[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 57 (Thursday, April 10, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E580-E581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        IN HONOR OF JEANETTE LANCASTER, NATIONAL NURSING LEADER

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. VIRGIL H. GOODE, JR.

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 10, 2008

  Mr. GOODE. Madam Speaker, Jeanette Lancaster, PhD, RN, FAAN, Sadie 
Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing and Dean of the University of 
Virginia School of Nursing, will soon step down as Dean after an 
extraordinary 19 years of service in that role. It is not only for her 
status as one of the longest tenured deans in the University's modern 
history that she is known by her peers as the ``Dean of Deans.''
  During her deanship, the UVA School of Nursing national rankings rose 
by at least ten points to now stand at 19th in the United States; among 
the country's top five percent of nursing schools. U.S. News & World 
Report ranks two of the School's master's programs in their Top Ten and 
two others in the top twenty. Dr. Lancaster has expanded the School's 
enrollment by 28 percent and projects additional increases to help meet 
the country's current and future health care needs. She has been an 
avid supporter of ROTC and military nursing enrollment.
  Under her visionary leadership, the UVA School of Nursing has been in 
the vanguard launching innovative programs to meet the more complex and 
technical needs for nurses in today's health care environment and to 
address the current and growing shortage of well educated nursing 
clinicians and faculty.
  Dr. Lancaster, holder of the first endowed nursing professorship in 
the United States, has been recognized with the first endowed 
professorship named for a female dean at the University of Virginia 
(1999). She has been honored as both the first nursing dean and the 
first woman to be invited in her own right to live in one of Thomas 
Jefferson's Pavilions on the historic UVA Lawn. Her innovative efforts 
to improve gender imbalance at the University of Virginia to give women 
a more equal role in decision-making are well acknowledged.
  In foreseeing and navigating the sea changes now occurring in the 
nursing profession, Jeanette Lancaster has been a national leader. She 
also is recognized internationally as an authority in community health 
nursing, nursing education and public policy. As president of the 
American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), she has testified 
before the U.S. Congress to advocate for support of nursing education. 
The AACN is a national organization that sets standards, recommends 
curricula and advocates for nursing baccalaureate and higher degree 
education to improve patient outcomes.
  Her peers have elected her as a Fellow in the prestigious American 
Academy of Nursing and National Academies of Practice. She has held 
numerous national leadership positions in professional associations and 
been honored nationally with multiple awards and honorary degrees. 
Recently, she served on the Commonwealth of Virginia's statewide 
Healthcare Workforce Task Force and has long been an effective advocate 
for greater Commonwealth support for nursing education.
  We hereby commend Jeanette Lancaster for her outstanding career as 
Dean, her effective

[[Page E581]]

and visionary leadership combined with commitment and dedication to 
improve health care for the people of the United States and for her 
ability to inspire others to excellence.

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