Distinguished visitors to present global nursing vision
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008 
The University of New England will be honoured next week by a visit from the President and the Chief Executive Officer of the world’s leading honour society of nursing.
Professor Carol Huston is the President, and Dr Patricia Thompson is the CEO of Sigma Theta Tau International, based in the United States. While at UNE, they will give a public presentation titled “Vision 2020: Sigma Theta Tau International looks to the future”.
Their presentation will be from 9 am till 11 am in the Somerville Lecture Theatre in UNE’s Pat O’Shane Building. Everyone is welcome to the presentation, which will be linked by video conference to audiences at the University of Newcastle and Southern Cross University.
Professor Huston and Dr Thompson are visiting UNE at the invitation of Associate Professor Jeanne Madison and Associate Professor Mary Cruickshank from UNE’s School of Health – both members of Sigma Theta Tau. The visit follows the 19th International Nursing Research Congress in Singapore (7 – 11 July), at which the two international leaders are officiating.
Sigma Theta Tau International, which has more than 405,000 members around the world, supports the learning, knowledge, and professional development of nurses in order to improve the health of the world’s people. It has a significant emphasis on research and evidence-based practice.
Dr Madison and Dr Cruickshank said that their distinguished guests would report on their visit to UNE in the international Journal of Nursing Scholarship, the leading, peer-reviewed scholarly journal with a global circulation of 130,000. The journal reaches health professionals, university Faculties and students in 90 countries.
While at UNE they will be introduced to the new version of the University’s Bachelor of Nursing program which – uniquely in Australia – qualifies students to work as Enrolled Nurses after their first two years of study, as well as Registered Nurses at the completion of the three-year degree course. The new program began for on-campus students this year, and will be available next year for distance-education students.
For more information on next Monday’s presentation, contact Associate Professor Jeanne Madison on (02) 6773 3667 or Associate Professor Mary Cruickshank on (02) 6773 3640.