Her passion was born in personal experience and now positions her as a leader in nursing education, a field of study grappling with the future because of an American nursing shortage crisis. The need for teachers like Gloria McNeal, PhD, APRN, BC, assistant dean and associate professor in the School of Nursing (SN), is dire. One report estimated that in New Jersey alone, as many as 2,000 qualified candidates were turned away from nursing education programs because there weren’t enough teachers like McNeal. According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), by 2020, the shortage of registered nurses in 44 states plus the District of Columbia will be acute.

Highly regarded by her students and winner of more than 20 Teaching Excellence Awards, McNeal says, “To be effective, one must always be on the cutting edge. My students challenge me. I enjoy teaching and maintain my passion for nursing by keeping abreast of the latest technological advances.”

McNeal easily recalls a defining moment in her professional path. She was just a freshman nursing student. “My mother was admitted to the hospital for a serious illness. I went to visit her on the day she returned from surgery and found her bed empty.”

Told that her mother had been transferred, McNeal raced down the hall and, “with dread, walked into the Intensive Care Unit. My mother awakened and immediately became acutely ill. Two nurses rushed to her side, performed emergency procedures to stabilize her, and then called the physician. I knew then that I would be a critical care nurse to save lives just as those nurses had saved my mother’s life.”

UMDNJ graduates more than 1,000 healthcare experts each year from more than 40 courses of study: medicine, dentistry, nursing, biomedical research, public health and a broad range of programs preparing students for allied health careers from certificate to doctoral levels. Our University networks with more than 200 educational and healthcare partners and is adding programs all the time. As SN Dean Sara Torres, PhD, RN, says, “These partnerships make nursing education accessible and provide multidisciplinary clinical environments that prepare students to practice in contemporary healthcare delivery systems.” New to SN in 2005 are: Clinical Trials Research Nurse MSN, Geriatric Health Nurse Practitioner, Oncology and Palliative Care CNS/NP and Child and Adolescent Psychiatric and Mental Health CNS.

“I am passionately committed to advancing the field of telemedicine and tele-nursing, to implementing strategies to reduce healthcare disparities and to assisting students to achieve successful nursing careers,” says McNeal, who has become a national leader in nursing education and a curriculum designer with more than $1.8 million in HRSA grants to implement innovative nursing curricula.

Always pushing the outside edge of her world, McNeal recalls, “Nearly 30 years ago, I became very interested in the direction that biomedical science was taking in remote monitoring of cardiac rates and rhythms. The boundaries of the intensive care unit are now defined by virtual walls as evidenced by technological advances like the eICU®, tele-infusion smart pumps, tele-radiology, and tele-nursing.” The clinicians McNeal teaches are able “to monitor patient symptoms from their desktops or PDAs, and make changes in treatment plans early, preventing the downward cascade of events leading to poor outcomes.” McNeal has three important projects in development, including a UMDNJ Nursing Academy to be established in selected Essex County high schools, to “provide access to care. At no other university would I be able to realize all of my aspirations in the pursuit of academic excellence.”

H. Timothy Dombrowski, DO, would agree. This associate professor in the School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM)’s Department of Medicine, a member of UMDNJ’s Master Educators’ Guild and winner of the Teacher of the Year Award from the American College of Osteopathic Medicine, has been pouring his energies into teaching for two decades. “I spend a lot of time with my students. I don’t intimidate them and want to make the learning experience enjoyable. I try to find out what each student knows because teaching starts where individual understanding stops.” All 81 graduates in the class of 2005 experienced Dombrowski’s personal touch as second year students in his Health Promotion/Disease Prevention course. That’s where his protégés put their own lives and health habits under the microscope. These future physicians “need to identify their own risks, to check their cholesterol, glucose, blood pressure and to keep a dietary log” in order to understand their patients better.

UMDNJ educators teach on five campuses, in eight schools, in academic enrichment/preparatory programs, as well as in articulated partnerships all over New Jersey and as far away as Thailand. Our personal touch in teaching is pervasive in 43 graduate degree and certificate programs, 18 undergraduate degrees in 43 areas, 23 dual degree programs, 27 joint degree programs with 27 partner academic institutions, including New Jersey Institute of Technology, Princeton University, Rutgers and Seton Hall University. Seven online programs are also offering 424 students an education. Mark Robson, PhD, MPH, assistant dean at the School of Public Health (SPH), believes, “Good teachers leave a lasting personal impression on their students. Sometimes you feel like a cross between King Solomon and Dear Abby, but you have to be genuine to teach at UMDNJ, to want to demonstrate to a wide range of students what is exciting about health science. Our students are bright, sophisticated young men and women who come with high standards and expectations. Trust me,” Robson adds, “you have to deliver a good product when you are trying to keep people’s interest, teach on a graduate level and,” in the case `of many of Robson’s evening SPH classes, which are taught from six to nine o’clock, “keep them from falling asleep.” More than 87 percent of his SPH students are employed full time while attending classes.

“Judging from our graduates’ successes on national certification and licensing examinations, it’s clear that our students are armed with knowledge and skills,” reports David M. Gibson, EdD, Dean, School of Health Related Professions (SHRP). UMDNJ must be continually challenged as science and technology change so our University can “respond with new and better ways to create learning partnerships with our students,” according to Gibson.

When the National Science Foundation asked leading scientists 25 years ago what they felt was the most important factor in their education, their answers almost all focused on one factor: an inspiring teacher.

To recognize and promote inspiration in our teachers, to fulfill the University’s educational mission, and to contribute to educational scholarship, research and innovation, UMDNJ created the Stuart D. Cook M.D. Master Educators’ Guild in 1999. Since then, 54 individuals have been recommended by their students, peers and administrators as masters in this art. Thirteen new members joined the group Last year and outgoing president, Nancy Stevenson, PhD, was replaced by Nicholas Ponzio, PhD. For Robson, chair of SPH’s Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, “Being the first Master Educator in the School of Public Health was the most rewarding and meaningful part of more than 25 years of teaching. The group is a wonderfully rich mix of basic and applied scientists, clinicians, practitioners and lab researchers: from Ann Stock (RWJMS), who is a Howard Hughes fellow doing very complex, basic science to Bernadette West (SPH), who is primarily involved in community-based research, to Elaine Patterson (SN), in clinical nursing.” Last year, the Guild launched a web-based Center for Teaching Excellence offering resources and information about traditional teaching, active learning, clinical education, technology, student evaluation and career development.