Friday, March 18, 2011

87.5% of First Class taking NCLEX-RN exam are RNs!

87.5 percent of the first class of students taking the NCLEX-RN exam have passed. Despite this, the Texas Board of Nursing has placed the School of Nursing on warning status because the pass rate on initial testing in two consecutive reporting periods was below 80%. In August 2009 the SON graduated its first Second Degree BSN class of 17 students. The initial testing results were 77.78% (7 passed of the 9 testing) for the 2009 reporting period. The initial testing results were 28.57% (2 passed of the 7 testing) for the 2010 reporting period. The students were strongly encouraged to take the test in the 2009 reporting period, however, they did not. On April 5, 2010 a Self Study was submitted to the Texas Board of Nursing. The Self Study evaluated factors which contributed to graduates’ performance and included a description of corrective measures that were implemented. Major problems included inadequate admission criteria for the first cohort, nursing faculty who were new to BSN education and unprepared for the technological requirements, and the logistics of teaching a compressed curriculum. In September 2009 the University did not hold classes for three (3) weeks because of Hurricane Ike. This confounding event compressed this initial class even further. In all actuality the two year pass rate represents one class of 17 students. Currently, fourteen (14) total have passed the exam (5 after the second attempt), two (2) have not passed and one (1) student has not taken the NCLEX-RN exam. Thus, 87.5% of the first class of students taking the exam have passed. From our records 13 of these 14 Registered Nurses are working full time in nursing. Your faculty and dean are totally committed to the educational process in the SON. All good things take time and we are moving in a postive direction! Sincerely, Dr. Tart

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Fall Semester 2010 commencement and pinning


The Fall 2010 Semester was full of wonderful events for the School of Nursing. The Students, Faculty and Staff at the School of Nursing are the future leaders for our profession. Enjoy!!!!


SON faculty and Janet Leatherwood, Chief Nurse at Methodist Sugar Land, getting ready for commencement.
First Ever - RN-BSN, MSN and Second Degree BSN Pinning ceremony after the Fall Commencement in Katy, Texas.

Pictured: Heather Chimene, Melissa Chaffin, Donovan Bacuyag, Sarita Shestha saying the Florence Nightingale Pledge with their lamps.

Our Guest Speaker was Steven Brockman-Weber, Chief Nurse of Memorial Hermann Sugar Land Hospital. Many of our students spend clinical time at this facility and we were honored to have Steven share his thoughts (with permission):

"Dean Tart, Faculty, Families, and Honored Graduates…

I don’t have words enough to express my gratitude for the chance to speak to with you on your special day. It would be a pleasure and honor at any pinning ceremony, but today marks a milestone for the UHV School of nursing as this is the first pinning ceremony where all nursing graduates are honored, congratulations Dean Tart and faculty!

Nurses are brave. Insightful. Compassionate. Not only do they help people heal, they calm fears, alleviate grief, inspire others. To be a nurse is to answer a calling to tireless service and self-sacrifice.

Every nurse has paid a price for his or her dedication. As rewarding as it is a touch lives on such a profound emotional and spiritual level, it can also be stressful and heartbreaking. It’s a tough, tough, job. And.. that’s why it’s so important to celebrate this day with pride and accomplishment. I want you to celebrate this day. I want you to experience all of the pride, all of the joy that it brings you to have reached this milestone. I also want to challenge you and inspire you because as you leave this ceremony today many of you have prepared yourselves to take on new roles in nursing, some as a new graduate and some into more leadership and roles of education. You see, today you take a big step into power. In return for your hard work, endless papers, care plans, and business plans your dedication to a life of service and your willingness to take the pledge of duty society gives you access and rights that is given to on one else. Society will allow you to hear secrets from frightened human beings that they are too scared to tell anyone else. Society will permit you to use drugs and instruments that can do great harm as well as great good, and that in the hands of others would be weapons. Society will let you build walls and write rules. And in this new role you will meet a new mother afraid to touch her preemie on the ventilator in the incubator. The construction worker too embarrassed to admit that he didn’t hear a word the physician said just after, “It might be cancer.” The alcoholic bottoming out who was the handsome champion of his soccer team and dreamed of being an architect someday. The child over whom you tower. The 90-yeard old grandmother, over whom you tower. You see your world may change dramatically as you walk out of here today, because now you have the choice, you now how the power, the ability to make new rules. You have a choice now to make the difference in someone’s life, the magical opportunity to decide.

Nursing has changed dramatically over the past 28 years I have been practicing. A long way from the staff nurse in a community hospital in Kentucky. I now help to make the rules and so will you. I challenge each of you to create new opportunities for our profession that will help to propel nursing into the respected profesion it is.

There are three things that I challenge each of you to take with you into your roles as nurses:
1. Leadership. Be the forerunner, be the rule maker, and be the one who challenges and questions. Lead with pride, lead with purpose and lead with the desire to make things better for patients and their families.
2. Confidence. At the beside or in the boardroom do your job with confidence and pride. You have been taught the basics, and beyond. Use your knowledge to drive excellence in the care you provide. Be willing to ask and admit when you don’t know. Having confidence can help you to achieve great things.
3. Change. Know that change occurs all the time. Be a forward thinker, a visionary in all that you do, who knows one day students in your seats today maybe learning about your new model of care you have tested. Change can be difficult, but it can also be exciting. Be the one that stands up and says, Let me try that.

Congratulations on your achievement today. Feel proud. You ought to. Those who suffer need you to be something more than a nurse; they need you to be a healer. And to become a healer you must do something even more difficult than using your knowledge. You must recover, embrace, and treasure the memory of your shared, frail humanity-of the dignity in each and every soul.

I am grateful for the lessons that I have learned, and I am grateful to have the opportunity to share them with you today. I am still learning. I have so much yet to learn. I have so very far yet to go, as do you. That’s okay. This is a journey and your journey begins now. I honor you today for choosing to make a difference in the lives of the patients and families you serve. Congratulations!"













Friday, November 12, 2010

UHV's Annual Report

You are welcome to view the annual report and an event photo gallery at www.uhvAnnualReport.com right now, and within the next several days, additional photos and videos will be posted. The site currently features video presentations shown during the event; faculty, staff, student and alumni highlights, UHV’s enrollment and financial figures; a list of donors; and much more. The School of Nursing is highlighted under Academics. ENJOY!!

What Every Nursing Student Should Know When Seeking Employment

Please be sure to read this publication from AACN if you are in the market for a job:

http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Publications/pdf/hallmarks.pdf

UHV School of Nursing to hold first honor society induction

Date: November 11, 2010

UHV School of Nursing to hold first honor society induction

SUGAR LAND — The University of Houston-Victoria will hold its inaugural induction ceremony on Friday for the School of Nursing Honor Society.

Sixty-four students have been invited to the induction ceremony which will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the Susan Ryon Davis Multi-Purpose Room at the UH System at Sugar Land, 14000 University Blvd.

“We are proud to hold our first-ever induction ceremony, and it’s another sign of how far our nursing program has come since its beginning in 2006,” said Jere Hammer, a UHV assistant clinical professor who is the reception sponsor, along with assistant professor Eugenia Blomstrom. “It’s also a chance to recognize the excellence of our students who must show academic excellence, professionalism, integrity and leadership potential as they pursue their nursing degree.”

UHV should receive its charter in November 2011, one year after the induction ceremony. The honor society must have 50 members for its first year, and 50 members must renew the following year. Once the charter is given, it will receive its proper name.

School of Nursing officials began the process of establishing an honor society after the school’s programs received accreditation in March from the Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education.

UHV will partner with the leadership team of the Beta Beta Houston Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International, which will mentor UHV’s honor society toward its chapter charter. UHV Nursing Honor Society board members can attend Beta Beta meetings to learn from nursing colleagues.

Kathryn Tart, founding dean of the UHV School of Nursing, will be featured speaker at Friday’s event. Her talk is titled “An Honor to Honor Nursing.”

The board of directors for the honor society of nursing includes: Hammer, president; Blomstrom, vice president; Sandra McNeely, secretary; Lisette Barton, counselor; and Patricia Goehring, treasurer.

The school also has invited 82 alumni and 88 nurse leaders to the inaugural induction ceremony. A reception will be held immediately following.

The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region, offers courses leading to approximately 60 bachelor’s and master’s degree programs and concentrations in the schools of Arts & Sciences, Business Administration, Education & Human Development, and Nursing. UHV also offers face-to-face classes at two UH System teaching centers in Fort Bend County, in addition to its home campus in Victoria, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. Since its founding in 1973, UHV has provided students with a quality university education from exceptional faculty at a great value.