UW School of Nursing honors community partners

The University of Wyoming Fay W. Whitney School of Nursing has named clinical agencies in Casper, Rock Springs, Saratoga and Sheridan as community partners.

The “Community Partner” awards recognize clinical agencies that work with the school to educate the next generation of nurses.

This fall, the awards are presented to Mountain View Regional Hospital in Casper, which works closely with the Basic BSN program; Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County in Rock Springs, involved with the Bachelors Reach for Accelerated Nursing Degree (BRAND) program; Sheridan College and Whitney Benefits, working together with the RN/BSN Completion Program; and Saratoga’s Platte Valley Medical Clinic, P.C., which opens its doors to UW’s Doctor of Nursing Practice students.

Mountain View Regional Hospital (MVRH) is the “Basic BSN Community Partner of the Year” for 2015. The staff at MVRH provides rich learning experiences for the UW students.

“Staff members are flexible, easy to work with and always try to accommodate the interests of our students,” says Holly Miller, coordinator of the Basic BSN Program. “Always thinking of the students’ needs, MVRH provides leadership opportunities as well as chances to polish interviewing skills. This spring, MVRH personnel came to Laramie to hold job interviews with our senior students and mock interviews with our junior students. MVRH also has generously provided assistance and financial support for the Marcia Dale Aspire Scholars program students.”

Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County (MHSC) in Rock Springs is the “BRAND Community Partner” of 2015. Truly seeking after the BRAND students, this agency and clinical personnel are “very pro-student and pro-UW,” says Candace Tull, BRAND program coordinator.

BRAND student Lydia Kindred praises the clinical experience at MHSC: “This wonderful facility is dedicated to producing skilled and compassionate nurses. I feel so lucky to be learning in a facility that cherishes my education so highly.”

Sheridan College and Whitney Benefits share the RN/BSN Completion Program 2015 Community Partner Award. Whitney Benefits instituted an endowment at Sheridan College to enrich nursing and nursing education in the community. The endowment established a collaborative between UW and Sheridan College through appointment of an endowed nursing chair, providing face-to-face advising and academic support for those students pursuing the RN/BSN Completion degree. An endowed nursing chair at a community college is a unique arrangement, serving as the model for future endeavors to facilitate RN to BSN education statewide.

Platte Valley Medical Clinic, P.C. (PVMC) is the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program Community Partner for 2015. PVMC shares a decades-long relationship with UW in providing outstanding clinical experiences to family nurse practitioner students.

“Experiences included rural clinic visits, house calls, after-hour emergency calls, practicing with limited resources, lack of specialty services and practicing as a patient-centered medical home,” says DNP student Shawn Snyder. “The whole experience was an excellent learning opportunity, and allowed me to gain a greater understanding for rural primary care and an idea of how I would like to model my own future practice.”