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UW Nursing Students Featured in "Best Graduate Schools"

Nurse practitioner students Fred Jowdy and Kristin Mullen are shown practicing their examination skills in the University of Washington School of Nursing learning lab in the latest issue of "America's Best Graduate Schools, " a U.S. News and World Report publication.

The photo illustrates a feature about the top ranked nursing schools in the country, a list which the UW program has headed since the first surveys were conducted in 1986. Every two years, deans, faculty and administrators from the nation's accredited schools of nursing with graduate programs are asked to rank each school according to its reputation for scholarship, its curriculum, and the quality of its faculty and graduate students.

But taking top honors is nothing new for the School, whose pinnacle position actually reaches back 16 years to the first-ever national poll of almost 500 schools of nursing conducted by Nurse Educator in 1984. Two later polls in 1988 and 1993 also put the UW programs in first place.

What is perhaps most impressive about the survey rankings, however, is the School's standing in the breakdown of nursing specialties. U.S. News & World Report rates the UW School of Nursing as one of the top three schools in the country in EACH nursing specialty category. Specifically, the School was ranked #1 for Adult/Medical-Surgical Specialist; #1 for Community/Public Health; and #1 for Psychiatric/Mental Health. It tied for first place honors for its Pediatric Nurse Practitioner program. The School was also ranked #2 for its Family Nurse Practitioner, Adult/Older Adult Nurse Practitioner and Gerontology programs (the latter specialty being included within the Adult/Older Adult program at the UW). In Nursing Service Administration, the School was ranked #3 in the nation.

As President of the University of Washington Richard L. McCormick recently commented, "Worth observing is not only how hard it is to BE the best, but how challenging it is to STAY the best."

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