A message from Interim Dean Mel Haberman

As they have so often in the past, nurses are playing an integral role during an extraordinary time. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, they are showing up, gowning up and spending 10 to 12 hours or more focusing on the task at hand, as they always do.

Many of those working on the front lines in health care right now in Washington state are Coug Nurses. We know this because the WSU College of Nursing is the largest producer of RNs in the state, and the great majority of our nurses stay in Washington.

Our Coug Nurses are also looking out for our current students. When we were forced by the pandemic to suspend senior practicum, hundreds of alumni reached out to give advice and encouragement to our WSU nursing students via a new Facebook group. With offers of networking and career tips, this spontaneous example of Cougs helping Cougs makes me more proud than ever to be a Coug Nurse.

The pandemic isn’t stopping the College of Nursing from educating the next generation of nurses, nor holding us back from honoring Washington State University’s land-grant mission.

Recently we had nearly 90 DNP students, plus faculty and speakers, take part in a virtual DNP Day focusing on rural health care. That the DNP program could pivot quickly to such an event is a testament to the flexibility and creativity of our faculty, staff and students.

Likewise, when new online test software didn’t work as expected, faculty quickly identified an alternative and J1s embraced it. Said Instructor Victoria Sattler, “They did what nurses always do. When all else failed, they stepped up and did their best with what they were given.”

We don’t know what the coming weeks hold, but we do know the uncertainty creates discomfort. As my colleague Lisa Vickers, campus director at the College of Nursing in Yakima, said, “The COVID-19 outbreak is like a wildfire: unpredictable, uncontrollable and sustained.”

Let’s look for opportunities to take care of each other and ourselves and support our working nurses and nursing students in any way possible.

Thank you all for your courage and dedication to the nursing profession and to the WSU College of Nursing.

Mel R. Haberman, PhD, RN, FAAN

Categories: General