A Message from Dean Narsavage
This past year we celebrated 50 years of WVU School of Nursing's achievements in teaching,
service / practice, and research. As the state's major research institution and its only land-grant
university, West Virginia University is charged with understanding and meeting the distinctive needs of
the people of the state. Our School of Nursing's 50 years represent an unique and sustained history of
contributions to improving the health and quality of life for citizens of West Virginia and the nation.
Nursing students in rural health last year provided 13,950 hours of service; a nursing student's community
service project was one of the best in the state for the 4th consecutive year. Our achievements have
been accomplished through the efforts of dedicated and visionary faculty and over 5000 graduates - with
more than 2800 still practicing here in West Virginia. Alumni with BSN, MSN, DNP or PhD degrees practice
in all 50 states and throughout the world, promoting the health and quality of life of the people they serve.
Over half of all faculty teaching in West Virginia schools of nursing are graduates of WVU.
The first 50 years have been an unqualified success. As we set our direction for the next 50 years,
our vision says it all.
West Virginia University School of Nursing envisions optimal health, enhanced quality of life,
and excellent health care for the people of West Virginia and the global community.
Our abiding commitment to teaching does not preclude our strong commitment to practice and to incubating
ideas and encouraging innovation - to conducting research that holds great promise for spawning new ways of
CARING that can lead to improved life quality. The results speak for themselves.
Our charge now is to make this vision come alive. Over the next 50 years our school will grow and change.
I know you know that West Virginia University is the home of many proud traditions - innovative teaching,
our crowd pleasing and internationally acclaimed Mountaineer athletic teams, our pioneering research,
and a culture of service to and for the people of West Virginia. I hope you have had an opportunity to
"meet" - even virtually - our WVU HSC Chancellor - Dr. Christopher Colenda - a
dynamic leader who took the helm in January 2010. The new Dean of Medicine - Dr. Art Ross - has joined us
and our 2016 strategic planning is in full speed ahead mode. As a School of Nursing within a
public university, we exist for the public good. Higher education, perhaps better than any other institution
-- could -- and should -- generate the lion's share of ideas and knowledge needed to
ensure nursing's progress, power and pre-eminence. This year more federal and other external grants
were submitted by the SON - and funded - than ever before. Heidi Putman-Casdorph and Susan Pinto
completed their research project educating school nurses about asthma management -
funded by the National Association of School Nursing. Third years of continuation (HRSA)
grant awards were made to Nan Leslie with her co-PI Susan McCrone and co-PI Cyndi Persily for
development of the WHNP, and BSN to DNP programs; as well as to our hospital partner,
Mary Fanning (my Co-PI) who worked with Gail Van Voorhis, Joy Maramba, Patty Hermosilla,
Dan De Feo, Barb Summers, and critical care hospital staff to develop a competency-based orientation
to ICUs. April Shay and Judi Polak have joined the HRSA team as the orientation program branches out
to the PICU and NICU. The WiseWoman CDC/ WVDPH grant (with Loretta Reckart, Robin Seabury and Barbara Miller)
has also been refunded. Cyndi Persily has received continued funding for the WV Nursing Leadership Institute
team development program from the RWJ Partners in Nursing's Future initiative in partnership with
the Benedum foundation, as well as continuation funding as Deputy Director of
the WV Rural Health Research Center - one of only four in the country to be funded.
Joy Buck 's NIH NINR R15 grant has been funded : Building Capacity for Rural Integrated Palliative Care,
and the Telemonitoring study to build self-management skills for patients with lung cancer was funded
by the NIH National Cancer Institute with Kathy Chen and myself as Co-PIs. Laurie Theeke became our first
RWJ nurse faculty scholar with research funding to study loneliness in elders. Ilana Chertok received
a grant from the March of Dimes for a "Prenatal Smoking Cessation Program Implementation and Evaluation
in West Virginia". A grant to provide traineeships has again been awarded to Mary Jane Smith,
and the RWJ Foundation has made an unprecedented 3rd award for the New Careers in Nursing program to
Betty Shelton for a total of $150,000. We continue to identify students eligible for
the National Faculty Loan Program to give $30,000 to graduate students. Our largest grant ever was
awarded by the Helene Fuld Health Trust to support disadvantaged undergraduate students - $600,000
over 3 years divided between cash and endowments - and both the Valley Health System (VA) and
West Virginia University Hospitals have set up endowments to support our faculty and students.
We hope you will agree that we are using well the resources you are sharing with us.
Today's nurses face demands for information and innovation that we could not have imagined 50 years ago,
nor could Dean Majors and those first classes have imagined the scope and complexity of issues that would
mark society today. Nevertheless the "West Virginia Plan" prepared nurses for the future - for TODAY!
The challenge of meeting health care needs in the next century mandates that we continue to support access
to the intellectual resources found on university campuses like ours, to prepare well-educated nurses and
enlightened leaders -- leaders like Diana Mason, the recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from WVU
this past year (along with Dr. Peter Macgrath and former President Bill Clinton!). Student success is
and will remain WVU SON's top priority.
My watch comprises part of the first decade of the new century; my focus as Dean is to increase access
and equal opportunity, teaching excellence, professional development, scholarship, a commitment to
student success and meaningful community engagement - the kind that reflects and helps students connect
their textbook learning to the real world of patients. Let us hear from you - your ideas stimulate us
to new horizons - we still need your wisdom… Let's Go MOUNTAINEERS!
Georgia L. Narsavage
Dean and Professor, WVU School of Nursing
PhD, CRNP, FAAN