In the spring of 2019, three study abroad trips took students from the Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions to China, Ecuador, Cambodia and Thailand. In China, students learned to identify culturally appropriate health care practice interactions for patients whose belief systems originate in Chinese traditions. In Ecuador, students provided daily care to children living in orphanages. In Cambodia and Thailand, students cared for villagers in remote locations.
Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions
Leading Out with WSU’s New Doctorate
Shane Archibald BSN ’12, MSNP ’19 is a nursing student who bleeds purple, and he has the degrees to prove it.
Initially, he trained at Weber State to become an EMT. He returned to become certified to work in law enforcement and as a paramedic. Years later, he came back to become a licensed practical nurse and registered nurse, and went on to earn both his Bachelor of Science (BSN) and Master of Science in Nursing – Nurse Practitioner (MSNP) degrees.
Now, Archibald will be one of the first students in WSU’s first doctoral program, the Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP), balancing his studies with family life and obligations to the U.S. Army Reserve.
Archibald and his classmates will help meet a need in the community. “In healthcare, we definitely have a shortage of physicians,” said Susan Thornock, chair of the Annie Taylor Dee School of Nursing. “Our Doctor of Nursing Practice allows the graduate to practice at a level where they can give diagnoses, order labs and take care of their patients in every way.”
The DNP program offers two educational pathways: The Leadership program prepares nurses for executive roles, and the Family Nurse Practitioner program trains nurses as leaders in clinical practice.
The National Organization for Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) has mandated that all nurse practitioners earn a Doctor of Nurse Practice degree by 2025. Weber State is ahead of many other regional universities in implementing the degree.
“I’m super honored that I was chosen to be in that first cohort,” Archibald said, “to be able to represent Weber State, represent my family, represent the military and be a first-time-ever college student in my family to reach that final, big, ultimate level of schooling — a doctorate.”
Connecting Around the World
Introduced in 1975, Weber State’s emergency healthcare department is one of the oldest of its type in the country. Consequently, it’s not uncommon for department chair William “Bill” Robertson to run into alumni. However, even he was surprised by a recent connection.
Robertson was hired to accredit a bachelor’s program in emergency medical care in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). At the bottom of a lengthy resume, Eddie Callachan, the program director, listed Weber State for his first course as an emergency medical technician. Callachan, who is from South Africa, took an exploratory course at WSU while visiting family in Utah in 1993. “It kind of gives you goose bumps to think the things he’s doing on the other side of the world started here in this department,” Robertson said.
Callachan earned his Ph.D. in emergency care from the University of Cape Town, and served as chief flight paramedic for critical care transport in the UAE medical services corps.
“I’ve never forgotten my time at WSU,” Callachan wrote. “I bet the program must be incredible now.”
54
The total number of students who studied abroad with the Dumke College of Health Professions in 2019.
Wildcat Travelers
Respiratory Care Program Earns National Award
Out of approximately 430 CoARC-accredited programs, WSU is one of 30 that received a 2019 credentialing success award.
A letter from the Commission on Accreditation for Respiratory Care (CoARC), dated May 3, 2019, informed Paul Eberle that Weber State’s Department of Respiratory Therapy had once again received the Distinguished Registered Respiratory Therapist (RRT) Credentialing Success Award. The department, which Eberle chairs, has earned the honor for eight consecutive years.
According to the letter, the RRT credential is “a measure of a program’s success in inspiring its graduates to achieve their highest educational and professional aspirations.” WSU is among the few universities in the U.S. to offer a bachelor’s degree in respiratory therapy. Recent graduates of the program have an average starting salary of $54,000 and a 100% job-placement rate.
Radiologic Sciences Professionals Celebrate the X-Ray
On Nov. 8, 2018, 123 years from the day German physicist Wilhlem Röntgen discovered the X-ray, WSU hosted 370+ radiologic sciences professionals, alumni and students from across the country for a “World Radiology Day” conference.
“This event celebrated the importance of global health concerns and international competency,” said Robert Walker, chair of WSU’s School of Radiologic Sciences. “Ultimately, the hope is to learn and provide skills that make us all better citizens of the world.”
WSU’s radiologic sciences program graduated the second largest group of students from 2015 through 2019, awarding 1,178 degrees in that timeframe.
On the Move
It seems only fitting that the athletic training program at WSU should be on the move. As of July 1, 2019, the program is changing colleges, moving to the Dr. Ezekiel R. Dumke College of Health Professions. The move helps the program align with new standards announced by The Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education, which requires athletic training educators and students be housed with other health care professional programs, effective 2020. Athletic training had called WSU’s Jerry & Vickie Moyes College of Education home since its inception in 1998.