college report
College of Nursing
In moving the College of Nursing towards its vision to “build upon its tradition of developing caring and scholarly nurse leaders who positively impact contemporary and future healthcare,” the faculty has identified the college’s distinctiveness as providing caring and nurturing programs across the curricula and through our service mission. This is done in a dynamic fashion, both locally and globally, while meeting the healthcare needs of our community and the educational needs of our students in a culturally acceptable manner.
Community
- Seventeen nurses were nominated for the 2005 Nightingale Award for Excellence in Practice presented by healthcare leaders at UW Oshkosh in May. Established in 1993 by UWO, other sponsors of the award are Affinity Health System, Agnesian HealthCare, Aurora Health Care Oshkosh, Evergreen Retirement Community, Fox Valley Nurses Association, Lutheran Homes of Oshkosh, Phyllis Leach, Ripon Medical Center and ThedaCare.
- The grand-opening of the new Living Healthy Community Clinic in Oshkosh was held in June. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was followed by an open house and public tours of the facility that serves the uninsured of Winnebago County. The unique collaboration—including hundreds of thousands of dollars in support from Mercy Health Foundation, Aurora Health Care, ThedaCare and others—has created a clinic with seven, fully equipped, exam rooms, a teaching space and a lab.
Teaching
- Faculty members increased their use of SimMan, a full-body computerized mannequin, with traditional undergraduate and accelerated nursing students.
- Faculty members taught off-campus nursing students from the College of Menominee Nation at the Northeast Technical College and in the Shawano community.
- The College has continued to offer precollege programs (Wisconsin Youth in Nursing) each summer since 2001.
- The Graduate Program continues to require a diversity practicum in which students care for patients in tribal clinics, correctional facilities, migrant mobile clinics, Wisconsin-based clinics for the uninsured and select international health experiences.
- In collaboration with the Center for Community Partnerships, a three-week Accelerated Nursing Assistant Program was held in the spring. The 92-hour program included classroom, laboratory and clinical experiences. It provided hands-on training and academic instruction to prepare participants for professional, healthcare careers.
- The College doubled the annual enrollment in the Accelerated BSN program to 44-50 students to meet demand.
- The College’s undergraduate student pass rate on the RN Licensure Exam continues to meet and exceed national averages.
- Since1999, the College’s graduate student pass rate on the American Nurses Credentialing Center-Family Nurse Practitioner Exam has been 100 percent. National certification is required for prescriptive authority in most states, including Wisconsin.
Scholarship
- Faculty members earned awards from the National Operating Room Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society.
- For the third consecutive year, a nursing graduate student earned recognition at the annual university-wide Scholarship Day.
- Phyllis Leach, RN, was awarded an honorary doctorate from UW Oshkosh. She is the first registered nurse in Wisconsin to receive such an honor. Leach is an inaugural member of the College’s Board of Visitors, which created the Nightingale Award. She also is a staunch supporter of nursing education, nursing continuing education, oncology research and cancer patients and their families.
Partnership
- The Fox Valley Nurses Association joined community partners in supporting the 2005 Nightingale Award for Excellence in Practice.
- In May, a memorandum of understanding was signed by four collaborating partners—UW Oshkosh, UW Sheboygan, UW Manitowoc and Lakeshore Technical College—to offer face-to-face bachelor of nursing degree classes for registered nurses with associate degrees.
- Theda Clark Medical Center supports the traditional undergraduate faculty shortage by paying their master’s prepared registered nurses to teach two sections of Adult Health I or II each semester.
- Affinity Health System signed an agreement to support development of a new master of nursing option called Clinical Nurse Leader. This new role, proposed by the American Association of College of Nursing, is being piloted nationally.
Stewardship
- Faculty and instructional academic staff members revised the College’s vision statement. They also reviewed professional nursing values and developed a “Values in Action” protocol.
- The College’s learning laboratories were upgraded with new technology and other improvements via institutional lab modernization grants and private donations from individuals and corporations.