2014-2015 Innovations Magazine

i nnovations • 2 I n 2003, Nova Southeastern University responded to the needs of South Florida and a large nursing shortage, offering its first nursing program that started with 40 students and today offers education to over 1,300. The first class of B.S.N. nurses graduated in May 2004. The program at that time was a department within the College of Allied Health and Nursing. In January 2012, the department became the seventh college in the NSU Health Professions Division (HPD)— the College of Nursing (CON). Today, the CON offers a full array of undergraduate and graduate programs for individuals wishing to enter the profession and to licensed nurses looking to enhance their credentials. Programs include an entry- level B.S.N. nursing program, R.N. to B.S.N., and a R.N. to M.S.N. program for registered nurses. For nurses possessing a bachelor’s degree who wish to pursue graduate degrees, NSU offers Master of Science in Nursing (M.S.N.) degrees in Nursing Education, Health Systems Leadership, and Nursing Informatics specialization. In addition, NSU offers a clinical M.S.N. in Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (A.P.R.N.) that prepares its graduates to take the certification exam to become a family nurse practitioner. For nurses who wish to obtain doctoral degrees, NSU offers the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) and Ph.D. in Nursing Education. The College of Nursing educational experience is enhanced with the availability of high-tech simulation labs at its main campus in Fort Lauderdale (Davie) and at three of its regional campuses—Miami, Fort Myers, and Palm Beach. This technology provides interactive educational experiences that allow students to apply new knowledge and skills in a safe environment. These high-tech patient simulators have voices, make heart, lung, bowel sounds, and have pulses and programmable vital signs that immerse the student in realistic clinical situations. Simulation can be utilized in case studies that simulates both the acute-care environment and the outpatient office setting. NSU nursing graduates are among the approximated 2.6 million nursing professionals acutely employed in the United States today. They will play an important role in coordinating and providing health care for people when they are most vulnerable. It will also require them to offer services in a changing health care delivery environment. A robust, innovative, and interdisciplinary curriculum comprehensively shapes nursing graduates, preparing them to be collaborative team members who have the abilities to guide the coordination of services for their patients. Our college’s highly qualified faculty members are dedicated to producing nurses who possess the passion, creativity, integrity, curiosity, and intelligence required to develop the nurse leaders of tomorrow who are prepared to make a difference in health care. FROM THE DEAN Marcella Rutherford, Ph.D., M.B.A., M.S.N. FILLING THE NURSING VOID IN SOUTH FLORIDA “NSU nursing graduates are among the approximated 2.6 million nursing professionals acutely employed in the United States today.”