Marcia Laux Retires from IU School of Nursing after 14 Years
For Marcia Laux, MSN, RN, NE-BC, there couldn’t have been a more perfect ending to a 45-year career in nursing than the past 14 years she’s spent on the nursing faculty in Bloomington.
“Hands down, the best part of my professional career has been at IU School of Nursing Bloomington,” said Laux, who retired as a clinical assistant professor last spring. “I have worked with really strong and intelligent faculty and the students we have here are smart, they try hard and they want to be good nurses. It all makes you appreciate what you do.”
A native of Colorado, Laux earned associate’s and bachelor’s degrees in nursing from Colorado State University and a master of science in nursing from the University of Colorado. Working her way up from staff nurse to vice president of nursing services for the Sisters of Charity Healthcare System in Pueblo, Colorado, Laux was instrumental in accomplishing such major program developments as establishing the open heart program, expansion of medical and surgical intensive care units, establishing the first free standing dialysis unit, expansion of operating surgical services and transitioning nursing from a cost center to a profit center.
In 1988, she married Thomas Laux, CEO and executive president of Florence Hospital, a member of the Sisters of Charity Healthcare System. The couple spent the next several decades in Wisconsin, Montana and Colorado before moving to Indiana. Laux joined the IU School of Nursing Bloomington faculty in 2004 and has served as interim assistant and associate dean of the school multiple times, most recently in 2017.
While at IU School of Nursing, Laux led the implementation of the online RN to BSN program, recognized nationally as one of the top 10 online programs of its kind. She has served on numerous university and college committees, including the Bloomington Faculty Council Policy Committee and the Social and Historical Committee of the General Education Committee. In addition, Laux researched and implemented a NCLEX assessment and preparatory program – applied across the curriculum – which helped to maintain a “far exceeds national standard” pass rate of IU Bloomington nursing students on the national nursing licensure entrance exam.
In service she called “one of the most satisfying experiences of my career,” Laux was appointed by Governor Mitch Daniels in 2007 to serve on the Indiana State Board of Nursing—a body dedicated to influencing nursing policy, protecting the public from unsafe practitioners and promoting the profession in a positive manner through progressive involvement with the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
Laux has published a number of articles on a variety of topics, including regulation of the nursing profession, use of electronic portfolio in demonstration of competency, RN to BSN online transition curriculum and program development, and stress and self-care of the professional nurse. At IU, she earned the University Trustees Award for Teaching Excellence and the prestigious Elizabeth M. Lion Award for Service, both in 2012. A proclamation presented to Laux by the IU School of Nursing upon her retirement declared her to be “a caring and tireless champion for the nursing profession.”
Embarking on retirement, Laux and her husband are moving back to her beloved Colorado to enjoy the outdoors, spend time with family and friends and make more memories with her 97-year-old mother.