School of Nursing

NightinGala is on Friday April 26th! Click here for details and tickets!

From the Director

It is an exciting time in the School of Nursing as we are winding down the Spring Semester. Please take note of the following:

I recommend you look at the piece about Dr. Chris Doneski, DNP, AGACNP who has joined our Adult Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP) Faculty. Dr Doneski’s doctoral project focused on simulation and that is one area in which we have let him fly. He has worked with our newest manikins and developed an airway simulation that is excellent. The students will have a final simulation activity that will represent a real scenario they may experience as they become part of a hospitalist service when they graduate.  Click here for the full UTC Newsroom story!

The Student Government Association honored two 5th level students as outstanding seniors and their faculty mentors. Elliott Symanski (mentor Dr. Brooke Epperson) and Caleb Brewer (mentor Laurel Rhyne) were recognized in a ceremony in Patten Chapel on April 10, 2024. The CRNAs from Anesthesiology Consultants Exchange, P.C. (ACE) were identified as the inaugural community partner award by the UTC Graduate School and will be recognized April 19. These CRNAs have been responsible for the education and clinical experiences for hundreds of UTC SNRAs. Thanks to the CRNAs!

The week of April 22 will be extremely busy. That afternoon, the traditional field day will be held for all BSN students as they celebrate the end of the semester, and for some the end of their time with the SON. Dr. Jason Peter has an afternoon filled with friendly competition which helps students decompress before finals. The faculty and staff will hold an off-campus retreat on April 23 examining our mission, vision and values as well as the School of Nursing as an organization. We hope to come away from that time with a renewed focus on our students, our community and each other. And, don’t forget we will all be focusing on final exams – either taking them or grading them! Our NCLEX pass rate for December 2023 was 97%. We expect this group to do that well or better.

The end of that week, April 26,  is the NightinGala which will be held at the Westin. Please click here to purchase a ticket for $50 per person which includes dinner and valet parking. We will honor our 2024 Outstanding Alumna, Deborah Deal and our outstanding community partner, Iota Chapter of Sigma. The tickets are going rapidly so please purchase yours soon. We will also share information about the Dorothy and Jim Kennedy Health Sciences Building, the new home for the School of Nursing. We are nearing our fundraising goal but still have a little more work to do. We are truly excited about our progress and the opportunity to increase our enrollment by 150%. Come for a great evening of reacquainting yourself with friends you may not have seen in a while. It will be a fabulous evening as a wonderful committee led by Megan England and Farron Kilburn have outdone themselves.  You’ll have to see it to believe it.

Let’s move on to Summer. For the first time in the school’s history, we will have two BSN concentrations on campus in the summer. Our Gateway students have always been with us, but we will now have three cohorts of ABSN students on campus – one group will be entering their final semester while one will be just starting. And of course, the 2nd cohort with have clinicals experiencing OB, Pediatrics and Med Surg I. We are recommending banking some sleep while they can.  

Our third cohort of NP students will join us in August, and we will start the year again but this time with 9 cohorts of BSN students, 3 cohorts of FNP/AGACNPs, 3 cohorts of Nurse Anesthesia students, and 2 cohorts of DNP: Post Master and DNP: Nursing Administration Systems students. Please watch for new information about the new concentration in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner to be offered in August 2025. We are moving through the approval process. This will be offered as a DNP but also there will be an option for a post graduate certificate in this specialty. Our FNP and AGACNP offer the DNP and the post graduate certificate already.   

If you haven’t been by in a while, reach out to us. We would be glad to show you around. 
Chris  
 

 

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The baccalaureate degree in nursing, master's degree in nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice and post-graduate APRN certificate at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga are accredited by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (http://www.ccneaccreditation.org).

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees.