Delaney Named Dean of Nursing

NEWS RELEASE
For immediate release

Contact: Mary Pattock, School of Nursing, 612-624-0939
              Jonell Rusinko, Academic Health Center, 612-624-5680

REGENTS NAME LEADING INFORMATICS SCHOLAR, CONNIE DELANEY,
DEAN OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA SCHOOL OF NURSING
Appointment 'deepens the bench' of U’s health leadership

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (May 17, 2005) -- The University of Minnesota Board of Regents Friday approved the appointment of an internationally recognized health informatics scholar, Connie White Delaney, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., F.A.C.M.I., as dean of the School of Nursing.

Delaney is currently a professor and the director of the Institute of Nursing Knowledge at the University of Iowa, Iowa City.

“Delaney will deepen the bench of health care leadership at the School of Nursing, as well as at the University and in the state of Minnesota,” said Frank Cerra, senior vice president for health sciences at the Academic Health Center.

“Her field of study – and her passion – is health informatics, a relatively new, leading-edge science that relates information from all the health professions in order to improve health care, right up to health care at the bedside. She is a fine scholar and teacher and will be a great addition to the University’s health sciences team.”

Delaney will join the University in August as professor and dean. She will hold a dual appointment at the School of Nursing and at the Medical School.

The country’s only dean of nursing to be a fellow in the American College of Medical Informatics, Delaney believes nursing is a critical influence in the world of informatics.

“Much of informatics is high-tech,” said Delaney. “It integrates information from many different disciplines and from all over the world. But because nursing is so close to patients and families, it brings a distinct humanity to the science. The marriage of informatics and nursing helps ensure that health services will be appropriate and safe, ethical and caring.”

Delaney currently holds joint appointments in the College of Nursing and the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa, teaching nursing informatics and interdisciplinary informatics to master’s and doctoral students. She serves as a professor at the University of Iceland in both the Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine.

Delaney serves on the board of directors of the American Medical Informatics Association and is immediate past-chair of the AMIA Nursing Informatics Working Group. She co-chairs the Alliance for Nursing Informatics, representing more than 2,000 nurses and over 20 distinct nursing informatics groups in the United States. She has held offices in national and international organizations including the American Nurses Association and the International Medical Informatics Association.

Delaney earned her B.S.N. with majors in nursing and mathematics from Viterbo College, LaCrosse, Wis., M.A. in nursing from the University of Iowa, and Ph.D. in educational administration and computer applications from the University of Iowa. In 1988, she completed postdoctoral study in nursing informatics at the University of Utah. She has been named a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and of the American College of Medical Informatics.

She follows Sandra Edwardson, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N., who stepped down last June after 14 years as dean to focus on her research interests.

The University of Minnesota School of Nursing, ranked among the nation’s top nursing schools, is a leader in improving health care through research, education and service. Its scientists, renowned nationally and around the world, discover practical health care treatments and solutions people can use today to improve their daily lives. The oldest continuing university-based school of nursing in the world, it has a combined undergraduate and graduate enrollment of approximately 850 students. The school produces 55 percent of the faculty in Minnesota’s public and private nursing schools, advanced practice nurses, and nurses who can assume leadership positions. The School of Nursing is one of six schools and colleges in the Academic Health Center, one of the most comprehensive facilities for health professionals in the nation, fostering interdisciplinary study, research, and education.

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