FYI: Murray Ledger & Times Your Home Town News Source

The Murray State University board of regents recently voted unanimously at its quarterly meeting to establish a school of nursing, effective July 1.

The department of nursing as an entity of the MSU college of health sciences and human services will roll over into a stand-alone academic school.

With a shortage of health care professionals in MSU's service region, both currently and projected for the future, this move to enhance the nursing program at Murray State is particularly timely.

The nursing program at Murray State has continued to grow over the past years (last year it was Murray's largest undergraduate major). The programs currently offered for undergraduates include the B.S.N. and RN-B.S.N. degrees. Graduate level options in the M.S.N. degree include clinical nurse specialist, family nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist and academic nurse educator.

Murray State's nursing programs are accredited by the appropriate agencies.

The move to a school of nursing will support efforts to increase student enrollment and enhance faculty recruitment, as well as add to the visibility of the nursing area, including an eventual addition of a doctoral degree. During the spring legislative session, a bill was passed permitting the six comprehensive universities to provide advanced nursing practice doctoral programs upon approval of the Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE). Murray has already submitted its proposal to the CPE. A doctoral program will require approval from the Kentucky Board of Nursing and the CPE.

A school, as opposed to a department, will also lend improvement to the university's pursuit of grants and contracts related to nursing.

Dr. Michael Perlow, nursing department chair, was named interim dean of the school of nursing. A national search to permanently fill the position is planned for fall 2010.