From the Dean

This is an exciting time to be part of the nursing and health care community. With an aging and increasingly complex patient population, the needs and opportunities for nurses have never been greater. The nation is looking to nurses to play an increasingly greater role in care coordination, quality improvement efforts, and team-based care. 

These trends shape how we educate our students. As you will read in this issue of Emory Nursing, we launched our doctor of nursing (DNP) program in 2014 to prepare students for leadership and delivering high-quality care in this new health care environment. Today, our first DNP graduate is leading transformative changes in the planning and delivery of care in her organization. In fall 2017, we will enroll the first class in our new DNP nurse anesthesia program. Our undergraduate and master’s curricula have been redesigned to align with emerging models of care that will require a wider range of skills and agility to move between settings across the continuum of care. 

Students have many more pathways for pursuing their nursing education at Emory—from the undergraduate to postgraduate levels. Each student brings their own life and professional experiences that enrich their practice and foster a community at the School of Nursing as diverse as the patients they serve. You will read about many of their impressive accomplishments in “Not Your Typical Nursing Student” and “The River Around Us.”  

While much is changing in health care, our school’s more than 100-year history of developing nurse leaders and scholars remains the same. Throughout this issue of Emory Nursing, you will read how students and faculty are leading change and advancing higher-quality, more efficient, and patient-centered care. We are proud to be part of the new future unfolding in health care.