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Who We Are

Advancing Nursing and Shaping Health Care

Mission: Shaping the future of healthcare to be equitable—allowing everyone to experience life and death to the fullest.

Vision: The College of Nursing unifies and inspires scientists, educators, clinicians, staff, and students to design, lead, and achieve equitable improvements for the well-being of all.

Message From Our Dean

Honoring our Past

This year we celebrate the College of Nursing! A 75th anniversary comes only once, and this is a time to pause and celebrate all those who have been a part of our amazing community, including the many accomplished alumni, generous supporters, visionary faculty and staff (past and present), and our exceptional students. As we begin celebrating our 75th year, I feel a deep sense of connection and pride. This anniversary year reminds us of whose shoulders we stand upon in achieving our current success, and the foundation we must sustain to inspire the generations that follow. I encourage you to mark your calendars for September 21, 2023 to September 23, 2023 which is when our main celebration will take place. Throughout this main event, we will convene the entire CON community–faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, and friends. I look forward to an engaging time, with events that connect us through our shared appreciation for the College.

Inspiring our Future

We play a crucial role in advancing health system transformation focused on achieving health equity. We play an indispensable role in shaping the future of healthcare by driving innovation, testing new models of care, and delivering-high quality patient/family/community care. We are essential in preparing the next generation of nurses and gerontologists to succeed in an ever-changing healthcare landscape. Our work not only includes caring for the sick but also being advocates for wellbeing and impacting positive patient outcomes. In the course of my work as dean, the most rewarding aspect is the opportunities I have to know and work with incredible students, scientists, scholars, clinicians, educators, and staff across this college; in every way, the people of our College embody the promise of our mission and vision. 

From Vision to Action

Sustaining a foundation which allows us to accomplish our mission and vision required we revisit our strategy and strategic plan. Identification of our strategy and strategic priorities would not have been possible without the input and engagement of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners. Over the coming year, together we will finalize and implement a strategic plan designed to guide the College now and into the future.  Our new strategy builds on our strengths and we are creating a plan to match our ambitions. I can say with great confidence that our students, staff, faculty, and alumni are addressing the challenges before them here in Utah and across the nation.  I am proud of what we, as a College, are accomplishing together.

Join Us! Consider investing in our future–together.

 

.
Marla J. De Jong, PhD, RN, CCNS, FAAN Dean of the University of Utah College of Nursing

Positioned to Lead: Strategic Plan 2023

    We will partner with individuals, groups, organizations, and communities to foster meaningful social change, advocate for health equity, and enhance the quality of life of those we serve.

    Educate the Nursing and Gerontology Workforce

    1. Strengthen and align education pathways and training to meet evolving workforce needs
    2. Provide career development opportunities for students, trainees, and professionals
    3. Strengthen nursing and gerontology education pathways
    4. Develop and model, practice and standard guidelines that support nurses in providing safe and ethical nursing care to the people of Utah and beyond
    5. Build meaningful collaborations with USHE nursing programs to collectively address nursing workforce challenges

    Generate, Advance, and Share Knowledge to Contribute to Solutions

    1. Contribute to evidence-based policy-making
    2. Invest in key strengths that demonstrate potential to achieve local, regional, and national impact
    3. Build a culture of recognition

    Improve Individual and Community Health

    1. Improve and expand local and regional academic-practice partnerships
    2. Expand academic-practice partnerships to encompass non-clinical care work
    3. Expand local and global health presence and activities

    We will build a partnership-ready organization that demonstrates collaboration, defines the challenges our partnerships can solve, engages in mutually beneficial relationships, and provides the support systems and processes needed to achieve shared goals.

    Promote Synergy and Support Coordinated Work

    1. Strengthen internal communications
    2. Align programmatic activities that have a shared purpose, vision, and benefits
    3. Eliminate redundancy to improve work productivity and quality
    4. Create structures that promote sharing of revenue
    5. Allocate resources flexibly

    Be a Health System Collaborator

    1. Strengthen and increase formal representation within U Health
    2. Establish strong connections with West Valley community and identify needs that the CON is ideally suited to support
    3. Contribute to U Health plans and priorities

    Contribute to the Success of Main Campus Initiatives

    1. Strengthen CON’s alignment with University plans and priorities across all mission areas
    2. Support CON representation and participation in Main Campus activities that align with CON strategy

    Build Effective CON-Community Partnerships

    1. Engage in bi-directional partnerships that contribute to achieving a shared goal that aligns with CON’s mission, vision, and goals

    We will create an exceptional learning and work environment where we welcome all people, respect differences, value individual wellness, support people, and acknowledge and celebrate success.

    Cultivate a Sense of Belonging

    1. Provide effective onboarding and sustained mentoring that promotes connection and supports success
    2. Celebrate our achievements and promote the collective impact the college makes locally, regionally, and nationally

    Build a Diverse College Community

    1. Incorporate anti-racist teaching strategies into our courses and teaching practice
    2. Increase enrollment of diverse students and enhance strategies towards graduation and workforce entry 3. Engage in best practices for recruiting and retaining diverse faculty and staff

    Promote Individual Wellness

    1. Support employee and student physical, emotional, and mental well-being
    2. Increase job satisfaction and student/employee engagement

    Support Sustainable Infrastructure Designed to Support Organizational Success

    1. Ensure financial strength and stability through sustainable and innovative financial models
    2. Provide and support equitable compensation, career development, and progression opportunities
    3. Optimize delivery of programs and services through implementation of best practices focused on efficiency, effectiveness, health, safety, confidence, cost, and quality

    Provide exceptional student and student learning experience

    1. Engage students in program and curricular improvement planning
    2. Improve support for current and projected student needs (holistically)
    3. Ensure sufficient quantity of high-quality experiential learning
    4. Support educational scholarship and teaching excellence

    Our Values

    Intentional Innovation

    Wellbeing

    Excellence

    Belonging

    Purposeful Collaboration