Holly Miller Honored

Outstanding Career Achievement Award

Above: In a pose many alumni would recognize, Holly Miller oversees students in their skills and in their care
of simulated patients, making sure every students' future human patients will receive exceptional care.

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Award given during College of Health Sciences annual award ceremony

At the College of Health Sciences (CHS) 2018 award recognition event on Thursday, April 26, 2018, Holly Miller, MS, RN, CNE, received the 2018 College of Health Sciences Faculty Outstanding Career Achievement Award. Miller is currently Director of both the Basic BSN and BRAND nursing programs at the University of Wyoming Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing and also holds the position of Clinical Simulation Center Coordinator. She will be retiring from teaching this May.   

From Miller's Nominators:

Miller has 30 years of experience in nursing education, all with the University of Wyoming, where she began her employment with the School of Nursing in 1988. She started out as the Learning Resource Center coordinator (now Clinical Simulation Center coordinator) and has continued in that capacity until present. She later added clinical instructor in 1996 to her job duties, supervising acute care medical-surgical clinical rotations. Over time, she became the undergraduate clinical coordinator, the school's OSHA officer, the clinical agency coordinator for lvinson Memorial Hospital, and the Director of the Basic BSN and BRAND programs. Consequently, Holly’s impact on the school of nursing has been substantial. Essentially, she has been the face of undergraduate nursing at UW for the past two decades. She is well-known on campus, largely due to her involvement in leadership, development, and many service activities.

Clinical Simulation Center

As noted above, Miller has coordinated the Clinical Simulation Center (CSC) for 30 years. She was instrumental in designing and setting up the state-of-the-art simulation center when the school moved to its present location in 2005. She has used her knowledge of nursing education and simulation to recruit hundreds of students over the years, providing many tours of the sim center to introduce students and their parents to the joys of nursing. There is no doubt that Holly’s work has deepened the awareness of nursing as a viable career option at the school, on campus, statewide, and beyond, through her consistent recruiting and promotional activities.

ReNEW

For the past 3 years, Miller has been leading her undergraduate colleagues in the development of coursework for the new statewide curriculum, Revolutionizing Nursing Education in Wyoming (known as the ReNEW program), and continues to provide support for the implementation of the new curriculum. Further evidence of her contribution (along with the other UW nursing faculty) to the quality of nursing student outcomes is the recent achievement of a 100% student pass rate on the NCLEX, nursing's national licensure examination.

Modeling Professionalism

In addition to her leadership and service roles, Holly has role modeled professionalism for faculty and students by maintaining active membership in the Wyoming Nurses Association, the American Nurses Association, and the local chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing. Even though her job description does not require scholarship productivity, Miller published in a well-regarded nursing education journal, Journal of Nursing Education, and has presented regionally and nationally on simulation in nursing education.

This is not the first of Holly’s awards. She was recognized as the Albany County Nurse of the Year in 1998, earned the UW Excellence in Advising Award in 2002, was given the UW College of Health Sciences "Meritorious Service" Award in 2006, then was honored as a Mortar Board "Top Prof' in 2008, 2011, 2012, and 2016. In 2012, Miller received the CHS Outstanding Teacher Award. Recently, she was the recipient of the WYO-Gold Student Alumni Association "Cowboy of the Month,” recognizing her for her school pride and love of the entire UW community.

Representative quotes from the Dean, a colleague and former student

• According to Dean Burman, Miller “is truly one of the best teachers I've worked with over the years. She combines the ability to challenge students, even making them a bit uncomfortable by stretching them as clinicians, but at the same time providing care and support” to them.

• As one of her colleagues, Ann Marie Hart, said, "I love to watch Holly teach, as her passion for patient safety and advocacy always shines through. When she teaches, it's as if she can see the actual patients for which these future nurses will provide care, and she is doing everything she possibly can to ensure these patients will receive the safest and best care possible."

• One of her former students, JD Rawlings, states: "Holly Miller has been a large part of my life and integral in my nursing career. I met Holly during my first year of nursing school in 2001, [as] the coordinator of my clinical skills courses. I can recall sitting in the downstairs of the student health building (where the School of Nursing used to be located) watching Holly …as she taught a room full of nursing students [basic] skills and techniques …with precision and safety… compassion and enthusiasm. [earning her] the place of being the most memorable instructor I had!"

The College is pleased and proud to recognize Holly Miller as she approaches retirement from her illustrious University of Wyoming career. 

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Page created 5/4/2018