Today, The George Washington University Board of Trustees voted to approve the formation of the GW School of Nursing. The nursing school will be composed of the Master of Science in Nursing programs, the Doctor of Nursing Practice program, the second degree Bachelor of Science in nursing program, and other post-masters certificate programs. These programs have been in existence within the Department of Nursing Education and have resided within the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
"This is a special day for those of us involved in the formation of the new school of nursing. Becoming a stand alone school within GW's academic medical center will help us to bolster our national reputation and academic standing among nursing education institutions," said Jean Johnson, R.N.-C., Ph.D., senior associate dean for Health Sciences.
The new school, which has 30 faculty members already in place and expects to hire more top-level professionals in the field, will be housed on both GW's Foggy Bottom campus and on its Loudoun County, VA, campus. All of the school's classroom exercises and a newly built 3,000-square-foot simulation lab are located at the Virginia campus. GW's nursing students will also have the opportunity to take advantage of the school's location in D.C., as the curriculum provides students with an understanding of health care policy and nursing and exposes them to the high-level leaders in nursing. GW nursing has a learning laboratory for policy activism to improve the quality of health care through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In addition, GW has nationally recognized partnerships with the National Committee for Quality Assurance to offer the only Master of Science Nursing program in the country with a focus of study in quality improvement.
The formation of the School of Nursing comes at a time when nurses are in very high demand due to health care reform, an aging population of nurses, and a major nursing shortage across the country. "The formation of this school will directly address the high demand for nurses in our country, and we will provide graduates who will play a critical role in patient care," said John F. Williams, M.D., Ed.D., M.P.H., provost and vice president for Health Affairs.
"We have outstanding faculty who provide our students with a high level of nursing expertise, so they can provide quality, compassionate, patient-centered care," said Ellen Dawson, Ph.D., A.N.P., chair of the Department of Nursing Education.
"Applications to GW's Bachelor of Nursing program have increased five fold, indicating the great demand for nursing education and the strength of GW's program. Establishing a GW School of Nursing at the Virginia Science and Technology Campus will help meet the national need for nurses and help achieve our goal of leadership in education and research in the field of nursing," said Donald R. Lehman, Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs.
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