Beginning with the current academic year, we are privileged to welcome several new faculty members. Each brings impressive credentials, a strong commitment to nursing education and a desire to inspire our students to make a difference in health care.

The College hosted a Nursing Diversity Day during the University’s 20th Annual Diversity Week in September.

Professor Betty Rambur of the University of Rhode Island’s College of Nursing has been recognized by two national organizations for her work advancing the profession and for efforts addressing the cost and quality of health care.

The College of Nursing recently hosted Catharina Gillsjo. Ph.D., who was visiting from Sweden.

Every holiday season for many years, inmates at Rhode Island’s Department of Corrections Women’s Facilities in Cranston have received small gifts in colorful bags tied with ribbon. For many, the packages of travel-size toiletries are the only presents the women receive.

Rick Brooks, Rhode Island’s director of Healthcare Workforce Transformation, told nursing leaders gathered at the University of Rhode Island that higher education is the linchpin in the evolution of health care professions and the entire health care system.

Rachel Hobbs, a senior at the University of Rhode Island, spends time at Wyman School as part of her community clinical. During lunchtimes, she and school nurse Bernadette McDowell bring a “treasure chest” full of prizes like pencils, bubbles, necklaces and coloring books for kids who get caught eating healthy foods.

An older man carefully walks a straight line marked on the carpet while students assess his gait. Down the hall, a woman rises from her wheelchair to demonstrate a new prosthesis. In a room nearby, students advise a woman on medication use.

The young woman cradling the bundled-up baby at the back of the room appears anxious and standoffish. The two dozen University of Rhode Island freshman nursing students huddled around the bed of an infant with a racing heart across the way barely notice. After several minutes, student Jillian Bernier of Woonsocket, R.I., approaches her.

Last month Rhode Island Monthly magazine chose Associate Professor Deb Erickson-Owens as Nurse Midwife of the Year as part of its Excellence in Nursing awards, presented with the Rhode Island State Nurses Association.