Convocation Address 2005

Introduction

Board Members, Faculty, Administration, Staff, Students, Alumni, and Friends of the College, welcome to our annual convocation. We will be providing State of the College addresses and a description of future initiatives for the upcoming academic year and celebrating our successes after a reflection by Chaplain Bob Irish.

Vision, Mission, Purpose

The West Suburban College of Nursing has many accomplishments to be proud of this year. We celebrated our one year anniversary as members of Resurrection Health Care in March 2005. With the creation of a new three year strategic and institutional assessment plan, we have had an opportunity to review and revise our vision and purpose. The vision of Resurrection Health Care is “to become the premier integrated, Catholic health care system in metropolitan Chicago known for its exceptional customer service.” Resurrection has initiated a service excellence campaign through out the system to achieve this vision. We have visited some of the initiatives in our Council and staff meetings. The College vision in support of the Resurrection vision is to “set the standard for professional nursing and health science education within that integrated Catholic health care system in metropolitan Chicago.”

The mission of Resurrection is:

“Faithful to the spirit of our Sponsors, Resurrection Health Care exists to witness God’s sustaining love through compassionate, family-centered care. Motivated by a reverence for life and respect for those we serve, we are committed to improving the health and well-being of our community. We promote a climate that empowers all of us to effectively steward our human and financial resources.”

For those of you who attended the New Student Orientation this past Friday, August 19, 2005, you heard Senior Vice President Robert Bulger speak of “entering the nursing profession as a calling.” The College also has a purpose or calling that explains what we do in the health education ministry as a part of the Resurrection mission.

“West Suburban College prepares students for professional nursing careers by providing undergraduate and graduate learning experiences-service learning and scholarly endeavors-based on a solid liberal arts educational base in a Catholic health care environment.

Undergraduate nurses are prepared to become professional nurse generalists who promote health and provide care for clients in a global society
Graduate nurses are prepared as advanced generalists or specialists who will care for patients throughout the full spectrum of health care delivery settings and across various stages of illness.”

This year we have expanded our purpose to include the provision of graduate education. The hallmarks of our revised purpose include service learning in a Catholic health care environment.

Values and Guiding Principles

When we joined Resurrection we adopted their core values:

Compassion,
Accountability,
Respect,
Excellence
Service.

The first letter of each word combined together spells CARES. If you compare the core values to the guiding principles of the College, you will find that two of the concepts respect and excellence are the same. The other College concepts of concern and kindness and integrity are similar to compassion, accountability, and service. As a part of the service excellence campaign, I have taken some of the behaviors created by the West Suburban Medical Center Service Excellence Committee and adapted them to fit our College setting that. They pertain to students, faculty, and staff. As I present the behaviors corresponding to each core value, I want you to jot down some new behaviors. Then, throughout the semester write these behaviors on our Service Excellence Poster on the bulletin board outside of Classrooms 302-304. We will have some additional programs for faculty, staff, and students to review our results throughout the academic year.

Compassion is to understand student’s needs and to respond in a caring, compassionate way. Behaviors exemplifying this core value are:

I anticipate and respond, to students and help them to feel special and appreciated.
I make decisions and take action based on what is right for the student and College, rather than what is personally convenient.
I communicate that I care with everything that I say and do.

Accountability is to understand and accept your responsibility for excellence. Behaviors exemplifying this core value are:

I look for ways to improve and create a positive result for students anywhere in the College.
My words and actions never imply, “It’s not my job.”
I work to accomplish all tasks in a quality and timely manner by the deadline.

Respect is to recognize the rights of all individuals and to treat everyone, regardless of any difference, with dignity and honor. Behaviors exemplifying this core value in a College setting are:

Respect and protect the privacy and right to confidentiality of all people.
I acknowledge everyone in a courteous, respectful manner and appreciate cultural diversity. Negative remarks are never acceptable. I do not participate in rumor or gossip.
I am respectful of others’ time and responsibilities so I avoid last minute requests whenever possible

As the proud recipient of a Lincoln 2003 Bronze Award for Commitment to Performance Excellence, the next core value will be no stranger to each of you. Excellence is to deliver and accept nothing but the best every day. To take pride in being part of West Suburban College of Nursing (WSCN), West Suburban Medical Center (WSMC), and Resurrection Health Care (RHC). Behaviors exemplifying excellence are:

I take pride in the appearance of the College campus and work to maintain it in a clean and orderly manner.
I work to become the best that I can be and encourage others to do the same.
I create, promote, and implement ideas for improvement and contribute solutions for our achievement of College goals and student outcomes.

Service is to use every interaction to deliver exceptional student service. Behaviors representative of service are:

I listen carefully to understand and meet students’ real needs.
I look for ways to promote service learning and engage in service scholarship projects.
I answer all phone calls within 3 rings, stating my name and the College’s name, and ask, “How may I help you?”

I hope that each of you will think of many other behaviors exhibited in the College as the academic year unfolds.

Institutional assessment for colleges and universities is comparable to the continuous quality improvement process used by hospitals and other organizations. The four step process is plan, do check, act. College assessment is comprised of four steps also, anticipate, analyze, act, assess. This past year we created a new three year strategic plan that also serves as our assessment plan. We began the process with a committee composed of all constituents: board members, administration, faculty, students, and alumni. Then Executive Council members worked diligently with a consultant to develop the targets and metrics. An expanded College Board Strategic Planning and Accreditation Committee with members of Resurrection Health Care and College Administrators reviewed the plan and developed Goal six. The plan maintains the six broad goals in the 2000-2005 Strategic plan and incorporates three strategic imperatives of the Resurrection plan: system growth, system excellence, system integration. Several strategies are used from each imperative. The plan has been published. A copy was placed in your mail box this morning with the “2005 Annual Report”, the “History of the West Suburban College of Nursing”, and a “Timeline (1914-present).”

I would like to highlight our accomplishments and future initiatives for each goal in the plan.

Finances

This past year has been another successful year for the College. The College achieved revenues in excess of expenses AND decreased dependence on the Medicare formula. The office of financial aid implemented the student worker program as a part of the financial aid package. Initiatives for the upcoming year will include finalizing, advertising, and implementing the $1.5 million Resurrection Loan Forgiveness program. We will work with our service partners to expand Resurrection Nurse Externships to all hospitals in Resurrection Health Care. Planning is under way for an FY 2007 Special Event Fundraiser. This will be the second “Charity Begins at Home” event. However, we have not met our enrollment projections. Thus, we will begin this year in a conservative mode to preserve resources in order to achieve a balanced budget by the end of the year.

College of Choice

Several achievements and future initiatives support Goal Two “College of Choice”. We reported first year milestones for three work plans: a new three year strategic plan with an Institutional Assessment plan, a revised student remediation and support services program, and the development of an enrollment plan. Flyers and letters were created by the Dean of Nursing and mailed to more than 4000 nursing employees in Resurrection. Applications decreased by 53% (154 versus 294). We will graduate approximately 40 students in December of 2005. This will be the largest graduating class since the mid-nineties. Thus, we will have to work very hard with admissions to achieve our goal of 170 students this year. We presently have about 140 students with the beginning of the Fall 2005 semester. Future projects include the development and submission of substantive program change proposals to add the graduate nursing degree with three majors, clinical nurse leader, medical–surgical clinical nurse specialist, and nursing administration. The Admissions and Academic Departments will be busy marketing the college to Resurrection employees. We will also work to increase applicants and their level of preparedness and admitted matriculates. I will be presenting information about our College and plans to the leadership of Resurrection to solicit their support in the achievement of some of our goals.

Collaboration

The College as a new member of Resurrection has moved the majority of the clinical rotations for students to hospitals within the system with the exception of a few specialty and community rotations. The WSCN-WSMC Clinical Nurse Leader project will come to fruition with pilot course work beginning this fall and expansion to other Resurrection hospitals. The graduate nursing program has been expanded to include two additional majors. Faculty will work with students to develop service learning projects to benefit the community. Faculty will focus on increasing service and scholarship projects to include participating in magnet research projects to support hospitals applying for this recognition. We will work to develop and recruit a clinical nurse researcher joint appointment position to serve between the College and Saints Mary and Elizabeth and St. Josephs hospitals. Last, we have been chosen to participate in a state Course Applicability System (CAS) project. We hope to receive funding to purchase the software interface to facilitate student degree audits and transferability of credits.

Outcomes

Achievement test scores continue to demonstrate that our students are within national average and passing benchmark scores as an indicator of producing a well educated graduate. These scores also indicate areas for further refinement of the curricula. The attrition rate this past year was 34.2%. Trends continue to indicate an opportunity to further develop student and remediation services to improve the results. Employment rates were 92% and licensure examination pass rates for AY2004 were 92%. These two areas continue to represent areas of excellence for the college. Future initiatives will focus on improving student retention and student services.

Human Resources

This past year we funded two students eligible for student work funds in their summer nurse externship. We added new faculty, and staff positions to support a new graduate program and advanced technology. With the start of the new academic year, we have filled all but approximately three positions. Employee development programs were conducted on campus and members sent to user groups and professional conferences. The focus was on a new assessment system, Assessment Technologies Institute, eCollege, an online courseware system, and CampusVue, our administrative Software system. Last, all faculty learned SimMan software in order to develop scenarios using the new human patient simulators purchased with our learning laboratory upgrade. The College Executive Council and Committee structure was implemented. A team building workshop was conducted for the leadership team. Team building will continue in meetings for faculty and staff throughout the year. We will be conducting market equity studies to assure that our salaries remain competitive.

Expansion

Expansion of College programs will be a major initiative over the next three years with a goal of 170 active students by 2007-2008. Renovation of the 2 North wing has begun to provide for classrooms and laboratories adjacent to the student lounge and cafeteria on the first floor of the original College building. The space will contain a state of the art wireless computer classroom with seats for 20 students. The front doors will be opened with new signage and a televised security system. New carpeting and painting are being completed throughout the College. The laboratory upgrade has been completed. A proposal for Resurrection Information Technology support has been completed. Members will recognize the movement to a new e-mail system. We will continue to explore new programs for the system and to maximize and synergize integration of the College into Resurrection. Current completed and projected renovations will meet our immediate needs. But, we will continue to explore new space for the college. Additional capital projects will involve the implementation of the CAS software interface and ImageNow to support a totally electronic student record. The graduate nursing curriculum was drafted this past year and will undergo further refinement and submission through approval processes. The Admissions Office has been augmented with new positions and been reorganized. Future initiatives will focus on the development of new programs to support the mission of the RHC system and surrounding communities and continued work with the nursing graduate program.

Closing

I would like to close with a couple of quotations from our new Student Hand Book which includes the Franklin Covey calendar. “Everyone has a unique role to fill in the world. Everyone, including and perhaps especially you, is indispensable.” (Jean Renoir) Thus, I challenge each of you to continue making your contributions to achieving all of the goals and objectives set for in the new strategic and assessment plan. And remember, “If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.” (Joseph Campbell) So I hope that you will treat our journey as an adventure.

For a small college with thirty administrators, faculty and staff we have had another successful year and laid the ground work for initiatives for the upcoming 2005-2006 academic year and the 2006 fiscal year. I am confident that together we will continue to identify future opportunities to continuously improve the West Suburban College of Nursing.

Rebecca A. Jones, D.N.Sc., R.N., C.N.A.A., B.C.
Chancellor
West Suburban College of Nursing
3 Erie Court Oak Park, IL 60302
rebecca.jones@wscn.edu