From the Dean – GW Nursing Magazine

November 1, 2021November 10, 2021

Interim Dean’s Welcome: Fall 2021

Dear GW Nursing Community,

I could not be more proud to be part of the GW Nursing community as we continue to adapt, inspire, take action, and demonstrate why nurses are the most trusted profession.

Entering summer 2021 semester, the GW School of Nursing began a new chapter with the departure of Dean Pamela Jeffries, who had led the school for six years. Her tenure built upon the legacy of Dr. Jean Johnson, the school’s founding dean, and proved monumental for our young school, helping to ensure that it is on solid footing moving forward, with steady leadership, a strong research portfolio, and student scholarship among its highest priorities. Also, thanks to Dean Jeffries, our school’s national rankings rose, student enrollment grew substantially, and our school is poised for a promising future.

With the future in mind, we look to the National Academy of Medicine’s 2021 report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, which articulates the critical role of nurses in achieving true health equity and eliminating systemic racism. In concert with this, we look to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s new Essentials: Core Competencies for Professional Education, which puts forward a new definition and framework for quality in academic nursing. Together, these reports provide nurses and schools of nursing with clear direction for the future to advance our nation’s health.

As you will see in this issue of our e-magazine, the GW School of Nursing is poised for an exciting new chapter and continued success. You can read about how our amazing faculty are bringing real-life leadership experience to the classroom, leading the way by partnering with local organizations to develop “moon shot” solutions for building age-friendly communities, and providing mobile healthcare resources for the less advantaged in Washington, D.C. Further, you can learn about our pioneering students, some of whom are confronting racism head on by organizing an antiracism student group and others who are maximizing the opportunities that scholarships have afforded them to advance their nursing careers and help their communities.

I hope you enjoy our fall e-magazine. I hope it serves as a reminder of the impactful work we’re doing at the GW School of Nursing and as a broader nursing community. Take care and stay healthy.

Best Regards,

Pamela Slaven-Lee
DNP, FNP-C, FAANP, CHSE
Interim Dean | School of Nursing
The George Washington University

June 4, 2021June 8, 2021

Dean’s Welcome: Spring 2021

A Year to Remember

What a difference a year makes. To think, at this time last year we were hunkering down amidst the initial spikes in COVID-19 cases. We were reeling from the unthinkable killing of George Floyd. We were swiftly transitioning in-person to virtual education and finding new, creative…sometimes challenging and painful…ways of navigating our new realities.

While we’re not out of the woods, yet…we find ourselves a year later entering a place of relief, reflection and recovery. Healthcare workers have done the amazing work of educating communities and vaccinating more than 60% of adults and adolescents, leading to reduced COVID cases and deaths each month and relaxed restrictions on mask wearing and social distancing. We saw the criminal justice system work the way it should, holding accountable those who have done wrong. And we find our school of nursing on the precipice of transition as I prepare to embark on my next adventure at Vanderbilt School of Nursing and Interim Dean Pam Slaven-Lee takes the helm with a newly-minted four-year strategic plan and the support of a dynamic leadership team, faculty and staff.

As I reflect on my six years at GW Nursing, it is with such joy and satisfaction at the things we’ve accomplished together and the progress we’ve made. It has been such an amazing chapter of my life. And this last year, in particular, has been a reminder of all that is possible working with the talented faculty, staff, students, alumni, friends and donors of the GW School of Nursing.

Last August, as the COVID pandemic raged on, we saw the GW School of Nursing take the lead in planning, building and running a highly effective COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinic that served as an invaluable learning experience for A.B.S.N. students, while providing a vital healthcare service for the GW community. We saw faculty embrace the “silver linings” of online learning to breathe new life into courses. And we saw our community come together, virtually, for milestone events like our 10^th anniversary gala, the inaugural GW Digital Health Summit, and our second annual Media Summit, to name a few.

This year has also brought a renewed focus on research at GW Nursing with the influx of more than $1.5 million in funding for projects ranging from how to reduce maternal mortality, to ways of mitigating liver disease, to strategies for improving clinical operations aboard military ships during a pandemic. We also have two cohorts of Ph.D. students working toward becoming the next wave of groundbreaking researchers in areas such as addressing the lack of quality care for pregnant persons, disparities in healthcare treatment among mental health patients, the dearth of diversity and cultural competency in nursing, and how to ensure better health outcomes for older adults.

We have also found time this year to engage with our alumni and celebrate their accomplishments, as you’ll see in our highlights of Dr. Valerie Strockbine and GW Monumental Alumna Dr. Mary-Michael Brown.

This has been an unprecedented year, filled with challenges, opportunities, successes and failures. But, above all, our GW Nursing community stayed true to itself, supported each other and found a path forward. This issue aims to capture some of that strength, resilience, innovation and tenacity. Please enjoy our spring issue.

Pamela R. Jeffries
Ph.D., RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH
Dean | School of Nursing
The George Washington University

October 13, 2020October 15, 2020

Dean’s Welcome: Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Magazine Dean’s Welcome Message

As we reflect on the last six months, we are astonished by what has unfolded. We see communities across the globe grappling to subdue a viral pandemic. A reckoning over structural racism playing out in our streets and in our organizations. And nurses, in the middle of a world turned upside down, focused as always on delivering safe and efficient care, sometimes at great personal sacrifice to themselves and their families.

In the fall issue of GW Nursing magazine, we shine a spotlight on the leadership, adaptability and resilience of nurses in the face of these challenges. You’ll read about GW Nursing faculty who quickly adapted their pediatric clinical course so students could do the entire clinical component virtually. You’ll learn about students, alumni, faculty and staff who rolled up their sleeves to battle COVID-19 on the front lines, as well as confront structural racism through open, respectful dialogue in our Continuing the Conversation series. And you’ll have a chance to interact with our stories in a deeper way than ever before, with links to photo albums; student-produced PSAs; and faculty podcasts, webinars and bios. It’s a virtual celebration of nurses, honoring them for the blood, sweat and tears they put into caring for our communities, especially during these unprecedented times.

Who could have imagined how this year would unfold when the World Health Organization designated 2020 as the “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife,” in honor of the 200th anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth? If ever there was a year that justified why nurses should be valued and revered as the most trusted profession, 2020 is it. Stories of nurses providing expert care, compassion and leadership under unprecedented circumstances are now being told in the news and on social media…and signs that herald our heroism adorn highways, neighborhoods and office buildings around the country. It seems the World Health Organization was a bit prescient in choosing this year, of all years, to recognize us!

This pandemic has also reminded us of the importance and critical nature of our shared work as health care providers and leaders. COVID-19 has impacted our communities, our health care workforce, and the substance and delivery of nursing education itself. As our country and the world continue to battle this public health crisis, our commitment remains strong to preparing a workforce that will advance the health of all people.

To be clear…there are more difficult days ahead – for our students, for our communities, and for the world. But we can turn to our priorities of safety, care and efficiency to inform our decision making. In fact, I would argue that those three tenets would describe the ethos of every organizational leader right now. How do we manage operations in a safe, caring and efficient manner? In all that we do, these core values should form a compass and guide our approach to finding the new normal, because it may be a long time, if ever, before we go back to the way things were.

In the meantime, I invite you to scroll through the digital pages of our fall magazine and read the stories of leadership, adaptability and resilience that reflect the remarkable work of the GW Nursing community. I hope they bring you as much pride as they do me. Enjoy, stay safe and be well.

Pamela R. Jeffries
Ph.D., RN, FAAN, ANEF, FSSH
Dean | School of Nursing
The George Washington University

May 11, 2019October 12, 2020

At the Intersection of Education and Policy

Dean Jeffries on balcony in front of DC Mall

AUTHOR PAMELA R. Jeffries

If you want things to change, start a conversation. Maybe we take that for granted here in the nation’s capital, surrounded by national organizations and agencies of health. When I walk out onto Pennsylvania Avenue, I often find myself tripping on one of the many soapboxes throughout the city. Every once in a while, however, you fall into an important conversation at the intersection of education and policy.

This happened over the winter to me when my colleagues and I began a vital conversation about the state of simulation in nursing education and its future. As educators, we know that incorporating simulation into the nursing curriculum instills confidence in students, allows immersion in their scope of practice, all in a safe, nonthreatening environment, and ultimately produces high-quality providers.

While the literature points to clear benefits and outcomes of simulation at the undergraduate level, the body of evidence is lacking at the advanced practice nursing level. Given the scope of practice nurse practitioners have in each state, the use of simulation in instruction is as much a question of policy as it is education. In this issue of GW Nursing, we offer an invitation to our colleagues to engage in a national dialogue in order to discuss the clinical education challenges and to call for a strong body of research through multisite studies that will lead to the evidence and establishment of best practices for simulation in graduate nursing education.

Like most great things, we can’t do it alone. Partnering with national nursing organizations is key to this discussion. We are fortunate to have several GW faculty on nursing boards, including Sigma Theta Tau International President-Elect Richard Ricciardi who writes on their importance to your career and the profession in this Spring 2019 issue of our GW Nursing Magazine.

If you are looking for more conversations, I encourage you to learn more about our Health Policy Leadership Lecture Series to discover how you can get involved in health care policy. No matter what your daily journey entails, I encourage you to get out and occasionally trip on a soapbox. Sometimes the first step in creating change is to stumble into a conversation.