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Before brothers Will and Christian Hayes entered nursing, they had 10-year careers behind them dedicated to the service of others. Their combined experience includes international aid research, education, volunteer work for at-risk populations and EMT training. The Richmond natives, who hold undergraduate degrees from Virginia Tech, both graduated in December 2018 from the VCU School of Nursing’s accelerated bachelor’s degree program. Both currently work at VCU Health in intensive care.

VCU School of Nursing celebrated a legacy of being a trailblazer in nursing education and research at its 125th Anniversary Gala held Oct. 25 at The Jefferson Hotel. More than 270 faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and friends were on hand for the culminating event of the school’s anniversary celebration. The gala raised $83,000 for the VCU School of Nursing 125th Anniversary Scholarship.

Equipping up-and-coming student leaders with the necessary skills for success will strengthen their impact on the nursing profession and the health care community. Even more important, it will help identify and fill a need for next-generation leaders, a result of the increasing complexity of health care delivery combined with the current and impending wave of retirements among baby-boomer leaders in nursing. In direct response to this need, VCU School of Nursing has created and launched a new Leadership Fellows Program. The program actively encourages and supports the development of future leaders in nursing and provides selected outstanding undergraduate students with full in-state tuition for two years.

VCU School of Nursing recently marked an important milestone during its 125th year - the graduation of its first cohort of the Doctor of Nursing Practice program. VCU is the first university in the state to offer a DNP degree that is focused mainly on quality and safety in health care. The program serves as an alternative to the school’s existing research-focused doctoral degree. It prepares nurses to translate research into evidence-based practice and to lead teams of health care professionals toward improving patient outcomes.

VCU School of Nursing is once again ranked in the top 50 of the nation's graduate schools of nursing, moving up seven spots according to this week's announcement by U.S. News and World Report. VCU School of Nursing is ranked at No. 41 overall. In addition, VCU's Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program made the top 50 for the first time since it was launched three years ago, ranking No. 48.

When women are diagnosed with breast cancer, their treatment is usually based on characteristics of the general population of women fighting this disease. “They’re making life-changing decisions based on probabilities, and those probabilities are based on population predictors,” said Theresa Swift-Scanlan, Ph.D., RN, associate professor at the School of Nursing. Swift-Scanlan intends to change that. “I want to explore how those decisions could be based on their individual risk factors; the context of their environment,” she said.