MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Looking to the Future – a conversation with Dean Wolfe:

As URI and the College of Nursing enter the most ambitious comprehensive campaign in our history, the URI Foundation & Alumni Engagement (URIFAE) team met with Dean Wolfe to learn her vision for the college’s future.

MAKING A DIFFERENCE

Through service & support

URIFAE – The College has thrived in recent years, rising in national ranking, expanding its research agenda, and becoming one of the most competitive undergraduate majors at URI. What is the basis of your success, and how will that be sustained?

Dean Wolfe – Advances in technology and a changing healthcare landscape require us to adapt. To meet today’s needs, we focused attention on the curriculum, expanded academic scholarship, reaffirmed our role in a global community and committed to a culture of continuous improvement. Our world is evolving, so we are preparing our students to be lifelong learners and collaborative leaders as well as excellent clinicians and scientists.

URIFAE – That has been effective thus far, but has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your vision of the College? Dean Wolfe – The COVID crisis presents logistical challenges to teaching and clinical learning, as well as the conduct of research, but it has reinforced awareness that nurses are indispensable providers and innovators of care. If anything, the public now knows that our work is critical for the public’s health, and for economic stability. We can’t afford not to invest in the College. URIFAE – How can alumni and friends sustain our current success and advance the College’s mission? Dean Wolfe - Looking to the future, we must invest in our students, our faculty and the URI learning experience:

STUDENTS ARE THE FUTURE:

Our profession must represent the society it serves. To achieve greater diversity, we must be affordable and provide a supportive infrastructure for first-generation families through our successful Pathways program. This means increased investment in both need-based and merit scholarships. Furthermore, we have elevated our standing as a national research college and that must continue. This means recruiting future nurse-leaders through full-time graduate student fellowships and research funds. At URI, nearly 50 percent of the nursing faculty are eligible to retire in the next five years, presenting a pressing need to recruit talented faculty who will need to stand on the shoulders of these legends. We need to continue to recruit the best and the brightest to assure the future national and international stature of our faculty. Exceptional faculty are in high demand, so endowed chairs, professorships and faculty development funds will be needed to recruit and retain the most promising talent. URIFAE – So investing in people is your priority? Dean Wolfe – Not exclusively. You can’t invest in people without providing a stimulating environment and opportunities for personal growth. That is the URI learning experience that I mentioned earlier. As an undergraduate nursing program, we move impressionable young adults from a comfortable campus to healthcare settings where they confront frailty of life and human suffering. To facilitate this transition, we need an endowed Sophomore Retreat to introduce students to the importance of the nurse/ patient relationships, cultural fluency, and professional practice. We must continue to fund J-term Scholarships to enhance student exposure to underdeveloped healthcare environments. Not only will this serve the community where they visit, but studies show that cross-cultural international learning elevates clinical skills.

Nursing is highly sophisticated and best practices will change. Our students must develop judgment, clinical-reasoning skills and methods for retrieving knowledge. Exposing students to a research experience will help create this culture of inquiry and continuous learning, but it needs funding through Undergraduate Research Fellowships. URIFAE – Is there anything else you want to share? Dean Wolfe - Don’t forget the College of Nursing Annual Fund. That is the most important source of money to address short term needs and emergency expenses. It was essential for us to meet the COVID challenge, and I am so grateful to alumni and friends for their support!

For more information about supporting the College of Nursing, contact:

Eric Schonewald, Managing Director of Development, at eschonewald@uri.edu or 401-874-9017 Tim Babcock, Director of Development, at tbabcock@uri.edu or 401-874-4909.