UCSF School of Nursing party to launch 100-year celebration events
A centennial kick-off party on Wednesday, September 13 will launch a year-long celebration of 100 years of nursing excellence at UCSF.
Sponsored by the UCSF School of Nursing, the party is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in Saunders Court on the UCSF Campus, 513 Parnassus Avenue. A 1906-style brass band will salute as a giant 3-story centennial banner unfurls down the front of the School of Nursing building.
Dean Kathleen Dracup, RN, FNP, DNSc, will host the event, and several hundred celebrants are expected to join in the party. Guests will include Chancellor J. Michael Bishop, UCSF Medical Center CEO Mark Laret, students, alumni, faculty, staff, and friends of nursing at UCSF, throughout the university, and in the community. Refreshments will be served.
Nurses who work at UCSF Medical Center and all of the hospitals and clinics served by UCSF are particularly welcome, Dracup said. “This is a celebration of every aspect of nursing excellence at UCSF - a tradition that began the day that the university opened its first nursing diploma program affiliated with the first UC hospital on Parnassus Avenue a century ago,” she said.
CENTENNIAL YEAR EVENTS
Centennial lectures and symposia are scheduled throughout 2006 - 2007, beginning with a September 28 address by Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at the University of Pennsylvania, on the role of nurses and nursing education in saving patients’ lives.
On October 18, the Alpha Eta Chapter of the nursing honor society Sigma Theta Tau will host a talk by UCSF Associate Dean Emerita Marilyn Flood about the centennial and the challenges of historical research about nursing.
On December 7, Karen Luker, PhD, RN, dean of the Manchester School of Nursing in the U.K., will speak on the challenges of assessing research quality. On February 15, 2007, Ruth Macklin, PhD, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine will discuss ethical standards for international health research. On October 5, 2007, the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences will hold its second Anselm Strauss Symposium to round out the year, addressing the challenges of qualitative research.
Other events include the spring 2007 unveiling of a Wall of Fame by the UCSF School of Nursing Alumni Association to honor the achievements of 100 leaders associated with the School from every era and specialty. On Alumni Day, April 28, 2007, UCSF Nursing Press will host a book-launching event to celebrate its publication of the first complete history of the School, written by Associate Dean Emerita Flood.
Two seminars on global nursing scholarship will book-end the nursing graduation and doctoral alumni reunion events June 7 - 12, 2007. On June 8, symposium keynote speaker Afaf Meleis, PhD, dean of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will address the topic of women’s health.
The keynote speaker for the June 8 graduation is UCSF alumna Hiroko Minami, DNSc, RN, MPH, president of the International Council of Nurses. A June 9 Black Tie Gala will feature performer Rita Moreno.
A CENTURY OF NURSING EXCELLENCE
The University of California’s first nursing program began in 1907 when the first UC Hospital - the precursor to today’s UCSF Medical Center - opened a year after the 1906 earthquake in the still-standing College of Medicine on Parnassus Avenue. The university established a hospital diploma program for nurses in 1907. UCSF was among the first to offer a bachelor’s degree for nurses in 1917 and a doctoral degree in nursing in 1965. In 1939, it was the first public university to establish an autonomous School of Nursing.
Today, the UCSF School of Nursing consistently ranks at the top for National Institutes of Health research funding. It has achieved international renown for research that improves nursing practice and public health, and for educating generations of nursing leaders.
UCSF faculty lead research to improve nursing practice, health care and health policy. The School’s curriculum has served as a model for national standards for master’s degree programs for clinical specialists, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners. The School offers a Master’s Entry Program in Nursing, for those with bachelor’s degrees in other fields, which draws people with diverse skills into nursing, often in mid-career. PhD candidates and post-doctoral scholars go on from UCSF to join the faculties of nursing schools in the U.S. and around the world. Faculty experts support nursing models of care as far away as Botswana, while faculty and advanced-practice students conduct five clinical practices to care for underserved communities in San Francisco.
Throughout UCSF Medical Center and the hospitals and clinics served by UCSF, nurses lead innovations in patient care, hospital safety, and support for patients and families coping with illness.
Updates throughout the year on UCSF nursing centennial events are available online at http://nurseweb.ucsf.edu/centennial.html
UCSF is a leading university that consistently defines health care worldwide by conducting advanced biomedical research, educating graduate students in the health professions and life sciences, and providing complex patient care.
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EDITORS AND REPORTERS: To cover this event, arrange interviews or obtain photos, contact Janet Basu at 415-502-4608 or [email protected]