Rita Hatfield

Department of Chemistry

Rita Hatfield is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry. She received her BS in Chemistry from the University of Notre Dame and her PhD in Biochemistry from Loyola University Chicago. Prior to teaching at UIC, Dr. Hatfield worked in Research and Development for Unilever Home and Personal Care USA. She began her teaching career working with Biochemistry 452 students. Over the past 14 years, she has engaged students in learning chemistry and biochemistry from the 400 level to the preparatory level by teaching Biochem 452, Chem 130, Chem 122, Chem 115 and Chem 101. As the Coordinator of UIC’s Summer Enrichment Chemistry Workshop, Rita Hatfield mentors TA instructors and encourages incoming first-year students to revise their placement from preparatory chemistry to general chemistry. She has served as Coordinator for Chem 122 and Chem 101. She is also a CATE Inclusive Education Scholar. Her teaching and research interests are first-year chemistry, biochemistry, GOB for allied health, and student success and belonging.

Hatfield is a 2024-25 Action Research Scholar.

Rita Hatfield

Rita Hatfield

Chemistry in Action through Real-World Nursing Simulations: Developing a New Signature Pedagogy for a Pre-Nursing Chemistry Course

Abstract

As a gateway course for first year students pursuing a BS in nursing, chemistry evokes mixed feelings of excitement and curiosity along with some trepidation. How much chemistry knowledge is essential for the practice of nursing? Like many other universities, our pre-nursing chemistry course at UIC, Chem 115, is newly designed as a one semester, five credit hour course with lecture and lab components. A prevailing challenge for Chem 115 centers around the delivery of a large amount of curriculum focused on relevant topics in both general and organic chemistry, while keeping the students actively engaged. In my Chem 115 course, we have developed a signature pedagogy experience as a sequence of course activities that include chemistry lecture, with relevant nursing examples, a chemistry lab activity where a drug of interest is synthesized, a nursing case study, and a simulated real-world experience via collaborative action research at the College of Nursing M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Laboratory.

The signature pedagogy in development focuses on the intersection between two disciplines, chemistry and nursing. In this study, first year chemistry students experience how thinking like a chemist and like a nurse work together. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, this project studies the effect of this new signature pedagogy on student success, promotion of a growth mindset, and sense of belonging and identity as a pre-nursing student in Chem 115. Initial results from the Spring 2025 study, under IRB protocol, indicate high student enthusiasm for real world applications with some stating that chemistry knowledge will make you a better nurse. The simulation lab experience, early on in their studies, made everything seem more real in a supportive team environment.