The Harris College Magazine
- Winter 2008 ·
3
Message from the Dean
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Harris College Magazine, the ofcial magazine of
theTCUHarrisCollegeofNursing&HealthSciences.Asyoureadaboutouraccomplishments
and initiatives in this issue you will notice the themes of growth and change. The College
is experiencing tremendous growth in our numbers of undergraduate and graduate
students, new academic programs to meet nursing, health care, and education workforce
demands, and new Centers that focus on timely, urgent health concerns of the nation.
This is a very exciting time in academia and health care as new ways to solve old
problems are emerging. Our new doctor of nursing practice degree is designed to
prepare advanced practice nurses at the highest level of clinical practice and leadership
so they can address critical health-care issues. Our graduate program in bilingual speech
pathology is preparing graduates to meet a critical need across age and population
groups. Our graduate programs in nursing and nurse anesthesia graduate clinical nurse
specialists, certifed registered nurse anesthetists and nurse educators-all recognized as
critical workforce shortage roles. Our physical education majors focus on engaging K-12
students in ftness programs designed to promote ftness for life - one strategy to combat
our national obesity epidemic among children.
Harris College recently launched the Center for Healthy Aging, the Center for Evidence
Based Practice and Research, the Center for Oncology Nursing, and a Center for Obesity
Research is underway. Each of the Centers addresses important issues and involves faculty,
students, and community partners.
I am very proud of the Harris College and our contributions and dedication to making
a diference. I hope you enjoy and learn more about us in this frst edition.
Paulette Burns, RN, Ph.D.
Dean, Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences
Texas Christian University
Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences
publishes the Harris College Magazine annually.
We welcome your comments, suggestions, and story ideas. E-mail comments to name@tcu.edu.
Dr. Paulette Burns
, Associate Professor and Dean
Dr. William J. Ryan
, Associate Professor and Chair of Department of Communications Sciences
and Disorders
Dr. Joel B. Mitchell
, Professor and Chair of Department of Kinesiology
Dr. David Jenkins
, Associate Professor and Chair of Department of Social Work
Kay Sanders
, Clinical Professor and Director of School of Nurse Anesthesia
Dr. Donna Scott Tilley
, Associate Professor and Director of TCU Nursing
Dr. Linda Harrington
, Associate Professor and Director of Doctor of Nursing Practice
Editor:
Shawn Kornegay
Contributing writers:
Nancy Allison, Cacy Bernard ’06, Rachel Stowe Master ’91
Hannah Mathews, Dylan Taylor-Smith, Rick Waters ’95
Texas Christian University is a private,
coeducational university located in Fort Worth,
Texas. TCU is afliated, but not governed by, the
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). TCU’s Harris
College of Nursing & Health Sciences is vibrant
and thriving with new programs, innovative
curricula, and students and faculty who are
making a diference for others. The Harris College
houses Nursing, Social Work, Communication
Sciences and Disorders, Kinesiology, and
Nurse Anesthesia, and is home to over 920
undergraduate students, 278 graduate students,
65 full time faculty, 19 staf, and numerous part
time feld and clinical faculty.
Contents
From the Dean
2
News
3-6
Profles
7-13
Community
14-15
Research
16-18
Accolades
19
Nursing programs aim to
counter nursing shortage
Focus is on getting educators and practitioners in the feld as quickly as possible
A
one-million-person shortage of nurses is expected by the year 2020, due to an aging workforce
and a lack of nursing faculty. The Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences is addressing the
shortage with the implementation of a graduate program specializing in nursing education, as
well as by focusing on student retention in the college, and creating new degree pathways such as the
accelerated BSN program.
Nursing is on the verge of a crisis-level shortage of practitioners.
“With the generation of baby boomers reaching its 60s, there will be
an increased need for nurses prepared in gerontological studies and
nurses to replace those retiring,” said Donna Tilley, associate professor
and director of the nursing program in Harris College.
“Other major causes of the shortage include fewer nursing
faculty and an increased need for better healthcare,”Tilley said. Nursing
programs around the country have been forced to decline admission to
qualifed applicants because of the lack of nursing faculty. According to
the American Association of College Nursing’s Web site, 73 percent of
nursing programs showed a need for nursing faculty. The lack of nursing
educators leads to a shortage of nurses at the bedside and other areas.
Harris College has created a graduate studies program
specifcally for preparing faculty for nursing education. “The reason for
the new program is the need for nurse educators and we are trying to
be part of the solution,” said Dr. Paulette Burns, dean of the college.
The TCU program, which began in fall 2006 with two students
who are on track to graduate in spring 2008, was established as an online
program in order to accommodate working nurses returning to school.
Students have the convenience of online courses and the accessibility
of education while remaining in the workforce.
Also, Harris College recently created the Academic Excellence
Program (ACE) to help with retention of undergraduate nursing
students. “The program helps students with resources such as tutoring,
test-taking skills and study skills to help retain nursing students,”nursing
professor Dennis Cheek said.
Other strategies to increase the number of graduates include admitting more nursing majors into the
traditional BSN program and creating an accelerated BSN option. Harris College initiated an accelerated
baccalaureate nursing program that allows persons with a college degree in another feld to get a nursing
degree in just over a year. The accelerated BSN program admits 40 students per year. The total number of
BSN majors at TCU increased from 267 in 2001 to 520 in 2007.
Recruiting for the nursing profession nation-wide has been impacted positively by a media campaign
supported by Johnson & Johnson Co. that used nurses of both genders as well as various ethnicities to
show how nursing is not just a profession for Caucasian women. Hospitals have marketed nursing as a
respectable job with good pay, fexible hours and plenty of opportunity in the future, but according to
a report in November 2006, U.S. nursing schools had to turn away more than 41,000 applicants in 2005
because of limited faculty, space and budget.
“Programs like the online graduate program, ACE, and the accelerated BSN at TCU are an attempt
to get educators and practitioners into the feld as quickly as possible,” Burns said. By producing nurse
educators and increasing the number of graduating nurses, Harris College is helping to meet the nursing
workforce needs. - HM
Winter 2008 | Volume 1, No. 1
Learning to make a diference
www.harriscollege.tcu.edu.