{"id":48198,"date":"2006-07-07T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2006-07-07T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2006\/07\/07\/steve-pitkin-appointed-assistant-dean-unmc-college-of-nursing-kearney-division\/"},"modified":"2022-08-28T19:39:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-29T00:39:04","slug":"steve-pitkin-appointed-assistant-dean-unmc-college-of-nursing-kearney-division","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2006\/07\/07\/steve-pitkin-appointed-assistant-dean-unmc-college-of-nursing-kearney-division\/","title":{"rendered":"Steve Pitkin appointed assistant dean, UNMC College of Nursing Kearney Division"},"content":{"rendered":"
Steve Pitkin has been appointed assistant dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Kearney Division. Pitkin has been serving as interim assistant dean, and has been teaching nursing since 1979, first with Kearney State College Department of Nursing, and then with UNMC when Kearney State became part of the University of Nebraska system. <\/div>\n
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Pitkin, of Callaway, Neb., said his background prepared him well for his current position. “I have a good sense of what the needs are,” he said. Pitkin, who has a background in nursing practice, education and policy, is an advocate for health care in central Nebraska. <\/div>\n
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Providing the best nursing care, said Pitkin, begins with excellence in nursing education. He said one of the major strengths of faculty at the Kearney Division is their commitment to students. “Our students have a lot of access to their faculty members. There’s a lot of dialogue.” <\/div>\n
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Virginia Tilden, D.N.Sc., dean of the UNMC College of Nursing, said Pitkin has the vision, drive and skills to lead the Kearney Division in positive directions. “Steve has shown this past year as interim assistant dean that he is a competent and compassionate leader who works effectively for the good of the Kearney Division and the good of the college and university.”<\/div>\n
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His appointment term is two years with potential renewal.<\/div>\n
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Pitkin’s goals for the division are many, including developing additional innovative ways of teaching and learning, faculty development, leadership and mentorship development, and increasing the number of clinical practice sites and contracts where faculty and students serve patients. He also will focus on increasing nursing research projects and the number of faculty with doctoral degrees, and establishing more partnerships with area agencies and institutions.<\/div>\n
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“Being part of an academic institution involves a lot more than educating students,” Pitkin said. “We also have to engage our students in service learning projects, increase the number of minorities and men in nursing, and look at more innovative ways of educating students. We also have a major interest in the health and social needs of those in our region which is what drives what we do in education.”<\/div>\n
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The college, he said, will continue to develop its faculty nursing practices — contracted services for health care typically in community settings. “We’ve hired faculty who are nurse practitioners and we’re looking for sites to support their practices. We also have an applicant pool of students larger than what we can accept. Our GPAs (grade-point-averages) have risen.”<\/div>\n
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The Kearney Division faculty and students serve in the nurse-managed Clinics of Good Health in Gibbon and Lexington. Faculty also have nursing contracts with various organizations. Pitkin also continues to practice nursing. Currently he works with patients with complex nursing challenges. <\/div>\n
He said some of the challenges facing the college include faculty nursing shortages. “We have some faculty members nearing retirement age. We’re actively involved in succession planning. When you lose senior faculty, you lose a wealth of experience and knowledge.”<\/div>\n
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Pitkin knows the commitment he’s made as assistant dean means sacrifice. <\/div>\n
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“You know part of your personal life is going to take a back seat for a while to make innovative things happen. You have to have a vision, the skills to lead folks, and to build on the strengths of your predecessor. I want to move the division to the next step. I’ve got some passion for this and I believe in this.” <\/div>\n
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Pitkin earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Kearney State College in 1969, he then earned a nursing diploma from Nebraska Methodist Hospital School of Nursing in 1974 and a master’s degree in nursing from Wichita State University in 1989.<\/div>\n
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Pitkin didn’t start out in the nursing profession. After earning a bachelor’s degree in education, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during the Vietnam era. When he separated from the service, he went home to Callaway, Neb. Since the school year had already started, there weren’t jobs in teaching. So he began working in a nursing home.<\/div>\n
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During that time, he said, “I saw a TV show about nurse anesthesia. I thought it would be alright. While I was visiting with a local physician, I mentioned it to him and he picked up the phone and called colleague in Omaha. I enrolled in Methodist College of Nursing in Omaha.” <\/div>\n
When the bachelor’s degree in nursing program started at Kearney State College, there were only six bachelors-prepared nurses in central Nebraska in a 23-county region. “That has changed dramatically,” Pitkin said. “The beauty is it added additional opportunities for the master’s in nursing program. We have prepared many master’s prepared nurses and now we offer a doctorate in nursing here.” <\/div>\n
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He said after nursing school he said he chose to return to Kearney because of the things that had been done for him and the people in his life.” I made a commitment to central Nebraska and to use the gifts I’ve been given to try to help health care and nursing care in Nebraska grow.”<\/div>\n
Pitkin has held a variety of roles in academic nursing and nursing practice, including serving as a consultant to health care institutions. He’s worked on a health care education projects for profit and non-profit organizations in Nebraska, and ultimately taught emergency room nursing, medical surgical courses, then developed curriculum for geriatric nursing.<\/div>\n
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Pitkin has done a vast amount of work with the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the Nebraska Nurses Association. Among the ANA committees on which he has served include the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Commission. U.S. health-care institutions recognized by the commission earn the distinction of nursing excellence.<\/div>\n
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Some of the community organizations he’s involved in include the American Nurses Association, Nebraska Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau and the Central Nebraska Evidence Based Practice Council and American Red Cross Disaster Nursing Committee.<\/div>\n
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Steve Pitkin has been appointed assistant dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Kearney Division. Pitkin has been serving as interim assistant dean, and has been teaching nursing since 1979, first with Kearney State College Department of Nursing, and then with UNMC when Kearney State became part of the University of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\nSteve Pitkin appointed assistant dean, UNMC College of Nursing Kearney Division<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Steve Pitkin has been appointed assistant dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing Kearney Division. 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