CHP Dean Suzanne Mellon

Dear Alumni,

The fall has started with a great deal of excitement for this academic year 2008-2009, and already we are anticipating Thanksgiving! There is a special article in this issue of Healthy Times about my leaving UDM to take a position as the executive vice president at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, just north of Boston.

While I am excited for this new opportunity, I will miss the University of Detroit Mercy, the College of Health Professions, and all the wonderful colleagues, students, and alumni that I have come to know over the seven years I have been dean. There has been tremendous growth and success in the College, and I know that this College will continue to deliver strong academic programs along with demonstration of its innovative spirit to remain cutting-edge in health professions education.

For this academic year, I am pleased to announce that the College of Health Professions remains the largest college in the University, with 1,493 students throughout our various programs! Continued growth has been experienced most notably in the McAuley School of Nursing, with over 1,196 students. Other programs continue to show sustained enrollment, meeting their enrollment targets.

Several new initiatives have occurred this year: we have started our launch of the Clinical Nurse Leader program in 2008 with Trinity Health and just started a second cohort in Ann Arbor. The Health Services Administration program is starting two new certificate programs that will provide a new way for students to achieve advanced competencies in quality, finance, and leadership without necessarily completing a full master's program.

We also started a new BSN completion cohort, and are starting another three in January. Our Grand Rapids campus continues to thrive with both the prelicensure program and the BSN completion students.

We are especially pleased to have received several important sources of additional funding. The MSON was awarded a HRSA grant for $1.03 million for the STEPs program (Simulation Technology Electronic Informatics Preparatory System) that will prepare our clinically based students for more intensive simulation instruction, being educated on an electronic medical record system, and incorporation of more telehealth.

We also were awarded a Michigan Nursing Corps grant from the state in the amount of $515,550 (inclusive of a match from Trinity Health) that will present an opportunity to expand our accelerated nursing program by starting a new group of 40 students in January. UDM and MSON are also a partner in one of the few VA Nursing Academy proposals that was awarded throughout the country. This award is to the VISN 11 region of VA centers in Michigan and is in partnership with Saginaw Valley State University to increase the numbers of nurses who practice in the VA system to care for our veterans.

Finally, MSON was also one of the few recipients of a Robert Wood Johnson New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program Award that will provide $200,000 for scholarship support for accelerated nursing students.

Our faculty scholarly productivity has also been impressive in the past few months. As noted previously, faculty scholarship has risen over 400 percent over the past four years with important work that is making a difference in the health of our communities. Some of the faculty accolades are featured in the alumni newsletter of the depth of scholarship that is occurring in the College.

Dr. Carla Groh recently received an award from Blue Cross and Blue Shield for intervention research with underserved clients at McAuley Health Center. Additionally, several faculty were selected from a competitive pool to participate in technology integration into education at Duke University.

This fall, we also welcomed 12 new faculty to the College: 10 to the McAuley School of Nursing and two faculty to the Physician Assistant program (see faculty news for the list). We are delighted that these colleagues have joined us in a time of expanding enrollments in our programs with searches now being conducted for further faculty.

In the College, we are currently in the process of creating a Simulation Learning Center in renovated space in our building. We also are in the stages of a more formal assessment of our teaching and instructional space needs for our growing College and to address the needs of Health Professions students in technology and simulation into the future.

I am particularly gratified by the support of the Alumni Council and their support for this initiative as well as new invigoration of the Council membership. As alumni, we encourage your continued participation in activities in the College and support for initiatives in scholarships, faculty research, and technology integration that will continue to prepare excellent practitioners, administrators and leaders in health care.

As I prepare to leave the deanship, I wish all of you as alumni all the best in the future as you continue to make a difference in the health care delivery of our community as practitioners, administrators and health care leaders. My thoughts and best wishes are with all of you.

Suzanne Mellon
Dean, College of Health Professions
McAuley School of Nursing