From the dean: Living out the vision of our founding pillars

Dear Friends,

This past year has been one of reflection as we celebrate the 115th anniversary of our founding. At that time in 1909, there were 1,129 nursing schools in the country primarily located in hospitals. Richard Olding Beard recognized an opportunity to go in a different direction and create a school of nursing that was under university control where the emphasis in nursing was on education, rather than training nurses for service to the hospital. Since Beard’s remarkable foresight, our school has been unwavering in its commitment to its founding pillars of helping society recognize the worth of human life, conserving human health and providing for social justice. This issue of Minnesota Nursing magazine provides a glimpse at how our students, alumni, faculty and staff continue to pursue innovative new ways of achieving a vision of optimal health and wellbeing for all people and the planet.

Our cover story explores one of my favorite innovations in the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program and our school. Each semester nearly 70 of our DNP students serve as teaching assistants in pre-licensure programs, supporting faculty in the classroom, in our skills lab coaching students through simulations, and in clinical settings supporting students in their clinical rotations. This unique arrangement provides our pre-licensure students with contemporary role models who can share their real-world experiences with our future nurses while allowing our DNP students to hone their own teaching skills and earn tuition remission.

This issue also includes a profile on one of the students in our Doctoral Education Pathway Program for American Indian/Alaska Native nurses. Through Haley Warren’s story we gain a glimpse of how this bold initiative can improve the health of our Tribal communities.

As always in these pages, we lift up alumni who are leading the way. From recent grads Kasey Bellegarde mobilizing nurses to promote planetary health to Samantha Huguelet advancing care for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders to Jonathan Pritchard using his nursing degree to better serve the community as chief of the Cottage Grove Fire Department, School of Nursing alumni are living out Beard’s vision and writing the history of our school through their actions and achievements.

We welcome your reflections, suggestions, and shared wisdom to advance our school and this magazine. And as always, we appreciate your continued readership and support. 

In gratitude, 

Connie White Delaney
Professor and Dean