Frontier School of Midwifery and Family Nursing news

Frontier Nursing Service Quarterly Bulletin, Summer 2002 by Stone, Susan

Fall is here again and brings with it thoughts of the October graduation ceremonies. Although FSMFN allows students to actually graduate at the time they take their comprehensive exam, our graduation is held once each year in October in Hyden, Kentucky. Last year, due to the generosity of our many donors, we were able to award over $30,000 to our graduates in scholarships.

These awards at the time of graduation are most appreciated. More than 80% of the FSMFN students participate in the federal financial aide program. The average age of an FSMFN student is 35 years old. They are adults with the typical adult responsibilities of jobs and families. When they return to school, they obtain loans for tuition, books, travel, computers and living expenses. The result is that they graduate with large student loans.

Awards last year included scholarships from the following Funds: Arronson; Daughters of Colonial War; Kate Ireland; Kitty Ernst Award and Scholarship; Lisa Scherer; Mardi Perry; Margaret Ferguson; Nancy B. Taylor; and the May Scaife Scholarship. The Betty Lou Johnson Scholarship was awarded earlier in the year. We will soon have two new scholarship awards including the Dr. Anne Wasson Scholarship and the Suzanne Preston Wilson Memorial Scholarship. I want to express my deepest gratitude to the donors who support our students and graduates as they pursue graduate nursing education.

Other big news includes the fact that we will have three CFNP graduates attending the ceremony this year. We are thrilled to see the results of our hard work to develop an excellent Family Nurse Practitioner Program based on the CNEP model. It is very rewarding to finally have Family Nurse Practitioner graduates join the festivities this year. The first graduates of the CFNP include Karen Orberson, Vickie Delluryue, Barbra Keller, Cecelia Watson and Christine Larson. To help us to celebrate our first group of CFNP graduates, our graduation speaker this year will be a national educator and FNP, Dr. Michael Carter. Dr. Carter is the former Dean of Nursing at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

To add to our excitement this fall, we are awaiting the birth of Dr. Julie Marfell's second baby. Julie is the Chairperson of the Department of Family Nursing at FSMFN. Baby Rose is due to arrive just about the time of graduation. More news and hopefully a picture in our next Quarterly Bulletin.

WEBSITES

Frontier Nursing Service - www.frontiernursing.org

FSMFN Community Based Nurse-Midwifery Education Program (CNEP) - www.midwives.org

FSMFN Community Based Nurse-Practitioner Program (CFNP) - www.frontierfnp.org

by Dr. Susan Stone, CEO & President