Exciting things are happening at IU School of Nursing. You may have heard that IUPUI is separating into two independent campuses, Indiana University Indianapolis and Purdue University in Indianapolis, in the fall of 2024. Each university will now govern its own programs. Rest assured, that while there will be changes in and around the IUPUI campus, we will still be IU School of Nursing. Remember that this includes campuses in Indianapolis, Bloomington, Fort Wayne and by 2025, Columbus. We share a common curriculum and faculty governance. In the fall of 2024, you will notice that we will refer to IU School of Nursing on the IUPUI campus as IU School of Nursing Indianapolis to adhere to the new campus branding but all else remains the same.

I’m also pleased to share a few highlights on the state of our school:

• Enrollment for our core campuses is strong. We have almost 1,500 undergraduate students, 317 MSN and post-MSN certificate students, and 64 DNP and PhD students.
• In May, we celebrated the educational achievement of almost 300 undergraduates, 81 MSN graduates and 12 DNP graduates.
• More than $20 million in external proposals was submitted this year, and IU School of Nursing was awarded $2.7 million in external funding.
• In terms of National Institutes of Health funding for nursing schools, we ranked No. 15 among public schools, No. 1 in Indiana, and No. 6 in the Big Ten.

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t share news of two very important initiatives underway in our school—the INSTEP gift from IU Health and our new strategic plan.

INSTEP

Our Indianapolis campus received a very generous gift of $16 million from IU Health to increase our undergraduate student enrollment by 50% over the next three years. We have formed nine workgroups to ensure that this goal is achieved, and while the gift was designated for Indianapolis, all the core campuses are benefiting. As part of the effort, we are:

• Ensuring additional student clinical placement with our partners.
• Implementing enrollment and recruitment strategies in cooperation with campus initiatives.
• Hiring additional faculty and providing them support through FINE (Faculty Innovating for Nursing Education) to ensure their success.
• Putting strategies into place that increase student retention and successful first-time NCLEX rates.
• Developing plans to address resilience for faculty, staff, students, and clinical partners.
• Renovating our building to accommodate an increased need for labs, classrooms, student spaces, and faculty and staff office areas.

Update on IUSON strategic plan

Let me begin with a huge thank you! Many of you responded to the strategic plan survey by letting us know what aspirational goal IUSON should aim towards.

In February 2023, more than 50 stakeholders from outside the school spent two full days helping us think about the future. It was a truly inspiring experience; attendees repeatedly thanked us for including them, and we were so grateful for their valuable time and expertise.

From this retreat, we were able to create a draft of a plan and share it for feedback with faculty and staff. What emerged is a comprehensive strategic plan that is in step with IU President Pamela Whitten’s plan and vision for Indiana University.

IU 2030 – IU’s strategic plan - has three pillars:

1. Student Success and Opportunity
2. Transformative Research and Creativity
3. Service to Our State and Beyond

IU School of Nursing’s strategic plan fits into that structure. Our pillars are:

1. Fostering Student Success and Competency
2. Transforming health through nursing scholarship, research, and policy
3. Impacting Health Policy
4. Partnerships and Community Engagement
5. Engaging Faculty and Staff
6. Building a Culture of Wellness and Inclusion

The new plan will begin in July, and we are forming core-wide implementation teams to map our way forward. Look for more updates in future issues of this newsletter.

For 109 years, IU School of Nursing has focused on educating nursing students, preparing the next generation of leaders, and conducting research that improves health outcomes. Today, these priorities are more important than ever, and our commitment to achieving them is unwavering. On behalf of our students, faculty and staff, I thank you for your continued support.