change that reflects the evolution of the programs now being offered at the institution.

In addition, the change to Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University honors both the ministry’s founding sisters and its Franciscan values, as expressed through the education and formation of its students. Curricula in all academic disciplines emphasizes Franciscan formation—a philosophy that emphasizes the value of service—a distinct experience for graduates, especially beneficial to those seeking preparation for health care professions.

“There are a number of reasons why we are excited to announce a new name that recognizes our institutional maturity… our university status,” says Dr. Tina Holland, university president. 

“But I am most excited about the opportunity to declare the proud heritage entrusted to us by our Sisters, the Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady. Our new name is a clear reflection of our commitment to enhance our Franciscan identity. Another important impetus for the new name is that the first cohort of students will graduate with Doctor of Nursing Practice-Nurse Anesthesia degrees in December of 2017, ” she adds. 

In addition to this new doctoral program, students can choose from 10 undergraduate programs, five master’s programs and a certificate in phlebotomy, with programs offered both on-campus and online.

Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University—the only Franciscan institution of higher education in the southeastern United States—is organized into three comprehensive schools: School of Arts and Sciences, School of Health Professions and the School of Nursing. Currently, enrollment is 1,400 students, and the University has more than 80 full-time faculty members. 

“Many of our professors have worked in the medical field prior to coming to the University and are eager to share their professional wisdom with our students,” says Enrollment Counselor Tyler Trahan. “That’s just one of the advantages in attending a health care-focused university where training is specific to your chosen field, such as nursing, physical therapy and radiologic technology.”

Students also benefit from being surrounded by others studying in health professions and being able to share interdisciplinary, state-of-the-art educational environments such as the Simulated Environment Teaching Hospital—or simply, the SETH. The SETH is a clinical simulation lab where students practice their clinical skills and interprofessional collaboration in a safe, controlled environment, using life-like mannequins and standardized patients (volunteers trained to mimic a real patient).

“In the past, traditional models of health education led to a siloed approach where skills were learned within each discipline—for example, nurses learned with nurses. But it is clear that today’s health care providers need to understand the capabilities and limitations of other professionals, and be able to coordinate and deliver team-based care. So, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University has answered that call by adding an interdisciplinary clinical simulation to our curriculum,” says Holland. 

“This means that a scenario that starts with nursing students in a simulated hospital room may also require respiratory therapy or radiologic technology students to be called in, or a case in the simulated birthing suite might need clinical laboratory science students to run emergency lab work. Our goal is to foster interdisciplinary learning that will improve our students’ critical-thinking and applied-thinking skills, and also reduce their errors in a clinical context,” she says.

“The result is that we produce well-prepared graduates who are ready on day one to care for their patients as part of a health care team.” 

Comprised of multiple labs that imitate various clinical settings, the SETH’s seven simulation rooms include a clinic exam room, a birthing suite, an intensive care unit (ICU), a medication room and a pediatric and medical surgical room. There is also a mental health unit that can be transitioned and utilized as a community health environment. The SETH also includes a multipurpose room that can be used as a debriefing room or even a small emergency room. Last spring, in collaboration with local disaster preparation experts, Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady University held a campuswide disaster simulation around a scenario of terrorist activity on a city bus; another disaster simulation is planned for May 2017.

In keeping with the teachings of the Catholic Church, the University is devoted both to academic excellence and service to the community and welcomes students of all faiths and backgrounds. Service-learning—an educational experience in which students learn from and reflect upon participation in meaningful community service—is required of all students, reflecting the University’s Franciscan values.

Service-learning is successfully used at the University in both traditional and clinically based classroom settings and has become a nationally recognized cornerstone of the curriculum. During the 2015-2016 academic year, students enrolled in service learning courses provided 28,391 hours of service to the community. The University was also named by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as a Carnegie Engaged Campus.

In addition to this prestigious Carnegie Foundation classification, the University has been named eight times to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, which is the highest federal recognition a college or university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic engagement. And since 2012, the University has earned the enhanced “With Distinction,” an honor bestowed on only 120 colleges and universities in the nation.

“Our students are actually serving in the community, but in a way that is fundamentally related to their coursework. If you’re a nursing student and enrolled in a community nursing course, then you’re out in the community facilitating a need and meeting a requirement for your course at the same time,” says Rebecca Cannon, vice president for enrollment management and student affairs.

The University also works with more than 130 community partners in the greater Baton Rouge area. Trahan says students often discover new areas of interest and sometimes end up getting jobs at the places where they complete service-learning coursework. 

“A huge benefit that comes from community service and working with our community partners is that students are able to learn more about themselves and their calling in life,” he says. “That’s the beauty of an authentic Franciscan University experience, and that’s what sets us apart from the rest.”