No Resting on Laurels Around Here

“These honors bring with them a great sense of responsibility and humility. We must keep improving, keep moving the nursing profession forward.”

Spring has turned into awards season around here. First came the notification from U.S. News & World Report that the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing has been named No. 1 in the Best Graduate Schools list for 2017 (“School Returns to No. 1 in U.S. News Rankings”). Then JHSON was also ranked the No. 2 nursing school in the world by QS World University (the first time nursing has been highlighted in that global ranking).

It is rewarding to see the hard work of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni being recognized for excellence, especially as the accolades touch on our efforts in the local and global communities. But these honors bring with them a great sense of responsibility and humility. We must keep improving, keep moving the nursing profession forward.

It has been a tremendous year for the school. We launched the first doctor of nursing practice cohort in Saudi Arabia (a bit more on that below), welcomed our first class of Master of Science: Entry into Nursing students, and remained strategically focused on cultivating excellence within our program and advancing our research.

As the top school of nursing for National Institutes of Health and other research funding, we received grants in our various areas of excellence including aging, HIV/AIDS, intimate partner violence, patient safety, palliative care, and others, and furthered our commitment to Baltimore through a newly installed endowed professorship that will focus specifically on community health (“Phyllis Sharps Installed as Lawler Chair”).

Even more, our students were perfect on the nurse practitioner certification exams (“100% NP Pass Rate”), our interprofessional collaborations saw continued expansion through a cancer fellowship program with The Johns Hopkins Hospital, and our PhD program doubled in enrollment and swelled in diversity.

Truth be told, I do have an enormous sense of pride when I see our “#1” banners throughout the school, but I’m quickly reminded that awards are fleeting and our work is enduring. We offer our sincere congratulations to all the schools ranked on the U.S. News & World Report list for 2017. All of us are No. 1 in our fierce commitment to nursing’s future and what matters most—excellence in nursing education, practice, and research.

A World of Impact

It was quite a thrill to be in attendance for the White Coat Ceremony officially welcoming the first Johns Hopkins Aramco Healthcare Doctor of Nursing Practice cohort (photos here).

Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN, Andrea Parsons Schram, DNP, CRNP, and Chakra Budhathoki, PhD, were with me as we saw and heard about the impact that the program, the first of its kind in the kingdom, is already having. A father of one of the students asked that he be allowed to speak at the ceremony, thanking everybody involved on behalf of the students’ families for providing this opportunity for their daughters. It was a wonderful moment on a busy but thoroughly enjoyable trip.

Please enjoy your journey through the Spring 2016 issue of Johns Hopkins Nursing.