| |
Kim York, a student nurse at Christus Spohn Memorial, examines an X-ray.
|
|
Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi celebrated the birth of its fifth college on September 1 as the School of Nursing and Health Sciences became the College of Nursing and Health Sciences. The elevation to College status is the latest development in the University’s nursing program. This momentum began three decades ago when educational leaders recognized the need for more nursing education opportunities in South Texas.
|
Birth of a College
School of Nursing and Health Sciences
celebrates
30th anniversary with promotion to college status
Mary Jane Hamilton, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, said the School of Nursing was the dream of Dr. Ruth Bakke and a dedicated group of nursing professionals, including Elizabeth Willis, then chair of registered nurse education at Del Mar College. “Willis approached the University and said, ‘We really need a four-year program,’ ” according to Hamilton.
Before 1974, Del Mar College offered the only college courses for nurses through a two-year associate degree program. “We were losing the brightest and the best of our young people to the larger cities because we lacked the educational opportunities in South Texas,” said Hamilton. Others found themselves “stuck” here after they married because they couldn’t leave their families to pursue an education elsewhere.
An Alternative
The University stepped in to offer students an alternative. Plans for a nursing program at the University were outlined on June 11, 1973, to the Nursing Advisory Council at Del Mar College.
In an article appearing in the Corpus Christi Caller the next day, Dr. Ralph E. Gilchrist, the University’s first dean of the College of Science and Technology at what was then Texas A&I-Corpus Christi, said South Texas had been shortchanged in the allied health field.
The program, he explained, would allow nurses with associate degrees to advance to baccalaureate and master’s degrees “without loss of time or credit.” He cited the Del Mar program and the proximity to Spohn and Memorial Hospitals as prime reasons why the nursing school should be established here. The University formed the nursing program in 1974 and began offering classes in January 1975.
Ruth Bakke was the first director of the baccalaureate nursing program, which became the first RN/BSN program in Texas housed in an upper-level academic setting and accredited by the National League for Nursing.
|
|
Above: A&M-Corpus Christi nursing students pose with Assistant Professor Margret Jordan at Doctor’s Regional Medical Center
Nursing students at Driscoll Children’s
Hospital examine patients’ charts. |
Nurses Then and Now
Before the 1990’s, nursing students were mostly Anglo, female and wore white hose, starched, white caps with black bands, crisp white uniforms and matching professional shoes.
Today, 15 percent to 20 percent of nursing students are male, 40 percent are Hispanic and around 5 percent are African American and multinational. They wear brightly colored scrubs, white tennis shoes and go without hats because they interfere with the technical equipment.
1980s, 90s Bring New Programs
The division of nursing added MSN programs to its stable in the 1980s. The BSN and MSN programs were chaired by Dr. Susan Nelson and Dr. Elizabeth Erkel for five years, and in August 1989 Dr. Noreen C. O’Neill became the nursing division director. In 1989 the University became affiliated with the Texas A&M University System, and in 1990 the University initiated the generic nursing program. The division of nursing became the School of Nursing and Health Sciences in 1994.
|
|
Nursing student explains a procedure to high school students at the University’s nursing lab.
|
|
Hamilton said the creation of the College is due partly to enrollment growth, which has exploded from 180 students in 2001 to more than 700 in 2004. Over time technology has been used to expand educational opportunities for area nurses through interactive television and currently with the Internet. Today’s Web-based curriculum provides educational access to nurses in south and central Texas, allowing students to participate in their homes or offices and eliminating expensive travel to outreach sites.
Along with a traditional generic nursing program, the University offers RN/BSN, RN/MSN and bridge programs for RN/diploma nurses who have bachelor’s degrees in other fields. The newest program is an accelerated BSN for students with a bachelor’s degree in other disciplines. The College’s MSN programs offer specialties in leadership in nursing systems, nurse practitioner, clinical nurse practitioner and clinical nurse specialist. |
| |
Nursing Today
Today, in the College of Nursing & Health Sciences, more emphasis is placed on the process of nursing and critical thinking rather than solely on nursing skills, Hamilton said. “Students are taught collaboration and coordination of the client and families’ needs. Computerized patient simulators allow students to work in controlled environments to learn to assess and solve potential patient situations prior to working with actual patients.”
Hamilton said that patients today are sicker than those 30 years ago, and their stays in acute-care facilities are shorter. This places increased pressure on nurses to provide expert care in a high tech environment using clinical judgment and critical thinking to insure continuity of care between hospital and home. Patient and family teaching is a major component of nursing. Educating patients and families makes them partners in healthcare and allows nursing care to extend into the home long after discharge from the hospital. Today’s professional nurses are an essential component of the holistic health care team, and their expertise in coordination, collaboration and delivery of care is a crucial component of health care. |
|
