60TH ANNIVERSARY

The East Carolina College of Nursing celebrates 60 years of educating Pirate Nurses this fall. The ECU nursing community marked the occasion with a virtual Homecoming and 60^th anniversary celebration that ended with a Coast-To-Coast Toast from Dean Sylvia Brown on Friday, Oct. 16.

The event capped off weeks of virtual reunions where alumni from the college reconnected with each other via Microsoft Teams and shared their favorite memories of their time at the college. The 60^th anniversary celebration was initially planned to be an in-person event but was transformed into a virtual event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virtual event debuted on YouTube and included commentary from alumni and longtime faculty reflecting on their time at the College of Nursing.

Visit YouTube for the closed-captioned version of this video.

“Although it has been a very tumultuous year to say the least, knowing that we have so many Pirate Nurses working hard across our state and our nation and globally — this really encourages me,” said Dr. Sylvia Brown, dean of the College of Nursing since 2009, during the event. “They are working at patient bedsides, in leadership positions in health care and also studying the ways that we can improve how we care for patients, each other and ourselves. All of that gives me a great deal of hope for a brighter future.”

The four-year nursing program at what was then East Carolina College was approved in 1959, with the first class of nursing students enrolled in 1960. Since that time, the college has celebrated numerous important milestones including the addition of multiple graduate degree options, receiving countless accolades and four designations as a Center of Excellence for Nursing Education.

ECU School of Nursing students ride aboard a parade float commemorating the school’s 30th anniversary during the Homecoming parade in fall of 1990. (ECU Digital Collections photo)

Formerly the ECU School of Nursing, it joined ECU’s Division of Health Sciences in 1987 and received official designation as a college in 2007. In addition to the establishment of the school’s master’s program in 1977 and two doctoral programs — the PhD program in 2002 and the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program in 2013 — the college has grown to become the state’s largest university producer of newly-licensed nurses in the state of North Carolina.

“I’m very proud of the new programs that we’ve started, and how well they’re doing,” said Dr. Phyllis Horns, who served as dean of the school and college from 1990-2009. “They’re all quality programs and they are all well-enrolled and they’re serving a great need for our community, our state and our nation.”

“There are growth opportunities for us in the College of Nursing. I think our focus has always been on meeting the needs of the region,” Brown said. “Most recently, we added the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner option because we know there’s such a need for mental health providers in our area and really nationally. I hope that we will continue to focus on meeting the health care needs of rural areas and underserved areas, not only locally, but also globally.”

Since enrolling its first class in 1960, the ECU’s nursing school has grown to include several graduate degree programs including a master’s program with nine concentration options as well as two doctoral programs. (Photo taken pre-COVID-19 by Jeremy Smith)

The college’s homecoming and anniversary celebration week began with the short film premiere of “What Would Florence Say?,” a historically inspired exploration of how founder of modern nursing Florence Nightingale would counsel today’s working nurses as they care for patients during a global pandemic. The film was created by ECU Nursing faculty member Dr. Melissa Beck. Beck has played Nightingale for nursing-based educational events for nearly 10 years and collaborated with ECU Nursing PhD alumna, UNC-Wilmington faculty member and Florence Nightingale historian Dr. April Matthias, as well as Beck’s daughter, Anna Howell and others to create this historically informed short film.

“I already knew from reading her letters (how she would have written to today’s nurses),” Beck said. “I used words that she used in her letters. I had to go back and re-read a lot of her letters to find the words that I was looking for because I wanted to stay true to Florence Nightingale. I had to rely on Matthias’ expertise to sift through the things that a lot of people get wrong on the internet. I had to make sure it was true.”

Formerly housed in the Rawl Building, the Graham Building and an eight-room house on Fifth Street, the College of Nursing moved to its current home in the Health Sciences Building in 2006. The college now has 8 simulation labs equipped with the latest medical and simulation tools available, including dozens of manikins, compressed air to allow simulation of medical air, oxygen and suction, stand-up computer stations, and well as computers that operate video and sound recording and playback for debriefing in each lab space. (Photo by Conley Evans)

Alumni and friends of the college across the nation were invited to join the dean in a coast-to-coast toast that served as the finale of the virtual event. Brown raised her glass to the alumni, students, faculty staff, clinical partners, donors and friends who have helped to build the college’s legacy, and shared her vision for the future of the college.

“Let’s be reminded of our shared commitment to improve the health and well-being of people in the region and around the world through our innovation in nursing education, leadership, research, scholarship and practice,” Brown said. “As we move into our next decade, let us remember our shared vision of Pirate Nurses compelled by the belief that all people deserve quality health care, especially in rural and underserved areas.”

COLLEGE OF NURSING NEWS