According to Professor Jennifer Pearce, the RWC Nursing program is experiencing a busy, productive year. The program recently received a five-year approval by the Ohio Board of Nursing (OBON), a state regulatory agency whose primary purpose is to actively safeguard the health of the public through the effective regulation of nursing care. The BON regularly evaluates nursing programs to determine that they are teaching and meeting the needs of the students, who upon graduation, will work as registered nurses to provide care for those in need.
RWC graduated 58 students, last year, all of whom have successfully passed the National Council Licensure Examination, a 100 percent pass rate. According to Program Head Jennifer Pearce, the program’s continued success is due to the faculty’s scholarship and dedication to students and teaching.
The next challenge is the writing of the program’s self-study for the upcoming National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC) visit in November 2009.
Accreditation is a process that recognizes nursing programs that meet or exceed the highest national standards for nursing education. The RWC program will be in the first group of fall programs to use the newly developed 2008 standards to measure quality. In preparation for this endeavor, two faculty and the program chairperson attended a two-day self-study forum, specially designed to address questions and issues related to the new criteria.
In other Nursing Department news, at the beginning of the school year, the Department successfully hired and continue to mentor three new full-time faculty: Professor Melanie Kroger-Jarvis, Professor Carol Price, a former RWC graduate who has returned to RWC, and Clinical Assistant Professor Jennifer Ellis, all of whom come to the program with education and teaching experience.
The Department has also said farewell to two faculty, Assistant Professor Linda Groff, who returned to the private sector, and Professor Pat Shaughnessy, who is pursuing clinical excellence as an advanced nurse practitioner.
Thanks to the expertise of Ms. Linda Heines, Director of Development and the generosity of Care Springs, recently received a generous donation of $90,000. Twenty-five thousand dollars will go to student scholarships, an increase from $10,000, and the rest will go for necessary renovation to update the technology in the program’s labs.
According to Professor Pearce, the program continues to focus attention on preparing nurses who can “critically think, are flexible, and can adapt to a dynamic health care system, nurses who recognize and value life-long learning.