Mary Alice Donius has been named dean of the College of Nursing at Sacred Heart University, becoming one of six deans heading a college at the Catholic school in Fairfield. The College of Nursing had previously been SHU”™s school of nursing, lacking its own dean.
For the fall semester, the new College of Nursing will have some 500 undergraduate nursing students and approximately 900 graduate nursing students. About half of the 1,400 enrollees are online students.
Sacred Heart, which dates to 1963, when it had nine professors and 173 students, will employ 30 full-time faculty members in the College of Nursing.
Sacred Heart”™s nursing program was launched in 1980 as a registered nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing program in which RNs with nursing diplomas could receive their BSN degrees.
The profession”™s move away from certificates and two-year degrees toward the BSN was covered in the Aug. 17 FCBJ in a story titled “The third degree for nursing.”
Donius is glad to accept the challenges of her new position.
- Mary Alice Donius has been named dean of Sacred Heart University’s new College of Nursing. Photo by Tracy Deer-Mirek
“The nursing faculty members have been very important to the way the nursing program has grown in its educational offerings and commitment to the profession,” she said. “Their commitment to the advancement of this institution has been so significant that it”™s been upgraded to a college, and that”™s a huge accomplishment for SHU. The decision to transition the University”™s School of Nursing into a College of Nursing not only reflects the program”™s steady growth over the past 35 years, but it is also a response to the growing need for health care professionals as people live longer and the baby boomer generation continues to age.”
Donius, a resident of Scarborough, New York, came to Sacred Heart a year ago. She previously was dean of the School of Nursing at The College of New Rochelle in Westchester County, also a Catholic school, for seven years.
Besides Sacred Heart and the College of New Rochelle, Donius”™s experience includes director of Medical Center Education for Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle. She also taught at the Columbia University School of Nursing, where she was director of the undergraduate program.
Donius holds a master”™s of education and Ph.D. in education from Columbia University Teachers College and a post-master”™s certificate in holistic nursing from The College of New Rochelle.
Donius said she was attracted to Sacred Heart because of its mission.
“I felt it was very congruent to what I believe nursing education and practice is all about,” she said. “SHU prepares students to successfully enter an increasingly competitive work force, but also compels them to grow intellectually, morally and spiritually. The focus is on educating the entire person while emphasizing social justice and community service. For the university, it”™s not just about developing future employees, but rather citizens prepared to lead satisfying and meaningful lives in a global community. This is a mission that”™s founded in the Catholic intellectual traditions, and one that I”™m proud to serve.”
With 1,316 students, Sacred Heart University”™s class of 2019 joins the two previous classes as the largest in the school’s history. The students ”“ with high school GPAs averaging 3.4 ”“ hail from 13 countries and 25 states and territories with the most coming from New York, Connecticut, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
Ninety-one percent of the class will live on campus.
“The one thing I love about nursing is being engaged with others. It constantly feeds and renews your own humanity,” Donius said. “You find that as much as you are able to help a patient who is suffering, your engagement with that patient, community or family is reciprocal in nature and you receive so much more from them than you give. It is exciting to see our students as they develop. You see their individual growth and contribution to the caring-healing essence of the practice, profession and discipline of nursing.”
