Executive Leadership Doctoral Program in Nursing to start on February 29

The University of San Francisco School of Nursing and Health Professions is forming a new cohort for the Executive Leadership DNP (ELDNP) program which will start on February 29, 2012. Content is structured in an innovative hybrid format, integrating the best practices of classroom and computer-assisted instruction.

This program is designed specifically for current nurse executives at the division level or above with supervisory oversight of a group of essential services or functions. This degree extends and enhances the knowledge, skill and performance of these healthcare system leaders in a wide variety of clinical and administrative environments. The curriculum for executive leadership is based on the AACN Essentials for DNP, in addition to the AONE Core Competencies for Nursing Executives. The curriculum also conforms to the standards and expectations set forward by the Council on Graduate Education for Administrative Nursing (CGEAN), the American Nurses Association, and the National Center for Healthcare Leadership (NCHL) Health Leadership Competency Model.

Intensive teaching weekends will take place mainly at the Prescott Hotel, one block off of San Francisco's Union Square, with the Saturday morning portion being held at the University of San Francisco main campus.

SF Health Director Applauds USF’s Move to Train Health Professionals

The University of San Francisco’s new master of public health (MPH) program received a ringing endorsement recently from Barbara Garcia, San Francisco’s public health director, who called the program a much-needed training ground for the next generation of public health leaders.
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$1.7 million Research Grant Goes to School of Nursing

We are pleased to share that Dr. Judith Lambton and her team in the School of Nursing and Health Professions have received $1.7 million from a US Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity grant to help build a simulation research lab for the School of Nursing. The new state-of-the-art lab will engage in research to determine how best to teach nursing students to improve patient safety and avoid medical error by using sophisticated clinical learning equipment. Nursing faculty will research which simulation strategies can be adapted across disciplines that share high-stakes error consequences. The research design of this three year grant includes both assessment and training and will allow faculty to measure the cognitive and affective levels of the students’ ability.

School of Nursing Adds Health Professions

The University of San Francisco’s School of Nursing has changed its name to the School of Nursing and Health Professions.

The name change reflects the college’s recent expansion to include a master of public health (MPH) degree beginning this fall.

The MPH program is expected to draw recent graduates and professionals interested in careers in fields such as health promotion, community organizing, and healthy lifestyle leadership, allowing them to choose an emphasis in community health, global health, or health promotion education.

“Advancing health professions programming at USF has become a university priority,” said Judith Karshmer, dean of the School of Nursing and Health Professions.

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Master of Public Health Degree

The School of Nursing at the University of San Francisco is set to launch a Master of Public Health degree beginning in fall 2011.

Students will study epidemiology, biostatistics, public health care leadership and administration, social science applications to behavioral health, and environmental health considerations.

“We want to provide an advanced degree option to those who are interested in the health care field but do not want to seek a licensed degree,” said Kia James, program director and assistant professor of nursing at USF.

As the U.S. moves to rein in health care costs and deliver health care to more people through preventative medicine, the School of Nursing’s MPH degree will prepare students to move into this expanding field, working closely with communities.


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The SON Guatemala Women's Health Project

USF Guatemala Immersion Project from carina johnson on Vimeo.

HRSA Funding Confirmed for 2011-12

The USF School of Nursing has received $343,000 in funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration of the US Department of Health and Human Services to be used as student funding for the 2011-2012 Academic Year. This represents a 15% increase from 2010-2011. Students will have access to this funding by filing their yearly financial aid application.

SON Dean Judith Karshmer to Lead the USF President's Commission on Health Professions Education

Building on current strength in the delivery of professional education in nursing, the commission will seek to expand the scope and depth of health professions education at the graduate level with a focus on emerging fields, high demand areas for national and global health priorities, and areas of practice that will link the educational endeavor to providing health-related services in innovative and sustainable patterns of outreach.

Potential outcomes may include increased collaboration between health-related programs, initiation of new health and human-services programs, development of strategic ties with external partners, and increased resources.

The Commission will meet four times, June, September, January, and March.
The final meeting (date TBD) will be a presentation of the commission’s recommendations and strategies for implementation to USF President Steven Privett, S.J

RN-to-MSN Launches in Sacramento and Online

The School of Nursing’s popular RN-to-MSN program is expanding, this time to the University of San Francisco’s Sacramento regional campus.

The program, which has established itself at USF’s campuses in Cupertino, San Ramon, and Santa Rosa as well as with a cohort in Fresno as demand has grown in recent years, is now enrolling at USF’s campus in the heart of California’s capital city for January 2012.

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The Answer is the School of Nursing, #8

Which School of Nursing is one of only two selected as QSEN (Quality & Safety Education for Nurses) Exemplar School?

You guessed it -- the USF School of Nursing!

Based on the data provided on the QSEN Institute Annual Post Assessment, the University of San Francisco has been selected as a QSEN Exemplar for its implementation of the QSEN competencies into the curriculum. Out of 22 schools participating, only 2 were selected as exemplars.

This is wonderful news and indeed a deserved recognition of the great work
of our QSEN team and a way to affirm our commitment to continue to advance the QSEN priorities.

Master's Degree in Public Health Offered in Fall 2011

The University of San Francisco is launching a new degree program which will combine our strength in health professions with our commitment to community with a new Master's degree program beginning in Fall 2011. The Master of Public Health (MPH) degree will be housed in the School of Nursing and is designed to prepare graduates as leaders in public health practice.

Upon completion of the MPH program, the graduate will be able to:

1. Enhance health in human populations through organized community effort.

2. Identify and assess public health needs of populations with a focus on strategies and practices with a prevention orientation.

3. Utilize an ecological approach that recognizes the interactions and relationships among multiple determinants of health, including environmental conditions and locale.

4. Utilize epidemiology data to assess community needs and policy program implications, including distributions and determinants of disease, disabilities and death in human populations, the characteristics and dynamics of human populations, the natural history of disease, and biologic and nutritional basis of health.

5. Demonstrate competence in collection, storage, retrieval, analysis and interpretation of health data, design and analysis of health-related surveys and experiments.

6. Successfully plan, organize, manage and evaluate culturally competent public health programs including consideration of the policy and legal aspects that advance or inhibit effective implementation.

7. Utilize knowledge and skill from the social and behavioral sciences to identify and create solutions to public health problems and propose and address research questions.

8. Employ effective problem-solving skills, interprofesssional communication and collaboration in public health practice.

9. Develop and evaluate effective strategies for managing the ethical dilemmas inherent in public health practice, advancing information technology, and conducting public health research.

10. Develop leadership, career, and professional development skills in order to promote lifelong learning.

11. Focus on the global and locale factors impacting public health of communities and demonstrate cultural competence as a practitioner.

12. Advance the mission and core values of the University of San Francisco.

Applications will be accepted from March 1 until June 15. Apply here!

EL-DNP program starts February 2011!

Looking to enhance your leadership skills without pausing your career? Want to learn alongside other nurse executives in a challenging and innovative environment? If this sounds like you, we invite you to apply to the inaugural cohort of the Executive Leadership Doctor of Nursing Practice (EL-DNP).

This dynamic six-semester doctoral program enhances the skill, knowledge, and performance of current healthcare systems leaders. The EL-DNP is an advanced-level practice degree that emphasizes application of research to clinical nursing practice at the highest administrative levels.

Our program provides hassle-free accommodations during teaching intensives. We know that our executive students lead very busy lives. So we’ve included a hotel guest room, most meals, books, and transportation from the hotel to the USF campus into the program cost. Be a part of a groundbreaking program, and apply today!

Nursing in the Jesuit Tradition

University of San Francisco (USF) freshman Tom* used to cross the street to avoid homeless people. That was before he started the school’s nursing program, which made him realize he never considered what circumstances brought them to be homeless in the first place, such as substance abuse or a mental illness.

Another freshman nursing student, Michelle, says that her nursing class opened her eyes to the plight of women in Africa and India, many of whom have little to no access to health care. Before she started the program, Michelle says, she wasn’t even aware of the issue, and now she is considering volunteering in Africa or India as part of her class work.

Both Tom and Michelle are part of an innovative new program at USF’s School of Nursing called Nursing in the Jesuit Tradition.

Read the full article...

USF Named by High School Counselors Among Top Health Science Schools

No disrespect to Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but you don’t need to attend a fabled Ivy to get a big-league education. PARADE asked top high school counselors across the nation to recommend outstanding schools that often fly under the radar.




Read the Full Article at Parade.com

Nursing in Belize

Project Learn Belize is excited to announce a new joint initiative with the School of Nursing at the University of San Francisco. The first phase of the SON Health Advocacy Program's participants traveled to Belize in May 2010, as part of a team to explore opportunities for ongoing collaboration between the community of Dangriga and the USF School of Nursing.

During this first trip, participants presented educational modules related to health and wellness to students, faculty, and families of Sacred Heart School in Dangriga. Outside of these presentations at the school, participants had several opportunities to engage in dialogue with health & civic leaders of the wider town community. As in all other ventures, reflective of its name, participants in programs sponsored by Project Learn Belize are exposed to, and hopefully transformed by, the realities of cultural diversity, tradition, and challenges of education, health, and governance in this developing country in the Caribbean Basin.

Contact Dr. Mary Lou De Natale for more information.

CCNE Accreditation of DNP program

We just received official word from CCNE that our DNP program received the
maximum 5 years accreditation allowed for a new program and that we had no
compliance concerns!

We are now able to boast that not only do we have the first DNP program in
California, but the first one accredited as well!  This is a wonderful reflection on the school, the faculty, staff and students, and on the university support that we receive for program development and pursuit of excellence.

Marjorie Godfrey, Keynote Speaker at the 3rd Annual CNL Conference

Marjorie M. Godfrey Instructor, The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice Director, The Clinical Microsystem Resource Group

Marjorie M. Godfrey, MS, RN is Instructor for The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, New Hampshire. Marjorie is a national leader of designing and implementing improvement strategies targeting the place where patients, families and care teams meet-the clinical microsystem. She leads as the Associate Director of Improvement with the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Improvement Leader with the Vermont Oxford Network.

Marjorie is Visiting Assistant Professor, Fairfield University School of Nursing in Fairfield, Connecticut for the 2008-2009 academic year. Her focus is in collaboration with Dean Novotny and the faculty to design and advance the graduate Clinical Nurse Leader program curriculum to include clinical microsystems, quality and safety in partnerships with local health care organizations to become the premier Clinical Nurse Leader program in the USA.

Marjorie has worked with health systems in the United States, Sweden, Canada, Norway, France, Kosovo, Tunisia, Chile and the United Kingdom. She collaborates with Qulturum in Jönköping, Sweden, senior leaders to support innovation and transformation of their health care system using clinical microsystem processes and frameworks. She co-leads the International Clinical Microsystem Network with Sweden.
Marjorie has consulted and collaborated with leading health care systems throughout the United States including Cincinnati Children's Hospital, Geisinger Health System, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University Medical Center, Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Texas Health Resources, University California, Davis, and Exempla Health System in Denver, Colorado.

Marjorie is co-author of the textbook, Quality by Design, (Jossey-Bass) released March 2007, and the lead author and architect of the Clinical Microsystems "A Path to Healthcare Excellence" series. She is the developer of the Clinical Microsystem website, www.clinicalmicrosystem.org. Marjorie is currently collaborating with colleagues from The Dartmouth Institute writing a second clinical microsystem textbook scheduled for release in early 2010 (Jossey-Bass.)

Marjorie is a frequent contributor to improvement journals and presents widely nationally and internationally on microsystem fundamentals with a focus on development and advancement of front line staff and system outcomes. She is a member of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement faculty and has advised improvement activities specific to Idealized Design of Clinical Office Practices. She is actively supporting the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Clinical Nurse Leader program through integration of clinical microsystem frameworks, quality and safety.

Marjorie has a M.S. from the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, B.S.N. from Vermont College of Norwich University, and a diploma in nursing from Concord Hospital School of Nursing. She currently is a PhD candidate at Jönköping University, in Jönköping, Sweden researching the impact of coaching interdisciplinary healthcare teams to achieve strategic improvement goals.

Her interests include supporting and coaching healthcare leaders and clinicians, interdisciplinary teams, and young professionals in discovering ideal care delivery systems utilizing clinical microsystem methods and tools that uncover systems and identify opportunities for improvement at the clinical microsystem level to the macro-organization level.

Marjorie will be speaking at our 3rd annual CNL Conference on June 18: Magnetism in Action. To register for the conference, click here.

Orientation Week at SON

This week at the School of Nursing is seeing various orientation programs under way. Our first orientation for new students in Spring took place on Friday, January 15, and approximately 40 graduate-level students were in attendance to meet their faculty and register for classes. The 3-day weekend was followed by orientations for new RN-MSN students at the Santa Rosa, Cupertino, and San Ramon campuses. New faculty are in Cowell Hall for orientation to the School on January 21, as are incoming BSN transfer students, and the week wraps up with the 2-day intensive orientation program for new doctoral students on Friday and Saturday.

Many thanks to all who participate in our orientation programs!

Student Actors Play Standardized Patients for Nursing School

Mr. Smith, 78, sat on his hospital bed, but he didn’t want to be there. He didn’t know where he was, no one was answering his questions, and he didn’t understand why nurses were examining him. Determined to get out of bed, he got himself to the edge of the bed and promptly fell to the floor. The nurses—USF nursing students—were stunned.

Read the full article.

The Answer is the USF School of Nursing, #4

Who has developed and is hosting simulation training workshops for San Francisco RNs and MDs?

The USF School of Nursing, reflecting a long-standing partnership with the Nursing Education department at St. Mary's Hospital, is conducting an ER-OB Simulation Workshop with employees from the St. Mary's Emergency Room at our state-of-art simulation center, located on Hayes Street. The emergency OB simulation scenarios, run by LRC Coordinator Lisa Sabatini, are planned to help the nurses at St. Mary's refresh their knowledge and skills for emergency room births.

Next week MD interns will be participating in med-surg simulations.