The school will broadcast a text message notifying interested students of the opening of applications for the first-ever doctoral and master's degrees of the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Degree Program. To sign up to receive this text message, text "apply" to SMS short-code 27138. Be sure to text "y" to the confirmation message received following the initial request.
"This is a great way for us to be sure interested students immediately receive the news that applications are open," said Heather M. Young, associate vice chancellor for nursing and founding dean for the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. "We've heard from a number of students interested in our new, interprofessional graduate degree program and we hope this mobile campaign will allow students to learn important details wherever they are rather than waiting to check e-mail or other sources."
Hosted by the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Degree Program will open to the inaugural classes of doctoral and master's degree students in fall 2010, pending the programs' approval. The graduate program prepares nurse leaders, researchers and faculty in a unique interdisciplinary and interprofessional environment. The graduate group is composed of faculty from across campus with expertise in nursing, medicine, health informatics, nutrition, biostatistics, public health, law and other fields. The doctoral program, an academic program, prepares graduates as health care and health policy leaders and nurse faculty/researchers at the university level. Graduates of the professional master's degree program will be well prepared for health-care leadership roles in a variety of organizations and as nurse faculty at the community college and prelicensure education levels.
Young said the school expects final systemwide University of California approval of the graduate degree program this month and is working with the UC Davis Office of Graduate Studies to open the application process immediately upon program approval.
"We'll notify interested applicants who have joined our e-mail contact list via e-mail when applications are open as well as post updated information to our Web site," Young said. "We recognize that this first-ever application process comes later than other graduate nursing programs this year and with a hastened priority deadline, making it necessary to deliver the news in as many ways as possible."
Because the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing team and the Nursing Science and Health-Care Leadership Graduate Group faculty are committed to ensuring prospective students receive timely and complete answers to questions as well as receive assistance as necessary to promote a successful application process, Young said the team explored a variety of options to quickly spread the word of the application status and decided to test a mobile message campaign.
"This is a great chance for us to see if this technology can be useful in graduate education settings," Young said.
The school is not charging for the texting service, although mobile carriers will apply standard text messaging rates, which vary according to individual carriers and plans. Those who sign up for the service can expect to receive a message when the application process opens as well two to three reminders prior to application deadlines.
To learn more about the two graduate degree programs, visit the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Web site.
About the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis
For 100 years, UC Davis has engaged in teaching, research and public service that matters to California and to transform the world. The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis was established in March 2009, UC Davis' first major initiative to address society's most pressing health care problems in its second century of service. The school was launched through a $100 million commitment from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the nation's largest grant for nursing education. The vision of the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing is to transform health care through nursing education and research. Through nursing leadership, the school will discover knowledge to advance health, improve quality of care and health outcomes, and inform health policy. The school anticipates accepting its first class for the Master of Science and the Doctor of Philosophy degree programs in fall 2010. Additional students and programs will be phased in over the next decade. The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing is part of the UC Davis Health System, an integrated, academic health system encompassing UC Davis School of Medicine, the 613-bed acute care hospital and clinical services of UC Davis Medical Center and the 800-member physician group known as the UC Davis Medical Group.