Dr. Jane Carpenter, Associate Dean of the Undergraduate Nursing Programs and director of Pre-Licensure program, will become the Dean of the School of Nursing on July 1, 2019. 

Carpenter has been working at Washburn School of Nursing for 26 years.

“I love what I do. I love healthcare. It’s always changing. There are always new techniques, new technology, new ways of doing things. I see our ability as faculty members to be able to help develop and prepare the workforce of the future.” said Carpenter. “I love working with students and helping them learn and be ready to go take care of patients.”

About the plans for the School of Nursing, Carpenter said: “My primary goal is to continue the legacy that was established by my predecessors. We’ve had three amazing former Dean’s in the School of Nursing, and they have developed an amazing program, and we want to continue on with the work that we’ve been doing.” Carpenter added, “I want to continue to promote student success and help students to learn. We’ve developed tutoring hours and peer-to-peer mentoring and have been doing some one-on-one faculty mentoring students. that has been very successful.”

“Continuing to look toward advances in technology. Healthcare and technology are rapidly changing, our goal is to prepare our students to adapt to change and be change agents.… Strengthen faculty resources so that we can be the best teachers and use best practice to help with our teaching.” said Carpenter. “Another goal will be to continue to grow the graduate program. It’s one of the fastest growing programs on campus.” 

The School of Nursing values its strong partnerships with our local hospitals. “We work with all of the local hospitals, University of Kansas Health Systems, St. Francis campus, Stormont Vail Health, the VA, Lawrence Memorial, Via Christi in Manhattan… We also continue to work with our community agency partners.” stated Carpenter.

The School of Nursing received a federally funded HRSA grant this past year, the Renew grant. “Our Renew grand stands for Registered nurse Education for a Nurse-Led Enhanced.” explained Carpenter. “We are just finishing our first year of the grant, which is our beginning year. And we will start our second year with sixteen students who will be in this program and getting some tuition assistance.” The goal of the project is to expand an existing academic-practice partnership model to recruit and educate BSN students in the skills needed to practice at the full scope of their license in community-based primary care teams. The project is designed to improve access to and delivery of health care services to rural and under-served consumers.

“She was my pharmacology lab teacher. That class was a lot more hands on. She was able to demonstrate in many different ways and conformed to different students learning abilities and help them perform at their best.” said Madison Neiberding, senior nursing major, who had Carpenter’s class in her first semester.

When asked about her most memorable moment, Carpenter had a hard time answering stating that there were many.

“For me, I love commencement. I love our nursing recognition ceremony and getting to see the students walk across the stage and just see the joy and the excitement as they started their careers,” explained Carpenter. 

Edited by Joelle Conway and Abbie Barth