Kristine Reinhard, Office of Medical History and Archives, Lamar Soutter Library

Look How Far We’ve Come panel participants (l to r) Kathleen Dirschel, Sue Roberts, Karen Coteleso, Lillian Goodman and Mary K. Alexander. Not shown are Gail Frieswick and Paulette Seymour-Route.

Twenty-five years is a short time in the life of an academic institution, but the Graduate School of Nursing has accomplished more in its first quarter century than many schools accomplish in twice that time. On Oct. 19, former and current deans were joined by other key contributors to mark the 25th anniversary with a panel discussion attended by 150 members of the UMass Worcester/UMass Memorial community.

The event, “Look How Far We’ve Come (and How We Got Started),” held in recognition of American Archives Month and coordinated by the Lamar Soutter Library’s Office of Medical History and Archives with the Office of Alumni Relations, brought together the GSN’s first dean, Kathleen Dirschel, PhD; its second dean, Lillian Goodman, EdD; former UMass Medical Center COO and president Gail Frieswick, EdD; pioneering GSN faculty members Mary K. Alexander, EdD; Anne Bourgeois, EdD; and Sue Roberts, DNS; and inaugural class alum Karen Coteleso, MS, APRN. Current dean Paulette Seymour-Route, PhD, also an alum, moderated the panel, introducing each speaker with humor and thoughtful questions to launch their discussion.

Together, the panel presented an oral history of the school’s founding, reflecting on the challenges and the accomplishments and sharing their own unique perspectives in helping to shape what has become a resource in nursing excellence for all of Massachusetts. The initial vision to establish a nursing program at UMass Worcester came from founding Medical School Dean Lamar Soutter, MD, who saw the need for a four-year bachelor’s program as part of an integrated health sciences center. By the time the vision became a reality, however, it was clear that a master’s program was not only more appropriate for the school but was what the region needed as a resource.

“There were very few opportunities for nurses to move up,” said Gail Frieswick, who was at the time chief operating officer at UMass Medical Center. “We saw the need locally for nurse practitioners, leaders and educators.”

In 1985, the Graduate School of Nursing was established with a master’s level program for advanced practice nurses that would qualify experienced registered nurses to become certified nurse practitioners. The GSN’s first dean, Dr. Kathleen Dirschel, was tasked with building the school from the ground up, doing everything from developing the curriculum to finding space—never an easy task and a challenge that continues to this day. Upon her appointment, Dirschel said, “What we’re developing here is a model of unification that can be useful in other institutions. Faculty will have joint clinical appointments and our students will be directly involved in patient care and will work collaboratively with physicians in such areas as research.” As she reflected on that time, she said, “I was the lucky one to be here.”

Under Dirschel’s direction, the GSN admitted its first class of students in 1986, just one short year after the school was established. During that time, a comprehensive curriculum was designed, faculty were recruited and admission standards were established. Among the first faculty hired was Dr. Sue Roberts, who had just completed her doctorate and joined a faculty that was entirely doctorally prepared. Roberts recalled the freedom they had in creating the curriculum from scratch. “We started with what was needed and then figured out how to cut it into pieces to make a curriculum,” she said.

From the beginning, the GSN had more applicants than they had space for, and the admission standards were tough. Karen Coteleso was grateful to be accepted to the fledgling program as a member of the first class. She recalls how fundamental the supportive faculty were to her success as a student, noting in particular the encouragement she and her classmates received from Roberts. She credits Roberts with helping her learn how to think critically, saying, “It never occurred to me that I could formulate my own opinions and back them up with research.” Coteleso was well served by the GSN—she came here because she wanted to be prepared for the professional opportunities available at the then-new Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital and Outpatient Center and she went on to build her career there.

It was only a matter of time before more programs were added. Dirschel said, “Once we were up and running . . . we were on a roll to having more majors.” Under the direction of Dr. Lillian Goodman, who became interim dean in 1990, the GSN continued to flourish. During her tenure, the school began offering a collaborative doctoral program with UMass Amherst’s nursing school; it added the first adult acute/critical care specialist specialty in New England; and created new sub-specialty programs in cardiac, geriatric and cancer prevention and control education. Under Goodman’s leadership, the GSN also received a full eight-year accreditation from the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission, a remarkable accomplishment for a school barely 10 years old. Goodman served as dean from 1995 through 1999.

When Doreen Harper, PhD, became dean in 2000, the GSN was a well-established institution poised for prestige. Leveraging the school’s reputation as a tool for building partnerships, Dr. Harper was instrumental in establishing the Worcester Nursing Pipeline Collaborative as a means for addressing workforce shortages through a network of nursing education programs, health care systems, schools and community organizations in the region. Harper established the University’s first Advanced Practice Nurse Education specialty. And most notably, the GSN’s hugely successful Graduate Entry Pathway program was implemented during Harper’s tenure. The GEP creates a pathway for a student with a non-nursing background to participate in an accelerated program that prepares him or her to be an RN and culminates in a master’s degree. In just five years, the program has increased the ranks of master’s-trained nurse practitioners in the region, at once helping to ease the nursing shortage and preparing graduates to become nurse educators.

In the last five years, since Paulette Seymour-Route became dean, the GSN has continued to grow in strategic ways. Under her direction, the GSN introduced a doctor of nursing practice program in 2009, which received a five-year initial accreditation by the Collegiate Commission on Nursing Education (CCNE). This clinically focused doctoral program is fundamental to the school’s mission to prepare advance practice nurses for leadership roles in the health care system and as preceptors and mentors for students. Four students graduated from the program in June 2010. Also under Seymour-Route’s leadership, the essential partnership between the GSN and clinical partner UMass Memorial Health Care has been strengthened and expanded, in part due to her experience as CNO in the UMass Memorial clinical system. As president of the Massachusetts Organization of Nurse Executives, Seymour-Route has extended the GSN’s leadership across the state. She has also overseen significant growth in funded research by GSN faculty, including the first NIH R01 grant and the grant funding of three full-time positions. The GSN was recently awarded the maximum accreditation of ten years by the CCNE under Dean Seymour-Route’s direction.

In closing the panel discussion, Seymour-Route noted that the GSN is well positioned for health care reform and the future of nursing. She quoted Florence Nightingale, saying, "Unless we are making progress in our nursing every year, every month, every week, take my word for it, we are going back." The brief history of the GSN is all about progress. The school has shaped nurses and nursing in Central Massachusetts and across the region in a significant and strategic way. The next 25 years will surely see many more innovations and initiatives that respond to the changing role of nurses.