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News Release

Contact: Mark McGowan, NIU Office of Public Affairs
(815) 753-9472

October 19, 2005

State board cites NIU Nursing outreach,
high-speed network among Illinois' best practices

NIU School of Nursing's outreach to working nurses expected
to expand next fall to Alexian Brothers in Elk Grove Village

DeKalb — Six Northern Illinois University initiatives, including the School of Nursing's bachelor's degree completion program for registered nurses, were heralded Tuesday in Urbana by members of the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

The board annually measures the progress of the state's public and private universities and colleges toward meeting the goals of the Illinois Commitment, an agenda approved in 1999 “for higher education in the coming decade.”

Goals of the Illinois Commitment were clarified from surveys and focus groups, meetings and interviews and reading and listening to “what Illinois citizens want from higher education.”

Effective practices are acknowledged for their connection to the six goals:

  • Economic Growth: Higher education will help Illinois business and industry sustain strong economic growth.
  • P-20 Partnerships: Higher education will join elementary and secondary education to improve teaching and learning at all levels.
  • Affordability: No Illinois citizen will be denied an opportunity for a college education because of financial need.
  • Access and Diversity: Illinois will increase the number and diversity of citizens completing training and education programs.
  • High Quality: Illinois colleges and universities will hold students to even higher expectations for learning and will be accountable for the quality of academic programs and the assessment of learning.
  • Accountability and Productivity: Illinois colleges and universities will continually improve productivity, cost-effectiveness and accountability.

Virginia Cassidy, vice provost for academic development and planning at NIU, said the outreach to working nurses who want to further their education has a logical correlation to the Commitment's “Access and Diversity” policy area.

“The nursing program has been out there in the region for decades, trying to meet the needs of registered nurses who want bachelor's degrees, and we are continuing to do that,” Cassidy said. “It's a strong program, and attractive to the RNs. The fact that they don't have to come to DeKalb is a big draw for them.”

“These are very busy people, and we have a huge nursing shortage. They're working many, many hours, and it's hard work. It's just more convenient for them to have local access for degree completion,” agreed Brigid Lusk, acting chair of the NIU School of Nursing. “It works well for us because it's what we're quite good at: instilling critical thinking and problem-solving in addition to enhanced nursing knowledge. We're changing their way of thinking. This makes for very expert, and very safe, nurses.”

One hundred and thirty-three RNs currently are taking courses toward an NIU bachelor's degree in science with a major in nursing in Aurora (at the Dreyer Medical Clinic), Barrington (at Good Shepherd Hospita ), Malta (at Kishwaukee Community College) and online.

A cohort of nurses at Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village is expected to begin the program next fall. “They are very interested,” Lusk said. “We spent a day there and met 20 to 25 RNs who are interested, and we know of more.”

Meanwhile, she said, the NIU School of Nursing will offer a face-to-face course this spring at Elgin and Waubonsee community colleges and NIU-Rockford that introduces students to the mainly online RN-to-BS completion program.

“We're working with the community colleges and saying, ‘We want all your people, and we can take all your people.' It's less faculty-time consuming than the four-year generic program because we don't have to do the many clinicals,” Lusk said.

Designed with respect for knowledge already attained and understanding of the real world of working RNs, the NIU School of Nursing's RN-to-BS completion program prepares professional nurses for leadership roles in patient care across the spectrum of health care agencies and settings.

NIU graduates are skilled in applying knowledge of the physical and social sciences as integral aspects of nursing, and are ready to enter master's degree programs.

Classes in Aurora and Barrington began Aug. 22. NIU brings its program to where the nurses work: two classes are taught back-to-back one night a week “down the hall” just after their shifts end. More information is available at www.niunurse.niu.edu.

Earlier in the summer, NIU and Kishwaukee College invited newly minted two-year nursing graduates and other registered nurses across the region who want to earn bachelor's degrees to a new partnership between the two schools.

The 18-month curriculum will provide all necessary courses, including some additional general education credits, for an NIU bachelor's of science degree with a major in nursing.

Students will complete the courses held on the Kishwaukee campus by the end the fall semester in 2006, and will take the remainder of classes during the final two semesters at Kishwaukee Community Hospital.

“We're running a very solid program. Our regular faculty members – our tenured and our tenure track – are going out there and teaching,” Lusk said. “It's clearly identified that we have to have more baccalaureate nurses, and the level of care that folks are getting is thus safer if you get people who know how to add critical thinking into the care.”

Other NIU programs recognized today in Urbana include:

  • NIUNet (Economic Growth): NIUNet is a 175-mile fiber optic network connecting major research institutions to the world's fastest computing network. The network connects suburban Chicagoland to massive databases and previously inaccessible research networks via the information superhighway. When completed, NIUNet will comprise a redundant loop encompassing much of the northern Illinois region. Extending from DeKalb east through Batavia, Naperville, and Chicago , NIUNet will loop along I-90 to include Hoffman Estates and other northwest suburbs before reaching Rockford and extend south to connect with Rochelle and reconnect with DeKalb. NIUNet also will connect with many other self-contained municipal fiber “loops,” such as the ones currently in place in DeKalb, Naperville and Rochelle and another under development in Rockford.
  • Preparing Teachers to Serve English Language Learners (P-20 Partnerships): Working in collaboration with K-12 school districts, community colleges, private universities, and non-profit and other organizations, NIU's College of Education has provided programming for certification requirements and the professional development needs of classroom teachers who can serve students who are English language learners. Through a number of individual initiatives, individuals who hold bachelor's degrees in areas other than education and/or have degrees from other countries are taking course work to become fully certified in elementary education with an ELS/bilingual approval. Teachers who are certified are taking course work or workshops to receive ELS/bilingual approvals. NIU's partners in these efforts include school districts in Carpentersville, Chicago, Cicero, DeKalb, East Aurora, Elgin, Palatine, Schaumberg, Waukegan and West Aurora. Other partners are Aurora University, Elgin Community College, Waubonsee Community College, the Illinois Resource Center and the Stephenson County Regional Office of Education.
  • Just-in-Time Seating (Affordability): Just-in-Time Seating was designed to provide a full schedule of classes for new freshmen and transfer students who enter NIU without an associate's degree. The program was first launched by the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the fall of 1997 and was initially restricted to core competency courses. Beginning in the fall of 1999, Just-in-Time Seating was expanded to include 10 general education courses that are among those that typically enroll the most students. In 2001, the program was expanded again to include seven more general education courses with high enrollments.
  • Collaborative Integration and Support of Online Technologies (High Quality): Since 2001, NIU has been integrating online technologies into teaching, service and research activities at various levels of the university through collaborative, interdisciplinary support. The practice includes the implementation, support and training for the use of Blackboard Web course management system and helping campus units accomplish this in a collaborative and cost-effective manner. Blackboard is now used in all colleges at NIU for teaching and learning, and also is used for building learning and service communities outside the classroom. The success of online teaching and learning is evident from the growth in the use of Blackboard during the past four years, the diversity of its users and the range of teaching, service and research activities for which NIU uses Blackboard.
  • Tracker, A Computerized Inventory Control System (Accountability and Productivity): NIU began the implementation of a computerized materials tracking system, Materials Tracker, in September of 2003. This system improves the cost effectiveness of the university's materials management operations because it allows for real-time information related to item maintenance, vendor maintenance, order processing, stock replenishment and invoicing. Inventory tracking at NIU previously was conducted through a manual card system that was not only cumbersome but also inaccurate.

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