Dr. Lorene Putnam, Ed.D., RN, CNE, has joined Union College as head of the new Department of Nursing and Health Sciences. Students are being accepted into the RN-to-BSN nursing program this August.

Union College welcomes new Dean of Nursing
and Health Sciences

Lorene Putnam, Ed.D. RN, CNE, has been hired to lead Union College’s new Department of Nursing and Health Sciences.

Putnam, a native of Kentucky, comes to Union from Western Carolina University. She has over two decades of experience as a nursing instructor at the associate, undergraduate and graduate degree levels, and has served in leadership and management positions in both clinical and educational settings. Putnam also has extensive experience as a practicing nurse.

Union President Edward D. de Rosset believes Putnam is the right fit for the college’s new nursing and health sciences programs.

“After two years of planning, getting the necessary approvals, preparing facilities, meeting with area health care leaders, and receiving encouragement from many friends of the college, we are ready to welcome our first students and launch this program,” said de Rosset. “Dr. Lorene Putnam seems to be such a natural fit for the task of getting us up and running quickly. She is a daughter of our region, is personable, understands the challenges some of our students will have in terms of holding a job and pursuing their studies, and she has a strong entrepreneurial appetite for starting something new and seeing it flourish.”

Union announced the new nursing program on June 17. In a statement, President de Rosset said the program was created to help increase the number of bachelor’s-prepared nurses practicing in southeastern Kentucky. In rural Kentucky, only about 15 percent of nurses hold a bachelor’s degree or higher. In the rest of Kentucky that number is 30 percent, while the national goal is to reach the 66 percent mark.

Union also hopes its nursing program will lead to graduates who continue their education at the graduate level and beyond, in part because of the shortage of nurse instructors in the region.

“Dr. Putnam is a good example of how this works,” said de Rosset. “She earned an associate degree, and then worked as she continued to pursue a bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate. She is proof that nurses in our region with an associate degree can go as far as they wish, both in terms of their educational attainment and their professional advancement.”

Putnam is eager to work with nurses in the program.

“I will have many things in common with these students, since I began my career as an associate degree graduate of Eastern Kentucky University,” said Putnam. “I also worked full time as I pursued further education, as most of our students will be doing. My perspective as the dean of this program is that it is important to acknowledge and appreciate the richness of experience that practicing nurses bring to this education endeavor. We will work with them to build from this rich experience to develop and expand their opportunities and roles in nursing.”

The new Department of Nursing and Health Sciences at Union currently houses two academic programs: the RN-to-BSN nursing program, designed for working nurses who want to earn a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, and the athletic training program, a recently added major that leads to a bachelor’s degree.

To learn more about Union’s nursing and health science programs, visit www.unionky.edu/nursing, or call Dr. Lorene Putnam at 606-546-1212.

July 12, 2010

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