Center Marks First Year Milestone!
Nursing Administration’s Center for Professional Development & Mentoring , marks November 1st as one year anniversary.
11/06/2007
The center was established as part of a HRSA grant awarded to Dr. Margaret Calarco in 2005. The purpose of the grant was to introduce career and professional development assistance in the form of a center complete with on-site career coaching and a mentoring program. The goal is to impact nursing retention in the face of a growing nurse shortage.
“In our first year of funding, we designed the center, located resources including nursing specific career tools, developed our programming and our web site along with hiring and training our team“, says Marietta Van Buhler, Grant Manager and CPDM Program Manager. “We officially opened our doors Nov. 1st, 2006 and it’s been a whirlwind ever since”. Van Buhler states that in their first year of operation they have talked face-to-face to over 200 UMHS, student and prospective nurses. “Our web site: ww.NursingCareerDevelopment.com has logged in over 5,400 visits this past year which is encouraging that there is a need for this type of assistance for our nursing community”.
Additionally, with the assistance of the center’s nursing career coach nearly 50 outreach events have occurred. There have been presentations at numerous events including a presentation this past summer at the 2007 Michigan Nursing Summit held in Dearborn, MI.
“We have plans to enhance our programming as part of our anniversary celebration”, Van Buhler says, “Including a current request for nursing career stories from our varied and fascinating pool of nurses within the University of Michigan Health system. We would like to profile career stories as a way of encouraging others in this dynamic profession. We plan to announce the selected stories in January, 2008, coinciding with national mentoring month” Van Buhler states.
Even though nearly 45% of those responding to a recent survey stated they had heard of the center, Van Buhler feels that there is still a lot who would benefit from a better understanding of the services offered. “Our funding has allowed us to invest in some exceptional resources, and we are able to pass these along to our community at no cost. Additionally sometimes there is a misconception that services are only for the novice nurse, yet we provide services for every stage of the nursing professional. We have over 100 mentors currently in our database who have been trained and are willing to accept a mentee -- the challenge is to get those in mid-career to consider what a mentor might do for their career.”
“We are aware that ‘time’ is the number one barrier to the use of such services, so we’ve had the approach of delivering nearly all services via our web site as well as offering early morning and evening appointments. We do this to make sure we are as approachable as possible” Van Buhler emphasizes. The focus of the center remains to offer a professional environment where those in the nursing community can come and explore their profession and develop a custom career plan.
The center is located on the 6th floor of the North Ingalls Building, (6B04). To find out more, visit: www.NursingCareerDevelopment.com, or call: (734) 936-4795.
The Center for Professional Development & Mentoring is supported in part through a federal grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), DHHS. Grant#: D65HP05254 2005-2008
Margaret Calarco, PhD, RN - Principal Investigator
For More Information Contact:
Marietta Van Buhler - Program Manager Research
University of Michigan Health System - Nursing Administration Center for Professional Development
