What the world needs now
A robust strategic plan has Marquette’s College of Nursing striving to make an even greater impact on health care, when it’s needed more than ever
by Paula Wheeler
Marquette University’s College of Nursing has embarked on a holistic five-year strategic plan rooted in its greatest strengths and its steadfast mission to deliver what college leaders define as “The Marquette Nurse Difference.”
With six “big ideas” driving the initiative, the college aims to build on its signature attributes of teaching and learning excellence, leadership in practice, and research engagement, while also advancing diversity within its faculty and student body and engaging in more mutually beneficial initiatives with community partners. Plans to move to an expanded and enhanced space will also enable the college to gradually increase class sizes and provide more Jesuit-trained nurses to the marketplace.
Dean Janet Wessel Krejci says discussions of a strategic plan began in earnest in 2019. Significant planning support has come from Terry and Darren Jackson, longtime champions for both the broader university and the College of Nursing. The Jacksons served on the College of Nursing Leadership Council when planning talks started. When Krejci convened a steering committee to engage university leadership early in the planning process and to leverage wisdom from faculty and external stakeholders, the Jacksons joined that advisory group along with Peggy Troy, Nurs ’74, president and CEO of Children’s Wisconsin, and Susan Ela, Nurs ’77, Grad ’88, retired COO of Aurora Health Care.
“Now more than ever, we have a critical need for nurses in our community,” says Terry Jackson, Nurs ’87, who worked as a medical/surgical and emergency department nurse at Children’s Wisconsin. “The College of Nursing has long had an exceptional program grounded in Ignatian values and an outstanding faculty and staff who are committed to student success. Our nursing program continues to be blessed with a long line of highly qualified applicants. We have both an opportunity and a social responsibility to grow.”
The committee sought input from other industry thought leaders — from nursing alumni to community partners to health care system administrators — and arranged about 20 interviews, essentially asking people, “If we’re going to take the next step in the College of Nursing, what should we be thinking about? What do you need? What do you think about when you talk about the Marquette Nurse?” Their input, as well as expert data on projected nursing workforce needs and health care industry changes, informed the steering committee’s work to home in on the college’s strengths, identity and key differentiators, while seizing on opportunities to make a greater impact at a time of need.
SIX BIG IDEAS
The six ideas anchoring the strategic plan include areas in which the college already excels, such as developing outstanding educators for its students and pursuing research for the greater good. The college’s Teaching Excellence Academy, introduced in late 2019, and its opportunities for teacher-scholars to research nursing pedagogy exemplify the college’s commitment to continually develop faculty in a way that keeps Marquette at the forefront of the field.
External interviews reflected leadership as a strength of Marquette-educated nurses, according to both Krejci and Darren Jackson, Bus Ad ’86. Darren Jackson says interviewee Jeff Bahr, M.D.,* Arts ’94, chief medical group officer with Advocate Aurora Health, commented, “A Jesuit-educated nurse is just different, in terms of their care by the bedside, their leadership in the hospital, their ability to make a difference on the floor.” An annual leadership development program for faculty, students and community partners has brought renowned leadership experts to campus, including Dr. Dan Weberg, head of clinical innovation at Trusted Health, who gave virtual presentations this fall on leading through crisis.
The interviews also made clear that more diversity among both faculty and the student body is necessary to reflect the community of patients served. “Better care and better outcomes require a health care workforce that understands and is trusted by the community it serves,” Krejci says. “We simply must have expanded diversity in order to mitigate known, longstanding inequities.”
Complementing its goals to advance diversity, equity and inclusion are plans to strengthen community engagement through more mutually beneficial partnerships as well as community-focused research. “We are also working to place a nurse faculty-in-residence in one of our Near West Side schools,” says Krejci, “as well as creating a community-engaged research team that will work with our Near West Side constituents to impact health outcomes.”
Overall program growth includes increasing the undergraduate class by 50 students per year for at least the next four years, Krejci says. In the graduate arena, the college will introduce a new master’s program in health systems leadership and move aspects of the doctoral program online to make it more accessible to students from across the country. An effective plan to accommodate the college’s strong potential for enrollment growth will help Marquette adapt to the challenging headwinds facing higher education, while still ensuring “a well-rounded education grounded in Jesuit values,” notes Marquette President Michael R. Lovell.
As the college’s director of strategic initiatives, Patricia Schroeder, Nurs ’75, Grad ’78, ’97, leads the strategic plan’s implementation, monitoring and evaluation. She says she is pleased with the ongoing momentum behind the project even in the face of COVID-19-related logistical and economic challenges.
“Our strategic plan shows an awareness of a health care industry that is changing faster than anyone could have imagined. We are preparing nurse leaders — who bring the richness of the Marquette Nurse of the past and present — to create and contribute to the future world of health care,” says Schroeder. “The pandemic has reflected the incredible need for more Marquette Nurses. Nursing as a discipline needs growth, and Marquette is just the place to educate strong nurses, as we historically have always done.”
