OHSU and WOU Host Dedication Today for New Nursing Program

Pending necessary approvals, the nursing program will admit its first students to begin classes fall 2008.

Salem-News.com

(MONMOUTH, Ore. ) - A dedication for the new Western Oregon University and Oregon Health & Science University joint Bachelor of Science nursing program will be held today at 10:00 AM in the Nursing and Mathematics Building.

WOU Assistant to the President Peter Courtney, also Oregon Senate President, will emcee the program, which will include comments by OHSU President Joseph Robertson, WOU President John Minahan, State Senator Jackie Winters and OHSU Provost Leslie Hallick.

Other speakers include: Saundra Theis, dean of OHSU’s School of Nursing; Stephen Scheck, dean of WOU’s College of Liberal Arts & Sciences; Brad Dehle and Kim Olson of Soderstrom Architects; and Jim Kilpatrick of Fortis Construction, Inc.

After the program project architect Brad Dehle will give a tour of the space to house the nursing program. Refreshments will also be served.

Pending necessary approvals, the nursing program will admit its first students to begin classes fall 2008. General education and science courses for the nursing curriculum will be taught by WOU faculty. OHSU faculty will teach the nursing curriculum on the WOU campus.

OHSU’s School of Nursing is ranked as one of the ten best in the nation, according to U.S. News and World Report, and ranks eighth in nursing research funding by the National Institutes of Health.

Oregon, much like the rest of the nation, is in the midst of a nursing shortage that is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. A July 2006 national nursing workforce survey indicated that 55 percent of nurses surveyed reported their intention to retire between 2011 and 2020.

As a result, government analysts project that more than 703,000 new registered nurse positions will be needed by 2014, accounting for 40 percent of all new jobs in health care. These numbers hold true for Oregon as well. The numbers are even more dramatic in Oregon’s smaller towns and rural areas of the state.

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“Bachelor’s trained nurses bring critical thinking skills to the bedside based on a broader educational platform,” said Norman Gruber, president and CEO of Salem Hospital. “We would like to see a bachelor’s program develop in the Salem area that would allow associate degree nurses to move to get their bachelor’s degree as well as educate new nurses in the field.”

WOU is recognized for its strength in undergraduate science programs related to the medical and health sciences professions.

For example, WOU biology majors regularly score at the 90th percentile and above on a national test administered to seniors by the Educational Testing Service. WOU students also score above the national average on the national Medical College Aptitude Test.

The nursing program was funded from many sources. WOU received $705,000 from the State of Oregon 2007-09 biennium for faculty funding and science laboratory equipment.

OHSU received $1.4 million from the State to cover funding of nursing faculty and administration. The State also provided $4.5 million in capital funding for WOU to renovate the former facilities of the Oregon Department of Public Safety Standards and Training in order to provide additional faculty, classroom, and laboratory facilities. A large portion of this renovation will be dedicated to the nursing program.

Approximately $500,000 is still needed to fund the Nursing Simulation Laboratory and is being raised through private funding.

This facility is a high technology teaching laboratory in which cyborgs are used to simulate a wide range of patient health conditions requiring student treatment responses.
Source: Western Oregon University