From now until mid-July, nearly 5,000 new students will visit ECU’s campus for summer orientation. All over campus, students who just graduated from high school are learning about college classes and visiting residence halls to get a feel for life at ECU.

During the two-day orientation visit, intended nursing majors will meet with advisors and administrators from the College of Nursing to learn about the curriculum and student resources. The prerequisites for the nursing program are rigorous and students are well-prepared for entry to the College of Nursing.

The top questions/answers from today’s sessions were:

How many students are admitted to the BSN program each year?
The College of Nursing admits 130 students each semester (260 each year). Students enroll in approximately 60 semester hours of prerequisites before they apply to the College of Nursing in their sophomore year.

What if my child does not get admitted to the College of Nursing?
Fortunately, ECU is a large university that offers 102 undergraduate degree programs for students to explore. Often, students are interested in a healthcare career but nursing is not the best fit for them. We encourage these students to consider their interests and keep their options open by making good grades and taking elective courses that count for several different majors.

Where will my clinical rotations be?
The College of Nursing has partnerships with clinical agencies all over eastern North Carolina. In order to provide students with clinical experiences in many different healthcare settings, students may travel up to 90 minutes from Greenville.

What makes ECU College of Nursing special?
ECU graduates more new nurses than any school in North Carolina. With over 7500 alumni, Pirate Nurses work and live in all parts of NC and the nation. ECU ranks very high state-wide with an average of 96% percent of our students passing the NCLEX-RN licensure exam on the first attempt.

In her orientation welcome presentation, Dean Sylvia Brown proudly tells students that Pirate Nurses are honest, committed and passionate about helping others. As a Pirate Nurse herself, she knows firsthand what the students will experience when they arrive in August!

Visit www.nursing.ecu.edu for more information about ECU College of Nursing.

Laurie Evans, MA
Director of Marketing
ECU College of Nursing

Dr. Elizabeth Baxley

East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine is one of 11 schools in the nation selected for a $1 million grant from the American Medical Association to change the way it educates students while keeping its focus on rural and underserved populations.

The American Medical Association announced the winners June 14 at its annual meeting in Chicago. ECU will receive funding through the AMA’s $11 million Accelerating Change in Medical Education Initiative aimed at transforming the way future physicians are trained.

“This grant provides Brody and the ECU Division of Health Sciences with the opportunity to create and test new models of medical education. All students will benefit from the changes we are planning,” said Dr. Elizabeth Baxley, senior associate dean for academic affairs and professor of family medicine in the Brody School of Medicine. Dr. Luan Lawson, assistant dean of academic affairs and professor of emergency medicine, is co-principal investigator for the grant.

The university will implement a new comprehensive core curriculum in patient safety and clinical quality improvement for all medical students. It will feature integration with other health-related disciplines to foster interprofessional skills and prepare students to successfully lead health care teams as part of the transformation, Baxley said.

“Our medical schools today not only have the imperative to teach the art and science of medical care, but to train our graduates how to work in, and improve, complex health systems,” Baxley said. “Preparing students to work in teams with other health professionals is a hallmark of the needed changes, as is a better understanding of the ‘health’ of a community and how we can positively impact that.”

Additionally, up to 10 students each year will be selected to become Leaders in Innovative Care Scholars. These students will complete additional course work, lead projects and earn a certificate in health care transformation and leadership.

The grant also will provide training for faculty members through a new Teachers of Quality Academy, which will focus on patient safety, quality improvement and team-based care and explore new ways of engaging students to be more active in their own education, Baxley said.

Strategies will include e-learning, simulation, problem-based learning, clinical skills training and targeted clinical experiences. Emphasis on rural and underserved populations remains a fundamental part of Brody’s mission.

In addition to ECU, the following schools received funding: Indiana University School of Medicine; Mayo Medical School; NYU School of Medicine; Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine; Penn State College of Medicine; The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University; University of California, Davis School of Medicine; University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine; University of Michigan Medical School; and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

The AMA will provide $1 million to each school over five years. A critical component of the AMA’s initiative will be to establish a learning consortium to disseminate rapidly best practices to other medical and health profession schools.

Of the 141 eligible medical schools, 119 – more than 80 percent – submitted letters of intent outlining their proposals in February. In March, 28 individual schools and three collaborative groups of schools were selected to submit full proposals before a national advisory panel worked with the AMA to select the final 11 schools.

For more information about the initiative, visit www.changemeded.org.  

This week, we’ve enjoyed kicking off the summer season – and the launch of our new ECU Division of Health Sciences Twitter and LinkedIn pages – by participating in National Sun Safety Week. It’s a topic that hits home for all of the schools and colleges within our division, as sun damage can affect all parts of the body.

Our research-based tweet tips are a good place to start for those of us who need a sun safety refresher course heading into the warmest months of the year. But protecting your skin from harmful rays can be just as much about what not to do.  With that in mind, here are four ways some sun worshippers get burned:

1)      Skipping sunscreen on overcast or cloudy days. A common misconception is that the risk of sunburn on cloudy days is less, but the sun’s damaging UV light can pass through clouds (in fact, up to 40% of UV radiation reaches earth on a completely cloudy day!). So, don’t let the weather be what determines your SPF use; wear it no matter the forecast.

2)      Putting off dermatology check-ups. While skin cancer is by far the most common type of cancer, it is also one of the most treatable. The key is to get checked regularly – especially if you fall into any of these high-risk categories.

3)      Neglecting to reapply. Many times, we think we’re covered by lathering up with sunscreen once. Not true, says the American Academy of Dermatology: sunscreen should be applied every 2 hours and/or after swimming or sweating heavily, perhaps after a rigorous game of beach volleyball. Keep that sunscreen bottle by your bag, rather than buried at the bottom of it.

4)      Assuming the sun can’t find you in certain places, times or by wearing “protective” covering. We often think about getting sunburned in the obvious places and ways: usually, on the beach, in a bathing suit, on a hot summer day. While that’s certainly a high-risk setting for overexposure, UV rays can also hit us in everyday places we don’t think about: in the car, through our clothes, and in mountainous or wooded areas. The lesson: use sunscreen liberally no matter the time, place – or outfit.

Keep sun safety in mind all year round and you’ll ward off skin cancer – and be able to enjoy the warm summer weather that much more.