By Mandi Enger
Nevada State College (NSC) held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its recently renovated library on Friday, Dec. 14. Hosted by NSC President Bart Patterson, the Foundation Board of Trustees, and Library Services Director Kate Hahn, the event honored the library’s newly announced namesake, Marydean Martin.
An original member of the Nevada State College Foundation, Martin and husband Charles Silvestri are longtime supporters of both the college and its library.
Marydean Martin generously contributed a significant amount of money to support the expansion of the NSC Library,” Patterson said. “Marydean is a tireless advocate to support the value of learning for future generations of NSC students. Her first large contribution came in the summer of 2002 – as the college prepared to open for the first time, with the donation of numerous crates of her personal book collection. We’re truly honored to have Marydean as a supporter for the college and gracious contributor to our library.
Martin will be permanently recognized throughout the library with new signage, a framed portrait, and the stencil of one of her poems. A certificate of recognition from Governor Brian Sandoval, presented during the ceremony, will also be displayed.
Located in the NSC Dawson Building, library construction was completed during NSC’s fall 2012 semester. The Marydean Martin Library includes a multi-purpose study and lecture room; a computer lab equipped with over 20 touchscreen monitors; compact book shelving; a quiet study lounge; and a group study room housing a SMART board interactive whiteboard system.
The renovated library is 3,300 square-feet and provides students, faculty, and staff with approximately 19,500 books, 89,000 e-books, 625 DVDs and videos, 9,000 streaming videos, 1,000 online maps, a database of 33,000 periodicals, 3,000 physical periodicals, 30 periodical subscriptions, and 100 online periodical subscriptions.
The Marydean Martin Library provides the academic community with a space dedicated to supporting inquiry, learning, and collaboration, added Hahn. It is the heart of our academic community.
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Nevada State College nurse residency program celebrates second year of success at Sunrise Hospital & Medical Center
By Mandi Enger
Marking the end of the program’s second year, 28 nurses graduated from the Nevada State College (NSC) and Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center (SHMC) nurse residency program on Monday, Dec. 10. Brought to the hospital in late 2010, the collaborative program promotes retention as well as ongoing education for first-year nurses.
We’re proud to say that the retention rate of the 2012 class is over 90%, said NSC Assistant Dean of Nursing, Ruby Wertz. On a national level, first-year nurses who do not participate in residency programs have a retention rate closer to 75%.
All graduates of the year-long program are currently employed throughout the hospital in areas such as med/surg and the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The 25 nurses from the 2011 program cohort have also continued working at the hospital and will be moving into their third year of employment.
If nurses work at the hospital bedside for their first year, it is likely they will stay for their entire career, added Leslie Hunter-Johnson, the SHMC nurse resident coordinator and palliative care coordinator.
In addition to retention, the residency program encourages nurses to be leaders and change agents throughout their careers. During the program, the nurses participated in evidence-based group research projects on topics such as improving Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (HCAHPS) scores, updating hospital policies and procedures on tube feeding, and the encouragement of kangaroo care. Topics were selected by the groups based on the needs of their individual units.
Six groups presented their projects during the December celebration sharing details on their research, personal experiences, and next steps for the projects such as implementation strategies or follow up research that can be taken over by future cohorts.
A new group of nurses was welcomed into the residency program in November and a second group will start later in December.
The celebration concluded with each nurse being recognized by Minta Albietz, CNO at SHMC and Sherrilyn Coffman, dean of the college’s school of nursing. Each nurse received a certificate of completion as well as a pin.
The curriculum utilized in the program is adapted from the UHC/American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) Nurse Residency Program. The NSC/SHMC nurse residency program is the first in the state to use this curriculum and the first to be initiated by a college or university, rather than a hospital.
The program is open to Bachelor of Science in nursing graduates from any college. The recent cohort included seven NSC alumni as well as others from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, Touro University, and Roseman University.
For more information on the program, please email nursing@nsc.edu.
Nevada State College professor contributes to GRAMMY nominated historical album
By Mandi Enger
Nevada State College (NSC) Associate Professor of History Pete La Chapelle is a proud contributor to the Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection released by Smithsonian Folkway Recordings this July in celebration of folksinger Woody Guthrie’s 100th birthday. This week, the Recording Academy announced that the three-CD box set had been nominated for the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards in two categories: best historical album and best packaging for a boxed set.
In the historical album category, the 57-track Woody Guthrie set will compete with other retrospective albums featuring the work of artists such as Paul McCartney and The Beach Boys.
It is exciting that our project was nominated, La Chapelle said. Woody, composer of such songs as This Land is Your Land, left an indelible mark on American music history. Much of the credit for this great set goes to co-producers Jeff Place and Robert Santelli, audio engineer Pete Reiniger, and art director Fritz Klaetke, but I am glad that I got to play a part in it as well.
La Chapelle’s contribution adds to the set’s overall historical significance. Besides various early radio performances and a rare recording of Guthrie singing the unabridged lyrics of This Land is Your Land, the Guthrie set contains four songs recovered by La Chapelle during his doctoral research at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1999. The songs titled Skid Row Serenade, Them Big City Ways, Do Re Mi, and I Ain’t Got No Home (In This World Anymore), are the oldest-known Guthrie recordings to-date.
La Chapelle additionally contributed an essay detailing his research and findings to the large format book that accompanies the set.
After completing his dissertation at USC, La Chapelle turned his research into a book, “Proud to Be an Okie: Cultural Politics, Country Music, and Migration to Southern California,” which includes a chapter about recordings whichGuthrie recorded in Los Angeles, most likely in 1939.
Joining the NSC Department of Humanities in 2006, La Chapelle current teaches courses such as U.S. Western History, American Experience and Constitutional Change, and Popular Culture in Twentieth Century America.
I look forward to sharing this nomination experience with the NSC campus, added La Chapelle. I hope the nomination of the Guthrie album inspires students and other faculty members to continually research their areas of passion.
The 55th Annual GRAMMYs are scheduled to take place Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013.
