FMU nursing program named a national "Center of Excellence"

Francis Marion University’s Department of Nursing has been named as one of 15 new Centers of Excellence by the National League for Nursing, the nation’s premier organization for nurse faculty and leaders in nursing education.

NLN Centers of Excellence exemplify the League’s core values of caring, integrity, diversity, and excellence, and faculty at designated institutions bear a responsibility to share their experience, knowledge, and wisdom for the benefit of everyone in nursing education.

Schools and programs that receive NLN Center of Excellence recognition must meet high standards of excellence in nursing education. Each school is recognized for a particular trait that is critical to superb nursing education.

FMU was recognized for “Promoting the Pedagogical Expertise of Faculty.”  It’s one of just seven schools across the nation recognized in that area. The others in that category include Duke, Indiana, Connecticut, the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center-New Orleans.

Dr. Ruth Wittmann-Price, dean of FMU’s School of Health Sciences and past chair of the Department of Nursing, says NLN recognition is a notable, but highly appropriate benchmark for FMU’s Department of Nursing.

“We have a long-standing commitment to providing our students with the very best instruction, which means providing them with the very best faculty,” says Wittmann-Price. “That’s a never-ending process, as any great nursing instructor will tell you. The professors must keep learning, keep improving, right along with their students.”

Adds Dr. Karen Gittings, Chair of the FMU Department of Nursing, “Our faculty consistently produces excellent research but they all consider themselves teachers first. That’s what makes FMU a special place for nursing education.”

Dr. Beverly Malone, the CEO of the National League, says the real importance of NLN Centers of Excellence is to set examples for others to follow.

“Centers of Excellence raise the bar for all nursing programs by serving as role models of visionary leadership and inclusive excellence that nurture the next generation of nurses,” says Malone.

FMU is one of just 56 institutions nationally that has been recognized as a Center of Excellence by the National League of Nursing. It’s one of just two nursing schools in South Carolina with that designation.

FMU will be formally recognized at the League’s annual Education Summit in Orlando later this fall.

For more information, contact Tucker Mitchell, executive director of public affairs, at Francis Marion University. 843.661.1332, cmitchell@fmarion.edu.