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Innovative Programs

The UAB School of Nursing consistently ranks among the top nursing schools in the country, as designated by U.S. News & World Report, for our pioneering hybrid graduate specialty programs. The UABSON is the leading producer of baccalaureate, master's and doctoral-degree nurses in Alabama and the Southeast.

Strategic Goal: Lead evidence-based education, practice, research and service.

  • Demonstrate excellence in student and program outcomes through implementation of innovative programs.
    • Program curricula integrate concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion and their association with population heath, health disparities, and social determinants of health.
    • All academic program curricula integrate the concept of environmental health and its growing impact on the health of populations.
    • Sustain and strengthen interprofessional educational experiences across all programs.
  • Develop and implement leading-edge programs that are recognized as program of choice to meet the changing needs of the health care system.
    • Obtain approval from Graduate School Curriculum Committee for new graduate pathways, specialty tracks and certificates.
    • Re-launch Student Nurse Internship Program with UAB Hospital and Children's of Alabama and assess impact on transition to practice post-graduation.
    • Evaluate impact of the Joint Enrollment Model.
  • Achieve and maintain optimum level of student enrollment according to yearly goals.
    • Diversify educational opportunities in graduate clinical programs to prepare students for emerging health systems roles.
    • Establish target enrollment goals for programs/pathways with potential for growth.
    • Recruit, enroll, and retain a diverse student body

Sustainable Scholarship

In the past three years, our sustained scholarship has increased to nearly $13 million annually. While funding has grown substantially, the complexity of health care demands that we discover and apply the best evidence-based nursing from bench to bedside and community.

Strategic Goal: Generate and translate the best evidence to improve health outcomes.

  • Move UABSON to the top 10 NIH-funded schools of nursing.
    • Increase SON NIH research dollars and non-NIH funding.
    • Develop an NIH funded center and/or training program grant in research priority area.
  • Recruit and retain diverse funded faculty and research teams in priority research areas.
    • Recruit and retain funded faculty teams who align with and strengthen research and scholarship priority areas.
    • Develop and maintain an effective research mentor program that fosters positive faculty evaluation and promotion.
  • Promote collaboration and leadership opportunities for interprofessional research and scholarship.
    • Develop leadership and collaborative research relationships between UABSON and university-wide interdisciplinary research center, global, UAB Center for Clinical and Translational Sciences structures.
    • Leverage patient-centered clinical and health system research and scholarship collaborations within SON & UAB-related entities.
  • Promote excellence in the clinical and teaching scholarship.
    • Support entrepreneurial innovation and development of intellectual property from research and scholarship projects.
    • Promote collaboration between DNP and PhD faculty and students to enhance research translation.
  • Strengthen the research components of the DNP, PhD and Post-Doc programs.
    • Ensure that all PhD students are matched with, serve on, and are mentored by funded research faculty teams.
    • Provide tailored research mentorship and career development opportunities (e.g. F, K awards) for students in all research-focused pathways: BSN-to-PhD, MSN-to-PhD and DNP-to-PhD students, post docs.

Collaborative Partnerships

The School has consistently been awarded HRSA and other extramural funding to help transform health care in the state of Alabama. Using our collective experience, we create partnerships to advance interprofessional teaching, research and service that broaden students and faculty, opening opportunities for collaborative programs, shared resources, faculty practice, care redesign, professional development, global partnerships, and delivering care to underserved populations addressing health disparities and promoting health equity.

Strategic Goal: Transform health, health policy and healthcare delivery through synergistic alliances.

  • Continue to grow faculty practice opportunities with an emphasis on sustained, team-based, collaborative models to improve primary, chronic and transitional care for diverse individuals and populations.
    • Provide a supportive infrastructure to grow, monitor and evaluate sustainable faculty practices.
    • Generate revenues that support partnerships for primary, chronic and transitional care management across the lifespan.
  • Expand partnerships and community engagement with, hospitals, public health and other community agencies to develop a diverse nursing workforce across all levels.
    • Advance career mobility by partnering with rural hospitals and community-based clinical agencies to recruit nurses into RN Mobility, BSN, AMNP, MSN, DNP and PhD programs.
  • Grow and develop partnership opportunities with UAB Hospital and Health System, Children’s of Alabama, the Birmingham VA Health Care System and other healthcare and community organizations with emphasis on interprofessional experiential learning.
    • Develop post-graduate residency programs with UAB Health System and other partners.
    • Create and align initiatives to place faculty and students in Alabama communities where the need exists.
    • Expand digital telehealth and distance health education initiatives to address critical Alabama health deficits and disparities in rural and underserved communities.

Global Leadership

Our school's leadership stretches from Birmingham, throughout Alabama and the southeast, to the national level and to international sites such as Latin America and Africa, where we partner to build nursing capacity and develop knowledge to improve health and well-being. The need for nursing leaders to help forge creative change to advance health locally and globally remains a high priority need.

Strategic Goal: Expand global leadership and social justice in nursing, health and healthcare.

  • Lead global efforts to improve healthcare by increasing the quantity, diversity, distribution and quality of the nursing workforce.
    • Strategically lead at international, national and regional levels in the preparation of diverse nurse clinicians, leaders, faculty and scientists.
    • Sustain international partnerships for education, training and research.
  • Sustain global partnerships to develop knowledge and build nursing capacity in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal #3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages” (UN General Assembly, 2015).
    • Create new models, virtual or in person, to expand access to global/glocal health experiences for all SON undergraduate and graduate students to ensure global health competency.
    • Develop technology-aided interprofessional global health experiences for faculty and students. Integrate and disseminate Florence Nightingale’s impact in relation to SDG #3: “Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”.
  • Sustain the UABSON PAHO/WHOCC signature program.
    • Implement the designated tasked PAHO/WHOCC 2019 – 2023 terms of reference (TORs) and activities.
    • Achieve continuous 4-year term re-designation of the PAHO/WHOCC by April, 2023.

Valuable Resources

Strategically grow our resources to continue excellence in leadership in education, research and scholarship and service, while contributing to the development of our most treasured resources: students, faculty, staff, alumni, boards and community.

Strategic Goal: Maximize resources for leadership, excellence and social responsibility across all missions.

  • Expand resources across SON missions to support facilities, technology, faculty, students, programs and clinical partnerships.
    • Secure grants, federal, and philanthropic funding to support a comprehensive health and wellness initiative for women and children in Alabama, and beyond.
    • Increase grants, federal, philanthropic and other sources of funding to attract a diverse pool of PhD and Post-Doctoral students and support and expand programs.
    • Secure funding for collaborative space across missions for faculty and their teams, doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows. Increase funding to competitively recruit or retain diverse faculty scholars with scholarship that strategically aligns with the University.
    • Develop sustained funding sources to increase activities and initiatives of the three missions addressing health equity in rural and underserved communities.
  • Engage and recognize diverse alumni to build mutually beneficial relationships.
    • Increase School advocacy, involvement and support among diverse alumni base, with a special emphasis on young alumni.
    • Increase alumni giving to annual fund and other strategic philanthropic priorities.
  • Engage faculty, staff, and alumni in a sustained culture of social responsibility, leadership and excellence.
    • Recruit and retain diverse faculty and staff to support the missions of the School of Nursing.
    • Create opportunities for faculty, staff and alumni to participate in professional, leadership and skill-building activities.
    • Promote a nurturing environment of civility, diversity, inclusivity and equity.
    • Formalize a process for leadership development for minority and male faculty and staff.