Penn College

Nursing faculty member earns doctor of nursing practice degree

Pennsylvania College of Technology nursing instructor Joni J. Pyle recently completed her doctor of nursing practice degree from Chatham University.

Pyle’s dissertation, titled “Increasing The Communication Self-Efficacy of Nurses: An Educational Intervention Using Motivational Interviewing,” was accepted for publication in Home Healthcare Nurse, a journal serving the educational and communication needs of home-care and hospice nurses. It is slated for publication in the journal’s February edition.

Motivational interviewing is a collaborative conversation between client and practitioner to strengthen a person’s own motivation for and commitment to change.

Pyle’s doctoral research was carried out with home-care nurses in Lycoming and Tioga counties. In future research, she plans to study whether the use of motivational interviewing with chronically ill patients can decrease rehospitalizations.

Pyle has been teaching at Penn College for two years. She previously worked with low-income pregnant women in the home setting and managed community nursing programs, working with Susquehanna Health Home Care and Hospice. Her area of interest has been community health nursing and behavioral health.

She graduated with her diploma in nursing from Germantown Hospital School of Nursing in Philadelphia in 1979. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Lycoming College and her master’s degree at Bloomsburg University.

Penn College offers a certificate in practical nursing, as well as associate and bachelor’s degrees for Registered Nurse preparation, and an RN-to-BSN (bachelor of science in nursing) completion program. To learn more about these majors, call 570-327-4519 or visit www.pct.edu/nursing.

For more about the college, which is celebrating its centennial throughout 2014, visit www.pct.edu, email admissions@pct.edu or call toll-free 800-367-9222.

Joni J. Pyle, nursing instructor at Pennsylvania College of Technology. Credit: Penn College / Penn StateCreative Commons

Last Updated January 9, 2015

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