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Advances in Health and Medicine

Nursing's Role Evolves and Expands

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“We are preparing students who will become leaders in the profession, contributing to the advancement of health care and the profession itself," Pitt School of Nursing Dean Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob says of her school.

Designated a Research Intensive Environment by the National Institute of Nursing Research, Pitt’s nursing school engages in clinical and scientific research to prepare junior investigators for practice. For example, they are taught how to balance both psychiatric and medical interventions in treating people in their 80s, 90s, and even older. Such care is critical as these age groups compose the nation's fastest-growing population. Pitt ranks fifth among nursing schools in the amount of funding and number of grants it receives from the National Institutes of Health, and U.S. News & World Report has ranked the graduate program seventh in the country.

In 1987, Pitt established the Center for Research and Evaluation (CRE) to study how to apply new research and technology to nursing practice. Directed by Susan Sereika, CRE also provides nursing students such practical support as scientific review of proposals, maintenance and dissemination of information on funding, and consultation on research program development.

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