Pulse - Fall 2007

              TABLE OF CONTENTS
VA Nursing Academy ....................................1
Robin Kanarek Learning Resource Center ....2
Geriatric Certificate Program ........................2
Clinical Nurse Leaders ..................................3
Peter Burki ....................................................3
Mu Chi Honor Society ..................................4
Phil Greiner ..................................................4
Emergisoft Corporation partnership ..............5
Second degree students................................6
School of Nursing lecture..............................7
Message from the Dean................................8
PULSE The
www.fairfield.edu/nursing
fa l l 2 0 07
Fairfield University
a p u b l i c at i o n o f t h e s c h o o l o f n u r s i n g
Fairfield joins VA Nursing Academy
Fairfield University School of Nursing
is thrilled to announce it is one of
just four schools in the country
selected by the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) to be part of a new, $40 mil-lion
pilot program called the ‘VA Nursing
Academy’ which addresses the nation’s
severe shortage of nurses.The School of
Nursing’s partner in this program is the
West Haven campus of the VA Connecticut
Healthcare System, which has long been a
clinical site for Fairfield nursing students.
“This is both very exciting for the
new opportunities it presents to our
School of Nursing to serve our veterans
and at the same time a great honor that we
are among only four schools of nursing
selected throughout the country,” said
University President Rev. Jeffrey P. von
Arx, S.J.“I couldn’t be more proud of our
School of Nursing and the dedication of
the dean and faculty.”
The American Association of Colleges
of Nursing has reported that more than
42,000 qualified applicants were turned
away from nursing schools in 2006 because
of insufficient members of faculty, clinical
sites, classroom space, and clinical mentors.
The VA Nursing Academy aims to ensure
that the VA has enough nurses to care for
veterans and to assist in the education of
nurses for the nation.This five-year pilot
program will increase faculty members and
clinical resources needed to educate nurses.
Three VA clinical nurse experts will
become nursing school faculty and will
supervise students, teach courses, and serve
on nursing school committees. In return
for the increased faculty, the Schools of
Nursing are required to increase enroll-ment
in their baccalaureate nursing pro-grams.
The initial five faculty at Fairfield
for the VA Nursing Academy are: Dr. Dee
Lippman, a member of the School’s faculty
for over 25 years and a veteran herself;
Lydia Greiner, who has spearheaded the
School’s Health Promotion Center in
Bridgeport; Suzanne Chaplik, a critical
care nurse who has been with the VA for
21 years; Mary Murphy, a nurse practition-er
who relocated from the VA in West
Palm Beach, Fla.; and Bonnie Haupt, who
has been a clinical adjunct for the School
for two years. Program directors are Dr.
Lippman and Sadiann Ozment, director of
hospital education at the VA Connecticut
Healthcare System.
“This partnership is an opportunity to
cement the relationship between Fairfield
and VA Connecticut Healthcare System in
West Haven, Conn., and to be proactive in
our approach to the nursing shortage.A
program of this type could not be possible
without the support of the Department of
Veterans Affairs,” said Susan LaFrance, the
University’s director of government grants,
who was part of the team that wrote the
proposal.
The VA Nursing Academy focuses on
the School’s second degree nursing pro-gram,
an intensive, 15-month program for
those who have a bachelor’s degree in
another field and wish to become nurses.
Students in this program will do most of
their clinical rotations at the VA
The Pulse, a newsletter published twice a year
by the Fairfield University School of Nursing, is
written for and distributed to all alumni of the
School of Nursing, as well as area nursing
schools, local hospitals, healthcare facilities,
friends and benefactors of the School of
Nursing. Its primary mission is to keep alumni
and friends informed about what is going on
in the School and to highlight the impact of
gifts and partnerships, focusing on the people
behind them and the people – both students
and faculty – benefiting from them.
continued on page 6