Twelve schools of nursing, representing programs across the academic spectrum of higher education, have been chosen National League for Nursing Centers of Excellence™.
All but one of the newly named 2015 Centers of Excellence earned recognition in the category, Creating Environments that Enhance Student Learning and Professional Development. Four received their third continuing designation in this category: Duquesne University, East Carolina University, Regis College, and Trinitas School of Nursing; a fifth school, Collin College, earned its second designation. Duke University, the College of New Jersey, Thomas Jefferson University, Union County College, the University of Texas at Arlington, and Western Governors University were first-time designees for Creating Environments that Enhance Student Learning and Professional Development. Union County College, which offers a practical nursing program exclusively, is the first school of its kind to earn COE status.
With this latest award cycle, Duke University has the further distinction of holding simultaneous COE status in two categories; it is currently also a Center of Excellence for Creating Environments that Promote Pedagogical Expertise of Faculty. Louisiana State University is this year’s sole winner for Creating Environments that Promote Pedagogical Expertise of Faculty.
The NLN looks to its COEs to serve as exemplars of the NLN’s core values: excellence, integrity, diversity, and caring. COE faculty bear a responsibility to share their experience, knowledge, and wisdom for the benefit of everyone in nursing education. They are expected to provide guidance and be available as sounding boards to other nursing programs that aim to achieve COE status.
Each year since 2004, the NLN has invited nursing schools to apply for COE status, based on their ability to demonstrate in concrete, measurable terms sustained excellence in faculty development, nursing education research, or student learning and professional development. Schools, and since 2012, health care organizations within the category Creating Workplace Environments that Promote Academic Progression of Nurses, must also have a proven commitment to continuous quality improvement.