Steve Pitkin has been appointed assistant dean of the UNMC College of Nursing Kearney Division.
Pitkin, who has been serving as interim assistant dean, 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.
Pitkin said his background in nursing practice, education and policy prepared him well for his current position. “I have a good sense of what the needs are,” he said.
Providing the best nursing care begins with excellence in nursing education, said Pitkin, an advocate for health care in central Nebraska. He praised the faculty’s commitment to students. “Our students have a lot of access to their faculty members. There’s a lot of dialogue.”
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.”
His appointment term is two years with potential renewal.
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, the number of faculty with doctoral degrees and establishing more partnerships with area agencies and institutions.
“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.”
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.”
The Kearney Division faculty and students serve in the nurse-managed Clinics of Good Health in Gibbon and Lexington. Faculty members also have nursing contracts with various organizations. Pitkin also continues to practice nursing, working with patients with complex nursing challenges.
Faculty nursing shortages are among some of the challenges facing the college, Pitkin said. “We have some faculty members nearing retirement age so we’re actively involved in succession planning,” he said. “When you lose senior faculty, you lose a wealth of experience and knowledge.”
Pitkin earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Kearney State College in 1969, 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.
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. Because the school year had already started, there weren’t jobs in teaching so he began working in a nursing home.
During that time, he saw a TV show about nurse anesthesia. While visiting with a local physician, he mentioned it to him. Eventually, he enrolled in Methodist College of Nursing in Omaha.”
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.”
He chose to return to Kearney after nursing school. “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,” he said.
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 health care education projects for profit and non-profit organizations in Nebraska, and taught emergency room nursing, medical surgical courses, as well as developed curriculum for geriatric nursing.
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 was the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Commission. United States health-care institutions recognized by the commission earn the distinction of nursing excellence.
He’s also active with the American Nurses Association, Nebraska Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, the Central Nebraska Evidence Based Practice Council and American Red Cross Disaster Nursing Committee.