Briefly

CDC awards $1.3M to school nurse association for big data program

The School of Nursing will develop the data platform for the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) to educate and support school nurses so that they can use big data science to target chronic absenteeism and school withdrawals of students with chronic conditions. The NASN was awarded a three-year, $1.3 million contract by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to educate and support the school nurse workforce. Initially, select states will pilot the school nurse led active surveillance program. Meanwhile, data champions in all 50 states will be trained to encourage frontline school nurses to collect and use their data. Lessons learned from the pilot sites will be used to expand the school nurse led active surveillance system nationwide.

School of Nursing commended for research culture

The PhD in Nursing program underwent a routine academic program review, conducted in partnership with the Provost Office as a collaborative and comprehensive process. Reviewers, who were from the University of Iowa, University of Colorado, University of Michigan and University of Minnesota, commended the school for its research culture, noting faculty are actively engaged in research, attract students into their program of research and the strength of their multidisciplinary backgrounds. They added that full-time students being provided funding for the first two years to support 100 percent of tuition and fees including a guaranteed research assistantship is exceptional and should be more broadly publicized.

School receives award for diversity excellence

For the third consecutive year, the school was recognized with the Health Professions Higher Education Excellence in Diversity (HEED) Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity Magazine. The HEED Award honors U.S. nursing, medical, dental, pharmacy, osteopathic, veterinary, and other health schools and centers that demonstrate an outstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion. The school’s efforts to recruit and retain diverse and underrepresented students, its policies and strategies to train and mentor faculty, and its innovative diversity education programming including the Diversity Deep Dive focus on poverty contributed to the award selection. The school was one of only 11 nursing schools and 35 health schools from the nearly 175 schools reviewed.

14 faculty finish year-long leadership program

Fourteen faculty participated in Faculty Leads, a program developed by the University’s Office of Human Resources Leadership and Talent Development to assist faculty in developing leadership skills, capacity and readiness so they are positioned for larger leadership roles. Participants included both tenure track and clinical faculty members. They were Assistant Professor Sarah Hoffman, PhD, MPH, RN, Clinical Assistant Professor Samantha Sommerness, DNP, APRN, CNM, Clinical Associate Professor Carol Flaten, DNP, RN, Professor Carolyn Porta, PhD, MPH, RN, SANE-A, FAAN, Clinical Professor Mary Benbenek, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC, CPNP, Assistant Professor Lisiane Pruinelli, PhD, RN, Associate Professor Barb McMorris, PhD, Assistant Professor Rozina Bhimani, PhD, DNP, RN, CNP, CNE, Clinical Associate Professor Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC, Assistant Professor Melissa Horning, PhD, RN, PHN, Clinical Assistant Professor Mary Goering, PhD, RN-BC, Clinical Assistant Professor Shanda Demorest, DNP, RN, Professor Teddie Potter, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Assistant Professor Anne McKechnie, PhD, RN.