Sue Alderman

Education

• MS Nursing University of Pennsylvania (1995 — 1997)
• Bachelor of Science (BS) Tufts University

Publications:

• McKeever, A., Alderman, S., Luff, S., DeJesus, B. (2016). Assessment and care childbearing women with peristent and severe mental illness. Nursing for Women's Health, 20(5), 484-499, 7/pdf.

Teaching Philosophy:

I believe that the lifeblood of teaching is experience, not logic; engagement, not command; connection, not separation. Students learn when their minds are alive and awake and invested in what they are being taught. My pedagogy is intensely focused on drawing our young women and men into the substantive material by making the experience relevant to their lives and compelling to their careers. Participation is magic.

I always precede my lectures with provocative articles that cogently activate a student's interest in the substantive subject. For example, before lecturing on addiction I ask the class to read about recent, actual opioid tragedies as well as real life stories about Adderall addiction and the ease with which one can obtain such drugs. They learn signs and symptoms of intoxication and withdrawal from these illicit substances through the people featured in these articles. Putting a face on these illnesses and issues helps them to comprehend the subsequent lecture and the students are often enthusiastically engaged in discussion questions. Additionally, I weave the important points of these articles into the lecture. This makes it a more pertinent and immediate topic than a solely academic treatment could possibly be.

Likewise, I find the clinical dimension of my teaching especially satisfying. Nowhere is the academic content of our courses made more direct and compelling than in a clinical setting.

Here the logic and detail of a lecture on pharmacology, for example, are literally brought alive in the patients we are privileged to treat. I encourage the students to look into issues that arise in the clinical setting more deeply through researching two articles on that particular issue and present their patient’s background and the research on that patient’s issue to their group in post conference. Similarly, the opportunity to teach a seminar is highly attractive because the students can be engaged in a personal and connected manner. Seminar students are a self-selected group and their interest in the subject matter is pre-piqued, allowing me to encourage learning independent of the time spent in class. The seminar culminates with power point presentations by groups of two or three students on topics that thoroughly interest them, thus making the discussion relevant to the students’ lives.

Lastly, citing current research throughout my lectures, seminars, and clinical instruction is integral to my teaching. My students are always assigned current research that correlates to the subject matter being taught and encouraged to look up evidence-based journal articles to supplement their learning. I believe deeply in, and endeavor to inspire students to seek, evidence-based solutions to our psychiatric challenges. I aspire to make my teaching credible and compelling, relevant and substantive. I am enormously proud to be a small part of such an inspiring faculty and I work hard every day to be worthy of our students’ time and attention and respect.