The enterprise that Dillard graduates built

ABNF Journal, The, July-August, 2002 by Janet Simmons Rami

Every college graduate wonders (if only for a second) if they could be successful enough in their chosen profession to be invited to speak by their alma mata. I am proud to be a Dillard graduate, and appreciative that you asked me to be your speaker for this celebration.

What I will attempt to do in this 20-minute speech is to share with you my view of the impact of Dillard's Division of Nursing and Rita Miller-Dargan's leadership on nursing and health care. I believe like Alfred Adler..... "The only worth-while achievements of man are those which are socially useful." The measure of success for any educational program is the extent to which the program has prepared its graduates to meet society's future needs.

According to the American Academy of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) ... The mission statement of any nursing program should embody a sense of today's health care issues, but must tie this to a vision of future health care and the consideration of preparing students to address the unknown and unforeseen. The mission statement should clearly address the school's service purposes, including its role in the delivery of health care. The ultimate goal is to develop future leaders for the profession.

Dillard was established in 1942 during a decade that could be characterized as the beginning of recognition of the value of including racial minorities in nursing and health care. Baccalaureate programs in nursing were also developed at Tuskegee and Hampton joining Florida A& M University. With Dillard, we had four Baccalaureate programs in nursing in Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) by end of 1940s.

Are Dillard graduates:

* poised to address the needs of the needs of this century?

* culturally component health care providers?

* conducting research on vulnerable populations?

* providing primary health care delivery especially for underserved populations?

We can all list Dillard graduates in key leadership positions. For it was a Dillard graduate who saved the NLN Accreditation Program. The National League for Nursing's (NLN) status with the United States Department Of Education (USDOE). was restored under the leadership of then president Dr. Rhetaugh Dumas, FAAN. I would like to provide one example of an enterprise that Dillard graduates built that illustrates and serves as an example of the extent to which Dillard has prepared its graduates.

Southern University School of Nursing (SUSON) was granted initial approval by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing in 1985 and admitted the first baccalaureate level students to upper division courses in the fall of 1986. The School of Nursing currently offers three degrees: the bachelor of science in nursing (BSN), the master of science in nursing with a specialty in family health nursing (MSN) and role options as administrator, educator or family nurse practitioner, and the doctor of philosophy with a major in nursing (PhD). The school houses two academic departments (graduate and undergraduate), the Office of Nursing Research, The Learning Resource Center, and The Nurse Managed Clinics. The school has four funded Endowed Professorships through The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, The Louisiana Board of Regents and three area health care agencies (Our Lady of the Lake, Womans' Hospital, and The Baton Rouge General).

The school employs 19 staff members that assist faculty in operationalizing the school's vision. The Faculty complement is 28 full-time, and eight part-time faculty. Janet S. Rami, RN, PhD, Dean since 1986 has lead the School in acquiring over 12 million dollars in external funding since 1990. The BSN and MSN programs are approved by the Louisiana State Board of Nursing, accredited by the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC), and were granted preliminary approval for accreditation by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

The Baccalaureate Program graduated its first class of 14 students in 1988 and by the end of 2000 the school had over 700 BSN graduates. During 1998-99 over 1,000 students were enrolled at Southern pursuing the baccalaureate degree in Nursing. This undergraduate program is nationally recognized for its success with students from disadvantaged backgrounds. National licensure exam pass rates for SUSON graduates have been above the national average for nine of the last eleven years.

The MSN Program in Family Health began in 1992 as one of four programs comprising the Louisiana Intercollegiate Consortium for a Master of Science in Nursing (ICMSN). Southern's MSN focus would be Family Health Nursing offering role options as educator or administrator. In 1996-97 the Louisiana Board of Regents approved the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) option at SUSON. The School was the recipient of a Kellogg Post-doctoral Fellowship for FNP Faculty Development in 1997-98 and acquired external funding during 1998-99 of $465,000 from the US PHS, Division of Nursing to enhance the FNP program. Through a Board of Regents grant to the Master's in Nursing, SUSON offers six distance-learning courses for graduate nursing students. The MSN Program provides financial assistant-ships to masters' students through two scholarship programs; The Rehabilitation Long-Term Care Training Grant funded at $100,000 per year by US Department of Education and The Advanced Nurse Education Traineeships funded at $30,000 per year by the US HRSA. There have been 66 graduates from the MSN program at Southern University, in it's 10 year existence.