Rate My Professor Jessica Belnapp

Jessica Belnap is the Dean of the School of Sciences and Nursing at Pellissippi State Community College, where she also serves as Director of Nursing and holds the position of Professor. Her career at the institution began in 2013 as a nursing instructor, evolving through roles such as Associate Professor of Nursing, as listed in earlier college catalogs, to Associate Professor and Interim Dean of Nursing, and ultimately to her current deanship. Belnap's comprehensive academic preparation includes a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) earned from King University, a Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.), a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) from Chamberlain College of Nursing, and an Associate of Applied Science (A.A.S.) in Nursing from Roane State Community College. These credentials underpin her expertise in nursing education and administration.

As leader of the Nursing program, Belnap oversees the delivery of an Associate of Applied Science degree that combines traditional classroom lectures with over 400 hours of hands-on clinical experience and real-time training using state-of-the-art SimMan patient simulators. The program operates across the Blount County Campus, Magnolia Avenue Campus, and Strawberry Plains Campus, maintaining continuing accreditation from the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) and equipping students to sit for the NCLEX-RN exam. In her role as Dean of Health Sciences, Belnap has contributed to the introduction of new health-related programs at the Blount County Campus, emphasizing specialized training alongside foundational studies in sciences and mathematics to meet high job demands. Belnap's scholarly impact includes the publication of the article 'Scratching the Surface: Utilizing Informatics in Undergraduate Nursing Education to Improve Medication Administration Safety' in Clinical Scholars Review. Her DNP project further explored innovative pedagogy by investigating Facebook as an asynchronous learning environment for nursing education. Through these efforts and her ongoing teaching of core nursing courses, Belnap significantly influences nursing education at the community college level.