The University of Wyoming Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing joins the nation in saluting the three million plus nurses leading health care transformation every day. Particularly at this time, the school salutes the Wyoming nurses who have come together in the project named "ReNEW" - Revolutionizing Nursing Education in Wyoming. These nurses are indeed doing what the above national poster message states: they are leading health care transformation this very day. The mission of ReNEW is to enhance the quality of nursing and health care in Wyoming by revolutionizing nursing education. The University of Wyoming and the state's community colleges are working through ReNEW to write a shared curriculum in order to streamline nurses' access to higher education. Read below what three of Wyoming's nursing leaders wrote about ReNEW's progress for Nurses Week 2014:
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Nurses are the backbone of health care in the state of Wyoming. The Institute of Medicine,
in a report published in 2011 on the future of nursing, recommends that 80% of registered
nurses (RNs) have a baccalaureate degree (or higher) by the year 2020. Why? A number
of recent studies show that as the number of RNs with a baccalaureate degree increases
in hospitals, the rate of patient complications go down. For example, a recent study
by Linda Aiken, Ph.D., from the University of Pennsylvania [published in the March
2013 issue of Health Affairs] “found that a ten-point increase in the percentage of
nurses holding a baccalaureate degree in nursing within a hospital was associated
with an average reduction of 2.12 deaths for every 1,000 patients.”
In Wyoming, about 35-40% of our registered nurses have a baccalaureate degree. What
are nurses doing about this? We are fortunate in Wyoming. We have a strong community
college system. Six of the seven community colleges have had well-established and
high-quality nursing programs for many years that offer students an associate degree
in nursing. Moreover, Wyoming has one university that has offered a variety of baccalaureate
and graduate nursing programs for many years. Collaboration among the community college
nursing programs and the University of Wyoming (UW) Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing
has increased dramatically over the last decade in order to facilitate baccalaureate
education for nurses with an associate degree in nursing.
The nursing community is poised to take this collaboration to the next and very exciting
level. “Revolutionizing Nursing Education in Wyoming” (ReNEW) is a statewide initiative
with the aim of creating a shared nursing curriculum. Such a curriculum would enable
a student to start at any community college and finish up a Bachelor of Science in
Nursing (BSN) degree at UW through a seamless process. UW and all seven community
colleges are committed to and actively engaged in the initiative. Moreover, ReNEW
has engaged nurses from hospitals, long-term care facilities and public health offices
from across the state to help us advance nursing education in the state.
Several different committees have been hard at work for the last two years to accomplish
the mission of ReNEW, which is to enhance the quality of nursing and health care in
Wyoming by revolutionizing nursing education:
The Curriculum Committee has just released their proposal for the ReNEW curriculum, linking the community colleges to UW.
The Clinical Education Committee is exploring ways to develop more efficient and effective partnerships between nursing programs and clinical facilities for optimal clinical education for nursing students.
The Professional Development Committee has offered an annual Nursing Education Summit to help nurses and nurse educators learn about the very latest in educational approaches.
The Student Support Services Committee is looking at ways to ensure that admission, advising and financial aid processes are aligned between the community colleges and UW.
ReNEW is a model for how community colleges and the University of Wyoming can take collaboration to an even higher level. Moreover, the potential impact of ReNEW on Wyoming residents and communities is significant, with enhanced quality of nursing and health care.
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Article by:
Jennifer Anderson, Director, Nursing Department, Laramie County Community College
Mary E. Burman, Dean and Professor, Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing, University of Wyoming
Deb Gaspar, Chief Nursing Officer, Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County