OHSU School of Nursing marks 30 years

Calling all grads, and new students! OHSU School of Nursing to mark 30 years at EOU | La Grande Observer | Union and Wallowa Counties' News Leader

The La Grande campus of the OHSU School of Nursing will be hosting an afternoon program and reception marking its 30th year of instruction in La Grande. The celebration is designed to highlight both the School of Nursing’s presence in La Grande for the past 30 years as well as its successful and longstanding collaboration with Eastern Oregon University.

The program will run from 2 to 4:15 p.m. Oct. 1 in McKenzie Theater in Loso Hall on the EOU campus. The featured speaker will be Dr. Michael Bleich, dean of the OHSU School of Nursing, who will speak on the topic of “Nursing’s Response to Health Care Reform.” Also speaking will be former EOU president, David Gilbert and Jeanne Bowden, former associate dean to the School of Nursing on the La Grande campus. A reception will follow in the Loso Hall Foyer beginning at 4:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

Instituted in the fall of 1979, the school graduated its first class of baccalaureate prepared nursing students in 1982. This past spring marked the 27th graduating class from the school and the school currently admits 32 students each fall into the three-year OCNE program. Many local nursing professionals are graduates of the program. The OHSU School of Nursing is a nationally ranked nursing school that prides itself in preparing its baccalaureate graduates for a smooth transition from the role of student nurse to practicing nurse.

As part of its diverse curriculum, the OHSU School of Nursing in La Grande provides its undergraduate students with in-class instruction, a state-of-the art simulation lab and hundreds of hours of nursing practicum with its partnering health care providers in a wide variety of settings in Eastern Oregon, Washington and Idaho.