COMING SOON! A New Nursing Program for UNM-Taos

The application for UNM-Taos to start an Associate Degree in Science Nursing Program (ADN-RN) in the fall of 2009 has been approved by the New Mexico Board of Nursing. Coming soon will be a new nursing program website with information on the application, program requirements, TEAS testing and CPR certification.

Currently, a program information sheet listing pre-requisites and course content is available from:

Kathy Falkenhagen MSN, RN, Director of Nursing 575-741-1367

Mario Suazo, Nursing Advisor 575-737-6200

Damon Montclare Nursing Advisor 575-737-6290

The goal of the UNM-Taos ADN-RN nursing program is to assist individuals in Northern New Mexico to be able to stay in the community. This will be accomplished by students attending all classes on UNM-Taos campus, participating in clinical experiences in the area, graduating and having the opportunity to stay in the area to work.

UNM-Taos has a complete nursing educational facility located at the UNM-Taos Med Center location (across the street from Holy Cross Hospital) containing a classroom, clinical lab and office space for faculty. These facilities will be utilized by the UNM-Taos ADN-RN program

The curriculum will extend over a consecutive 4 semester time frame. Many of the pre-requisites can be taken as dual credit courses in the Taos high schools .Students with previous college degrees will be evaluated individually. The curriculum shall provide instruction in the discipline of nursing, appropriate to the RN level, across the lifespan and include content relevant to national and local health care needs.

Clinical experience shall provide opportunities for application of theory client care setting, and shall include clinical learning experience to develop nursing skills required for safe practice. Holy Cross Hospital will be used as the primary site, along with the numerous clinics, Mountain Home Health Care, the Taos Living Center and outpatient facilities.

In collaboration with Holy Cross Hospital, UNM-Taos is excited to begin this new era in providing a high quality ADN-RN Nursing Program which will serve the nursing needs of the Northern New Mexico region.

The Year in Review

In that busy period right before Christmas when everything around you is slowing down yet there aren’t enough hours in the day or pages in the appointment calendar to cover all the things you need to accomplish, I met with UNM-Taos Executive Director Dr. Kate O’Neill to get her overall impression of the year rapidly coming to a close. On a day when the campus was closed due to snow and she was waiting for tire chains to be installed on her truck, she had just enough time for a quick cup of coffee and a summary of some of the major events that shaped community college’s progress in 2008. “2008 was another banner year for UNM-Taos. We got construction under way on two new buildings: the Career Tech Center with its three computer classrooms, and Phase One of the Kids’ Campus. “We also completed the Klauer infrastructure, primarily water, sewer and fire suppression. That was huge. “We succeeded in getting the largest amount ever through the state legislature in a 30 day session. We got 3.3 million in the General Obligation Bond, and fortunately, with the support of citizens throughout New Mexico, that bond passed in November. That will help us complete Pueblo Hall, the 18,000 square foot multi purpose classroom building which will make it possible to consolidate the eleven locations currently serving our students. “We are also hoping to get telecom wireless capacity out there, and we’ve got a new computer IT coordinator, Joachin Cantu, who is helping us with a strategic plan for the whole campus. “We succeeded in hiring Spears Architects to review our campus master plan. That was just completed in December, so we are really excited about that. “We have also succeeded in getting several grants. We got a big federal Title V STEM grant, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Title V is a two year grant for Hispanic serving institutions. We will have about $400,000.00 a year to help set up the UNM-Taos Water Institute---a neutral academic water resource clearing house for all sorts of water information. We will have 18 interns and equipment that will allow us to go out and scan maps, photographs and documents so that we can document oral history and preserve materials in the area without actually having to physically possess those materials. “Another grant that we got was the second HUD grant for the Kids’ Campus. We got $600,000.00 which will allow us to begin Phase Two, an expansion of the facility just completed in ’08. We also received $47,000.00 from the Daniels Fund, which will help us with training for the Kids’ Campus. “Another big, big success is that we got state employment funding for our nursing program. We got $337,000.00 per year for two years that will allow us to start a program in collaboration with Holy Cross Hospital leading to an Associate’s Degree in Nursing. It will qualify people to sit for their RN exam, and then they can complete their Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing online if they choose to. That program was just approved by the State Board of Nursing, and because we had the BSN program and we have the faculty in place, the curriculum all set up and the relationship with Holy Cross established, we can begin the program as early as September, ’09. “We are still waiting for the installation of the five acre solar array that will provide 500 kilowatts of power to the Klauer campus, and we will keep people posted in 2009 as that proceeds. “We are happy to say that starting July 1 we hired Mildred Young from Taos Pueblo. She is an Associate’s and BUS graduate from UNM-Taos and Extended University, and we are thrilled to have her as our first Native American advisor. She has become a very wonderful addition to the advising team. We also had in-person advising down at the Klauer campus this fall for the first time, and students, faculty and staff all seem to think that that has been a really positive change. We are trying to make the whole process more user friendly for students, and we think that this on-site advising is really helping. “This fall we became the first UNM branch to be able to electronically send as well as receive courses. We now have five interactive classrooms that Jack Vigil and his company Harmonix helped us set up, and he even contributed about $30,000.00 worth of equipment. Jack is from Penasco, and he knows how important these state of the art facilities are to students in northern New Mexico. “We now have legislation in dual enrollment that allows 9th and 10th graders to sign up for dual enrollment classes, so we’re continuing to offer college credit classes at all six area high schools. “Looking to the future, as most folks know, the state budget has been squeezed a bit because the price of oil and gas has gone down, and we have been asked to cut about five percent from our ING funding---that’s not grant funding, or General Obligation Bond funding; it’s operational funds. We can continue to provide the same level of services to our students and still reduce costs with a combination of some basic restructuring, some people voluntarily going to three quarter time, eliminating a UNM-Taos vehicle---those kinds of changes. For the moment we’re not looking at any personnel cuts, and we are going to try to keep it that way. “We recently had about 21 people from as far away as Los Angeles and Colorado on our campus to receive requests for proposal for the Library Learning Resource Center, the Water Institute, and the Southwest Research Center. We expect to have a couple of dozen firms bidding on these projects as we continue to move forward with the campus. “We are looking at a water catchment system that will allow us to xeriscape and irrigate the campus and possibly even put in a demonstration acequia with solar pumps. “We will have our comprehensive strategic master plan completed during 2009 which will include a marketing plan, campus buildout master plan, fundraising and IT master plans. We are ready to move forward on the strategic level, now that we’ve completed the basic infrastructure of our campus. “This coming year we are looking forward to collaborating with the new director of Holy Cross Hospital and the newly reconstituted Town Council. We congratulate Darren Cordova in becoming the newly appointed mayor. We appreciate the continuing support of the town and county and our state legislators. We look forward to working with everybody on continuing to grow this campus, especially during this pivotal time in our economy.” Dr. O’Neill finished her coffee and hurried off to see if her tire chains were ready. A reminder that the lifelong pursuit of higher education begins at the end of your own driveway. On January 19, when spring semester begins, try not to be snowed in.

New Nursing Program at UNM-Taos

Since the inception of UNM’s- BSN satellite program in Taos that began in January 2007, community health care providers and future students were excited about the program and disheartened when the announcement came that the funding was no longer in place to continue. The last class will graduate in the summer of 2009. Thanks to the vision and hard work of Jim Gilroy, Dean of Instruction, UNM-Taos was awarded a New Mexico HED grant to initiate an Associate Degree in Nursing program at UNM-Taos. This program is projected for the fall of 2009, pending approval of the New Mexico Board of Nursing. Holy Cross Hospital (HCH) will collaborate with UNM-Taos on the program implementation and provide state of the art training in their 48 bed facility. The program will be 2 years in length after completion of the pre-requisites. All course work and clinical training will be available in Taos. UNM-Taos will utilize a nursing educational facility located at the UNM-Taos Med Center location (across the street from HCH) which contains a classroom, lab and office space for the program. This new and exciting program will admit 16 students with applications taken in the late spring of 2009. Successful graduates will be awarded an Associate of Science in Nursing degree and be eligible to take the RN exam for licensure. Each year HCH provides $200,000 in scholarships for high school students entering the nursing profession as a career. Mountain Home Health Care and Hospice provides $5,000 per year for any student interested in working at Mountain Home Health Care upon graduation. The Intent of the proposed UNM-Taos ADN-RN program is to prepare, educate and support successful nursing professionals in a multicultural rural setting in Northern New Mexico. Due to the severe nursing shortage in the area, new graduates will have opportunities to fill vacancies at HCH, community clinics, physician offices, home health care facilities and the Taos Living Center. The mission of the UNM-Taos ADN-RN program is to develop health care professionals to be clinically competent and culturally sensitive in delivering care to clients in a rural setting. The vision for the new UNM-Taos ADN-RN program is that it will be recognized for excellence in educating responsible, competent, highly qualified, knowledgeable, skills oriented and caring Registered Nurses in Northern New Mexico. Expected ADN-RN program educational outcomes of the UNM-Taos ADN-RN program would include: Utilize critical thinking and the nursing process in decision making to provide safe, quality and comprehensive nursing care for rural clients and their families. Communicates therapeutically with multiple rural clients and their families in the provision of their care. Integrates the teaching-learning process in the delivery of care to multiple rural clients and their families to meet their needs for health maintenance, promotion and /or restoration. Now, UNM-Taos and HCH are prepared and can provide an innovative, sustainable, high quality ADN-RN Program which will serve the needs of the community. This could be one of the most important programs offered in Northern New Mexico. For further information on admission requirements, pre-requisites or questions call: Kathy Falkenhagen MSN, RN Director of Nursing ADN-RN Program UNM-Taos 575-741-1367

Calling All Creative Writers!

UNM has created a new, multi-genre course in Creative Writing that allows writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction to develop projects together in one workshop. For the new year, UNM-Taos will be offering Taoseñas and Taoseños the first-ever section of this class to be taught in the north. Beginning January 20, writers will meet two afternoons a week (Tuesdays & Fridays, 2:30 'til 4:30) for an eight-week, intensive writing workshop. Participants will receive structured writing guidance while reading Janet Burroway's textbook "Imaginative Writing: the Elements of Craft" as well a rich selection of original work from regional authors and poets. And class will be held right in downtown Civic Plaza, so you won't need to drive out to Klauer campus in Ranchos. Please feel free to call the instructor directly (737.6257) for more info about English 224: Creative Writing (Course Registration Number: 35905).