As UVA’s School of Nursing plans to expand, its leadership is receiving some high accolades. Nursing School Dean Jeanette Lancaster was recently named a finalist for the “100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare,” a survey sponsored by Modern Healthcare Magazine. Final results of the survey won’t be announced until August, but Lancaster is already flexing her muscles. She’s spearheading the push to expand the Nursing School’s enrollment by 25 percent, an effort that includes the new Claude Moore Nursing Education Building (which broke ground in April) and renovations of McLeod Hall. In the following edited interview, Lancaster speaks about nursing and other changes coming to the health care system.—Stephanie Henderson
C-VILLE: What does it mean to be a powerful person in the health care industry?
Jeanette Lancaster: The power is not mine but rather belongs to nursing and the organization I am president of—the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. I plan to speak on behalf of nursing, to increase our voice as an invaluable component of the U.S. health care system. Nurses are the largest population of health care professionals.
How is the health care crisis changing the nursing industry?
Society is changing so dramatically. It is no longer enough to work in a hospital and only speak English. There is a great need for students and clinicians to understand cultural differences and have a more global perspective of health care. Additionally, the U.S. and many other countries are seeing a nursing shortage that has no end in sight. Simultaneously there are shortages of many other health care professionals and a physician shortage seems imminent.