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New Building, Ph.D. Program for Nursing
On a late summer day, Jody Clipp, professor and associate dean
of research at Duke's School of Nursing, jiggled the door handle
of her new third-floor office, trying the key in the lock for the
first time. She opened the door and, as the lights came on automatically,
smiled.
It had been a very busy summer, not only for Clipp, with her research
and other obligations, but also for the Duke School of Nursing,
which this semester unveils its new Trent Drive headquarters and
welcomes to campus an inaugural class of doctoral students. The
changes coincide with the school's seventy-fifth anniversary.
For years, nursing faculty members, administrators, and students
have shuttled back and forth between the school's main building
on Trent Drive, the adjacent Hanes House, rented space on Ninth
Street, and the Trajectories of Aging Care Center in Duke Hospital
South. The new 59,000-square-foot School of Nursing building, located
on Trent Drive next door to the old building, provides the school
with a more centralized home that also unites it, aesthetically,
with the rest of campus.
The new, environment-friendly building includes faculty and administrative
offices, seminar rooms, classrooms, a lecture hall, two state-of-the-art
laboratories, and a glass atrium for casual studying, dining, and
special events. Its main entrance is through an impressive stone
tower. Like many of Duke's new buildings, its interior boasts lounge
space and comfortable seating at the intersections of hallways
aimed at promoting informal communication among faculty members
and students.
"Many of our students do not know faculty [members] outside
of the immediate few who teach in their degree program," says
Catherine L. Gilliss B.S.N. '71, dean of the nursing school and
the Duke Health System's vice-chancellor for nursing affairs. "For
the first time, many of our students are learning about all the
expert resources we have at the school." The old nursing building,
meanwhile, is being remodeled to house the school's Office of Research
Affairs. That space will provide "for the first time in the
school's history, a research-intensive context, filled with active
projects and teams, research-management activity, conference rooms,
and testing facilities," Clipp says.
The introduction of the Ph.D. program, which will complement the
existing master's and accelerated bachelor's degree programs, marks
a big step for the school, giving it a platform to compete with
the best institutions in the country for nurse scientists and research
funding. The program, chaired by Ruth Anderson, professor of nursing,
will focus on "trajectories of care and care systems," a
theme designed to draw on the major strengths of the school's research
faculty. Adds Gilliss, "we will prepare academic scientists
who are interested in problems of chronic illness and symptom management
over time and those who will study the impact of the care system
on the outcomes of those with chronic conditions."
The program will be run through the Graduate School. In addition
to nursing coursework and an academic dissertation, doctoral candidates
will be required to take a number of courses in other fields, such
as psychology and business, depending on their areas of academic
interest. Students will also benefit from close ties with Duke
Medical Center.
"We are preparing scientists who will study clinical problems," Gillis
says, "so being a part of this world-class medical center
allows us to collaborate with other clinicians and scientists who
share our interests." The medical center, she says, is "rich
with clinical data that will allow us to study the environments
in which care is provided so that we can better understand how
the environmental factors influence care outcomes."
Clipp, as associate research dean, is excited about the possibilities
that arise when nurse scientists and students are brought together,
as they will be, both literally and figuratively, by the new school
and program. "As we move forward, we will encourage more activity
in the areas of health-services research, global health and health
disparities, and translational nursing science, which aims to move
evidence from nursing science to actual practice or care improvements."
"The synergy," she says, "is palpable."
www.nursing.duke.edu
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