Karen Pawelek, MS, CNP

Instructor

                       
South Dakota State University
College of Nursing

SNF 149, Box 2275,

Brookings, SD 57007.

Phone: (605) 688-4897

Cell: (605) 690-0561

E-Mail: Karen.Pawelek@sdstate.edu

I specialize in Adult and Acute Care Nurse Practitioner.  I have been teaching in the FNP program at SDSU since 2004.  I graduated from the State University of New York at Binghamton with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and from Northeastern University with a Masters in Critical Care Nursing: Acute Care Practitioner program.  I have worked in a Boston teaching hospital with adult critical care for over 10 years and at a Boston based flight program as a Registered Nurse.  I have also worked at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA as a cardiology NP and with College health at SDSU.  Currently, I am working in Internal Medicine in Connecticut and as an adjunct faculty at Yale University.  I also teach on-line for SDSU from Connecticut.

My professor's Teaching Philosophy is; the graduate nursing student is an adult learner who is accountable for individualizing their learning experience.  The faculty is the facilitator and mentor for each student, and assists with achieving their individual learning goals.  It is imperative for Family Nurse Practitioner faculty to have a practice setting in order to keep current with clinical skills.  Class assignments are designed for optimal learning focusing on "real life" scenarios that help the students to apply the learned information to the clinical setting.  Timely and constructive feedback is an important aspect of this process.  The role of faculty is to foster professionalism and accountability that is expected of an advanced practice nurse.