Should experience 'count'?

It’s a question many RNs ask when considering a return to school to earn a BSN. And it’s a good one, said Louise Fleming, the School’s associate dean for academic operations, who is working on integrating elective credit into the School’s RN to BSN program for nurses in UVA Health’s Nurse Residency Programs by recognizing experiential learning. 

Every new nurse at UVA Health takes part in a year-long Residency, which offers a wide variety of content, from self-care to skills-building, to ease their transition to practice. Given that many of the Residency’s objectives are aligned with the RN to BSN program’s elective leadership class, Fleming hopes her plans for the credit bump will give these future students a leg up when deciding to enroll, and “make things just a little easier.” Of course, it’s also a move to sway nurses with associate’s degrees to consider the School’s hybrid RN to BSN.  

It’s just the kind of work the Synergy Center brings into focus.  

“We’re collectively, strategically, and efficiently moving toward the same set of goals—all while ensuring our approach to up-skilling remains people-first.”

Shelly Smith, associate dean of graduate programs, professor, and Synergy Center co-director

Positioned as a collaboration hub for Virginia’s Region 9, the Center unites stakeholders at the School, UVA Health’s Center for Nursing Excellence, the district’s community colleges (Laurel Ridge, Piedmont Virginia, and Germanna Community Colleges), and other public partners, such as charitable organizations, state agencies, and advocacy groups. Across four career pillars—essentially “moments” in a future nurse or nurse’s career, including transition to practice, professional growth, career transitions, and legacy—the Synergy Center will, in ways small to expansive, align future nurses’ and nurses’ personal goals with workforce needs, all while remaining tethered to principles of self-care, well-being, and compassionate leadership—tenets for which the School is known. 

The Center will create avenues for high schoolers curious about healthcare careers to visit, learn, and explore. It’ll be the home for UVA Health’s Earn While You Learn program, which offers paid on-the-job training in high-need areas, and various on-ramps and experiences for the nursing-curious. It’s where new nurse onboarding, professional development, and career advancement offerings, like the popular Clinical Instructor Workshop series—for nurses with a penchant to teach the next generation of nurses at community college and universities—will live, and where support and well-being activities from the Compassionate Care Initiative and Wisdom & Wellbeing programs will reside.

“Beyond the role and compensation models, nurses today expect their work environments to have certain tenets, too. We want to keep them healthy, happy, and supported as they do their work. And when they seek a change—professional development, a promotion, or a shift in roles—we want to support them in that, too. It’s what we mean when we say UVA Health aims to be a ‘best place to work.’ We absolutely take that to heart.”

Kathy Baker, chief nursing officer, UVA Health University Medical Ctr, the School's associate dean for clinical affairs

 “A lot of great work in these four domains is already happening,” said Shelly Smith (BSN ’99, DNP ’12), associate dean for graduate programs, one of the Synergy Center’s chief architects, and its co-director. “The Center provides it with a home, and ensures that we’re collectively, strategically, and efficiently moving toward the same set of goals—all while ensuring our approach to up-skilling remains people-first.” 

It will also be the place where nurses who may have grown dissatisfied with their roles, work environment, or trajectory can turn before hitting the exit door. Just don’t call it a career center. 

“More than probably any other profession, nursing has undergone a true revolution in the past five years,” said Kathy Baker, chief nursing officer at UVA Health University Medical Center and the School’s associate dean for clinical affairs. “Beyond the role and compensation models, nurses today expect their work environments to have certain tenets, too. We want to keep them healthy, happy, and supported as they do their work.

“And when they seek a change—professional development, a promotion, or a shift in roles—we want to support them in that, too. It’s what we mean when we say UVA Health aims to be a ‘best place to work.’ We absolutely take that to heart.”