Hill's Side

Fall is one of the most exciting times of the year in the academic world. Traditionally, we welcome new classes of undergraduate and graduate students, we launch new and revised curricula, and we unveil new initiatives. The change of season energizes us by the “newness” it brings and the opportunities ahead.

At the School of Nursing, it’s also the season when I present my annual “State of the School” address to our faculty, students, and staff, and review our past successes and our strategies for continuing and building on those achievements. This September, I organized my presentation around our strategic plan goals for achieving excellence, cultivating an environment that reflects the school’s values, ensuring global leadership, and continuing planned growth.

This year, our accomplishments have been many and—as has become routine in today’s world—have been achieved in a constantly changing environment.

Our excellence in research, teaching, and practice has fueled our rise to eighth place (from 10th) among nursing schools receiving National Institutes of Health research grants; ensured we educate students who, the first time they take the NCLEX exam, achieve a 97 percent pass rate; and created continuous recognition of our faculty as you will read in this issue’s “On the Pulse” and “Faculty News.”

Throughout the world we are becoming
known as local to global leaders in
community and public health nursing.

Each day at the School of Nursing we live our values of excellence, respect, diversity, integrity, and accountability, and we see our faculty and staff recognized for these attributes through Johns Hopkins University awards and those of professional and community groups.

Throughout the world we are becoming known as local to global leaders in community and public health nursing. Our newly organized Office of Global Nursing will expand that reputation and will lead the way in enhancing our existing academic collaborations—China, Lebanon, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and Turkey—and in creating new opportunities.

We continue to move forward through carefully planned growth. Our student population has increased to our maximum level of capacity; our curriculum offers timely and challenging learning, including our new programs in emergency preparedness and disaster planning, forensic nursing, and geriatrics; and we are re-engineering to introduce students to the state-of-the-art in clinical information technology. Our fiscal management is sound: We have paid off the mortgage on our building, balanced our budget, and raised more than $14 million for our planned building addition.

So what’s next?

I urge you to watch our journey this year through the pages of this magazine—now published three times per year—and on our new website http://www.son.jhmi.edu. In response to your requests, we’ll let you know about impressive clinical activities of Hopkins nurses here and around the world. You’ll see the results of our national searches for two endowed chairs—the Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Chair in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing and the M. Adelaide Nutting Chair in Nursing Research. Plans for the new building will begin to take shape and you’ll learn of opportunities to participate in the excitement of another bricks and mortar addition to the legacy of Hopkins Nursing. We’ll keep you abreast of the latest in nursing research and offer you a comprehensive look at the research being undertaken by our faculty and doctoral students. You’ll see and read about our delivery of public health local to global nursing, and you’ll join in celebrating the accomplishments of our outstanding faculty, students, and staff.

I look forward to seeing you as we explore these and other opportunities that lie ahead.

Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN ’64, FAAN
Dean