Nursing's new dean starts job

Former University of Wisconsin Nursing School Dean Norma Lang took the helm of the University's Nursing School yesterday, praising it as "the most outstanding nursing school in the country." "My challenge as the [new] dean is to facilitate and allow faculty to do the many creative things that they do best, so that this school can continue being number one," Lang said. "It's like coming in to coach the team that just won the Super Bowl." Lang described her first day on the job as "wonderful," saying "it's been a busy day, but it's also been an exciting day." She spent much of yesterday becoming acclimated with her new working environment and meeting with Nursing students and faculty. Nursing School Media Coordinator Constance Gillespie said yesterday that Nursing School faculty held a welcoming reception for the dean in the afternoon, during which she was presented with a photograph of the Philadelphia Electric Company Building's light board displaying the message "WELCOME PENN NURSING DEAN." She also expressed some concern over budgetary restrictions, particularly in light of Gov. Robert Casey's intended elimination of state funding for the University. "[Budget restrictions] seem to be a concern to the University, so I have to learn about how it would affect the School of Nursing," Lang said. Mary Mundt, now the acting dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Nursing, said Lang will be missed. "She was very instrumental in her [12] years as dean in the growth of the school and in the quality of the school," Mundt said. According to Mundt, Lang "established a network of nursing-research appointments with local hospitals and health agencies" during her tenure at Wisconsin. Lang said that she wants to implement a similar program at the University, in order to try to "integrate nursing into public policy, particularly health care." "Nursing has so much to offer to the current health care crisis," she added. Lang also said she thinks nurses should be involved in making national health care decisions, unlike what she said is current practice. "You ask physicians, you ask administrators [for input] but nurses are not at the table when health care decisions are made. I think that should change," Lang said. "Nurses are in the health care field 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year." "Nurses have a lot of insight into the solutions of health care problems," she added. Lang replaces former Nursing Dean Claire Fagin, who served as head of the school for 15 years.

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