Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences Case Statement

NICOLE WERTHEIM COLLEGE OF

NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES

THE CAMPAIGN FOR FIU Next Horizon—The Campaign for FIU is the University’s groundbreaking fundraising effort. The campaign’s $750 million fundraising goal is ambitious and representative of just how high FIU has set its sights. The Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences plays a critical role in achieving this goal.

Through the campaign, we will secure the investment necessary to improve the future of every FIU student, our Miami home, and those we reach across the world through our teaching, research, and the professionals we produce at the College.

The Next Horizon will put FIU at the forefront of discovery and innovation; health and society; environment and resilience; influence and enterprise; and community, arts, and culture. This will be achieved by focusing on two pillars—student success and research excellence—and attracting investments in the following campaign objectives:

• INCREASE SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT SUPPORT • OPTIMIZE 21

-CENTURY TEACHING

ST

• ADVANCE A VIBRANT, HEALTHY MIAMI • ACCELERATE RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES • ESCALATE DISCOVERY TO ENTERPRISE

1

OUR VISION IS SIMPLE: OPTIMAL HEALTH, ENHANCED QUALITY OF LIFE, AND EXCELLENT HEALTHCARE FOR THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH FLORIDA AND THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY. Everything we do at FIU’s Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences is about making this a reality. We are a young and vibrant College and acclaimed for embracing diversity, curricular innovations, technology, and research. Our students, faculty, and alumni exude a fervor for culturally competent and compassionate care. They embrace interprofessional collaboration and evidence-based practice as a way of life. Their passion and values are reshaping the delivery and model of care for this century.

Fueled by FIU’s $750 million Next Horizon campaign, we will forge a path to keep the practice of healthcare evolving for the better.

2

6

Disciplines: Nursing, Athletic Training, Communication Sciences & Disorders, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Health Services Administration

70%

Ethnically diverse student body— predominantly from Hispanic, African American, and Asian backgrounds

28

Degree programs

$40M An interdisciplinary alliance of students representing all departments of the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences

College of Nursing & Health Sciences Next Horizon Goal

THE NICOLE WERTHEIM COLLEGE OF NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES The Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences has earned a national reputation as a dynamic, forward-thinking institution of higher learning that is fueled by intellect and driven by innovation and caring.

The College continues to advance through academic excellence and a philosophy that embraces excellence, diversity, technology, evidence-based practice, and research to prepare healthcare leaders.

Today, nurses and health sciences professionals are on the front line of healthcare, urged forward by a system expanding beyond capacity as the growing number of patients with multiple chronic diseases spurs federal health reforms. The College is addressing these demands by preparing top-notch nurses, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare clinicians who can take on expanded roles in primary care and community-based healthcare settings.

Through the campaign, we seek partners who will invest in the people, places, and programs that make the FIU Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences the Next Horizon in student success and research. Together, we will continue to provide paths to opportunity and graduate professionals who are uniquely attuned to patients’ needs. We will become a global healthcare solutions center for our community here in South Florida and around the world.

“Our healthcare students are not only taught to lead patient care at the bedside, but also to drive the healthcare field to new heights through roles that ensure patient care quality and healthcare knowledge expansion and application. The Next Horizon campaign will help further build this reality.” ― ORA STRICKLAND, PHD, DSC (HON), RN, FAAN Dean and Professor, Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences

4

TOP 70 The College’s nursing programs are counted among the top 70 in the nation by U.S. News & World Report (2019).

5

Double Robotics technology using an iPad on a Segway at the STAR Center

6

PRIORITY INITIATIVES SIMULATION TEACHING AND RESEARCH (STAR) CENTERS The College’s renowned Simulation Teaching and Research (STAR) centers on two campuses are high-tech training marvels. The remarkable simulated hospital facilities allow students to develop practical skills by working on human patient simulators with actual medical equipment and technology. The centers feature multi-bed critical care units, as well as patient evaluation and operating rooms, where students deliver babies, monitor vital signs, intubate a child suffering an asthma attack, and much more.

Our mobile STAR BRITE project takes this real-world patient simulation instruction to healthcare providers in the community through our “train-the-trainer” SUV. STAR BRITE is one of many examples of high-impact partnerships that have earned FIU the coveted Carnegie Community Engagement designation.

As technology rapidly changes, we must keep pace by regularly investing in equipment upgrades for both STAR and STAR BRITE. Your investment will ensure our students and our community’s healthcare providers stay on the leading edge of best healthcare practices.

$1.39M The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Health Resources and Services Administration awarded the College a $1.39 million grant to prepare advanced practice nurses to provide primary care in rural and underserved areas through academic and clinical training.

COLLABORATION FOR ADVANCED REHABILITATION/RESEARCH & EDUCATION (CARE) CENTER High-quality healthcare includes an emphasis on optimal recovery. The Collaboration for Advanced Rehabilitation/Research & Education (CARE) Center brings together superior resources to improve rehabilitation research methods and the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and those requiring home care.

Students and faculty in our physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication sciences and disorders, nursing, and athletic training programs use the CARE Center’s wide range of laboratories for realistic training. Students learn essential skills related to patient rehabilitation as well as care planning and follow up. They also have the opportunity to work alongside faculty on research that drives therapeutic rehabilitation and home care forward.

The CARE Center truly embodies the interdisciplinary focus, evidence-based practice, and holistic approach to patient care that lies at the heart of Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences’ mission.

Through the campaign, we seek champions to strengthen the CARE Center. You can support core research laboratories, where faculty and students develop advanced rehabilitation technologies to improve care for people with physical or mental disabilities. You can choose to invest in the education labs, where students practice in real-world rehabilitation scenarios to hone their therapeutic practice.

1ST FIU is the first university in Florida—and one of only three in the nation—to own an InMotion robot, a revolutionary apparatus designed to improve upper-extremity range of motion for those recovering from strokes.

Physical therapy students with Dr. Laura McPherson, PhD, DPT, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, and Assistant Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering & Computing

9

$13M

in aggregate unmet financial need

50%

of students finance their education through scholarships, loans, or stipends

$628,000 (on average) awarded in scholarships annually

Carole Romer, Lisajane Romer, and Kevin Romer (left to right) of the Mathew Forbes Romer Foundation, flanked by nursing students. The Foundation supports scholarships for students pursuing a career in pediatric nursing and has partnered with the College to pioneer specialty training for nurses providing pediatric intensive care in the home.

10

UNDERGRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS As our healthcare system strains to deliver care to more patients—and more diverse patients—our students are committing their futures to this cause. FIU graduates more Hispanics with bachelor’s and master’s degrees than any other university in the nation, and this ethnic group is projected to make up the largest minority group in the United States by 2045. At Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, we are proud that 70 percent of our student body is ethnically diverse. Most of our students, however, need to work part time or full time while attending school. More than half of our undergraduates qualify for Pell grants, meaning they come from low-income households.

The Next Horizon campaign aims to help these hardworking students. Your investment in scholarships will provide students with support that will enable them to focus on school, complete their degrees, and deliver culturally compassionate care.

DOCTORAL STUDENT FELLOWSHIPS Our graduates are on the frontline of healthcare, urged forward by a system expanding beyond capacity with increasing patient volumes and federal health reforms. Recognizing the demands placed on nurses and allied health professionals, many of their respective professional associations are calling for higher levels of education. Clinical rotations are an important path for these professionals to gain the clinical experience needed to practice at the top of their licenses and become the next generation of much-needed health researchers and educators.

Your investments in doctoral student fellowships during the Next Horizon campaign will ensure that health professionals with passion and capacity have the resources to reach the highest levels of educational attainment in their fields and accomplish their goals.

“Fellowships and other financial support are crucial to the success of our doctoral students. Touching the life of one Nursing and Health Sciences doctoral student touches the lives of many patients, families, and communities in the future.”

– TAMI L. THOMAS, PHD, RN, APRN-CPNP, FAANP, FAAN Associate Dean of Research and Director of the PhD Program

TECHNOLOGY AND SPACE

A BETTER PILLBOX

An outstanding healthcare education needs to incorporate the best spaces for learning and innovation, as well as new technologies—the same technologies students will encounter in the workplace. At this juncture, we need support for wellequipped labs and lecture halls. We also seek to develop an entrepreneurial culture at Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, supporting the development and commercialization of new healthcare products.

Dr. Jaclyn Schwartz is an Occupational Therapy research faculty member at FIU. Occupational therapy helps patients accomplish the things they want and need to do through therapeutic interventions, often using assistive technologies. These can range from complex robotics to simple objects like a pillbox.

COMPUTER LAB AND TESTING CENTER – Campaign investment will expand accessible technology in our Computer Lab and Testing Center by providing state-ofthe-art hardware and software at two campuses.

AUDITORIUM AND LECTURE HALL – Funding will support renovation of the 292-seat auditorium and lecture hall on our main campus, providing much-needed space for larger classes, lectures, and conferences.

PREVENTATIVE HEALTHCARE AND ASSESSMENT TECHNOLOGIES INNOVATION INCUBATOR ENDOWMENTS – Funding will create an educationfocused environment that stimulates faculty and student entrepreneurship as they research, develop, patent, and market innovative healthcare technologies.

Your support through the campaign can help incubate new technologies and give our students access to the state-of-the-art labs, halls, and classrooms that create an optimal learning environment for tomorrow’s healthcare providers.

When Dr. Schwartz heard patients complain that their pillboxes looked too medical, causing them to hide them away and eventually forget to take their medications, she had an idea―develop a better pillbox that improves medication adherence and health outcomes.

Working with FIU occupational therapy and biomedical engineering students, Dr. Schwartz and her team designed pillboxes using 3-D printing, sensors, microcontrollers, and other innovative technologies. Their work was a proof of concept―demonstrating that rehabilitation professionals can use these technologies on the job to design assistive devices for patients.

“3-D printing is not yet widespread in the field of rehabilitation, but will likely become more commonplace in clinical settings in the next 10 years or so,” Dr. Schwartz predicts. “We might just design something that will be on a retail pharmacy shelf one day.”

Campaign support for the Preventative Healthcare and Assessment Technologies Innovation Incubator will enable Dr. Schwartz and other students and faculty to work together to incubate ideas for new technologies and take them to market.

13

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS Our College is home to 40+ nurse educators and 90+ health sciences faculty who are experts in a wide range of disciplines. To continue meeting the evolving needs of our healthcare system, we must be able to recruit and retain faculty at the forefront of their fields. Creating endowed professorships will allow Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences to do this, both in existing disciplines as well as in strategic new areas. By the campaign’s conclusion—and with your support—we will offer attractive endowed professorships in leading-edge specialties such as elder care, rehabilitation, chronic disease, and children and families. We also aim to establish professorships in each of our six disciplines: Nursing, Athletic Training, Communication Sciences & Disorders, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Health Services Administration. Your investment in these faculty luminaries will raise the profile of our programs and ensure that our undergraduate and graduate students are taught and mentored by topclass faculty in high-demand fields.

40+

90+

Nurse educators

Health sciences faculty

FACULTY AMBASSADORS Our mission is to teach, conduct research, and practice in service to the community through interprofessional collaboration. Designated as a Carnegie Foundation Highest Research Activity university, FIU—Miami’s only public research university—emphasizes research as a major part of its mission.

At Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, our expectation is that faculty will create, expand, and validate scientific knowledge and evidence-based practice through interdisciplinary research, and then share that knowledge with peers to advance their respective professions.

Through the campaign, our goal is to establish an endowment that would assist faculty members in attending and presenting at professional conferences, industry events, and other key meetings. Your support of this endeavor will raise the visibility of the College by helping our faculty to continue serving as FIU ambassadors of excellence.

14

Faculty and staff of Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences

JOURNEY WITH FIU TO THE NEXT HORIZON At the Nicole Wertheim College of Nursing & Health Sciences, we are committed to helping students reach their full potential and to finding inventive ways to solve seemingly intractable health problems. Since our establishment as a College in 2006, our faculty and students have been engaged in research and service to better meet the needs of our community, including breaking down healthcare barriers for veterans, for those in an at-risk Miami neighborhood, and for the underserved in rural areas.

Now we seek the passion and philanthropy of FIU alumni, family, and friends to reach new heights in healthcare service. Working together, we will secure the College’s role as the Next Horizon in integrating student-centered educational programs, compassionate practice, research, and service to our community.

With your generous support, we will realize our vision of optimal health, enhanced quality of life, and excellent healthcare for the people of South Florida and the global community.

16

CAMPAIGN FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES STUDENT SUCCESS

RESEARCH EXCELLENCE

INCREASE SCHOLARSHIPS AND STUDENT SUPPORT

ACCELERATE RESEARCH AND DISCOVERIES

• F irst-Generation Undergraduate Scholarships •M erit-Based Undergraduate Scholarships • E mergency Assistance Scholarships • T ransfer and Retention Scholarships • U ndergraduate and Graduate Research and Fellowship Awards

• D octoral Student Fellowships • Study Abroad Support PROMOTE STUDENT SUCCESS THROUGH NICOLE WERTHEIM COLLEGE OF NURSING & HEALTH SCIENCES

• Simulation Teaching and Research (STAR) Center Endowment

• C omputer Lab and Testing Center • A uditorium and Lecture Hall OPTIMIZE 21ST-CENTURY TEACHING

• R ecognizing Excellence in Teaching (Teaching Incentive Program)

• Technology-Enhanced Classrooms • Course Design Institutes • Faculty Fellowships

• S eed Funding for Emerging Research • L aboratories and Advanced Equipment • G lobal Research Initiatives • F aculty Chairs • P rofessorships in Nursing, Athletic Training, Communication Sciences & Disorders, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and Health Services Administration

• F aculty Ambassadors Endowment • U ndergraduate and Graduate Research Infrastructure (travel, equipment, labs)

• G raduate Student Support • P ostdoctoral Fellowships • G raduate Student Fellowships and Research Awards

ESCALATE DISCOVERY TO ENTERPRISE

• E ntrepreneurial Development and Support • R esearch Commercialization • P reventative Healthcare and Assessment Technologies Innovation Incubator Endowments

AND OTHERS

17

FIU FOUNDATION, INC. MMC 11200 SW 8th Street, MARC 5th Floor Miami, FL 33199 305-348-6298 NextHorizon.FIU.edu Publication Print Date: March 2019