Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
Sixty-three steps.
That’s the unhurried walking distance between UVA School of Nursing and UVA Health University Medical Center. But these days, in many ways, there’s no discernable gap between the two. And a new Synergy Center is poised to become the embodiment of that union.
Though one of seven entities at UVA Health, the School’s relationship with the health system is different, deep, and complex. Not only do hundreds of nursing students fan out across its units to practice and learn most days, so, too, do professors, administrative leaders, clinical faculty, and staff: to guide, support, study, and embolden people and processes, sync team members’ goals and organizational needs, and, ultimately, improve the academic practice partnership to “position us as the flagship institutions we are,” explained Marianne Baernholdt, the Pew Charitable Trusts Dean and dean of professional nursing at UVA Health, who’s among the Center’s architects.
“Our effort will help us face nursing workforce recruitment and retention issues head-on,” explained Baernholdt. “It also gives a home to the work we’re already doing together—everything from strengthening and standardizing nurse on-boarding, education, and advancement to supporting new ways to stand up workforce development and career transitions. We hope the Synergy Center becomes a place for future nurses and nurses to get support to think through what their next moves might be.”
“Our School has always been close to UVA Health,” Baernholdt added, “but I don’t think we’ve ever been closer.”
It’s a union that’s stronger than the sum of its parts. A look inside our synergy.
The Synergy Center
What it is
Positioned as a collaboration hub for nurses and nurses-to-be during four key moments in their education and career—transition to practice, professional growth, career transitions, and legacy—the Synergy Center aligns nurses' personal goals with workforce needs and tethers them to the principles of self-care, well-being, and compassionate leadership, focus areas for which the School is known.
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Reorienting Orientation
Why quality onboarding matters
From the outset, it can make new nurses feel like they’re entering a world that’s organized, efficient, supportive, friendly.
It’s why UVA Health’s Nursing Professional Development Services and the School began working on a new approach to onboarding, an united effort now headquartered at the Synergy Center.
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Building Nurses for the Future
Focused on well-being (not just because it's nice)
“Teaching self-care early in a nurse’s career helps both the individual nurse and the hospital where they work,” explained professor Natalie May, who studies mattering and its impact on healthcare workers’ quality of care, burnout, longevity, and attrition, and leads well-being modules for new UVA Health nurses taking part in yearlong residencies. “When nurses flourish, so do their patients.”
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New Digs
Teach? Practice? Mentor? Do something new?
Yeah, we do that.
How the Synergy Center is fueling development of new roles for nurses and nurse educators, static and mobile classrooms, dynamic clinical experiences for students—and why it's bringing new energy to the School, and more options for faculty members and clinicians alike.
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Project Team
When the team's the thing
Not everyone has an idea for their DNP final scholarly capstone defense.
So, to satisfy both DNP students' academic needs and the challenges many health systems face and seek help to solve, Beth Quatrara, an associate professor (pictured with DNP graduate Jared Sangiorgi), has developed a list of ongoing projects that need a DNP student's touch at UVA Health and well beyond. It's just the kind of thinking the Synergy Center fuels.
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Power of Magnet
What makes graduates choose to stay?
Accelerated BSN student BreAnn Dishman (BSN ’25) wasn't too familiar with why Magnet hospitals were different until she started clinical rotations. Those experiences, and what she observed in the agency of her nurse mentor-preceptors, drove her decision about where to work once she graduated.
"It made the decision to stay easy," explained Dishman, a new UVA Health pediatric nurse.
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The Synergy Center
Four Pillars to Elevate Your Nursing Career
