College of Nursing Fast Facts
Vision Statement
The College of Nursing aspires to be a model of excellence, recognized nationally and internationally, for innovative education, dynamic programs of research and creative approaches to practice. We are committed to preparing nurses as practitioners and scientists who reflect and care for a diverse society, and to fostering interdisciplinary approaches to address the complexity of health care.
Points of Pride
- The College is consistently ranked in the top ten percent of all baccalaureate and graduate degree-awarding nursing schools in the nation
- The College graduates one of the largest number of baccalaureate prepared RNs in the state.
- UF began the first master's and the first doctoral programs for the state.
- The College's graduates achieve high RN licensure pass rates , consistently surpassing state and national averages.
- UF has pioneered many innovative nursing education models due to the pioneering spirit of its leadership and faculty, i.e. first nurse practitioner program in Florida, first RN to MSN track in Florida, first BSN to PhD track in Florida, new Clinical Nurse Leader track, and the new Doctor of Nursing Practice.
- The only college of nursing in Florida affiliated with a top-ranked AAU university.
- Excellent students – Currently the average GPA for incoming upperclassmen to the BSN program is 3.57.
- UF maintains the largest number of funded nursing research faculty in the state.
- In Spring of 2004, Dean Kathleen Long ended her tenure as President of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing , the organization representing baccalaureate and higher degree nursing education programs nationally
Background
- Founded in 1956, the UF College of Nursing is one of six colleges in the UF Health Science Center (HSC), which is one of the most comprehensive academic health care centers in the Southeast.
- The UF College of Nursing collaborates with the other HSC colleges - Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Pharmacy and Veterinary Medicine - as well as with the Shands HealthCare System and more than 40 other programs, institutes and centers of excellence located within the University and the UF Health Science Center.
- The College's founder and first dean, Dorothy M. Smith, pioneered new and controversial approaches to nursing education and practice when she developed a school where knowledge-based clinical excellence was the norm for administrators, faculty members, staff nurses and students alike.
- The College continued its strong tradition of education and science with Lois Malasanos, PhD, RN who served as Dean of the UF College of Nursing for 14 years from 1980 to 1994. During Malasanos’ tenure as dean, the UF College of Nursing strengthened its involvement in research, expanded its master’s degree program from five to 13 specialties and implemented Florida’s first doctoral program in nursing.
- The College now has 70 faculty members and about 700 undergraduate students and 230 graduate students , including approximately 48 doctoral students in three departments: Adult and Elderly Nursing; Health Care Environments and Systems; and Women's, Children's and Family Nursing.
Education
- The college's degree programs are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, which issued its recommendation for the next ten years in the Fall of 2002.
- The college is a member of the Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing of the Southern Regional Board and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. Graduates are eligible for the relevant national certification examination of each area of clinical specialization and for State of Florida certification as nurse practitioners and clinical specialists.
- In April of 2003, Dean Kathleen Long and her colleagues dedicated a new College of Nursing facility in the 173,000 square foot Health Professions/Nursing/Pharmacy complex. The state-of-the-art space effectively triples the size of the college's classrooms, offices, and research laboratories, and houses shared resources with the other colleges including a 500-seat auditorium, student services center, and other facilities.
- The College of Nursing commitment to diversity is emphasized through a number of academic programs, including the UF-Bethune-Cookman Nursing Consortium, the North Florida Nursing PhD Consortium, and participation in a number of UF and Health Science Center diversity programs, all aimed at encouraging students from diverse backgrounds to achieve a higher level of nursing education.
Research
- Total research support recently surpassed $5 million with College faculty receiving funding from a number of sources including the National Institutes of Nursing Research, the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
- Research studies conducted by College of Nursing faculty make national headlines, appearing in news outlets such as the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, WebMD and AARP magazine.
- Students are actively involved with faculty members' research, thus helping students understand and value clinical research. Undergraduate nursing students are encouraged to be a part of the UF Scholars program which allows them to shadow a nursing faculty researcher while nursing doctoral students receive strong mentoring and support in pursuit of their dissertation research.
- Research facilities in the College are state-of-the-art and include four research subject data collection/examination rooms, including a biofeedback area and two-way observation room. A physiology wet laboratory allows researchers to process, store and analyze lab samples.
Practice
- The colleges of the Health Science Center and their associated health care delivery networks provide students access to an integrated system of community hospitals and clinics, statewide home health care, a veterans' health system and quaternary care at Shands Hospital at UF.
- The College of Nursing maintains and participates in nursing and interdisciplinary clinics for women, children, adults and the elderly with special emphasis on underserved and rural populations. Patients include acutely ill newborns, HIV and AIDS patients, pregnant teens, adults with mental illnesses, elderly people with disabilities and sensory impaired children.
- In 1998, the college incorporated its Faculty Practice Association, which allows the generation of income used to strengthen the college's education and research programs, and provides financial incentives to practicing faculty members. For both undergraduate and graduate nursing students, practice sites serve as extended classrooms, where they can join faculty members in providing care. Twenty-two faculty members work at more than 20 sites across the region.
- Archer Family Health Care is the college's first nurse-managed primary care practice and will soon move to a new and expanded facility.