Page 26 - University of Martland Nursing Forum - Winter 2017

A TWO-WAY
STREET
They sit across Lombard Street from each other, with the iconic iron gates of the University of Maryland School of Nursing’s courtyard flanking
a view of the entrance to the University of Maryland Medical Center’s (UMMC) R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center. This proximity nurtures the two longstanding institutions’ interdependence—a symbiosis of sorts and a model for the type of academic nursing-academic health center partnership that the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and
Manatt Health call for in their March 2016 report, Advancing Healthcare Transformation: A New Era for Academic Nursing.
The School of Nursing and UMMC promote the report’s recommendations simply by encouraging their community members to cross the street. Through UMNursing, an academic- practice partnership founded in 2007 by UMSON Dean Emerita Janet Allan, PhD, RN, FAAN, in collaboration with Lisa Rowen, DNSc, MS ’86, RN, FAAN, system chief nurse executive, University of Maryland Medical System, and senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer, UMMC, the two institutions foster a cycle of academic and career progression that mutually benefits School of Nursing students and faculty and UMMC nurses, and often the roles are blurred. Take, for instance, faculty like Joan M. Davenport, PhD ’00, RN, assistant professor, who practices at the Medical Center through a professional-service agreement (see “Practice Makes Perfect,” Page 26) or alumni like Kerry Sue Mueller, BSN ’90, RN, who leads a UMMC unit staffed with other UMSON alumni and students (see “Team Captain,” Page 30).
In addition, the Medical Center offers School of Nursing students priority placement for clinical and precepting experiences and is committed to hiring UMSON graduates, a win-win given that so many do their clinical rotations in UMMC units; in fact, the Medical Center hired 40 percent of UMSON’s entry-to-practice (Bachelor of Science in Nursing and Clinical Nurse Leader master’s option) graduates in fiscal year 2016. In turn, UMMC supports its nurses in advancing their education, and many choose to do so across the street at the School of Nursing.
All of this effort is further bolstered by advances in nursing research fueled through creative opportunities for collaborative work among UMSON faculty and the Medical Center’s practice partners; UMNursing-funded research requires a School of Nursing faculty member and a UMMC nurse to serve as co-principal investigators, and the partnership has supported research in such critical fields as pain, breastfeeding, and cardiac care.
Dean Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, (left) and Rowen with UMSON students, in white tops, and UMMC nurses, in scrubs
24 WINTER 2017
ALL PHOTOGRAPHY BY MIKE CIESIELSKI UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED