THE PULSE
News
A Piece of the Pi
Kirschling Honored with Colleague Award
News from Sigma’s Pi Chapter at UMSON Sixty years ago, on June 2, 1959, Pi Chapter was founded at UMSON as the 15th chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, now known as Sigma, which today boasts 540 chapters worldwide. Ninety charter members were initiated in the former Whitehurst Hall on the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus. Since then, chapter membership has grown to more than 1,000, making it one of Sigma’s largest chapters. In the late 1970s, orchid and fuchsia ribbons used at induction ceremonies became cords donned
at graduation. Receptions with guest speakers, such as Imogene King, Martha Rogers, and Dorothea Orem, became part of the Pi Chapter induction ritual and continue to this day. Over the years, the charge to inductees has remained the same: to uphold the tenets of professionalism; embrace and apply Sigma’s mission and vision; and extol the virtues of love (Sigma), courage (Theta), and honor (Tau). To learn more about Pi Chapter’s history through a digital scrapbook, visit nursing. umaryland.edu/pichapter.
specialties earned top rankings again. Two master’s specialties – the Clinical Nurse Leader option (No. 2) and Health Services Leadership and Management (No. 5) – remained in the top five.
“It is rare to have a colleague and partner of the caliber of Dean Kirschling,” the program reads. “Her leadership and commitment to UMMC have been unwavering.” Kirschling and the School have engaged in such partnership initiatives as UMNursing, an innovative collaborative effort to advance education, research, and practice at both institutions with an eye to optimizing health care outcomes and creating opportunities for collaborative research for both UMSON faculty and UMMC nurses; the UMMC Urgent Care center, which has been located in UMSON’s Baltimore building since 2016 and provides another clinical education site for UMSON faculty and students; and the Hospital Partnership Program for the Conway Scholarship, which offers full scholarships to UMMC Midtown Campus nurses to complete the RN-to-BSN program (see “Being Part of the Best,” Page 15).
In addition, UMSON ranked ninth in receipt of funding (for public schools of nursing) from the National Institutes of Health for Fiscal Year 2018, having received eight awards totaling more than $3.8 million.
“In all of these ways and so many others,” the program relays, “Dean Kirschling has been an avid and committed partner to nurses at the Medical Center.”
— L.H.
— Giordana Segneri
— Charlotte Seckman
FROM THE UMSON ARCHIVES
Undergraduate charter members of Pi Chapter
UMSON Leads in National Rankings U. S. N E W S
In the 2020 edition of U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Graduate Schools,” UMSON climbed in the rankings for its Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and master’s programs. The School’s master’s-level Nursing Informatics specialty remained No. 1 in the nation for the fifth year in a row. Out of 584 accredited nursing schools surveyed, UMSON’s overall DNP program ranked No. 6, and five DNP
6 • NURSING FOR/UM • FALL 2019
At its annual Nursing Excellence Awards celebration during Nurses Week on May 9, the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) honored Dean Jane M. Kirschling, PhD, RN, FAAN, and UMSON with its University of Maryland School of Nursing Colleague award. The award is “presented to a faculty member who exemplifies excellence as a mentor and educator,” according to the event program, and the award was bestowed for the many ways in which Kirschling and UMSON have supported nurses and contributed to the profession at UMMC.