(Clockwise) Drs. Lawrence Williams, Norma Martinez Rogers, Robin Froman, Adelita Cantu and Alan Vince cut the ribbon to open the Avanzar pre-nursing student advising office, a collaboration of the School of Nursing and UTSA.
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San Antonio (March 6, 2007) – In Spanish, “Avanzar” means to advance, and that is exactly what a group of 65 San Antonio university students who hope to go to nursing school are doing. The success they have could greatly advance the status of health care in South Texas, where registered nurses and nursing educators are in increasingly short supply.

The Avanzar Pre-Nursing Society is a collaboration of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Nursing and The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) Office of Health Professions. Officials from both UT institutions gathered in February to cut the ribbon of an Avanzar office at UTSA, where students are counseled two-and-a-half days each week about course prerequisites and tracks, the rational scientific basis of the nursing profession, applying to the School of Nursing, shadowing professional nurses, and more.

Job security and mobility

From left, UTSA students Danielle Burgess, Jandee Stidom, Vernell Clemons, Jeanne Caneda and Sade Adepoju celebrate the launch of the Avanzar program to help them prepare to apply to the Health Science Center School of Nursing.

Jandee Stidom, a UTSA junior, is president of the pre-nursing society and has an eye on the future. “I like the job security of nursing and the ability to move up in a nursing career, even getting a Ph.D.,” she said. “Every person who becomes a nurse and goes back to teach is valuable. How can you have more nurses if there is nobody to teach them?”

Stidom’s great-grandmother was sick for 10 years and in and out of the hospital. “I saw the difference people made when they stopped to say, ‘Hi, how are you?’ It taught me to be attentive to patients and families.”

Jeanne Caneda, a sophomore and secretary of the Avanzar society, said the society will help members understand the nursing school application process and instill the desire to help communities. “We encourage our members to do at least 10 hours of community service,” she said.

Parents’ example

Caneda’s parents both are registered nurses. Her mother, Teresita, owns a home health service.

The parental influence also is seen in Danielle Burgess, a sophomore. Her mother is a nutritionist in a hospital. Burgess says the pre-nursing society will be “a big help” by enabling her to talk to people who have been through the School of Nursing and are in the profession.

Adelita Cantu, Ph.D., R.N., instructor of family nursing care at the Health Science Center, is the Avanzar faculty adviser. “This program will ease the transition from pre-nursing to nursing school for students, and can be expected to improve retention of these students once they are in the School of Nursing. The more we can retain in nursing school, the more we can increase the South Texas nurse workforce.”

Success is ultimate goal

Norma Martinez Rogers, Ph.D., R.N., associate professor of family nursing care, wrote the grant proposal to start the Avanzar program. It was approved for funding by the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. “This is the first time the School of Nursing has partnered with UTSA specifically for a nursing program,” Dr. Rogers said.

Membership in Avanzar does not guarantee the students slots in the highly competitive School of Nursing. “Our ultimate goal is for them to be successful wherever they go,” Dr. Rogers said, adding that she envisions a School of Nursing elective someday at UTSA that would count as credit for pre-nursing students admitted to the School of Nursing.

UTSA welcomed idea

During the ribbon cutting, Robin Froman, Ph.D., R.N., dean of the School of Nursing, praised the program and the faculty who have made it a reality. “This is wonderful to get two campuses together to create a seamless transition from UTSA to the Health Science Center,” she said.

The Health Science Center educators thanked Larry Williams, Ph.D., vice provost at UTSA, for being receptive to the School of Nursing proposal for the pre-nursing society. Alan Vince, Ph.D., director of the UTSA Office of Health Professions, said the Avanzar partnership is an essential new element in providing additional services to students interested in nursing careers.

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The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio is the leading research institution in South Texas and one of the major health sciences universities in the world. With an operating budget of $536 million, the Health Science Center is the chief catalyst for the $14.3 billion biosciences and health care industry, the leading sector in San Antonio’s economy. The Health Science Center has had an estimated $35 billion impact on the region since inception and has expanded to six campuses in San Antonio, Laredo, Harlingen and Edinburg. More than 22,000 graduates (physicians, dentists, nurses, scientists and allied health professionals) serve in their fields, including many in Texas. Health Science Center faculty are international leaders in cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, aging, stroke prevention, kidney disease, orthopaedics, research imaging, transplant surgery, psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, pain management, genetics, nursing, allied health, dentistry and many other fields. For more information, click on www.uthscsa.edu.