New Director of the University of Nevada's Orvis School of Nursing

Nevada RNformation, Aug 2004

On july 1, Patsy Ruchala began working with the University of Nevada, Reno to address one of the most daunting challenges facing the state: the country's most extreme per-capita nursing shortage.

Ruchala, associate director for graduate nursing programs at Georgia State University in Atlanta, became director of the university's Orvis School of Nursing in Reno. Dr. Ruchala has been a member of the American Nurses Association since 1984 and has been an active member of the Illinois, Missouri, and Georgia Nurses Associations, Sigma Thêta Tau International, and several other professional nursing organizations.

"Dr. Ruchala is an outstanding educator and experienced administrator whose expertise in the profession, enthusiasm for our Orvis School of Nursing and desire to make a difference in meeting the need for nurses in Nevada will have an immediate positive influence," said Dean Jean Perry of the College of Human and Community Sciences.

Nevada has the lowest number of licensed nurses per capita in the country (520 nurses per 100,000 people, compared to a U.S. average of 782 nurses per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services). Nursing professors are urgently needed to educate prospective new professionals in the field.

"There is also a need to replace nurse educators at all levels of teaching," said Ruchala, a decade-long faculty member and director of master's degree programs in nursing for five years at St. Louis University before joining Georgia State's Byrdine Lewis School of Nursing in 2001. "The mean age of nursing educators (nationally) is 54, and we've seen the existing work force in both clinical work and education retire. Younger men and women, in many cases, have chosen other professions."

Ruchala, who has teaching experience through the doctoral-degree level, said she emphasizes "a team approach to administration." She has relied on building a foundation of quality bachelor's degree programs in both Georgia and Missouri, leading to a fuller development of strong graduate education.

With her strength in preparing both nurses and nursing educators, Ruchala comes to Nevada following an academic year in which the University of Nevada has more than doubled enrollment at its nursing school - a state-supported goal. Some 86 nursing students were admitted to the school last fall, and at least 40 are slated to graduate in May - twice the typical graduation pattern for the school in recent years.

Ruchala completed her diploma in nursing in 1973 at Alton Memorial Hospital in Alton, 111. She received her bachelor's and master's of nursing degrees at Governors State University in University Park, 111., and earned her doctorate in nursing science in 1991 at Rush University in Chicago.

The American. Association of Colleges of Nursing has invited Ruchala to be a featured speaker in assessing student outcomes, and during the last year she was appointed to the Southern Regional Education Board's Blue Ribbon Commission on the Preparation of Nurse Educators.

Dr. Ruchala also serves on the editorial board of three professional journals - the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic and Neonatal Nursing, Neonatal Network: The Journal of Neonatal Nursing and the Journal of Nursing Scholarship.

On behalf of the Nevada Nurses Association, please join us in welcoming Dr. Ruchala to the Orvis School of Nursing, to the University of Nevada, Reno, and to Nevada.