UVA School of Nursing Reports Record Enrollment in Fall 2007
Date released:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Dory Hulse
Director of Communication
434-924-0085
doryhulse@virginia.edu
UVA SCHOOL OF NURSING REPORTS RECORD ENROLLMENT IN FALL 2007
As of this fall, the University of Virginia School of Nursing has the highest total enrollment in its history: 644 students. This total includes 595 students enrolled in undergraduate and graduate degree programs, and another 49 in various certification and specialty programs. A record number of graduate degree students (242) will not only provide greater expertise at the bedside, but also will help to fill the dwindling ranks of the nation’s nursing faculty – instructors critically needed to educate new nurses to meet the country’s shortage. Dean and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing Jeanette Lancaster explains, “We are certainly doing our part to ease the nursing shortage and the nursing faculty shortage by increasing the enrollment in each of our programs and beginning new ones to meet the need for highly competent nurses.”
In addition to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (BSN) that is increasingly becoming a standard for registered nursing employment at most hospitals, the School offers various masters and doctoral programs. First in the state to offer a PhD program in nursing in 1982, UVA is again the first to offer a new clinical doctoral degree, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP). The DNP program has enrolled its first class of 28 students this fall. Traditionally, the PhD has equipped nurses for nursing research and teaching; the DNP is for nurses who wish to remain in clinical practice and to teach.
The accelerated master’s degree Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) program is also a relatively new program. The CNL provides an intensive 2-year curriculum with preceptored clinical experiences and special leadership content for people who already hold a degree in another discipline. The first class of 19 graduated in August 2007.
The University of Virginia School of Nursing stands among the top 5% in the nation, ranked 19th by US News & World Report; two of its graduate programs are currently listed in the U.S. News Top Ten. With a vigorous research program that includes studies in rural health care and disparities, oncology, gerontology, complementary therapies and nursing history, the School is ranked 22nd in National Institutes of Health nursing research funding and #1 in the country for doctoral-student authored NRSA Fellowships. The School has implemented new programs and strategies to address the national nursing shortage and the concurrent need for more highly educated nurses to deliver increasingly complex health care. Dean and Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN, is president of the prestigious American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). For more information about the UVA School of Nursing and its programs, visit www.nursing.virginia.edu.