The College of New Rochelle to Offer New Nurse Educator Master’s Program
with Strong Holistic Underpinning Designed to Help Address Critical Shortage
of Nurse Educators, Courses to Start in 2005 Fall Semester

New Rochelle, NY (June 15, 2005) – The College of New Rochelle (CNR) School of Nursing announced that its new Nurse Educator Master’s Degree Program—designed to address the shortage of nurse educators—has been approved by the New York State Department of Education. The new program, with a strong holistic underpinning, will begin as early as the 2005 fall semester.
    
Planning for the new in-depth course of study began two years ago, according to Dr. Donna Demarest, Dean of CNR’s School of Nursing. “This program is the result of our response to two alarming trends: the critical shortage of nurse educators and the aging of the nursing school faculty throughout the U.S.,” she noted. “We believe that more baccalaureate prepared nurses will find this educational track very attractive because of its unique and flexible features.”
   
Composed of 34 credits and 150 hours of practical work that can be tailored for student interests, the Nurse Educator Program will concentrate on continuing education and staff development, community and patient education, and nursing education. Like all master’s degree programs at CNR, it will have a strong holistic component, emphasizing caring and healing rather than the illness delivery model that typifies today’s healthcare system, Dr. Demarest explained.  CNR was the first college in the nation to offer a master’s program in holistic nursing in 1993.

Another benefit is the small size of the classes. “Typically, there are about 10 students per class, allowing for quality instruction and interaction with our excellent faculty,” Dr. Demarest stated.

To encourage enrollment in the new program, the College will assist students to apply for the New York State/Federal Loan Forgiveness Program designed to waive a percentage of or all of an education loan (depending on years of employment and other criteria) to individuals who are studying to become Registered Nurses or Nurse Educators.

A primary focus of the Nurse Educator Program will be community and patient education, an area that CNR’s School of Nursing has pioneered over the past three decades by reaching out -- through Healthy Campus 2010 -- to the student populations at CNR’s New Rochelle Campus and its city campuses in Brooklyn, Bronx’s Co-Op City, downtown Manhattan (DC-37), Harlem, and the South Bronx.  Healthy Campus 2010 is modeled after the national initiative of Healthy People 2010. It has evolved over the years to incorporate health promotion/disease prevention on-site classes and seminars for students and community members about risk factors such as obesity and high blood pressure and the need for a healthful diet at every age.

Going forward, students in CNR’s Master Programs in Nursing as well as campus communities will benefit from another valuable education resource--the $25 million holistic Wellness Center that the College will start building this summer. When plans for the new 60,000 square foot health and wellness facility were announced in May, Dr. Stephen J. Sweeny, President of the College, observed that the Center—a critical academic facility—will bring together and integrate a variety of health-related educational programs on campus including nursing, physical education, and health education. “It will advance the College’s longtime commitment to education of the whole person,” Dr. Sweeny stated. “Ours is an innovative model for understanding educational principles of wellness and a new approach to bringing that knowledge to students and into the community.” 

In addition to addressing the nursing shortage, CNR’s School of Nursing has been ahead of the national average in preparing minorities for the nursing profession. Last year, an important study issued by the Sullivan Commission on Diversity in the Healthcare Workforce noted that the severe shortage of minorities in the health professions contributed to African Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native Americans receiving less and lower quality health care than the general population. Because many members of the student body in the School of Nursing are African American and Hispanic—with many of them living in the communities where CNR’s city campuses are located—the CNR School of Nursing has been helping to educate nurses to meet the healthcare needs of some of the most underserved segments of the population.

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The first Catholic college for women in New York State, The College of New Rochelle was founded in 1904 by the Ursuline Order. Today, it comprises the all-women School of Arts & Sciences, and three schools which admit women and men: the School of New Resources (for adult learners), the School of Nursing and the Graduate School.  The main campus of the College is located in lower Westchester County, 16 miles north of New York City.  The College maintains six other campus locations in New York City. Visit the College’s website at www.cnr.edu