Distinguished Teacher: Carol Leppa loves working with adult students at UW Bothell

Carol Leppa

Carol Leppa, who won this year's Distinguished Teaching Award at UW Bothell, is at least as enthusiastic about her students as they are about her.

"The students in this program are just really special," she says. "They bring a wealth of knowledge and experiences with them to class, and that enriches our work together."

Most of her students are nurses who have R.N. (registered nurse) certification and are now working to complete a bachelor of science in nursing degree. They are usually working full time while going to school. The average age in the BSN program is 37. Some have a few years of experience as nurses; others have more than 25 years of experience.

They're highly motivated and interested in broadening their perspective on the health care system.

"Obviously," Leppa says, "we don't teach them how to do routine patient-care nursing tasks. For example, my courses in our program are aimed at developing their ability to examine how health care systems work and how they might be changed."

One of Leppa's most popular innovations at UW Bothell, known informally as the "London course," is a course on Ethics and Values in Health Care Systems. Students have several weeks of seminars comparing aspects of the health care system in the United States and Great Britain, followed by an intensive 11-day program in the London area. While there, they go to seminars taught by British faculty, tour health care institutions and join community nurses on their rounds as they visit patients.

"Students come back from this experience having learned about and experienced a nationalized health service and with a clearer sense of what our own health care system is," Leppa says.

In a letter nominating Leppa for the teaching award, one student wrote: "I also had the opportunity to go to London with Dr. Leppa, which is an experience I will never forget. Dr. Leppa did a superb job of planning the trip so it was educational and fun. Dr. Leppa made sure we were exposed to as much of the culture as time allowed. The lectures we attended while in London stimulated conversations about socialized medicine, ethics and politics. I was so inspired after this trip I decided to learn more about the way politics affects healthcare in our society."

Leppa also teaches a liberal studies course on Women's Health, Women's Lives, and courses in the nursing program on Cultural Variations in Health Care, Nursing Care Systems, Critical Thinking, and Ethics.

Another student wrote of her experience in Leppa's Ethics course: "I found her to have high expectations which made me want to stretch to reach them. As a result, I have surprised myself and have an increased confidence in my scholarly abilities. Her sense of humor, keen intellect, clarity and commitment to students and the nursing profession have earned her our affection, respect and admiration."

Several students also mentioned Leppa's encouragement to continue their education with graduate studies after they finished the bachelor's degree program at Bothell.

The committee of faculty, students and alumni that chose the winner of the UW Bothell award also noted that her selection was based on her "extraordinary contributions" to UW Bothell, the nursing program and cross-disciplinary efforts, as well as her teaching.

Leppa received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1990, and then came to the UW to work as a postdoctoral fellow in nursing systems with Nursing Dean Sue Hegyvary. She jumped at the chance to teach at UW Bothell when the program was being established.

"I was intrigued by the program specifically designed for R.N.s and I thought it would be exciting to be part of building something new. In many ways it's easier to develop an innovative project like the London course as part of a new program."

But it's the students who really inspire her work. "I look forward to continuing my teaching and learning with these non-traditional students," she says. "They really make my work interesting!" ¶

Claire Dietz