2014-2015 Innovations Magazine

i nnovations • 8 students. It was one of the highest points in my career. We had so much fun.” The Entry-Level Nursing (ELN) program began in June 2005 with 36 students. Twenty-seven months later, 24 of these stu- dents graduated. Because they all passed their NCLEX-RN examinations on their first attempt, they became known as the 24 Strong . Today, the ELN program boasts over 850 students across the three campuses in Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, and Miami. Our cutting-edge facilities, which include clinical skills laboratories, human patient simulators, and mock isolation rooms, are housed at all three sites. In 2006, the nursing department gained ap- proval to establish a Ph.D. in Nursing Educa- tion degree. Six years later, the College of Nursing celebrated its first Ph.D. graduate when Linda Mc- Cash, Ph.D., R.N., completed the program in 2012. Next up was the development of the Doctor of Nursing Practice (D.N.P.) program, which was placed on the Palm Beach Regional Campus. “Being part of the NSU Health Professions Division was instrumental and helped us to rapidly develop all our programs,” said Dr. Whitehead. “By 2011, we had five campuses and over 1,200 students. Dr. Weiss and I could hardly believe how fast the years had gone by and how fortunate we were to have all these successes. For our first eight years, I was a frequent attendee at the NSU New Pro- gram Committee requesting approval for an- other new program.” The latest new kid on the block is the Ad- vanced Practice Registered Nurse (A.P.R.N.) program that began in 2012 and is offered at the Palm Beach Regional Campus. In 2011, Dr. Davis approached Dr. Lippman about the possibility of the nursing department becoming a separate college. The request was sanctioned, and Dr. Rutherford, who served as associate chair of academic affairs at the time, was approved by the NSU Board of Trustees to become the founding dean of NSU’s College of Nursing, becoming the 7 th college in the HPD and NSU’s 17 th college. Transitioning the department to a college in- volved numerous changes and challenged the nursing faculty to both accept and embrace this significant opportunity. “The hard work has been worth it,” said Dr. Rutherford. “We had the support of our colleagues from the for- mer College of Allied Health and Nursing, which became the College of Health Care Sciences. Almost three years later, our college continues to grow and address the needs for nursing within the community.” ...Continued from the previous page The ELN program’s first graduates, the 24 Strong . A.P.R.N. students at the Palm Beach Regional Campus. Susan Holland, M.S.N., R.N., interim program director, teaching entry-level nursing students how to assess a patient at the Fort Myers Regional Campus.