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College of Nursing ready for next level
With tremendous shortages for registered nurses, nurse managers, emergency care professionals and especially nurse educators, never before have the opportunities for nurses been greater. Led by its new dean, Lisa Plowfield, Florida State University's College of Nursing is helping meet the demand, training tomorrow's nursing professionals and taking the school to the next level.
"The College of Nursing has really established educational excellence," Plowfield says. "I'm coming into a program that has some really high-level outcomes educationally, so I want to bring in and emphasize the very next step-critical inquiry and faculty scholarship."
Plowfield is the newest dean of Florida's oldest nursing baccalaureate degree program. Founded in 1950, FSU's College of Nursing has been committed to excellence in developing the next generation of caregivers entering the profession.
"My students are my colleagues in training," says Nursing Professor Sally Karioth, a renowned grief counselor who teaches a long-running and very popular class about the concepts of death and dying. "I am just the mentor until they go out and do great new things," says this 36-year veteran of teaching and award winner.
Joining Karioth in teaching tenacity is Nursing Professor Susan Porterfield, whom FSU Provost Larry Abele recently recognized as a distinguished teacher.
The College of Nursing also features award-winning students, including former student Melisa Wilson, who served on the prestigious Board of Directors of the National Student Nurses' Association. Her leadership and drive are representative of many of the College of Nursing students.
"I love nursing. Why not be a nurse?" Wilson says. "Nursing offers so much flexibility. You get to care for patients. That's such a privilege, to be able to care for people."
In its half-century history, more than 5,000 students have graduated from the College of Nursing. To preserve and document its heritage, the College started the "Legacy Project" to chronicle its rich tradition.
And, in a nod to nursing history, FSU resurrected what was once known as the capping ceremony, where new nursing students were once welcomed into the program with a nurse's cap. Now, it's a pinning ceremony, similar to a white-coat ceremony for med students and designed to inspire nursing students as they enter their first term in the College of Nursing.
When the students leave, they are required to take an exam from the Florida State Board of Nursing. This year, FSU scored the highest among nursing schools in the state.
"We are just thrilled," says Nursing Professor and former Dean Katherine Mason. "FSU's College of Nursing has always excelled, but this special achievement-in terms of being the best of our peers-is an added level of excitement for us."
The College of Nursing also passes the test when it comes to state-of-the art equipment to train future nurses.
High-tech human patient simulators actually breathe, vocalize their conditions and exhibit symptoms of various ailments-from respiratory problems to heart attacks. FSU nursing Professor Kathleen Williamson says the current simulators are far more advanced than previous models.
"You can actually see it breathing," she says. "We can make it talk. It can make various other sounds that patients make in various situations. It allows the student to actually see on the monitor the physiological aspects that are going on with the patient."
Students also practice and learn with colleagues in acute-care hospitals, county health units, nursing homes, private physicians' offices, health maintenance organizations and walk-in clinics, and they go on to be leaders in the field of nursing.
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