40 years of excellence at WellStar School of Nursing
For the AJC
Sunday, April 19, 2009
In January, faculty, staff and 190 guests gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Kennesaw State University’s WellStar School of Nursing.
“The growth that has happened here in 40 years has been pretty astonishing,” said Richard Sowell, dean of the WellStar College of Health and Human Services. “We have been on a steep trajectory and yet have continued to create and sustain outstanding opportunities for the preparation of nursing professionals.”
Photo courtesy of Kennesaw State University
Richard Sowell (from left), dean of the WellStar College of Health and Human Services; Charlotte Sachs, first director of the school of nursing; and Judy Perkins, first dean the WellStar College of Health and Human Services, were on hand to celebrate the 40th anniversary of nursing education at Kennesaw State University.
Kennesaw Junior College — the forerunner to the university — founded an associate of nursing degree program in 1968.
“Two-year nursing programs were sprouting up all over the state about that time,” said Charlotte Sachs, RN, MSN, the nursing school’s first director. “We started with 35 students. Six graduated on time [in 1970] and all of them passed their boards. Many of the students had families and found that the rigorous program took them up to three years to complete.”
Sachs is proud of how the program has evolved over the years.
“I remember the president telling me that the GPA required for admission [to the junior college] was 1.7 and asking if we would have to lower it for nursing students,” said Sachs, who retired in 1984. “Lower it? I told him he’d have to raise it, which, of course, we continued to do over time.
“I’m so proud of how this program has grown and grown. It’s one of the largest nursing programs in Georgia now.”
Genie Dorman, a professor of nursing at Kennesaw State, graduated from the school in 1973 and can attest to the program’s rigor.
“I went on to earn a BSN from the Medical College of Georgia, and master’s and doctoral degrees from Georgia State in 1983 and 1993, and an FNP degree from Emory in 1995,” said Dorman, Ph.D., APRN, FNP-BC. “Everything I’ve done since was based on that original two-year degree from Kennesaw. It was an excellent foundation for a career.”
In 1985, Kennesaw State added a baccalaureate degree in nursing. To keep up with a growing community and the state’s need for nurses, the school now offers a traditional BSN degree, as well as an accelerated format and an RN-to-BSN completion degree.
“In 1995, changes in health care and new roles for nurses prompted another significant change in the programs offered by the school,” Sowell said. “We discontinued the associate degree program and started our first graduate program, the WellStar primary care nurse practitioner program.”
The school launched its second graduate program — an MSN in advanced care management and leadership — in 2004.
To date, the nursing school has graduated more than 2,800 students, and continues to produce more than 150 graduates annually.
“Our programs have served to positively impact the health and well-being of members of our local community, the state of Georgia, and beyond,” Sowell said.
Kennesaw State has established international alliances with nursing schools in Egypt, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa.
It also operates one of the few community-based, nurse-managed clinics in the state. The KSU Clinic at MUST Ministries treats 2,500 to 3,000 underserved and uninsured patients each year.
Faculty members have also developed an international physician program that trains doctors from other countries — who aren’t allowed to practice medicine in the United States — to become nurses and nurse practitioners.
“The first two students completed the BSN program in August, passed N-CLEX [National Council Licensure Examination] with excellent scores, and will complete the family nurse practitioner program this May,” Dorman said. “At that time, they will be eligible to sit for the national certification exam for FNPs. We’re getting more and more applicants for that program every year. and we need their skills in Georgia.”
Another nursing school project — Project IDEAL (Initiative for Diabetes Educational Advancement for Latinos) — has helped more than 1,000 Hispanics in metro Atlanta learn to manage and prevent diabetes.
“We have a lot to be pleased about in our 40-year history, and we’re busier now than we’ve ever been,” Sowell said.
Construction is under way on a new 200,000-square-foot Health Sciences Building that will house new classrooms and labs for nursing. It is scheduled to open in 2010.
In February, the Board of Regents approved a doctorate of nursing science (DNS) degree at the WellStar School of Nursing. The only program of its kind in the state, the DSN is a research-based degree that will offer nurses another option in higher education. The goal is to prepare more nurse educators to help solve Georgia’s dire nursing faculty shortage.
“This is a very exciting opportunity for us,” Sowell said. “Approval of this program really does speak to the quality of the faculty and the growth of the university, and of the significance of the role KSU is playing in educating the next generation of nurses and nurse educators.”