ETSU Bucs Blog System

The last time I wrote, I talked about our book club where we are reading a book on teamwork. Well, the book club is almost over for this semester and I find myself often thinking of a question asked by one of the faculty at one of the book club meetings. She talked about the change in the organizational structure of the college and wondered about where she belonged. This is an extremely important point. Of course we know that we belong in our family, but how do you answer that question at work? People had told me last semester about how they belonged in their departments, but for some it was the whole group and for others, it was a subset. Now we are learning to be part of a larger unit, the college. Yet many people are trying to find what they had in the department in the new program divisions of undergraduate and graduate. I think the same may be true for students. For the undergraduates, they belong to their class and for some, it is the smaller clinical group. That is why it is so difficult if they fall back and have to start a new semester with a different group. For graduate students, it is more difficult to be part of a group because once you get past the core courses, everyone separates to the specialization cohort for the master's and it is even harder for PhD students once they finish course work to even be part of a group. And for staff, it is hard to get together if you are on different floors or in different parts of the building. But the bottom line is that we all want to be part of a group, to feel wanted, and to be appreciated. As we move forward, I would welcome your comments about how, as a college, we can get to know each other a little better and to look forward to being together.

Dr. Nehring

Well, it has been a beautiful day today, probably one of the last hot days. We have been busy at the College of Nursing. I recently returned to my office after attending the first Health Science "Socials." The deans of the health science colleges decided that we would like to institute a social time once a semester where the faculty and professional staff can get together in a relaxed atmosphere and get to know one another. Nursing sort of hosted the first event and we put our research posters up around the room. I would say in total about 50 people came. People enjoyed the posters and I think many people got to meet new people. I know that I met many new people. It is nice to have events in which one can choose to discuss work, but any other topic is good too.

Last week we also had the first "Breakfast with the Dean." I get told all of the time that the faculty would like to see me more, so we started this tradition. We had about 30 people stop by and it was a very nice hour. I actually got to learn about people's hobbies and interests which of course, makes us all that more interesting.

 This week I also attended my first Tennessee Center of Nursing Board Meeting as I have been invited to be a board member. There were about 20 people representing different levels of nursing education and practice. Again, I got to meet many new people. I was interested to learn that UT-Memphis is using a clinical teacher model and dedicated education unit in their CNL program. I think this is something we definitely need to discuss. Another person from the Tennessee Hospital Association talked about the need to identify the value that nursing brings to health care outcomes. There was also talk about the need for operating room nurses and acute care nurse practitioners.

Well, it is time to go home. I hope that you have looked at our Facebook page to see the logos and slogans that have been suggested and are being evaluated by those looking at our page. As always, we appreciate your thoughts and opinions as we strive for excellence in our College.

 Dr. Nehring

It's another rainy day in Johnson City but it is also Friday. I did not write on my blog last Friday because I was in Nashville at the semiannual Tennessee Deans and Director's meeting. I look forward to these meetings because it gives me an opportunity to meet with my fellow deans to discuss nursing issues in the state. One item that was brought up by the Board of Nursing involved working towards eliminating physician supervision from the regulations related to the practice of nurse practitioners. I gave my name to be on a committee to address this issue and with an outcome to write a letter of support for this step. Let me know your thoughts as I would like to hear them.

This week the University Health Services/Student Health Services held a flu clinic. I was not able to go until today, but they informed me that they had 199 people come on Wednesday for the clinic. This is wonderful and I am glad that members of the university community have been so well informed from various individuals and departments in the university about the importance of have your seasonal flu shot.

I met with the Dean's Advisory Group yesterday and we had an excellent conversation about topics that concern our College and what we can all do to make improvements. They shared the first drafts of their conceptual frameworks concerning the organization of the college and I was very impressed.

I have also heard of many instances of teamwork that is taking place in the college and I think this is wonderful.

Jo-Ann Maars, Teressa Wexler, and Nancy Alley are working on strategies to pull together an alumni group from the College of Nursing. I would also like to have an event that is held annually for alumni during Homecoming Week. Let me know if you have any ideas that would bring the most alumni back. I know that when I am out in the community, I always run into alums. Now is the time to bring them back to campus!

Well, I must sign off for this week as my next meeting is about to start. I hope that you have a terrific weekend - it is supposed to rain! I will talk with you next week.

 Dr. Nehring

Dear All,

Today we attended the 2009 Fall Convocation and the message for this year was "Start something!" At the College of Nursing we have been starting many new endeavors since my arrival back in February. As promised, I have attached the presentation I gave at the retreat on Monday of the College's accomplishments in the past year and plans for the coming year. The past few weeks have also been filled with orientations for all of our student groups. The enthusiasm and expectations for learning and thinking about new ideas and things is contagious. I actually heard faculty and students tell me this week that they are excited about starting classes next week! ETSU is a wonderful school as was referenced by the new Faculty Senate President and I hope that if you are reading this and do not regularly visit our campus and our classrooms in Nicks Hall that you will consider returning.

One of the things that we will be doing this year is identifying ways that we can do our business of educating nurses differently. We are also going to work hard on emphasizing each of our strengths and we want to involve our alums and donors. We look forward to our future and we hope that all of you will play a major role. We further plan on updating our webpage this year and look forward to your suggestions on how we can make it better and let the public know what we are doing.

I wish you all a wonderful weekend and I will be back in touch next week.

Dr. Nehring

Good morning,

 OK, I forgot another Friday. I must put a note on my computer to make sure that I blog on Fridays. I will confess that I was trying to get away earlier on Friday and just forgot again to blog. Last week was a slower week as we were busy here getting preparations ready for the retreat on the 24th. It has been fun preparing my first state-of-the-college message that I will give on the 24th and reviewing all that has happened in the past year - before and since I arrived. It has also been nice to see more faculty coming back as they are starting to make preparations for fall. I also attended my last orientation session for the summer. It was the smallest group but all of our new freshmen and transfers are very excited about getting started. The most frequent questions that I got were "what does it take to get into the nursing program and what gpa do I have to have?"

Thank you to everyone who wished me a "happy birthday." I had a very nice day and got many phone calls from my family yesterday.

Well, I am going to end for now and will be back on Friday, I promise!  Dr. Nehring