Increased Course Access at UH Manoa Nursing
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Desiree Yamamoto
Community Development Officer
UH Manoa Nursing
dlyamamo@hawaii.edu
(808) 741-0617
Download news release.
Honolulu, Hawaii (January 14, 2014) – The University of Hawaii at Manoa School of Nursing & Dental Hygiene is the 16th member of the Nursing Education Exchange (NEXus), which is good news for both UH Manoa Nursing students pursuing doctoral degrees and for the people of Hawaii.
NEXus began as a partnership among select Western universities offering doctoral programs in nursing (PhD and DNP) desiring to increase the range of specialty courses. Because doctoral programs are small in size, it is challenging for any one institution to offer a large number of courses. The concept of a regional educational collaborative is one approach to both increase access for students and fill empty seats in courses. The aim of NEXus, administered by the Western Institute of Nursing, is to expand the educational capacity of nursing doctoral programs in the U.S. through cooperative efforts. Doctoral nursing students at each NEXus partner academic institution can take courses at other schools of nursing (www.winnexus.org).
“By maximizing the use of online distance teaching, the 70 UH doctoral nursing students can take specialty courses that could not be offered at UH but which may be relevant to the student’s interest area. At the same time, students at a member university can enroll for courses offered at UH as long we have space available in the course,” said UH Manoa Nursing Dean Mary G. Boland, DrPH, RN, FAAN. “This greater access will enable our students to more easily meet degree requirements, improve on-time graduation rates, and keep our future nurse leaders in Hawaii.”
NEXus consists of fifteen institutions that provide distance-accessible courses for nursing doctoral students. In addition to UH Manoa, they are Arizona State University, Idaho State University, Loma Linda University, Oregon Health and Science University, University of Texas at Tyler, University of Buffalo, University of Colorado, University of Kansas, University of New Mexico, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Northern Colorado, University of Utah, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Washington State University.
Said UH Manoa Nursing PHD student Elizabeth Freitas, APRN (Advance Practice Registered Nurse), “The NEXus Partnership is an exciting opportunity, providing us with more elective courses and the ability to experience learning from professors and other students outside of UH. NEXus will allow for a streamlined process to enroll in these courses, and we’re also looking forward to them being offered in a cost-efficient manner.”
The NEXus Memorandum of Agreement for partnership was approved on July 15, 2013, by the UH Office of the President, through the Offices of the UH Manoa Chancellor and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Graduate Education.
For more information about the NEXus program at UH Manoa Nursing visit www.nursing.hawaii.edu/nexus.
###
UH Manoa Nursing, the Nursing Capitol of the Pacific, is the leader in nursing education and research in Hawaii with outreach to Asia and the Pacific Basin. We support the mission of the University of Hawaii at Manoa: to provide an innovative, caring and multicultural environment in which faculty, students and staff work together to generate and transmit knowledge, wisdom, and values to promote quality of life and health for present and future generations. The school offers the BS, master’s, and doctoral programs. To reflect Hawaii’s unique cultural diversity and heritage, UH Manoa Nursing is committed to increasing Native Hawaiian and other underserved people in all nursing programs. http://www.nursing.hawaii.edu/