Joining the Big Leagues: Q & A with Dean Starck
UT School of Nursing Dean Patricia Starck
inspects progress on the nearly finished
nursing building with campus architect
Rives Taylor.
(Photo by Ester Fant)
Dr. Patricia L. Starck has been dean of The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston since 1984. She is a licensed registered nurse with graduate degrees in rehabilitation nursing and community/mental health nursing and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. A graduate of the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University, she is the John P. McGovern Distinguished Professor in Nursing. The dean recently took time for a conversation with Director of Communications Ina Fried, herself a UT Health Science Center employee since 1979. Here, Dr. Starck reflects on the significance of the school's move from the Houston Main Building at 1100 Holcombe to the new School of Nursing and Student Community Center building at 6901 Bertner Avenue.
Question
In what ways has the school of nursing changed in the 20 years since you became dean of The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston?
Answer
The building we've had to work in hasn't changed, but everything else has changed dramatically. The School of Nursing has matured and joined the big leagues. When I came, the school was only 12 years old. It did not have a national reputation. We were the new kid on the block, being an offshoot of the UT School of Nursing in Galveston. Now we're in the top 10 percent of graduate nursing programs in the United States.
Question
What is the well-educated nurse like today?
Answer
Dr. Susan Cooley, who is a nurse practitioner, brought me a stamp from China with the symbol for nurse. The symbol means "watchful eyes." The very important role of the nurse has always been watching the patient and being alert to the patient's condition. Watchful eyes require a synthesis of all your knowledge and all your powers of observation.
Today's nurses have to be very well educated. They have to have clinical knowledge and a background of arts and sciences. They must be adept with the technology used today and yet keep a sense of "This is an individual human being in need of care." The doctor comes in and talks to the patient and then leaves. The nurse has to explain and answer questions and do follow-up education with the patient.
There was a study done by Linda Aiken [Ph.D., Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania], funded by the National Institutes of Health, which found that in hospitals with higher proportions of nurses educated at the baccalaureate level or higher, surgical patients experienced lower mortality and failure-to-rescue rates. This was published in September 2003 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. For the first time, we're able to show what seems like common sense - that a nurse's educational level affects patient outcomes.
Currently, two-thirds of the nation's nursing workforce has only an associate degree, and approximately one-third has the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. We need to reverse that ratio, which means we need to start doubling the B.S.N. degree graduates - including generic students and associate degree graduates going on for the baccalaureate degree.
Question
You've said that the new School of Nursing and Student Community Center building will make it possible to design innovative ways to address the nursing shortage. What are some of your thoughts or plans about these innovations?
Answer
I'm looking forward to the upgrade of information technology. We'll have the latest in computers and equipment.
For the past two years we've had a pilot program in Fort Bend County at the George Foundation Library and at the University of Houston campus at Cinco Ranch. While our faculty were here teaching in our classrooms, the students were able to see the lectures there. We were able to accommodate a greater number of students.
There were also other benefits for the students - they didn't have to drive to the Texas Medical Center, which saves drivingn time and parking costs. And they were closer to their children, who were attending school in that area. Technology gives us the capability to expand our programs. All the feedback so far is that the program has been very successful. We had the first graduates this year.
In an even newer program, we'll take someone with a bachelor's degree in some other field and put them through an accelerated program. They'll finish in three semesters what usually takes five semesters.
We chose 10 students, and the nursing school at Galveston chose 10. This is the first time that two UT nursing schools have collaborated on a program like this.
We had a terrific pool of applicants. We had 1,300 applicants for 130 slots in the regular program, and 70 people qualified for the 10 slots in the accelerated program. We have the cream of the crop.
We're limited in expanding the number of students without hiring additional faculty members. We had 25 applicants for faculty positions, and we hired seven new faculty, but now we're at the end of our money. We hope the state and private donors in the community will help us get more.
The State Board of Nursing requires one faculty member for every 10 students because they need supervision during their clinical training. In some areas, the ratio needs to be even lower. For example, we need one faculty member for every three students when they're working with tiny neonatal babies.
Question
The new building will have expanded facilities for nursing skills labs and patient rooms. How will this enhance nursing education?
Answer
We deliberately held off on buying new equipment for the nursing skills labs until we moved to the new building. Students are beginning to tell us that our equipment is not the same as the equipment in the hospitals. Now, in the new building, we'll have state-of-the-art equipment. That includes manikins who even talk and tell you what's wrong. For instance, a manikin can be programmed to be an asthma patient and say, "I can't breathe" in a hoarse whisper.
The students will have a chance to work on simulated patients before they go to the hospitals for their clinical training. It will give the students greater confidence. And the faculty will have greater confidence, too, since they'll know if the students can think on their feet.
Question
How will the new building affect nursing research?
Answer
In our current building, we don't have any wet labs. The new building will have an entire floor devoted to nursing research with labs built and equipped to our specifications. Faculty will be able to do research they have to farm out now.
The facilities will help us to recruit more senior research scholars. Now we have some very promising young nursing researchers whose careers will take off once we have the new facilities.
Question
How will the building benefit the entire UT Health Science Center at Houston?
Answer
When we first started planning the building, the idea was that it would be the heart of the campus. It's right on Holcombe at Bertner, where it will be very visible. The opening of the building will be a signal event that announces that's where the UT Health Science Center is. For the first time, two of the largest schools, the School of Nursing and the School of Public Health, will be adjacent to each other.
Another thing, the building will put us on the map for its sustainability. This feature has created a great deal of interest, and I expect us to be having regular tours of the building. It showcases a philosophy that if we're teaching about health, we're also operating in a healthy way.
For the first time, the health science center will have a nice space for student government. And several spaces will be available for the whole campus to use for entertaining.
Question
Please elaborate on your comment on the School of Nursing Web site: "With our action-based curriculum, there are many opportunities to improve the health of the people in our community and beyond." What does an action-based curriculum mean? Please give an example of these opportunities.
Answer
When our students are out in the community, they're solving real problems at the same time they're learning. They might do a project with children in a hospital and design games that could also be therapy. We get students to address real problems and apply their knowledge as quickly as possible.
Another very nice thing about the new building is that it will have good food service. But we are going to miss this old building (UT Houston Main Building, owned by the UT M. D. Anderson Cancer Center). It's been home to the School of Nursing for a long time.
When we get spread out on eight floors, instead of three like we have now, we won't see each other as much. We'll have to change the way we operate so we don't lose touch.
I want to say how much I appreciate Dr. Willerson and his support in getting this building on the fast track. We're very excited about it!