University of Rochester
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Dean of the School of Nursing
POSITION SPECIFICATION

Leadership Opportunity

The University of Rochester School of Nursing (URSON) seeks a dynamic and experienced leader to serve as Dean.

The Dean of the School of Nursing ensures unification of nursing activities among academic, research, entrepreneurial, and clinical programs. The Dean is responsible for identifying future directions and creating a milieu of innovative and professional nursing programs in education, practice, and research. S/he has fiscal authority for the School of Nursing, coordinates the effective use of nursing faculty resources, and fosters an environment conducive to recruitment and retention of students, nurse clinicians, and clinical and academic faculty.

The Dean reports to the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and CEO of the Medical Center and Strong Health. S/he plans with Medical Center senior leadership all interdependent health care programs and initiatives and advises the Medical Center Board on all matters relative to nursing. The Medical Center ranks among the top 25 academic medical centers in research funding from the NIH. In total, the annual budget for the full academic and clinical enterprise is approximately $1.7 billion and it is the largest unit within the University.

The Next Dean of the School of Nursing

Characteristics

  • Wisdom, compassion, integrity, and emotional intelligence
  • Passion for academic excellence
  • Deep understanding of contemporary issues facing nursing education, practice, and research
  • Openness to innovation and able to enact change on a practical level
  • Investment in improving the health of the local and global community
  • A vision of the future of nursing and the School, rooted in our unique strengths and challenges
  • Ability to bring diverse constituencies together for a common goal
  • Outstanding skill in communication and collaboration with all constituents including students, faculty, alumni, trustees, benefactors, and other University colleagues
  • Steadfast and articulate advocate for the School

Desired Background

  • Earned doctorate in nursing or related field
  • Track record of scholarship commensurate with appointment at the rank of full professor
  • A nationally respected leader with breadth of experience in nursing practice, education, and research

The University of Rochester School of Nursing

URSON began in 1925 as a diploma program within the Medical Center and became an independent school of the University in 1972 under the leadership of Dean Loretta C. Ford. By 1979, it offered bachelors, masters, and PhD degree programs. The School now offers BS, MS, DNP, and PhD programs with a total enrollment of about 450 students, as well as an active and innovative Center for Nursing Entrepreneurship.

URSON is nationally recognized for the Unification Model (the overriding philosophy), developed under Dean Ford. The Unification Model concept symbolizes the inseparability of education, research, and practice. The Model reflects historically significant values directed toward the combined mission and vision of "improving the health of individuals, families and communities" through "the integration of education, research, and practice within a collaborative academic health setting and innovative health care community."

With comprehensive and aggressive strategic planning under current Dean Patricia Chiverton, URSON has achieved renewed prominence as a school that is rising in the national rankings, competitive in the educational marketplace, and gaining recognition for innovative entrepreneurial enterprises and practice partnerships. Strategic planning also led to renovation projects and the first expansion in the school's history (Loretta C. Ford Education Wing of Helen Wood Hall), which was fully funded through a capital campaign that far exceeded its initial goal. Ranked 12th in NIH funding to schools of nursing in 2005, with a 23% increase in funding dollars from 2002-2006, the School is now positioned to reach the top 10 in NIH funding. We aim to advance the state of the science and translation of evidence concerning health promotion, human responses to illness, and outcomes of care delivery.

In 2005, URSON took its commitment to nursing entrepreneurship to a new level by consolidating its Community Nursing Center into a more focused program of nursing entrepreneurship with the launch of the Center for Nursing Entrepreneurship and simultaneously established an endowed chair in nursing entrepreneurship. Both of these initiatives are firsts in the profession and serve as evidence of our deep commitment to entrepreneurship in nursing.

We are moving strategically to create innovative environments that promote the recruitment, retention, and productivity of the best scientists, faculty, students, and nursing staff; foster entrepreneurship in the marketplace of new, cost-effective models of care and creative professional enterprises; and maintain national leadership in transforming nursing practice. Challenges include growing our endowment to support further success and nurturing young investigators as senior researchers move toward retirement.

Mission

We improve the health of individuals, families, and communities through innovation and collaboration in the integration of education, research, and practice.

Vision

The University of Rochester School of Nursing is nationally recognized for the integration of education, research, and practice within a collaborative academic health setting and innovative health care community.

Philosophy

The University of Rochester School of Nursing prepares nurses to meet the challenges of health care in the twenty-first century. The Unification Model directs nursing education, research, and practice. Education empowers nurses with knowledge, attitudes, and skills for leadership in professional practice and research. Research develops nursing knowledge to strengthen education and promote evidence-based practice. The practice of nursing is care delivery that promotes continued excellence through the generation of new research questions and the enrichment of the educational experience. The ongoing interaction of education, research, and practice benefits the consumer by ensuring quality nursing care. New technologies, an ever-expanding research base, and concerns about health care quality are among the forces driving reform of health professional education in the 21st century. Faculty at the School are responsible for taking a leadership role in critically analyzing, translating, and disseminating the Unification Model to new environments.

The essence of nursing is assisting consumers to attain and maintain optimal health and to live as well as possible with illness and disability and dying. Components of optimum health may include biological, psychological, social, cultural, and spiritual functioning, effective response to a continually changing environment, and achievement of personal potential. The nurse functions as a caring professional in both autonomous and collaborative professional roles, using critical thinking, ethical principles, effective communication, and deliberative action to render and facilitate access to health care, and to aid consumers in making decisions about their health. Nursing derives its rights and responsibilities from society, and is, therefore, accountable to society as well as the consumers who comprise it.

Strategic Opportunities
at the University of Rochester School of Nursing

Building on the success of the 1999-2005 Strategic Plan: Unification for the 21st Century, the 2007-2012 Strategic Plan has been designed to enable URSON to retain leadership in the advancement of the unification of nursing education, practice, and research.

GOAL 1: Advance the state of the science and translation of evidence concerning health promotion, human responses to illness, and outcomes of care delivery.

We aim to become a hub for scientifically rigorous research that brings together the best minds to tackle, with colleagues across many disciplines, our nation's pressing nursing/health issues; to develop areas of research with a critical mass of investigators sufficient to ensure competitive status for NIH Center and Training Awards; and to strengthen doctoral education by increasing numbers of funded investigators and pre- and post-doctoral students enrolled and engaged with faculty in conducting and disseminating research.

GOAL 2: Create innovative environments that promote the recruitment, retention, and productivity of the best scientists, faculty, students and nursing staff.

We seek additional clinical laboratory and office space; investment in educational technology; and a continued commitment to organizational processes that optimize growth opportunities. We aim to create an interdisciplinary educational technology and simulation center dedicated to providing students, faculty and nursing practice personnel with state-of-the-art skill training through the use of dynamic teaching tools; develop, test and implement models for clinical nursing education that promote expanded learning opportunities and partnerships; create career advancement models in nursing practice that promote linkages across educational and care delivery organizational settings; develop and implement a Professional Development Center and expand the Strong Memorial Hospital Nursing Leadership Institute; and increase the national visibility of all educational programs in order to maintain and improve the size, quality, and diversity of students and faculty.

GOAL 3: Foster entrepreneurship that advances science in the marketplace of new, cost-effective models of care and creative professional enterprises.

The creation of new models of care and business enterprises will be necessary to address the nursing shortage and emerging health care needs. To establish URSON as the national leader in nursing entrepreneurship, we aim to provide the support structure for nursing intrapreneurship within health care systems; promote design support to launch new and to stimulate expanding business ventures that will improve health and contribute to community-based economic growth; and recruit outstanding, creative students interested in developing entrepreneurial solutions to current health care challenges.

GOAL 4: Maintain national leadership in transforming nursing practice.

URSON is well positioned to maintain its leadership position in transforming nursing practice. The Unification Model sets us apart as an organization that can influence patient outcomes. The implementation of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program in September 2007 provides the expert clinicians prepared to work with interdisciplinary teams and redesign health care as we know it today. The creation of a nursing outcomes center will be required to provide support to these clinicians as they develop new models to improve quality, satisfaction, clinical outcomes and cost. We seek to become the nation's recognized leader in health care outcomes measurement and practice innovation evaluation with the recent establishment of an endowed Center for Health Outcomes Research.

The University of Rochester

Founded in 1850, the University of Rochester is one of the nation's leading private research universities. Inspired by the intellectual vision and philanthropic generosity of George Eastman, the University of Rochester today is a vibrant center for teaching, research, artistic performance, and medical care. A member of the Association of American Research Universities (AAU), it consistently ranks among the top colleges and universities nationwide in federally financed science, engineering, medical, and other research programs.

With a total enrollment of 8,600 students and 1,400 faculty, including clinical medical school appointments, Rochester is also one of the smallest and most collegiate tier-one research universities in the country. Its distinct combination of academic quality and small size has given rise to a dynamic intellectual culture, characterized by strong linkages across fields, disciplines, and schools. The personal scale of the University creates an exceptional environment for students who have the opportunity to work closely with faculty and explore their intellectual interests in a uniquely supportive environment.

The University of Rochester is composed of six colleges and schools. In addition to the School of Nursing, these are the College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, the School of Medicine and Dentistry with its hospitals and associated health care affiliates, the Eastman School of Music, the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, and the Margaret Warner Graduate School of Education and Human Development. The Memorial Art Gallery is a unit of the University as well.

The Rochester Community

The third-largest urban area in the state of New York, Rochester has earned a reputation as one of the most welcoming and livable communities in the nation. Located on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, just northwest of the scenic Finger Lakes region, greater Rochester offers its 1.1 million residents the culture and amenities of a metropolitan area without the associated congestion and high cost of living. Rochester is recognized as one of the top 10 most affordable housing markets in the country. At $115,000, the median home sales price is 27% more affordable than the national average. The average commute to work is 19 minutes. Recently, the Rochester region was ranked #1 for "Overall Quality of Life" among metros with a population of more than 1 million.

Since its early days as a mill town at the falls of the Genesee River and growth into a major shipping depot on the Erie Canal, Rochester is a city steeped in the entrepreneurial spirit. It is best known as the original home of Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb, but is also the birthplace of inventions ranging from the marshmallow to the fountain pen. Rochester was pivotal in African-American history as the home of abolitionist Frederick Douglass and a stop on the Underground Railroad to Canada, and in women's rights as the home of Susan B. Anthony as she worked for women's suffrage.

The University is a key contributor to Rochester's vibrant business climate. Not only is it one of the region's most prestigious educational institutions and its largest employer but it has also applied technology transfer efforts that have leveraged its intellectual resources to launch new, high-tech start-up firms. The connections between the University and the community are also strong in the area of health care, as Rochester residents have access to top-quality clinical facilities through the University's Medical Center and Strong Health network. The University and the city have recently launched a joint effort to make Rochester the healthiest community in the country by the year 2020.

In addition to its culture of innovation, one of Rochester's most visible strengths as a city is the wealth of cultural institutions, events, and venues it offers. An anchor of Rochester's downtown cultural district, the Eastman School of Music is a hub of a renaissance of urban activity including restaurants, clubs, coffee shops, parks, churches, theaters, museums, and art galleries. Rochester is home to the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester International Jazz Festival, the nationally acclaimed Garth Fagan Dance Company, the Rochester Ballet, and Geva Theatre. Its museums include the notable George Eastman House, which includes both Eastman's historic mansion and the International Museum of Photography and Film; the Susan B. Anthony House; the University's own Memorial Art Gallery; and the Strong Museum, which is ranked among the top ten museums in the nation for children and families.

There are over twenty parks to which Rochester owes its Flower City nickname, including several laid out by Frederick Law Olmstead, such as Highland Park, home of a world-famous collection of lilacs, and Seneca Park with its Zoo overlooking the gorges and falls of the Genesee River. The century-old Rochester Public Market offers fresh produce by day and eclectic art and music performances by night.

Within an hour's drive of the University are the scenic hills, vacation homes, and wine country of the Finger Lakes, the beaches and boating of Lake Ontario, and beautiful farmland and wooded countryside for hiking and camping. The climate in Rochester includes brilliant fall foliage, snowy winters, abundant bloom in spring, and green, breezy summers.

Inquiries and expressions of interest may be sent in confidence to:
Ellen Caruso
c/o SON Dean Search Committee
Email: sondeansearch@urmc.rochester.edu
Phone: 585-276-3696
Preference will be given to applications received by January 15, 2008, with a desired start date of July 1, 2008.
Last modified: Monday, 03-Dec-2007 11:36:30 EST