About the School - Dean's Monthly Communication

Dean's Monthly Communication: October 2006

Message from Dean Woods
I love the fall! Seeing the new students arrive on campus and move into the dorms, greeting new faculty and meeting the first classes and orientation groups always make me feel a resurgence of academic life. There is excitement and energy in the air. There is a sense of new beginnings—a chance for faculty to try something new in their teaching, for staff and faculty to begin working with a new set of students and for all of us to discover and fix the glitches that occur in the first week that we begin anything new.

What I love most about the beginning of fall quarter is the chance to refocus on why we are all here: our commitment to creating futures—and in our case, future clinicians, future educators and future researchers that our health care system and higher education need desperately. It is a privilege to work as part of the School of Nursing, where our work is so closely tied to the public benefit. We can be confident that these new beginnings offer us precious opportunities to help shape the future of health care.
—Nancy Fugate Woods, PhD, RN, FAAN

Campaign UW: Creating Futures Update
SON Receives $3.5 Million for First Endowed Deanship
Bob Reid '43, '48 and his wife, Jean A. Reid '49, have made a $3.5 million donation to the School to establish our first endowed deanship: the Robert G. and Jean A. Reid Endowed Deanship in Nursing. The Reids' generous gift will give our school a strategic advantage in recruiting and retaining high-caliber nursing leaders in the future who can keep the School's curriculum cutting edge, its graduates highly sought-after and its ranking the highest in the country. Since theirs is an endowed gift, it will grow and continue to provide financial support to the School in perpetuity. I know I speak for the entire School of Nursing when I offer our deepest thanks to the Reids for this commitment.

$24 Million Campaign Goal Reached!
In 2000, the School of Nursing set a goal of raising $12 million in donations by 2008. (This was part of a larger capital campaign by the UW to raise $2 billion in the same time period.) It turns out that we way underestimated our supporters because we hit $12 million before the end of 2002! Then we got ambitious and set our sights on raising $24 million by 2008. Now, I'm proud to announce that, at the end of September, we surpassed that goal too. As of today our fundraising efforts have yielded a total of $25.1 million! It took a lot of effort by a lot of people in the School of Nursing to achieve this amazing feat, but I'd like to give special recognition to Assistant Dean of Development Tracy Ostrem and her team for their hard work—and for showing us that what might seem impossible really is possible.

Honors and Awards
Heitkemper Receives Inaugural Cans Award and Advisory Council Position
On Thursday, October 12, Margaret Heitkemper, prof., Dept. of BNHS, and the Elizabeth Sterling Soule Endowed Chair in Nursing, will receive the inaugural Outstanding Nurse Scientist Award from the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science (CANS). The official presentation of the award will be at the National State of the Science Congress in Nursing Research's National Network Nexus and Award Celebration. The Outstanding Nurse Scientist Award acknowledges CANS members whose sustained programs of research have had a significant impact on nursing and healthcare knowledge development with recognizable benefit for nursing practice and health care.

In addition, Dr. Heitkemper was selected by the newly established National Palliative Care Research Center to serve on its Scientific Advisory Council (SAC) for a three-year term. Composed of internationally prominent scientists, the 10-person council will oversee the research mission and agenda of the MPCRC and give final approval for all research grants, collaborative projects and junior faculty career development awards.

For more information, visit the NPCRC Web site.

New Grant Awards
The RAND Corporation and the Hartford Foundation have awarded a two-year $200,000 grant to Barbara Cochrane, assoc. prof., Dept. of FCN, and the de Tornyay Term Professor in Healthy Aging, that enables her to participate in their Building Interdisciplinary Geriatric Health Care Research Centers initiative. Dr. Cochrane will work with co-principal investigator Elizabeth Phelan, asst. prof. in the Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Health Services, School of Public Health and Community Medicine. They will use the funding to address the need in gerontology for more structure to support interdisciplinary collaboration and mentorship of junior faculty.

Co-principal investigators Bonnie Steele, SON clinical faculty, and Cynthia Dougherty, research asst. prof., Dept. of BNHS, will receive funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs for a new study titled "An Intervention to Enhance Function in Severe Cardiopulmonary Illness." They will use this four-year grant to conduct research at the Seattle VA Medical Center on how exercise and disease self-management can improve function and reduce hospitalizations in patients with severe congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The National Institute of Justice (part of the U.S. Department of Justice) will provide $560,000 to fund the "Pressure Ulcers Despite Good Care" study. The PI for the Seattle research site is Maggie Baker, asst. prof., Dept. of BNHS, and the co-investigator is Joie Whitney prof., Dept. of BNHS, and the Harborview Medical Center Endowed Professorship in Critical Care.

Our Nurse Faculty Loan Program, overseen by Sue Woods, assoc. dean for academic programs, has received funding for the fourth year in a row from the Department of Health and Human Services. The total for fiscal year 2006-2007 is $138,200.

Staff
Welcome, Nora Suarez. Nora is our new student outreach coordinator in the Dept. of Academic Services and also a student in the MN–NNP program. She plans to focus on reaching out to Latinos.

Ann Ku has shared the wonderful news that she was accepted into the UW's Peace Corps Master's International program in International Health, which leads to a master of public health degree. We wish Ann the best, but we surely will miss her!

Faculty
On June 13, 2006, the first cadre of UW health sciences faculty was selected to participate in the Faculty Integrative Health Program (FIHP), cosponsored by the School of Medicine and School of Nursing. The participants are Eleanor Bond, PhD, RN; Lorin Gardner, MD; Michelle Garner, MSW; PhC; Victoria Holt, PhD; MPH, RN; David Kearney, MD; Michaelene Kedzierski, RPH, CDP; Kathleen Larkin, MD; William Neighbor, MD; Valerie Ross, MS; and Joie Whitney, PhD, RN.

This yearlong, interdisciplinary program explores the theoretical concepts, clinical practices and evidence related to integrative therapies. Participants will work to foster a collaborative community at the University of Washington dedicated to the teaching, research and clinical practice of integrative health care. The program is made possible by the National Institutes of Health grants to the UW School of Medicine and the UW School of Nursing. Ron Schneeweiss, MBChB, (UW School of Medicine) and Margaret Heitkemper are principal investigators, Claudia Finkelstein, MDCM, (SOM) and Jane Cornman, senior lecturer, Dept. of FCN, are the co-chairs.

Please welcome Andrea La Croix, prof. of epidemiology in the School of Public Health and member of the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center. She was appointed the Aljoya Visiting Professor on Sept. 15 and will provide consultation and occasional teaching related to healthy aging. She is the director and senior investigator of the Women's Health Investigators Group at Group Health Cooperative Center for Health Studies and a professor in epidemiology. Dr. La Croix has a long history of conducting research in women's health, particularly older women and healthy aging.

Educational Innovations
Educational Innovations is in the midst of a renovation—not just in its facilities but also in its organizational structure. Ruth Craven, who has overseen this group and is a professor in the Dept. of BNHS, has announced her retirement. However, she will still be making significant contributions to the SON by serving as special advisor on nursing education. Among her duties will be proposing alternative models and assessing existing coursework for preparing future nursing educators in the School of Nursing, the UW as a whole, and the Bothell and Tacoma campuses.

On September 15, Brenda Zierler officially took over the reins at Educational Innovations and assumed the title of associate dean for technological innovations in education and research. Reporting to her will be Alan Gojdics, director of educational technology, and Brian McFarlane director of technology operations.

Academic Services
Visiting Scholars
A warm welcome to the following international visitors:

Sevilay Senol Celik, PhD, RN, and associate professor at Hacettepe University in Turkey, is working with Barbara Cochrane until December 30.

Mitsuko Saimoto, MN and assistant professor at University of Shizuoka in Japan, is working with Joanne Solchany, asst. prof., Dept of FCN, through December 28.

David Voegeli, PhD and senior lecturer at University of Southampton in England, is working with Joie Whitney until October 13.

Wareerat Thanoi, a visiting doctoral student from Mahidol University in Thailand, is being mentored by Elaine Thompson, prof, Dept. of PCH, and the Sandra and Peter Dyer Term Professor in Nursing.

Traveling Scholars
Karen Schepp, assoc. prof, Dept. of PCH, taught doctoral students in nursing at Mahidol University in Bangkok and at Burapha University in Chonburi, Thailand, in August and September. The content of her workshops was advanced research methods on instrument development and theory testing. Karen was there for three weeks and returned just prior to the recent political coup d'état there.

Student Orientations

BSN and Master's Programs: Every first Thursday of the month at noon (BSN) and 1 p.m. (MN/MS). Additional evening sessions are offered every first Thursday in the months of January, May, September and November at 5:30 p.m. (BSN) and 7 p.m. (MN/MS).

Master's Entry Program in Nursing (MEPN): Every first Wednesday of the month at noon and 6 p.m.

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program: Every first Tuesday in October, November and December at noon and 5:30 p.m.

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