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The College of Nursing one of seven colleges on The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center campus in Oklahoma City and represents the largest nursing program in the state of Oklahoma.

Established in 1911, The College of Nursing is a pioneer in nursing education for the state of Oklahoma. We began offering a BSN degree in 1955 and OU was the first to offer a graduate degree in nursing in 1973. In 1911, the School of Nursing was organized as a two‐year program under the direction of the College of Medicine at the Oklahoma City Health Sciences Center Campus. Two years later, it became a three‐year program leading to the Certificate of Graduate Nurse. In 1913, the School graduated its first class and to date has graduated over 7,500 students across all its programs. Degrees are awarded from the BSN to PhD level and programs stretch across Oklahoma and beyond.

Current enrollment at the College of Nursing is 1212 students!

This is an incredible growth in capacity as in 2004 we had 732 students enrolled across all programs. In addition, over this same period of time, full‐time faculty members increased from 62 to 97!

The NCLEX pass rate for OUCN students is 89.6%!

OUCN was the first in Oklahoma to offer a PhD in Nursing and Clinical Nurse Leader
programs.

The OU College of Nursing offers the only nurse practitioner programs in the state.

Program tracks include adult, pediatric, family and neonatal.

The University Of Oklahoma College Of Nursing was one of three nursing programs designated a 2006-2009 Center of Excellence by the National League for Nursing.

“The COE program recognizes schools of nursing which have achieved excellence in a designated level, demonstrated sustained, evidence‐based, and substantive innovation in that area; and have a proven commitment to continuous quality improvement.” Our School of Nursing achieved this status for its accomplishments in Creating Environments that Promoted Student Learning and Professional Development. Other schools designated include Indiana University and Blessing‐Rieman College of Nursing.

OUCN is one of three nursing colleges in the United States to be named a Joanna Briggs Institute Collaborating Center for EvidenceBased Practice.

We are a strong leader in collaborations which help utilize resources and produce more
bachelors prepared nurses!

We currently offer collaborative programs in conjunction with Oklahoma City Community College, Tulsa Community College and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College. Students are able to take courses at the community college until their final year, at which point that become at student at OU. Collaborations are also in place with the University of Colorado and the University of Minnesota for our PhD program.

OU College of Nursing is a leader in distance education program offering degree programs at thirteen sites in Oklahoma.

OU College of Nursing has 5 endowed faculty positions:

Parry Chair in Geriatric Nursing - Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN, FAAN
Frances E. and A. Earl Ziegler Chair in Palliative Care Nursing - Marianne Matzo, PhD, APRN, BCGNP,FAAN
Henry J. Freede Endowed Chair in Nursing Science - Kathleen Dwyer, PhD, RN
Donna Wong Professorship in Pediatric Nursing - Unfilled
Klabzuba Professorship in Nursing - Unfilled

OU College of Nursing Case Management program provides state of the art case management services for elderly and/or disabled individuals in 74 of the 77 Oklahoma counties including approximately 2,300 patients.

Established in 1995, Margo MacRobert, RNC, MS, CCM, NEA‐ BC, Assistant Dean for Clinical Operations at the College of Nursing, oversees the clinical areas at the College. The program continuously engages in new endeavors aimed at improving the health and well‐being of individuals. The program continues to expand as they are pursuing a new business line of private case management under the name OU Nursing – Life Stage Solutions. This clinical initiative provides for management and consultation to individuals dealing with the difficult
decisions involved with care giving of elders. For more information, please go to www.oulifestagesolutions.com. OU Case Management is also involved in a number of consultation projects with national and international institutions including current work with King Fahad Medical City in Riyad, The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the largest hospital in that country.

In 2006, OUCN began a unique partnership with Duncan Regional Hospital aimed at increasing the number of bachelor’s prepared nurses serving rural Oklahoma.

Duncan Regional Hospital constructed a state‐of‐the‐art learning facility dedicated to nursing education. OU nursing faculty, based in Duncan, OK, teach students in the BSN and ABSN programs. The learning center includes technology equipped classrooms, faculty offices, student computer labs and a clinical skills learning lab. The clinical practice space is equipped to operate like the rooms currently found inside DRH and even offers the chance for simulation activities!

The College of Nursing currently has 11 distant sites touching all over Oklahoma!

We continue to see an increasing number of students in these areas choosing to earn a bachelor’s degree of nursing. Many of these graduates don’t stop with their BSN, but continue their education and with graduate degrees in nursing. The OUCN programs are allowing nurses to stay in their own community and realize the impact their efforts have on the health and welfare of the local area.

Approximately 23% of the OU faculty are Certified Nurse Educators!

OUCN distributed approximately $944,000 in scholarships and grant awards to students in our nursing programs!

We are pleased to award so many funds to assist students in pursuing their nursing degree.

We are the first nursing program to be funded by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation to support a Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence.

Directed by Lazelle Benefield, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Parry Chair in Geriatric Nursing, this center is one of only 10 centers of geriatric nursing excellence in the country! The Donald W. Reynolds Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence is committed to increasing the number of highly qualified new and existing faculty with expertise in
geriatrics who will provide academic leadership in geriatric nursing within Oklahoma.

The OU College of Nursing and the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center have been funded by the VA Nursing Academy to promote service/education collaboration and increase numbers of RNs.

The program is one of only six funded nationally in 2008. The VA will provide clinical supervision to baccalaureate students and the College will provide the didactic instruction. The grant will run four years and is funded at nearly $2.5 million (OU College of Nursing and Oklahoma City VA Medical Center combined).

Gary Loving, PhD, RN, CNE, Assistant Dean of the Center for Educational Excellence, is leading the way for healthcare technology instruction in Oklahoma.

He has been funded for a program which will provide students with a new patient data system that allows them to look at hypothetical patient scenarios, just as if they were in a hospital. This program will help prepare students for the technologies they will use following graduation.

OUCN is a World Health Organization Collaborating Center Affiliate with the University of Birmingham at Alabama.

Directed by Evelyn Acheson, PhD, RN, the goals of the collaborating center include building leadership capacity, initiating and disseminating research knowledge, as well as developing and implementing child survival programs.

OUCN has the only endowed faculty chair in Palliative Care Nursing in the United States…and the only undergraduate certificate program in palliative care nursing.

Dr. Marianne Matzo, PhD, GNP-BC, FPCN, FAAN is the current faculty endowed chair in Palliative Care Nursing for OUCN

OUCN is committed to improving healthcare in our local communities:

Alicia Drew, MSN, RN, CNL leads the Take Charge! program for OU. The Take Charge! Program is the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, offered in conjunction with the OU College of Nursing. The goal of Take Charge! is to inform women about early detection of breast and cervical cancers to prevent unnecessary suffering and death. The program has received $347,938 in funding since 2008 from the local chapter of the Susan G. Komen For the Cure to support screening services for uninsured, low-income women at the OU College of Nursing Clinic and at a number of community clinics throughout the central Oklahoma.
Su An Arnn Phipps, PhD, RN, CNE, is the lead on our Healthy Women Healthy Futures
program in Tulsa. HWHF is a multicultural, interconceptional women’s health project, targeting non‐pregnant women of poverty with children enrolled in two Tulsa Head Start programs. The goal is to demonstrate that comprehensive preventive health services and health education between births can improve the outcomes of future births. In 2005, OU College of Nursing was named a World Health Organization Collaborating Centers affiliate under the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The collaborating center affiliate’s goals include building leadership capacity, initiating and disseminating research knowledge, as well as developing and implementing child survival programs. The program concentrates primarily in countries in the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), consisting of North and South America, as well as island countries in this region. Ultimately, the College of Nursing hopes to attain status as an independent collaborating center.
Over the last 5 years, external funding has increased significantly.