To The Highest Standards

To offer the nursing program experience we’d want as students, develop the nursing competence we’d want on our dream team as health care providers, and educate the nurses we’d want by our side as patients—that is what Dean Sharon Little-Stoetzel, PhD, and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Programs Elise Hector, PhD, set out for every day at Graceland University’s School of Nursing (SON).

With continued success, as this week’s visit by the Missouri State Board of Nursing to the campus in Independence, MO, attested. The visit was part of the routine approval survey that the undergraduate program undergoes in five-year intervals.

Not only was the SON issued a “clean bill of health” for the next five years by the state board, but also commended beyond the standard requirements as an exemplary model of how nursing school should be: well-rounded professional training grounds in a highly supportive community marked by trust, compassion, and connection.

The board survey is a rigorous process consisting of a comprehensive self-study, a row of interviews with communities of interest, and the collection of evidence data toward the minimum standard for nursing education programs (outlined by the state’s Nurse Practice Act). Over the course of 1-2 days, 2-3 board representatives then conduct the on-site visit.

For the Graceland SON team, though an added administrative effort, the program approval review was pretty much business as usual. “Continuous improvement is part of our culture,” Little-Stoetzel explains. “We are constantly evaluating outcomes and the processes we need to achieve them. These activities are just as important to us as they are to the relevant state boards and national accreditors.”

“Graceland graduates the kind of nurse I want taking care of me,” Hector summarizes the most important outcome: “Our students leave with a holistic view of patient care, and a focus on compassionate care.”

Both of these aspects were echoed by the Missouri State Board of Nursing delegation: the great teamwork between leadership and faculty at the SON, and its excellent students that go on to be exceptional nurses.