Letter to Alumni
July 15, 2012
Dear Nursing Alumni and Friends:
Greetings to all from the Department on Nursing! On behalf of the faculty, staff and students, it is my honor and privilege to be able to share news of the ongoing developments and achievements within the Department of Nursing.
Many of you may have received the save-the-date announcement about the 40th Anniversary Event to celebrate 40 years of nursing excellence at UMass Lowell. The event is scheduled for Thursday, October 4, 2012 at the UMass Inn and Conference Center, 50 Warren Street, Lowell, MA at 5:30 p.m. This celebration will honor the outstanding achievements of all of Nursing’s graduates with a current call for nominations for a very special recognition of exceptional alumni to be honored; further information can be found at www.uml.edu/Nursing or by contacting Anita Pastor, 978 934-4798 or Anita_Pastor@uml.edu. I hope that you can join us!
UMass Lowell Nursing and D’Youville Life and Wellness Community have partnered with grant funding from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to offer a one-day conference on Thursday, August 16, 2012, at the UMass Inn and Conference Center, 8:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., on “Innovation in Clinical Education: Dedicated Education Unit Model in Long-term Care”. Further information can be found at www.uml.edu/conferences/DEU or by contacting Stephanie Lane at 978 934-4776 or Stephanie_Lane@uml.edu.
UMass Lowell Nursing is also co-sponsoring with Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation the 2nd Annual Faculty Institute in Gerontological Nursing, to be held August 13-17, 2012 at Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation headquarters in Newton Lower Falls, Mass. as well as at UMass Lowell. The results of the first year’s successful Faculty Institute were featured in an article on innovations in geriatric education in the May-June 2012 issue of Nursing Education Perspectives, entitled “Faculty Institute in Gerontological Nursing: A partnership for clinical education in long-term care” (Melillo, Abdallah, Blanks, Campbell, & Herndon, 2012).
The Health and Social Sciences Building is on target for early Spring 2013 occupancy; a tour will be provided at 3 p.m. on the day of the 40th Anniversary event for those who would have an interest. As you know, the Health and Social Sciences Building will be home to the Department of Nursing! Nursing will be occupying an entire floor of this 4-story building, as well as offices on additional floors. The area will include state-of-the-art nursing skills, health assessment, and simulation laboratories. Nursing has been actively involved in all aspects of the pre-planning and design phase, and we will look forward to keeping you updated on the progress. The new building will be adjacent to McGovern Hall on the corner of Broadway and Wilder.
As for academic program news, the Baccalaureate Nursing Program continues with significant enrollment growth. We have accepted 120 high-qualified freshmen nursing students who will be joining us in Fall 2012, for a total of nearly 480 nursing students, and an additional 50 RNs in the BS Degree Completion option. Our NCLEX pass rates continue to be strong. For our seniors who completed their course requirements and graduated February 1, 2012, the NCLEX-RN pass rate was 100%. This is clearly a strong testament to the highly-qualified, hard-working and strongly motivated nursing students/graduates who have been instructed by the very dedicated nursing faculty at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
As a result of our Baccalaureate and Graduate (MS, Graduate Certificate, DNP, and Ph.D.) program growth, we have been approved for a number of new faculty hires. Joining us this past academic year and this upcoming year are: Drs. Mary Aruda, Heidi Fantasia, Amy McCarron, Anya Peters, DiJon Fasoli (as Research Professor), and Bethany Gentleman, MS, GNP-BC, and Diana McAuliffe, MS, RN as Visiting Faculty. Drs. Knight, Nannini, and Simons have all received promotion/tenure at Associate Professor rank. We continue to have faculty openings and we welcome qualified applicants to consider a nurse faculty position at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. See http://www.uml.edu/HR for additional information on how to apply.
Our doctoral programs have been seen several innovative and significant changes. The Ph.D. in Nursing program is now being offered in an executive/weekend online-blended format starting with the Fall 2012, with the largest cohort of incoming students experienced thus far. Dr. Barbara Mawn is the Director of the Ph.D. program and can be reached at 978 934-4485 or Barbara_Mawn@uml.edu. The DNP program graduated its first class of five in May 2012; the program has been revised to a 33-credit post-Master’s option. Additionally, a fast-track MS-DNP is in the approval stages. The “DNPs Caring for the Underserved” grant is entering its 3rd year of funding from HRSA, Advanced Education in Nursing Grant, under Co-PIs, Drs. Susan Houde and Angela Nannini. The grant has offered numerous enhanced educational opportunities for DNP students in caring for the underserved. Additional information about the DNP can be found under Programs of Study on our nursing website, www.uml.edu/Nursing. Dr. Angela Nannini, Associate Professor, is the DNP contact, and she can be reached at 978 934-4938.
Research and Traineeship Funding
The Department of Nursing continues to receive substantial research funding and traineeships that have included:
- 2012-2015, Karen Devereaux Melillo, Principal Investigator, with Co-PI, Dr. Jacqueline Dowling, and Co-Investigators, Drs. Lisa Abdallah, Margaret Knight and Shellie Simons, “Bring Diversity and Leadership to Nursing”, competing, continuation grant submitted to U.S. Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing, HRSA, Nursing Workforce Diversity Grant; D19HP09221, funded in the amount of $996,584.
- 2012-2014, Karen Devereaux Melillo, Principal Investigator, “Bring Diversity to Nursing – Educational Opportunities for Minority Students,” with Co-Investigators, Drs. Jacqueline Dowling, Lisa Abdallah, and Margaret Knight, from Massachusetts Department of Public Health, RFP “Reducing Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities: Workforce Development,” funding in the amount of $53,546, 07-01-2012 through 06-30-2014.
- 2011-2012, Karen Devereaux Melillo, Principal Investigator, with Co-Investigators, Drs. Abdallah, Dowling, Remington & Shellman, “UMass Lowell-D’Youville Transitional Care Dedicated Education Unit,” Mass. Department of Higher Education, Nursing Allied and Health, Nursing Education Redesign Grant, $50,000, 8-1-11 through 11-1-2012.
- 2010-2013, Susan Crocker Houde and Angela Nannini, Co-Principal Investigators, with Karen Devereaux Melillo, Co-Investigator, for U.S. Bureau of Health Professions, Division of Nursing, Health Resources and Services Administration, Advanced Education in Nursing, Grant No. 1 D09HP19005-01-00, Advanced Education Nursing Grant, UMass Lowell DNP, in the amount of $732,044, 07-01-2010 through 06-30-2013.
- 2008-2013, Office of Population Affairs, 5-year “Male Research Cooperative Study” grant to the Montachusett Opportunity Council, a non-profit organization that reaches young African American and Hispanic males in north central Massachusetts, to confront rising rates of teen pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and HIV infections in Leominster and Fitchburg, $1.2M, Dr. Ainat Koren, Co-Investigator
Key Books Published by Nursing Faculty
Hoff, L.A. & Morgan, B. (2011). Psychiatric and mental health essentials in primary care.
London and New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Melillo, K.D. & Houde, S.C. (2011) (Eds.). Geropsychiatric and mental health nursing (2nd
ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers. 2011 AJN Book of the Year Award
Reddeker, N. & Phillips McEnany, G. (2011). Sleep disorders and sleep promotion in nursing
practice. New York: Spring Publishers. 2011 AJN Book of the Year Award
As always, I feel honored and privileged to be able to present to you, our Alumni and Friends, an update of our achievements and accomplishments. The University is a very exciting place to be under the leadership of Chancellor Martin T. Meehan, Provost Ahmed Abdelal, and Dean of the School of Health and Environment, Dr. Shortie McKinney. We know that it is you, all of our distinguished nursing alumni and friends, who promote the positive reputation of UMass Lowell Nursing. Please keep in touch; we immensely appreciate your support of the profession of Nursing and the University of Massachusetts Nursing Program.
Best Wishes,
Karen Devereaux Melillo, Ph.D., ANP-BC, FAANP, FGSA
Professor and Chair