Photo by Tom Cogill

“The campaign to expand McLeod Hall will provide the facilities necessary to strengthen research programs, enlarge the faculty, and increase enrollment.” Jeanette Lancaster, University Dean

Throughout the academic year, deans make annual reports to their staff and faculty, laying out the goals, aspirations – and challenges – for the coming year. In this issue, we begin an occasional series that takes a look at the state of the University one piece at a time.

Nursing enrollment, ranking on the rise

By Katherine Thompson Jackson

“I’ve got a story to tell,” said Jeanette Lancaster, U.Va.’s longest standing dean. “The probability that a person in this room will not need the services of a good nurse is unlikely.

“Nationally nursing school enrollments have declined for the past six years. This year, however, saw an increase that may be related to Sept. 11 and a desire to do more human services. U.Va.’s enrollment did not decline,” she said.

Lancaster, dean and professor of nursing since 1989, delivered the annual address recently to about 75 faculty and development staff at the School of Nursing. The former psychiatric nurse said today’s nursing shortage is different from those experienced in the past because fewer nurses enter the profession, shrinking the number prepared to care for the baby boomer population. Experts predict that the demand for full-time registered nurses will begin to exceed the supply by 2020.

“The school is mounting a campaign to expand McLeod Hall, which would provide the facilities necessary to strengthen research programs, enlarge the faculty, and increase enrollment,” Lancaster said. By demolishing the 30,000-square feet auditorium, additional classroom and research space could be built at a cost of $7 million (assuming half of that amount will come from the state).

Switching gears, Lancaster focused on the calibre of nursing students. “We produce strong graduates because of students such as this year’s entering class: the mean came in with 3.9 GPA, 1200 on the SATs, and generally in the top 10 percent of their high schools,” Lancaster said.

Nursing’s 18-month second-degree program which offers a special bachelor of science in nursing degree for non-nurses with at least a bachelor’s degree in another area, has been extremely competitive. The good news, Lancaster said, is that the program is attracting a majority of men, many from U.Va.

A final piece of good news, she said, is that U.Va.’s graduate programs in nursing have moved up in the U.S. News & World Report rankings: 35th in 1995, 24th in 1998, and now 21st.