Nursing school today is not what it was 10, five, or even a single year ago.  

With changes fueled by shifts in the marketplace, student demands, COVID-19, new curricular and board mandates, nurse, preceptor, and clinical practice space shortages, and the continued churn of new healthcare technology and the rise of artificial intelligence (DAX AI medical scribe, anyone?), our era is like a post-volcano lava flow: seismic disruptions followed by cascading opportunities to change, grow, and re-invent nursing school for the 21st century and beyond. 

Add to those shifts new direction from the School’s 10-year strategic plan, Our Extraordinary Future, which centers work across four specific goals, and it’s a steady, but exciting diet of change. And how we meet goal 1’s challenge to transform educational offerings is adding color and creativity to our work in new, sometimes surprising ways. 

“At some point in the future, we’ll look back and say, ‘Wow, that was the moment when we stopped doing things the ‘old way,’” said Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and Professor. “Change can be scary, but we’re not running away. We’re calmly working through it.  

“This is a moment for nursing. We are part of the movement to redefine nursing education for what is needed and expected now.” 

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