Public Service and Community Engagement

Goal:

Strengthen internal programming and reciprocal partnerships with our global, state, local and university communities to develop and sustain a diverse and resilient nursing workforce.

Strategic Priority (Objective)	Key Strategies/Actions	Outcome(s)
Demonstrate a commitment to educating a resilient and diverse nursing workforce.	Adopt a diversity, equity and inclusion focused mission statement to guide the development of a culture of caring. Fully integrate holistic admissions protocol for pre-licensure and graduate programs. Launch a peer-mentoring program for BSN students. Support all new faculty regardless of rank with a formal mentoring program and assigned faculty mentor. Recruit participants into the WellNurse research project and associated wellness interventions (e.g., MBSR courses, exercise classes, nutritional workshops, massages, Fitbit challenges). Implement strategies to foster inclusive learning communities. Support the growth of the first-year living learning community for students housed on campus. Identify strategies to recruit diverse faculty. Increase financial support for disadvantaged students.	Achieve a 55% 4 year graduation rate in BSN program. Maintain 90% retention rate for MSN programs. Achieve a 90% on time (program specific) graduation rate for MSN program. Retain an additional four part-time faculty members for >2 years.
Strengthen relationships with existing clinical agencies and partners in education.	Share SON activities with clinical agencies for awareness (e.g., marketing videos, Wellnurse activities and findings). Explore shared positions between faculty and clinical agencies (i.e., Evidence-Based Research Program Coordinator). Reconcile and identify opportunities for faculty and staff affiliations to capitalize on community resources for learning and practice.	By fall 2024, increased return rate of 40% on student evaluation of clinical sites and maintain mean of 4.0 or greater on the evaluation tool. By fall 2024, faculty site visits will be documented in a standard repository for quality assurance. SON nursing students will be designated as future essential personnel at agency sites and have their learning needs prioritized in states of emergencies. This will be included in clinical learning site contractional language. Publish and highlight affiliations on public facing platforms and in marketing materials
Explore the feasibility of establishing a formal practice/academic partnership with local clinical sites.	Review literature and guidelines on the topic of partnerships including typical processes, costs and benefits. Invite discussion on the topic from clinical leadership represented on the Advisory Board. Identify one clinical agency to partner with for a pilot partnership working together to draft a proposal with roles and responsibilities of all parties.	Craft and reflect on a feasibility proposal.
Reestablish SON advisory board.	Identify and invite key stakeholders to participate. Inclusive of community health agencies. Collaboratively establish a charge to the advisory board. Schedule standing meeting times and hybrid location. Design and disseminate an employer satisfaction survey to inform curriculum.	Exchange insight from stakeholders about theory practice gaps to develop a work ready nursing workforce by identifying three priority areas for the SON to address. SON advisory board will host two meetings annually by 2024.
Develop a standard operating procedure for SON disaster response and recovery when normal operations are disrupted for prolonged periods.	Revisit lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic disruption to academic and clinical education operations. Identify key areas for preparedness planning (e.g., communication, instruction, infrastructure, staff and student safety).	All SON students, staff and faculty will review and approve plan annually by 2025. Include contractional language in clinical learning contracts that ensure ongoing student placement during states of emergency.
Be prepared to respond to public health needs as called on by community leadership.	Nominate SON personnel to serve on boards and committees that address public health needs.	Provide leadership in addressing public health issues as evidenced in faculty peer review service domain reports. SON will participate in community health promotion activities (e.g., vaccine clinics, blood pressure screening) once per academic year.