School of Nursing - University of Minnesota

from the dean
Dear alumni, friends, partners, faculty, staff, and students,
photo: tim rummelhoff
The School of Nursing’s 2009 Centennial Year offers a powerful opportunity to reflect on our
rich history, connect to the present, and shape our vision of the future. Celebrating our
centennial reaffirms the University of Minnesota School of Nursing’s legacy as the longest
continuously operating, fully integrated school of nursing within a university. This early
acknowledgement of the profession’s intellectual underpinnings endowed our school with its
fundamental character as a leader in nursing research, education, and clinical innovation.
This issue of Minnesota Nursing highlights cutting-edge research with populations across
the life span. SoN researchers working in a variety of health settings are testing a wide range
of nursing interventions from health promotion to chronic care management.
• Dr. Sieving and her team are working to reduce youth violence though school-community
interventions with promising results.
• Dr. O’Conner-Von and her team are testing the use of a specially designed Web site to help
teens with cancer cope with their disease.
• Dr. Chlan and her team are focusing on the use of music to help critically ill adults on
ventilators feel calmer and regain a sense of control in the intensive care unit.
• Dr. Mueller and her team are focusing on culture change in long-term care and the
development of Minnesota’s Nursing Home Report Card.
Such research exemplifies interprofessional team-science. Current faculty grants,
publications, and awards reflect the changing face of nursing science and the evolving role
of faculty. Indeed the research mission of the school has changed immensely over the last
century. For example, Louise Powell, who led the school from 1910 to 1923, focused on
tuberculosis and student self-government. Her successor Marion Vannier focused on nursing
procedures. In the 1930s and ‘40s, Katharine Densford, Lucile Petry, and H. Phoebe Gordon
explored topics like the systematic evaluation of nursing procedures, nursing functions, and
nursing leadership.
This issue of Minnesota Nursing also offers student perspectives on the preparation of
nurse researchers in the BSN-to-PhD program and the effect of cross-cultural experiences
such as the Nursing in Scandinavia program.
Since the school’s inception and throughout its history, faculty and alumni provided
leadership at the national and international level in nursing, health care, education, and
consumer organizations. During this centennial year, we celebrate the willingness of our
alumni, friends, and supporters, the Alumni Association, and the School of Nursing
Foundation to support transformation of the school.
We have accomplished much together. Now let’s join together in imagining the
next 100 years.
Connie White Delaney
Professor and Dean
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