FA L L 2 011
Tr a c k i n g t h e p u l s e o f h e a l t h c a re e d u c a t i o n i n A l a s k a
Nancy
Cumberland ‘86
comes full circle
Nursing alumna gives back to
students in need
UAA
nursing alumna Nancy Cumberland ‘86 is a living, breathing “Nurse
Nancy.” Born in Michigan in 1953,
Nancy was named after
the Nurse Nancy
cultural icon, popular in the 1950s.
Growing up,
Nancy spent countless
hours by the side of
her aging grandmother’s
bed and realized at an
early age that nursing was
her calling in life.
As a young adult, Nancy worked as a
cosmetologist before becoming an LPN
in 1972. Soon after, she moved north
to Alaska for a job in nursing.
After several years in scrubs, Nancy
noticed a shift in the workplace: She
and her colleagues were encouraged to pursue advanced
degrees to keep up with the
changing health care industry.
She took note and set
out to earn her bachelor’s
degree in nursing. She enrolled in courses at UAA
in 1979 and achieved her
B.S. in 1986.
Looking back, Nancy remembers
“just scraping by” through school.
Though it was a long and bumpy road,
she says UAA was always supportive
of her.
Nancy continued her career at Providence Alaska Medical Center, where
she spent the bulk of her years working
in long-term rehab until she discovered
the world of home health care.
“I fell in love with home health care,”
Nancy said. “I enjoyed the autonomy of
it, being able to make decisions on my
own. All of the skills I learned over the
years came together.” She worked in
home health care until
her retirement from
Providence in 2000.
Nancy went on to
become a parish nurse
with her church, St.
Mark Lutheran, where
she currently works.
She also teaches basic
life support courses at
Providence, with the
WWAMI School of
Medical Education at
UAA and in the community.
Now able to give
back, Nancy and her
husband, Dr. Paul A. Peterson, an
interventional cardiologist at the Alaska
Heart Institute, helped establish the
Nursing Students in Need Scholarship
at UAA in 2006 to help nursing students in their last year of school with
critical expenses like costly testing fees.
Over 30 students have benefitted from
their generosity, and have gone on to
finish school and begin their careers.
Nancy and Paul often get letters of
thanks from the grateful students who
are recipients of the scholarship. “It’s
positive reinforcement that, yes, this is
the right thing to do,” Nancy said. “Our
university has filled a huge gap in the
health care workforce and we feel that
it’s important to give back.”
The couple plans to continue supporting UAA and will look to UAA to
expand its role in educating Alaskans
for many years to come.
Read Nancy’s full “I am UAA” profile online:
greenandgold.uaa.alaska.edu.
SCHOOL of NURSING
VITALS • FALL 2011
Time to celebrate: UAA School of Nursing
looks back on 40 years 35 30
AA
S
40
th
BS
th
M
S
th
into the four-year University of
Alaska, Anchorage.
1987
Associate of Applied
Science in Nursing
1971
A.A.S. established at Anchorage Community College.
1973
First class of A.A.S. students
graduate.
1987
Program becomes part of the
College of Career and Vocational Education.
Program becomes part of the
School of Nursing and Health
Sciences.
2002
Enrollment expansion causes
shift in schedule from five-semester to traditional trimester;
number of students admitted
each semester increases from
32 to 40.
2011
In FY 2011, 105 students graduated from the B.S. program.
1991
This year the
School of Nursing (SON)
celebrates anniversaries of
its A.A.S. (40 years), B.S. (35
years) and M.S. (30 years)
degree programs. Since its
beginning, the School has
graduated 3,682 nurses,
many of whom remain in
Alaska to live and work.
You are invited
to an annivers
ar
Friday, Nov. 4, y party on
from 4 –7 p.m
.
at the Cuddy H
all on
Anchorage ca UAA’s
mpus.
R.S.V.P. onlin
www.uaa.ala e at
schoolofnurs ska.edu/
ing/celebrate
Program transitions into the
School of Nursing and Health
Sciences.
2002
Major enrollment expansion
results in offering program via
distance delivery; first outreach
site is in Fairbanks.
2011
A.A.S is now offered in 13
communities across Alaska. In
FY 2011, 87 students graduated
from the A.A.S. program.
School of Nursing grows to meet state demands
In response to a mandate by the legislature and
statewide demand for highly
educated medical professionals, the SON doubled its
enrollment in recent years
and now offers courses via
interactive distance delivery
to students in 13 communities
across
Alaska: Bethel, Dillingham,
Fairbanks, Homer, Juneau, Kenai, Ketchikan, Kodiak, Kotzebue, Mat-Su, Nome, Sitka and
Valdez/Cordova.
The School is directly
responding to Alaska’s need
for qualified nurse professionals. In 2000, SON graduated
68 students and in 2004
that number more than
doubled to 150. This
number has remained
stable over the last eight
years. In FY 2011, 192
students graduated
from the undergraduate
program. The School
recently added 10 new
faculty to its growing
family.
UAA now offers nursing
education across Alaska.
Bachelor of Science
in Nursing
1973
B.S. established at Alaska Methodist University (AMU), now
called Alaska Pacific University.
1976
Financial difficulties temporarily close AMU, B.S. program
transfers to Anchorage Senior
College of the University of
Alaska, which later transitions
Master of Science
in Nursing
1981
M.S. program initiated from a
federal grant.
1983
First class of M.S. students
graduate.
1996
Nursing programs are consolidated into the School of
Nursing within the College of
Health, Education and Social
Welfare.
2002
Further restructuring results in
the College of Education with
the School of Nursing remaining within the College of Health
and Social Welfare.
2011
Three tracks allow students to
pursue degrees in family practice, mental health or educator.
In FY 2011, 14 students graduated from the M.S. program.
“For the past 40 years, the UAA School of Nursing and its
many graduates have been partners in shaping health care
for Alaska. Now as the school celebrates several significant
milestones, we look forward to reconnecting with our graduates. It is those graduates who are the backbone of the
health care system across the state.”
– Dr. Tina DeLapp,
Emeritus Professor of Nursing and retired director,
UAA School of Nursing
PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS & ACCOLADES
FALL 2011 • VITALS
Grad students’ manuscripts accepted into
national journals
New Health Sciences Building is Alaska’s hub of
interdisciplinary health education
Two students in the
master’s degree program had
their manuscripts accepted
into national nursing journals.
Liberty Joy’s manuscript,
“Evaluating the implementation of online clinical log
UAA opened its new
Health Sciences Building
(HSB) this fall. Considered
Alaska’s health campus,
UAA’s newest 66,000square-foot building positions
the university to better
respond to Alaska’s growing need for well-educated
health care professionals.
Bringing UAA’s health programs together under one
Liberty Joy
system or family nurse
practitioner students,” was
published in the journal CIN:
Computers, Informatics, Nursing. This pilot study analyzed
the adoption of the Nurse
Practitioner Student Tracking System by UAA’s family
nurse practitioner graduate
program.
Also, the Journal of
Advanced Nursing published
Jennifer McGrath’s manuscript, “A mixed-method
comparison of group exercise modalities.” Through her
research, Jennifer concluded
that modes of group exercise
influence health-related quality of life among adults.
roof provides opportunities
for interdisciplinary simulation, allowing students to
integrate theory and practice. The HSB is Phase I of
the planned Health Sciences
Complex at UAA. Phase II
will connect the HSB with a
second 98,000-square-foot,
three-story structure with
additional lab and classroom
space.
2011 Director’s Award recipients
Three undergraduate nursing students were awarded
2011 Director’s Awards for their stellar academic achievements and dedication in the classroom: Melissa Dawley
(A.A.S), 3.87 GPA; Kristen Howell (B.S.), 4.0 GPA; and
Kristen Ludwig (B.S.), 4.0 GPA. “My congratulations to
Melissa Dawley, Kristen Howell and Kristen Ludwig for
your stellar work in your nursing programs. We are very
proud of all of you.” – Barbara Berner, Director, UAA
School of Nursing
School of Nursing creates legacies for future
generations of nursing students in Alaska
Two scholarships are
the focus of the School this
year—in honor of its anniversaries—to benefit the
future generation of nursing
students in Alaska.
The New Scholar Award
is to motivate strong students to consider a career
in nursing academia. The
award allows a UAA nursing
student to attend and present his or her own research
at the annual Communicating
Nursing Research Confer-
ence, hosted each spring
by the Western Institute of
Nursing.
The Nursing Students in
Need Scholarship provides
critical support for nursing
students who need additional financial support in
the home stretch of their
education. In the last five
years, over 30 students have
received this scholarship
to successfully finish nursing school and begin their
careers.
Above: The new UAA Health Sciences Building.
Right: The HSB’s state-of-the-art instructional
spaces are designed for interactive learning,
simulation of real-life clinical situations and
interprofessional hands-on experiences. In this
picture, simulation technician Marissa Carrillo
(foreground) monitors a scenario from the control room while nursing students Traci Sickich
and Jeremy Bon practice their skills.
Below: UAA nursing students Aaron Von Boeckmann and Jennifer Coffey care for SimMan 3G
in one of the HSB’s new simulation labs.
Message from the Director
Dear colleagues
and friends,
After many months of
preparation and anticipation, the School of Nursing has settled into our
new home in the UAA
Health Sciences Building.
We are literally next-door
neighbors to many of our
industry partners, allowing
us to continue fostering the
strong partnerships that are
so critical to our success.
The HSB’s state-of-theart simulation labs and
classrooms were created
with our students—and
Alaska’s need for quality
nurses—in mind. These
interdisciplinary learning
labs will successfully prepare
the state’s future nurses for
the intense real-life clinical
situations they will encounter in their careers and will
foster the interprofessional
camaraderie so important
to the provision of high
quality health care.
Our “SimMan” and
“SimBaby” mimic realistic human responses and
capabilities, including chest
rise and fall; heart, lung and
bowel sounds; vocal responses; and pupil response,
to name a few. Our simulation technicians and faculty
control the scenarios that
nursing students will respond to, allowing them to
practice and evaluate their
skills in a safe environment.
This year we celebrate
many milestones in the
School of Nursing. Please
join us at an anniversary
celebration on Friday, Nov.
4, 2011. I hope to see you
then!
STAY CONNECTED
Follow UAA on
Update your information at
www.uaa.alaska.edu/
advancement/update.cfm
You may give online anytime at
www.uaa.alaska.edu/giving
Learn more about your
UAA Alumni Association
Barbara Berner
Ed.D., APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP
Director
UAA School of Nursing
www.UAAAlumni.org
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working toward our mission to connect,
advocate and support UAA.
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