Investing in the WVU School of Nursing

Transcription

1 Investing in the WVU School of Nursing

2

3 The WVU School of Nursing: Caring Is Our Foundation Nursing is a profession that is both a science and an art. Our graduates are knowledgeable, highly skilled, and grounded in caring as the foundation for improving the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities. At the West Virginia University School of Nursing, we educate tomorrow s nursing professionals to deliver nursing care with expert knowledge and compassion. Our most important mission is to support West Virginians. Everything we do education, research, practice, and service works toward building quality of life and optimal health for our citizens. We are committed to excellence. We have recently hired the school s first endowed professor and welcomed talented faculty members from major research universities. We continue to enroll more than 900 dedicated students each year. They motivate us to fulfill our vision: optimal health, enhanced quality of life, and excellent healthcare for the people of West Virginia and the global community. We cannot do this alone! We need to bring the best minds together to help us realize this vision. We need students and faculty, and we need you our alumni and friends to join us by investing in the students, faculty, and programs that transform lives and eliminate health disparities. Our most important mission is to support West Virginians. Everything we do education, research, practice, and service works toward building quality of life and optimal health for our citizens. 1

4 The Trajectory of Success 2 The WVU School of Nursing was founded in Our mission is to improve health in West Virginia and the broader society through excellence in studentcentered educational programs, research and scholarship, the compassionate, knowledgebased practice of nursing, and service to the public and our profession. We offer the state s only nursing doctoral programs, preparing nurse-scholars to practice and to teach the next generation of nurses. With faculty on campuses in Morgantown, Charleston, Montgomery, Glenville, and Martinsburg and a robust online program, we serve nursing students wherever they live and at every stage of professional development. In each location, our programs emphasize team-based interprofessional education and practice across all health disciplines to produce better outcomes for patients and communities. Our faculty and students lead the way in discovering innovative solutions to the health needs of West Virginians. They re promoting health in public schools, spearheading initiatives through the developing Center for Appalachian Health Disparities along with the current Appalachian Quality of Life Institute, and addressing the state s nursing faculty and primary care provider shortages. In 2010, our Master of Science in Nursing Program was named among the top 100 nursing graduate programs by U.S. News & World Report for the second consecutive year. Our B.S.N. program was designated as a Program of Excellence by the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Last year, students and faculty in rural and community health programs provided 50,000 hours of service to the people of West Virginia. We are Mountaineers. Our community is West Virginia, which means our state s health disparities in obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer determine our priorities. As nurses delivering hands-on care in hospitals and communities, we are well positioned to change these systems. We know that underserved populations in rural areas as well as poor and elderly citizens in every community cannot readily access care. Their situation is exacerbated by shortages of health professionals and rural isolation.

5 Our faculty and students lead the way in discovering innovative solutions to the health needs of West Virginians. They re promoting health in public schools, spearheading initiatives through the Appalachian Quality of Life Institute, and addressing the state s nursing faculty and primary care provider shortages.

6 4

7 Priorities for Tomorrow Through A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia s University, the School of Nursing asks you alumni and friends who Increased scholarship funding will help eliminate the financial burdens that discourage promising students from pursuing nursing degrees. share our vision to consider investing in the Investment Total: $800,000 following priorities. Undergraduate Scholarships If we are to transform lives and eliminate health disparities we must educate more bachelors-prepared registered nurses. Research shows that employing a higher percentage of registered nurses with bachelor s degrees in hospitals and elsewhere directly correlates with better health outcomes for patients. At the School of Nursing, many of our undergraduates are first-generation college students who come to campus with high financial need. Private support will allow us to give these students access to nursing education based not on what they can afford, but on what they can do. Graduate Fellowships and Scholarships for Research and Practice To become one of the nation s leading schools in graduate nursing education, we need to attract the best students to our master s and doctoral programs. We need to create compelling graduate program offerings and provide fellowships and scholarships to encourage talented practicing nurses to pursue advanced degrees and provide support for their research. We seek private support for fellowships that allow master s and doctoral students to pursue degrees full-time. Support will enable them to discover new knowledge that translates into better care and better outcomes for West Virginians. They will engage in evidence-based practice, develop and lead quality improvement studies, and conduct research. For example, quality improvement initiatives by a WVU Doctor of Nursing Practice student now enables more accurate, compassionate insertion of breathing tubes for infants. A WVU Ph.D. nursing graduate working with lonely elders has received competitive national funding for development of a self-management intervention. 5

8 6 These are just two instances of WVU s influence on patient- and family-centered care. We also seek funds that would give our graduate students the opportunity to conduct research and travel to conferences to present their findings. Investment Total: $750,000 Endowed Faculty Positions for Education and Research Nationwide, there is a critical shortage of nursing faculty. There are simply not enough doctorally prepared nurses to teach all the students who want to enter the profession. The WVU School of Nursing needs an edge to recruit the best faculty. Endowed chairs and professorships provide this edge: they draw top faculty because of the prestige associated with holding a named chair and the assurance that there will be a dependable source of income to help fund their expert teaching, research, and practice. Private support to establish named endowments can entice talented professors and researchers to come to WVU. Investment Total: $2.15 Million Facility Upgrades The School of Nursing leads efforts at WVU to encourage interprofessional collaboration. Nursing students learn to lead teams with doctors, pharmacists, dentists, and other healthcare professionals to provide patientcentered care. We need offices, classrooms, and lab spaces suited to this type of team- and problem-based learning. Private support will underwrite an interdisciplinary technology classroom and skills lab that simulates real-world space, including simulated hospital units. Here, students can best learn skills and concepts prior to clinical experience with real patients, and they can practice assessment and teamwork with students from other Health Sciences Center schools. This new facility will incorporate computers for interactive learning, testing, and research. The surrounding offices will house our researchers and their teams of graduate assistants providing a true research and practice facility. Investment Total: $1.3 Million

9 The School of Nursing s sustained contributions over more than half a century have improved the health and quality of life for not only citizens of West Virginia but also the nation. Georgia L. Narsavage, Dean and Professor

10 A State of Minds: Creating Healthcare Leaders for Tomorrow 68 In 2010 we celebrated the School of Nursing s 50th anniversary a half century of achievements in teaching, service, practice, and research. As an integral part of the state s major research institution and its flagship land-grant university, we are charged with understanding and meeting the distinctive needs of the people of our state. The School of Nursing s sustained contributions over more than 50 years have improved the health and quality of life for not only citizens of West Virginia but also the nation. I came to WVU as dean in 2007 because of the School of Nursing s reputation and the opportunity to take the school to the next level. WVU is nationally known as having an excellent BSN program that uses innovative teaching methods. But challenges abound: today s nurses face demands for information and innovation that were unimaginable a generation ago. We must meet these challenges head on at the School of Nursing. We must develop and employ the intellectual resources on all our campuses to prepare well-educated nurses and inspire the development of enlightened nurse leaders. The goals of this campaign mirror the goals outlined in the 2010 Institute of Medicine Report on The Future of Nursing. They reflect the shared aspirations of our school and our nursing alumni and friends: increased access and opportunity, teaching excellence, professional development, scholarship, student success, and meaningful community engagement that connect students textbook learning to patients lives. I ask you to join me now in supporting A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia s University. Your gift to the School of Nursing will help us realize our vision of optimal health, enhanced quality of life, and excellent healthcare for the people of West Virginia and the global community. Georgia L. Narsavage, Ph.D., CRNP, FAAN Dean and Professor

11 WVU Health Sciences Center The WVU Health Sciences Center is West Virginia s healthcare, education, and research linchpin. Dedicated to serving our state and our world by transforming lives and eliminating health disparities, we are poised to enhance the well-being and quality of life in West Virginia and beyond. As an integral part of A State of Minds: The Campaign for West Virginia s University, your support for the WVU Health Sciences Center is about investing in the values, intellect, and commitment that define one of the most exciting academic medical centers in the country. The WVU Health Sciences Center will drive national and global dialogue on healing, teaching, and discovery for decades to come. West Virginia University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Institution.

12 School of Nursing P.O. Box 9600 Morgantown, WV One Waterfront Place, 7th Floor P.O. Box 1650 Morgantown, WV or