Dean Emeritus Patty L. Hawken (left) was recognized for her many accomplishments in building the School of Nursing. Visiting with Dr. Hawken is W. Frank Elston, FAHP, president and chief executive officer of Baptist Health Foundation.
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The UT Health Science Center San Antonio School of Nursing celebrated its 40th anniversary Thursday, May 7, during the annual Nursing Advisory Council luncheon at San Antonio Country Club.

Earlier in the week on May 4, the school also hosted the membership meeting of the Greater San Antonio Hospital Council’s Nurse Executive Forum, where Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolf proclaimed May 4-8 as National Nurses Week.

During the anniversary luncheon, opened by Nursing Advisory Council Chair Marie H. Smith, Presidential Finalist William L. Henrich, M.D., MACP, said, “I am very impressed by the number of people joining us today to celebrate 40 years of nursing at our UT Health Science Center. Over these 40 years, our School of Nursing has educated more than 7,000 nurses and nursing faculty. The majority of our nursing graduates stay and practice in San Antonio and South Texas in our hospitals, homes, schools and businesses, to which we are all deeply grateful.”

Related links: Dr. Yarbrough leads effort to improve regional nursing student placement system History of the School of Nursing

Two new nursing scholarships announced
Dr. Henrich introduced longtime Health Science Center donor Jane Cheever Powell, who announced that she is providing funding for two new endowed scholarships for nursing:

• The Jane Cheever Powell and Thomas Levin Powell, Jr. Nursing Scholarship in honor of Carol Ann Swartz, M.S.N., RN and Barry Swartz, M.D.
  
• The Jane Cheever Powell and Thomas Levin Powell, Jr. Nursing Scholarship Endowment in honor of Victoria Bolling, RN.

Powell said she wants the scholarships to honor nurses who work behind the scenes or who encourage students to realize their dreams of becoming a nurse.

Swartz overcame financial constraints to earn her nursing degrees, including a combined bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing that she earned summa cum laude from the Health Science Center. She worked in the School of Nursing as a faculty member and assistant dean before joining the Office of Development as executive director of corporate and foundation relations.

image2 Bolling is a nurse and certified case manager in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinic of Nicholas Walsh, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. Powell complimented the care Bolling provides for patients who need pain management and physical therapy for recovery and rehabilitation.

In addition to the School of Nursing, Powell has supported research and education in the School of Medicine and the Dental School.

Dr. Hill discusses importance of collaboration
National nursing leader Martha N. Hill, RN, Ph.D., dean of the School of Nursing and professor of nursing, medicine and public health at Johns Hopkins University, was the guest speaker at the event. Dr. Hill is the only non-physician to have served as president of the American Heart Association (1997-1998). She also is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies.

Dr. Hill’s presentation focused on the role of the advisory board and the development of the school’s capacity for graduating increased numbers of nurses and nursing faculty to help meet the national nursing shortage.

“There is an urgent need for more and better-educated nurses to take care of a growing older population that is living longer with multiple chronic illnesses and that needs coordinated care,” she said. Geriatric, critical-care and maternal-child nursing are and will continue to be in great demand, she said.

Dr. Hill also noted that the school’s mission is not only to educate future nurses, but to discover unmet health care needs in South Texas, to conduct research to find relevant answers and to implement permanent solutions to ease these health care disparities, such as providing prenatal care for underserved populations. “So, to partner with the community and the people of the community is not only an opportunity, it’s an obligation,” she said.

“All of you can find a reason as to why you are here today and why you are a part of this council: to help the school grow and to help the school become not one of the finest, but the finest school in the country,” Dr. Hill said. Because of its location and service area in South Texas, the School of Nursing has the potential to become a national model, she said, for how to provide care for underserved populations, with the help of its community partners.

Dean Eileen Breslin thanks donors, praises faculty members
During the program, School of Nursing Dean Eileen T. Breslin, Ph.D., RN, thanked nursing advocate and supporter Graciela Cigarroa, wife of University of Texas System Chancellor Francisco G. Cigarroa, M.D., for her attendance. She also acknowledged many of the endowment donors who were there, including Powell, Karen Herrmann, Cols. Philip and Jean Piccione, Dr. Jo Ann Crow, Abigail Kampmann and Lois Bates Jones. She also mentioned the generosity of former Gov. Dolph Briscoe and his daughter, Janey Briscoe Marmion, who were unable to come to the luncheon but have been longtime supporters of the School of Nursing.

Dean Breslin also praised the school’s nursing leadership from the past, such as Dean Emeritus Patty L. Hawken, who over her 23-year tenure from 1974-1997 built the School of Nursing from a fledgling program that offered one bachelor’s degree into an expanded program offering multiple master’s degrees and a doctoral degree. During her tenure, she moved the school from the basement of the Dental School into the two School of Nursing buildings used today.

“When I am in the hallways I feel that I am standing on the shoulders of some tremendous giants of nursing, and you should be proud of what the nursing faculty of this school has done,” Dean Breslin said.

“Never in our history have we been more in need of the care that nurses provide. It’s that human interface between biomedical technology and the person we call a patient,” Dean Breslin said. “Never before in our history have we so desperately needed the leadership of well-educated, professional nurses, not just to work in our health care systems but to change, improve and redesign those systems so that we have access to safe and high-quality patient care. Nursing done well — done right — inspires us all.”