A Conversation with Dean Marie Nolan

Welcome to this episode of “Cardinal Perspectives,” a series featuring in-depth conversations with alumni, students, faculty, staff and the extended family and community of The Catholic University of America.

We are excited to introduce Marie Nolan, dean and ordinary professor at the Conway School of Nursing at Catholic University, and William Roth, associate vice president for University Advancement.

Marie Nolan, who received her Ph.D. from Catholic University in 1989, was appointed dean of the Conway School of Nursing in 2022. Her research for over 20 years has focused on the healthcare decision making of patients with terminal illness and their family caregivers and has included interventions, measurement, and theory development.

Before becoming dean of the Conway School of Nursing, Marie served as executive vice dean at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and core faculty member at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. She was also a member of the Ethics Committee and Consultation Service at Johns Hopkins Hospital and served on the Institutional Review Board for Johns Hopkins Medicine. Additionally, Marie directed the Ph.D. Program Partnership between Johns Hopkins and Peking Union Medical College in Beijing, the first university in China to award Ph.D. degrees in nursing.

Dean Nolan’s work is grounded in the dignity of the human person as the foundation of a moral vision for nursing and healthcare.
 

William Roth
Thank you for joining us for this edition of Cardinal Perspectives. I am William Roth, the associate vice president for University Advancement here at Catholic University, and I'm pleased to be joined by Marie Nolan, who is the dean of the Conway School of Nursing—one of the pillar schools here at The Catholic University of America. Dean Nolan, thank you for joining us.

Marie Nolan
Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.

William Roth
I thought it would be wonderful, since you are a graduate and an alumna of the University and the school, for you to share a little bit about your own journey to Catholic University and to the Conway School of Nursing.

Marie Nolan
I moved here from Chicago. I had been a clinical nurse specialist in a hospital there—a teaching hospital—and I moved here to enter into the Ph.D. program of the Conway School of Nursing. At that time, like many of my students, I worked part-time at the Washington Hospital Center, being a weekend supervisor while I was going to school. I had a wonderful experience in the doctoral program here.

It absolutely was formative for me, and I loved every minute of it. After I graduated from the Conway School of Nursing’s Ph.D. program, I went to Johns Hopkins and became a nurse researcher for nursing administration at the hospital. After 10 years of doing that, I became a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing—eventually the vice dean of the school. Then I was approached by the search committee to apply for the position of dean at the Conway School of Nursing.

I had the pleasure of coming down, and honestly, the moment I hit the campus, I remembered what a wonderful place Catholic University was, and I was convinced that I really was called to come back. What an honor to be called to serve as dean of the Conway School of Nursing at The Catholic University of America for the past three years.
 

William Roth 
And how have those three years been for you? Have they lived up to your expectations? Were there things that have stood out in those three years that have really struck chords with you?

Marie Nolan
Yes, I actually would say they have far exceeded my expectations.

I remembered, after I had been here for a while, the many things that attracted me to Catholic University in the beginning, and the many things that made me very happy while I was here. For example, even though I came from a very strong Catholic family, my faith was strengthened during my study here.

What I did not anticipate was that when I came back as dean, I similarly felt over the past three years that my faith has been strengthened even more. And it is inevitable when you’re surrounded by people of faith—students, faculty, staff. It’s really our culture here at Catholic University. I tell everyone—you feel God’s presence at Catholic University, and it’s been a joy for me to be here.

William Roth
The time that you’ve had in the last three years to be dean, I’m sure, has offered you a lot of insights into how a school should be run, what direction a school can take, and what impact it can have on the lives of its students and the wider community.

I was just curious if you could share with us a little bit about your evolving vision of what the Conway School of Nursing should be.
 

Marie Nolan
I would say I appreciate the vision that my predecessors have had from the very beginning of the Conway School of Nursing and the very beginning of The Catholic University of America.

In terms of nursing, clinical excellence is what graduates of the Conway School of Nursing have always been known for. People love to hire our students—our graduates—because they are experts at what they do. They're just superb nurses. But what makes them truly unique and different is their character.

These students have come from Catholic University—a university that spends a lot of time considering their foundation of faith and their character of virtue—and I think that makes all the difference, both for the employer who wants to have nurses who are the most compassionate, the most resilient, the most caring, and also for the nurse himself or herself. Because it is one thing to say that you are a nurse because you are here to help people, which is very good and very admirable. It is a totally different thing to say, "I am doing God's work, and every patient and family entrusted to my care is a child of God, deserving not just of respect but of love and compassion." And that is what puts Conway School of Nursing graduates above many others around the country.

William Roth
That sense of respect for human dignity, that appreciation of care, that sense of being a healer, how does that get reinforced into our students? How do you find that gets brought forward and developed in Conway School of Nursing students?

Marie Nolan
It is really something that we pay attention to and are dedicated to—not just in the nursing school, but actually throughout the entire University. Students have a wonderful experience. They grow spiritually from the emphasis of our faith throughout the University.

Students, when they come here as freshmen, go on a freshman retreat, and they're asked to reflect upon: Who do you want to become in the next four years?

We were talking about when students show up as freshmen—they're just 18 years old—and many of our students come from wonderful, faith-filled families. So they’ve already been formed in virtue, in a sense, when they come to us. But 18 is young. And when they're here for four years, the difference in confidence, the growth of their faith, their preparation to be a professional—all of that is nothing short of remarkable. In four years, they are transformed.

In the Conway School of Nursing, we spend a lot of time thinking about virtue. As I mentioned, clinical excellence is a given—we are always developing clinically excellent nurses. But we also spend a lot of time in the clinical setting asking students to reflect upon what they may have done over the shift they were working with their clinical instructor.

A great example of this is Dean Andrew Abela of the Busch School of Business. He recently received a $1 million grant that is focusing on the infusion of virtues in undergraduate education. And in the case of Catholic University, it's the enhancement of virtue and character development that we are already engaged in.

An example in the Conway School of Nursing: students go in, they have their 12-hour clinical shift with their clinical instructor, and—many times, as in any school of nursing—at the end of that shift, there's a clinical debriefing session. The instructor may ask, “What skills did you learn today?” And the nursing students may say, “I learned to insert an IV today,” or “I helped to transfuse blood today,” or “I administered a medication today that was new to me.”

Those are common across many schools of nursing.

What makes Conway School of Nursing different—as part of this virtue initiative we’re working on—is that the instructor will also ask the students before they start their shift:

“I want you to observe these three virtues.”

The virtues change over the semester, but for example, the instructor might say:

“I want you to observe for compassion. I want you to observe for patience. I want you to observe for resilience.”

And so, at the end of the shift, in addition to talking about the fact that they learned to transfuse blood, they're also asked, “What did you observe in terms of virtues?”

The clinical instructors tell me this has transformed the post-conference. Students get so excited and they'll say, “I witnessed a nurse who was being courageous and resilient in advocating for her patient today.” And then they'll talk about how that particular nurse made sure that her patient received the medication or treatment that the patient needed.

So the students are really now paying attention to virtues they witness in others. And then, over the semester, what that does is help them to adopt those virtues themselves.

They’ve seen what patience looks like. They’ve seen what compassion looks like. Now they're modeling it in their own practice.
So that’s a remarkable aspect of nursing education that I would say does not take place at many other schools of nursing—and maybe not even at other Catholic schools of nursing.

But we’re very intentional about developing the virtues in our students.

William Roth
And that development, how does that translate into making our nurses better nurses and have the kinds of careers that they might aspire to? How do you see that translating across?

Marie Nolan
I think it is demonstrated in the specialties that they select after they graduate.

I was just looking over our students from last year and where they're employed now, and it is amazing—the number of students that went into critical care. As I looked down the list, it was surgical critical care, medical critical care, cardiovascular critical care, the emergency room setting, neonatal ICU.
Our students are—at a time when people worry about young people shrinking from challenges and being overly introverted—literally running toward the fire when they are choosing critical care positions and emergency room positions.

We also have a student who chose to work in the U.S. Prison Service. In his words, he said, "I can think of few persons who are as isolated and as rejected as people in a U.S. prison. And after all, they are God's children too."

That is a Conway School of Nursing graduate—people who are truly seeing their nursing careers as doing God's work.
 

William Roth
So having these human qualities that are continually reinforced throughout their time here, you see them as in parallel with this clinical excellence that you highlight. And I was wondering if you could share with folks, when you define excellence on a clinical side, how does that manifest itself? How can people understand that?

Marie Nolan
Clinical excellence, I would say, is measured throughout the student's nursing education with us.

So, clinical excellence could mean that the student demonstrates a clear understanding of how to administer blood, for example—as I mentioned earlier—or how to administer a certain medication or titrate a very difficult medication.

It’s also demonstrated in the very outcomes of our students. We have a very high NCLEX pass rate, which is the RN licensure exam.

95% of our students pass the NCLEX the first time they take it, and the others pass it on a second try. That’s actually much higher than the national norm.

So clinical excellence is something that we measure throughout their career.
 

William Roth
So if we take those two qualities of thoughtful classroom work and successful ability at the skills of nursing combined with the grace and humanity that comes with being a part of the healing ministry of Jesus Christ, what is the kind of student who's right for this school?  If you are trying to recruit the right kind of Conway School of Nursing student, what should people who are listening to this think about?

Marie Nolan
That's like asking, "What is the right kind of nurse?" And the right student—or the right kind of nurse—is someone who comes from a variety of personalities, a variety of family backgrounds, and a variety of areas of interest.

I think one of the reasons we have such a rich educational environment is that our students are from everywhere. They're from Connecticut and New York, they're from Michigan, and they come from all different kinds of families. Some are only children, and some come from families with 13 children.

It’s amazing, the variety of students that we have. And yet, they really become a family when they come here to the Conway School of Nursing. Our students are amazing. They're not competitive with one another—they're supporting one another. It's really impressive.

So I would say the right student for the Conway School of Nursing—the only “right” student—is one who is very interested in the faith-based education that we provide. Someone who is interested in a close-knit community and who believes in the dialogue between faith and reason that is foundational to Catholic University.

So, if there’s anything that defines the right student, it would be someone who’s interested in that type of whole-student formation.
Otherwise, we look for students from a great variety of backgrounds, families, and educational experiences.

William Roth
When we were talking before, one of the themes that you highlighted about our students is that they also have a sense of joy and fun.

Marie Nolan
Yes.

William Roth
And I was curious—nursing is a hard profession. It's one that can be very draining. Can you talk about how you see this sense of, and impart this sense of, joy and fun into the work?

Marie Nolan
Yes. I'll tell you a funny example of it—our students are really known at the graduation ceremony. On graduation day, when they announce, "Conway School of Nursing students, please stand," almost invariably, they're cheering the loudest of any other school.

And the last two years, they've been setting off these confetti explosions, and it really makes for a lot of fun and joy when they're graduating. But really, it’s present at every stage.

How do they have fun? In a variety of ways. 60% of our students are involved in some aspect of athletics, which is amazing because nursing school is very hard—it’s very consuming. But our students find time to play soccer, or they’re on the rowing team, or they’re involved in a wide variety of sports.

They are varsity athletes, intramural athletes, or participants in club sports. There really is a great variety in the types of athletics they're engaged in.
We are truly interested in forming the whole person, and I think those types of extracurricular activities help our students to be more resilient.
 

William Roth
Wonderful. And do you find that those who are engaged in those opportunities are learning qualities that they will apply to their work as nurses in terms of leadership and being a part of a team? Can you talk a little bit about that?
 

Marie Nolan
Leadership and being part of a team are so integral to nursing. When you are caring for patients, nurses work very closely with social workers, physical therapists, occupational therapists, physicians, and other nurses. So being part of a team is a great skill to have.

And understanding how today, you may have to be the team leader, and tomorrow, you’re a team member, is very important. I think athletics is very helpful in that regard. It’s also helpful in developing resilience.

12-hour shifts are very long, and they can be exhausting on some days.

The fact that these students—like the rowing team—get up at 4 a.m., jump in a car, go down to the water, and row from 6 to 7 a.m. before they get to school and start their day—that’s remarkable.

I think those demands from some of our extracurricular activities are excellent preparation for nurses, who will be engaged in physically, emotionally, and intellectually demanding practice.
 

William Roth
You've talked at length about some of our students and about the qualities of our students and what you're looking for. Before we end this section on students, I was curious if you would talk a little bit about some of the ceremonies that students go through that you find actually help transform the experience and are perhaps unique to the Conway School of Nursing.

Marie Nolan
Yes, there are many ceremonies in the University as a whole, and one of my favorites is the Mass of the Holy Spirit that starts out each academic year. That’s where the students, faculty, and staff all join together and have this beautiful Mass, asking for God’s blessing on our work and studies.

That is one of my favorites. And it was one of the first things I missed when I left the Conway School of Nursing. I went to another university and thought, Where’s the Mass of the Holy Spirit? How can we start our academic year without it? That’s one thing I think is very important.

But in terms of the Conway School of Nursing itself, there are two unique ceremonies that I think everyone loves.

One is the Blessing of the Hands. That is a ceremony where the students are just about to embark upon their clinical experiences for the first time. We say they will be “laying hands” on patients for the first time, and that emphasizes their role as healer.

They’re not just clinicians—they’re clinicians and healers. So, they have their hands blessed by one of our chaplains. Each hand is blessed while asking God’s blessing on their future practice as a nurse.

The second ceremony is at the end of their nursing education, and that is the Pinning Ceremony.

The Pinning Ceremony recognizes all of the nursing skills they have developed over the past two or three years, focused on nursing care in particular and their nursing education as a whole. It’s also a moment of asking God’s blessing on their practice as they prepare to launch out as independent nurses.

I think the impact of those two ceremonies cannot be underestimated.

I’ve told many people that I once ran into a graduate from 10 years ago, and my favorite thing to ask alumni is, What is your favorite memory from either the Conway School of Nursing or The Catholic University of America?

And this student said, without a doubt, it was the Blessing of the Hands ceremony. Then she said—10 years after graduating—Each day I walk into the hospital, I say a quick prayer: Lord, let my hands be your healing hands for every patient I touch today.

I thought—that is the impact of the Conway School of Nursing, the Blessing of the Hands ceremony, and the kind of people our students become here.

William Roth
In addition to the fantastic students that we're bringing together and who shape the school daily, you're also fortunate to have a dynamic faculty that offer this premier education. And I was curious if you wanted to share a little bit about some of the accomplishments over the last few years that our faculty have created through their own hard work.

Marie Nolan
Yes, we have amazing faculty at the Conway School of Nursing in every specialty. We have faculty who have been teaching undergraduate students for many years, as well as continuing to practice in their own fields. We also have faculty who are teaching nurse practitioners while actively maintaining their own nurse practitioner practices.

They do amazing things. One great example is Dr. Sandra O’Brien—she’s a family nurse practitioner. She has her own practice in addition to teaching both our undergraduate and graduate students. She is also the lead faculty member on the development of a multi-patient simulation that we’ve been working on for the past year.

She, along with Dr. David Want and Ms. Kim Walsh—who is also a nurse on our staff—developed this multi-patient simulation. It’s virtual, and it came about because we were hearing from our clinical partners, particularly chief nursing officers, that new graduate nurses—not specifically from Conway, but nationally—are well-prepared to care for one or two patients, but when they’re assigned to three, four, five, or even up to 10 patients, that becomes a real challenge.

So our faculty, under Dr. O’Brien’s leadership, developed a multi-patient simulation that creates the experience of walking down a hospital hallway using a mouse. Students receive a report on several patients and have to make critical decisions—such as which patient to see first based on acuity.

Of course, we want the student to identify and respond to the most critically ill patient first. But once they enter the room, they begin to encounter distractions—maybe a phone rings with a message that another patient down the hall needs help to the restroom. Then the student has to answer a question like: Should I stop what I’m doing and go down the hall? Should I ask a colleague to assist? What’s my next best action?

This simulation is unlike anything currently on the market. There are several vendors offering individual virtual patient scenarios, but nothing we've seen challenges students to manage multiple patients simultaneously—especially with built-in, intentional distractions.

And because we’re Catholic University—Conway School of Nursing—what’s built into this scenario is something even deeper: we challenge the students to exercise their virtues and compassion.

For example—and I might be giving away part of the scenario here—in one room, there’s a picture that says, “Get well soon.” In another, there are flowers and balloons that say, “We wish you well.” But in the third room, there’s nothing. We want our students to notice these differences.

We want them to say, I see you have a get well card—looks like there are people who care about you. Would you mind sharing who sent it?

And in the room where there’s nothing, we want them to recognize that this may be an “unfriended” patient—someone who may need more attention, more compassion, and more planning to ensure adequate support after discharge.

That’s something you won’t find in other virtual scenarios. We purposely build these elements in to prepare virtuous nurses—the kind of nurses we develop at the Conway School of Nursing.

William Roth
Dean Nolan, with the characterization you've given of students which are technically sharp and full of humanity and understanding, tell me what are the hallmarks of the faculty here and of the faculty that you're seeking to recruit?

Marie Nolan
Yes, thank you. The faculty here are absolutely spectacular.

I would say the hallmarks of a Conway School of Nursing faculty member are: clinical excellence—as a given—and a deep dedication to the faith-based mission that we have here. Not every faculty member is Catholic, but every faculty member is committed to that mission.

Most faculty start their classes with a prayer. They are extremely dedicated not only to teaching, but to their students.

I read the evaluations for every course, every semester, and one student commented, “Dr. Dombrowski is such an excellent teacher, and she cares about me as a person.”

Then she gave an example—this student had sprained her ankle during one of her athletic activities, and she said that Dr. Dombrowski called her over the weekend to make sure she was doing okay, that she was healing properly, and to check if she needed any additional medical attention.

So—clinical excellence, a love of teaching students, a love of caring for patients.

And I would add: innovation. The multi-patient simulation—the virtual patient simulation—is an example of that kind of forward-thinking, student-centered innovation you see at the Conway School of Nursing.

I would just say our faculty are the kind of people who find the same kind of joy in nursing that our students do.

William Roth
We've talked a little bit over this conversation about what I'd say would be the undergraduate experience for our students, but a hallmark of the Conway School of Nursing for well over 90 years is its graduate programs. I was wondering if you could maybe talk about some of the signature features of our graduate programs that folks might not know nearly enough about?

Marie Nolan
We've actually had some great innovations in our graduate program over the past two years.

One innovation is that we've moved our nurse practitioner program—which was already known for being an excellent program in preparing nurse practitioners—to the doctor of nursing practice (D.N.P.) level. That not only continues to prepare clinically excellent nurses, as we always have, but it also prepares nurses to be leaders within a very complex healthcare system.

The D.N.P. adds coursework in areas such as health finance, human resources management, and healthcare funding. So now, our students can be even better advocates for their patients in their nurse practitioner roles.

We've also added a new nurse practitioner track—we now have an adult-gerontology acute care nurse practitioner track. This is designed for nurse practitioners who practice in hospital or other acute care settings—such as the emergency room or dialysis centers. These nurses are prepared to care for patients with multiple complex chronic and acute illnesses. That program is growing rapidly, and it’s a very exciting development.

We are also one of the first research-based nursing programs. Our Ph.D. program is one of the very earliest Ph.D. programs in nursing in the country, and it continues to produce excellent researchers.

Research in nursing guides the profession. The nurse practitioners, the registered nurses—everyone practicing—are doing so according to the best evidence available in the literature. The people who hold Ph.D.s are the nurses conducting that research to guide evidence-based practice.

Our particular Ph.D. program focuses on clinical research. We explore questions like: What is the best approach to patient care? To family care? To community health? We've long been known for excellence in these areas.

And I would also add—because we’re a Catholic university—our students are especially known for studying difficult ethical issues. Whether it's ethical questions at the beginning of life—and there are many—or at the end of life, our students are deeply engaged in studying those topics.

We’re fortunate to have access to excellent resources here: the School of Philosophy, the School of Theology, the Departments of Psychology and Social Work. These allow our students to take an interdisciplinary approach to research, which I believe places us among the leading Ph.D. programs in the country.

William Roth
When you've developed the graduate programs and rethought the direction you want to take with them, I’m sure you’ve had to do a lot of engagement with clinical partners.

I was curious—what have you found that you’ve learned from our clinical partnerships, and how have you responded to the feedback you’ve gotten from clinical partners?

Marie Nolan
The clinical partners are very important to us, and we do have them over to the Conway School of Nursing regularly. In fact, just last week I had a group of chief nursing officers from some of our surrounding hospitals—where our students complete their clinical experiences—join us for a conversation.

They talked to us about the challenges of nurse retention, particularly within the first five years of practice. They mentioned that they can usually support new nurses through the first year with careful attention and structured residency programs. But after that first year, many nurses begin to turn over and seek positions elsewhere. Sometimes the hospital environment becomes too stressful, and they look for other types of roles.

We listen to that feedback very carefully. That’s one of the reasons we’ve developed some of our virtual patient experiences. When chief nursing officers tell us what they find to be stressful for new nurses, we work to build those stressors into our curriculum in a controlled, educational way. So yes—our curriculum is quite influenced by the feedback we receive from our clinical partners.

I had mentioned earlier that chief nursing officers told us that managing multiple patients and prioritizing care is especially challenging for new graduates. That’s one of the key reasons Dr. O’Brien has led our faculty in developing the multi-patient simulation. It’s designed specifically to help our students build the skills needed to make decisions across multiple patients and to prioritize the most critically ill patient first.

That is a direct response to the input from our clinical partners.

We keep that dialogue open because we want our education to be contemporaneous and responsive to what is happening in real clinical settings. Those chief nursing officers and others have been a tremendous asset to us.

William Roth
So you would describe the school of nursing as not being an ivory tower in any way? Or is that a characterization that I've misunderstood?

Marie Nolan
No, I think that's a great point. No, we're not an ivory tower in any way. I mentioned that many of our faculty have their own practice, so they're out there practicing as nurse practitioners or as clinical specialists.

Also, two of our faculty members are former chief nursing officers themselves. Dr. Joyce Johnson was the chief nursing officer at the Washington Hospital Center and at Georgetown Hospital. Dr. Mary Dixon served as chief nursing officer at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, at one of the Inova hospitals, and at a hospital in Texas.

So she’s had multiple experiences leading renowned hospitals, and she is now the director of our master’s leadership program.
Many of our faculty members have been premier leaders in nursing in their own right—before they came to the Conway School of Nursing, or while continuing their clinical practice as they teach.

One of our faculty once said to me that one of the reasons she loves being a nurse practitioner is because, as the patient ages, she gets to see them become healthier.

And I said, "As they age, they become healthier? That’s different—I thought as people age, they become more fragile or more ill."

And she said, "No, because I focus on their diet and their exercise. And over time, with those behavioral changes, I see my patients become stronger and healthier."

I think that's the impact of an excellent nurse practitioner. And that’s the kind of faculty we employ.
 

William Roth
You've highlighted that within the curriculum, within the faculty, there is this theme of innovation. This theme of understanding the world as it is today and not just the theory of nursing and one of the programs that you're about to launch, reflects that in quite an acute way.

I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the launch of the accelerated Bachelor of Science and Nursing?

Marie Nolan
Yes, I love talking about that program.

As I mentioned, for years and years we’ve been known as leaders in baccalaureate education, as well as doctoral and master’s education. But one of the things we realized we could do to help address the growing nursing shortage nationally is to provide an opportunity for adults who have already earned a baccalaureate degree in another field.

These are individuals who have also taken some prerequisite courses—such as anatomy and physiology, biochemistry, and psychology. With those prerequisites and their prior degree, they can come to the Conway School of Nursing and complete a baccalaureate degree in nursing in just 12 months.
So, in one year, someone who has long admired nurses and truly feels that they would love being a nurse can complete the coursework, clinical experiences, and laboratory work necessary to become an excellent nurse through our accelerated baccalaureate program.

William Roth
And do you find that there are any concerns you have about launching an accelerated program alongside the traditional Bachelor of Science in Nursing program that you offer? Or do you only see positives in this?

Marie Nolan
I absolutely only see positives. There are two different populations.

The traditional students are coming right out of high school, and they are going to be engaging in a really rigorous and rich arts and sciences curriculum—even before they begin their nursing courses.

The accelerated students are mature adults who may have had a few years of a career before they come to us. They come to us with all sorts of different degrees—psychology, anthropology, the classics. It’s just amazing—the people who have had a different career and then choose to come into nursing.
Every background is beneficial to nurses because it means you bring a more enriched perspective to your relationships with patients and families, because of what you bring to that experience. So, I think that both our A.B.S.N.—our accelerated baccalaureate students—will enjoy getting to know our baccalaureate students in the traditional program, and I think our traditional students will enjoy getting to know our accelerated students because of the background that they have had in the past. 

They’re not going to be in the same classes, but they will have many opportunities to interact through extracurricular activities.

William Roth
We've talked about innovation, and we've talked about new things on the horizon. Last year marked a very historic moment in the history of the school, related to how the school is housed—and the opportunities that can develop from the facilities our students inhabit.

So I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the new nursing building that was established last year from the generous donation from Bill Conway, and what you've learned over this first year of operation.

Marie Nolan
We are blessed with this absolutely magnificent 102,000-square-foot building that is the most advanced nursing building in the country, I’m convinced. We have Mr. William Conway and his late beloved wife, Joanne, to thank for a great deal of this building. It is absolutely spectacular.

It’s a building that has eight virtual hospital rooms, six primary care examination rooms, and two emergency rooms. People who come to tour our building just cannot believe the resources we have to teach nursing, both for undergraduate pre-licensure nurses and for nurse practitioners. It’s truly an incredible resource.

And I think what people really admire about this building is it’s filled with light, which is very much in line with our theme here at Catholic University: Lead with Light. The inside of our building is radiant. Students love studying in what we call the “study cubes”—these are rooms with glass on one side and the latest technology inside.

Students love going in, studying together, and using that technology. They also love that they can see when their friends walk by and wave them in to join.
The interactive classroom technology is another major highlight. We have two auditoriums—one very large auditorium on the first level and a smaller one on the second level—as well as multiple classrooms equipped with interactive technology.

Faculty can begin class with a brief lecture at the front of the room, and then easily transition students into collaborative learning. The chairs and tables are on wheels, so when the professor says, “Now I’d like you to work on case study one in your group of six,” students can quickly turn and work in groups at their tables.

Then, when it’s time to return attention to the front, they simply turn their chairs around.

One of our classrooms is even equipped with individual screens at each table. Students can wirelessly connect their laptops to the screen in front of them to work collaboratively on case studies or group projects. From the front of the room, the faculty member can monitor all student screens and, when appropriate, select one group’s work to project for the whole class to view and discuss.

It’s really remarkable. We can now do things in this building that were simply not possible in our old space. I honestly believe this building is better than any other nursing school facility out there. We are very blessed.
 

William Roth
 You referenced in your last comment about the virtual hospital. And there it raises a vision in one's head as to what that might mean. Could you talk a little bit about that notion of what a virtual hospital is and also the importance of simulation in the pedagogy here?
 

Marie Nolan
Yes, virtual simulation is very important. All simulation is very important because, commonly, crises don’t happen every day. So it gives us a chance to show our students: what does it look like when a patient is coding—their heart is stopping—and you have to pick that up, resuscitate them, and call for help? What does that process look like?

Because we have simulation, we’re able to simulate those scenarios that are uncommon, but where nursing action—quick action, decisive action—is very critical. That’s the simulation with all of our rooms and mannequins. We have very high-tech mannequins that the faculty can control—they can change the heart rate, the breathing rate. They can also respond as the mannequin so the student can actually have a conversation with the patient.

Then there’s the virtual simulation. Our virtual hospital includes patients both on a general medical-surgical ward and in critical care settings. So once again, it allows us to simulate patient crises—situations students must be able to recognize, assess, take action on, and then reassess based on the result of their actions.

They have to do all those things—sometimes within seconds—and virtual simulation allows us to practice that.

William Roth
Have you found that students are getting more skilled at it with more exposure to it? Or how have you found that first-year feedback on the new technology that you can implement in training?

Marie Nolan
I think the students have expressed an appreciation of that, and the faculty have said that they literally are seeing students learn as they go through these scenarios.

The virtual simulation is so new that we have piloted it on probably about 15 students. We wondered if some of these students, who are used to playing video games that may move very quickly, would struggle since it does not move very quickly. It moves at the pace of a real hospital encounter.

So you walk down the hall, you walk into a room—although you're doing it virtually—and we wondered if the students would really be challenged by this. But the students have said that they have really enjoyed that simulation.

They felt challenged by it, and they thought that it made them think in a way that other experiences have not made them think in terms of having to make constant decisions across multiple patients and constantly prioritizing: which patient needs my attention most immediately? And what other team members should I engage in this patient encounter, because there are some critical needs here?

The students have expressed that they have not encountered that type of experience in other aspects of their education or even their clinical practice. I think we're on the right track with that virtual simulation. But it is very new, so we’re continuing to advance that.
 

William Roth
So you've described a groundbreaking building with groundbreaking practice in that—forcing students to think differently and think in new horizons.  Now, what I'd like to ask you to talk about is groundbreaking enrollment. You  have moved into this new building and things seem to go in the right direction in terms of enrollment. 

Would you talk a little bit about these last few years of the growth of your program?
 

Marie Nolan 
We've had a remarkable increase in the growth of our enrollment at the undergraduate level.
We had reached about the largest class size we could reach in the old building, and that was about 104 students. Now that we're in this beautiful building, we have twice the size that we had before. We had aimed for 150, so that's about 50 more students than we had in the past.

Right now, we're scheduled to have 160 students coming in fall 2025. We're very excited about that. This building has enabled us to increase our capacity, and we have more than enough room to teach that many students.

We put students in sections, so it won't be 150 students in one class. We divide students up, so there's about maybe between 40 and 50 in a class with a faculty member, but we'll have more sections because of our growth.

And we're very excited about that because there is a national nursing shortage. We are helping to decrease that shortage—not only just decreasing the shortage with nurses that are clinically excellent, but Conway School of Nursing nurses who will be leaders in good moral leadership in nursing and healthcare.

And I think that will be transformational.

William Roth
You've talked about a growth in critical mass, but not necessarily a lack of personal attention or experience. Is that a good way of describing where you're headed?

Marie Nolan
Yes, absolutely. Our students get a tremendous amount of attention and a tremendous amount of opportunity to practice in our new simulation facilities.

If students feel they didn’t quite grasp something the first time through, we have open lab experiences where students can come in and practice a little longer if that’s what they need. And in fact, we even have a day—the students suggested this themselves—where the seniors orient the upcoming juniors.
So they’re actually sophomores in their second semester. The seniors have a day where they introduce the sophomores to the simulation lab. They show them around, they let them put their hands on the mannequins and the other equipment, and they tell them what they're going to be learning in the next two years.

So that’s really a wonderful experience. And it’s also an example of how the students at Conway School of Nursing really support one another and really care for one another.
 

William Roth
To have more students—you talked about the diversity of the students who come in. You've talked about regional diversity, family diversity, along with private and public schools that send us nurses.

But, probably a common theme for all is dealing with the challenges of the cost of attending The Catholic University of America and the Conway School of Nursing. There are programs embedded here to help and support. Can you elaborate on that more?

Marie Nolan
Yes. We have a wide variety of scholarships at Conway School of Nursing.

Probably one of the most known nationally is the Conway Scholars Program, and that, again, was established by Mr. William Conway and his late beloved wife, Joanne. That enables students to receive significant funding toward our school. The undergraduate program is where we've directed those funds because so many students need significant funding to come to the Conway School of Nursing.

But in addition to the Conway Scholars Program, we have also been the beneficiaries of some wonderful donors to our Conway School of Nursing—donors of all levels. There are people—recent graduates—who will send us $50, and I'm just so impressed by that because they’re only out for a year and they're already on the track of giving back.

But there are other people who are at the very end of their nursing careers, and they are donating—many from their retirement funds that they’ve decided they don't need—or other aspects of their wealth that they’ve decided they want to give back to the Conway School of Nursing.

Maybe they're a graduate of the school, or they have a family member who's a graduate of the school. And many have no alumni from the school, but they've just come to know us, and they've decided that this is a wonderful place to put your money if you want to do good in the world.

And we’ve also, ourselves, applied for many grants to bring as much money into the school as we can for scholarships—because they're so incredibly needed for our students.

An example of that is, we have a donor who loves both the Conway School of Nursing and Catholic University of America, and also loves Sibley Hospital—that is the family’s hospital. And so that donor, the Dunn family, has given us scholarships for five undergraduate students. In return for those very generous scholarships from the Dunn family, these five students have promised to practice nursing at Sibley Hospital for at least three years.

But we really feel like once students graduate and they go and practice at a hospital for three years, they tend to fall in love with that institution. They tend to be advancing in their careers and become the next nurse managers and directors of nursing. And we actually think they will be investing in Sibley Hospital for many more years than three. But that’s an example of the Dunn Family Scholarship.

We have a similar scholarship with the Cabrini Foundation. Five students will receive a significant scholarship from the Cabrini Foundation in return for agreeing to practice in one of the six Catholic Health System hospitals on Long Island.

That’s really a wonderful match for our students because we do have many students who come from the New York area. So for them to go home and practice at a hospital near home—and one that is such a great match for our Catholic mission—is really a wonderful opportunity.

We’re always looking for other grants. That’s one of our roles on faculty—to constantly look for other resources that would help our students. And it can make the difference—as our students tell us—it can make the difference between coming to the Conway School of Nursing and The Catholic University of America, or not being able to come here.

Those scholarships are absolutely essential.

William Roth
 So a family that's considering where to send their child should not feel challenged by the finances of the University's tuition. Do you feel like we are a good value for money and have the resources to support them?

Marie Nolan
We are a remarkable value.

I often say that I think if parents understood exactly everything that we offer here at Catholic University and Conway School of Nursing in terms of supporting the development of their child—at such an important part of their growth and development—that we would have people running to Catholic University and breaking down our door, because I just think what we have here is so special and so impactful on these students’ lives. For the rest of their lives—they will bear the mark of what it was to be educated at Conway School of Nursing: a virtuous person who sees their nursing career as doing God's work.

So I would say, if there's a family that looks first at the tuition and thinks, "Oh, I don’t think—we have three children, I don’t think we can afford that..."—we had a student recently who is one of triplets, and her brother is also now a nursing student. So that's a family that had four children in college at the same time, and they were able to send two of their students here because of the scholarships that we offer.

We have many scholarships because of the generosity of our donors. Sometimes we are cobbling together 10 different scholarship funds to make a significant impact on the scholarship of each student. But we have many resources to support students.

William Roth
I guess the question that strikes me from the comments you have is: You have a happy school. You have a thriving school, but it’s probably still a school that has a few needs. What are the things that, as you lead the school, are still in the back of your mind that you want to keep tackling over the next few years?

Marie Nolan
As much as we are blessed with so much—such as this beautiful building, wonderful students, and spectacular faculty—we absolutely still have needs.
We’ve talked about the incredible need for scholarship support. Many of our students do come from families with multiple brothers and sisters, and the family is supporting two, three, four, five, or more students in college. That is daunting, and so the scholarship money is just so essential for those families.

That’s just one need.

Another need is developing our faculty. We are recruiting and are able to bring in new faculty every year. Last year, we brought in five new faculty members. This year, we are bringing in at least three new faculty members.

We are aiming for faculty who are both excellent clinicians—and they all are—and also excellent matches for our mission. So we're looking at faculty who see the development of students in faith and virtue as critical to our Catholic University and Conway School of Nursing mission.

In addition to preparing them for that, they need development—faculty development—as new faculty members.

We have many opportunities, such as the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. They have a Faculty Leadership Program that is one year long. Faculty begin with a cohort of maybe a hundred other faculty members from across the United States. They meet together probably twice on-site somewhere in the U.S., and the rest of the time they are engaged virtually with various projects and interactions, developing a network of colleagues around the country and staying current with the most recent developments in nursing education.

That, actually, is a very costly enterprise—sending a faculty member to a year-long leadership program. They’re still doing their faculty work, but it is a part-time activity that allows them to grow and develop as excellent nursing faculty. So we do need development money for new faculty.

And then we have seasoned faculty who are advancing a program of research. They may need small amounts of money to do pilot studies to advance their work.

We have a wonderful faculty member, Dr. Rebecca Robert. Her research has always been focused on mother-baby nutrition. She has done remarkable studies showing the impact of excellent nutrition on the health of newborn infants and pregnant mothers.

In order to do that work, almost every study needs a small pilot study to demonstrate to federal funders, for example, that the research you're proposing is going to be successful and impactful. So where we can have small amounts of money to support faculty in pilot studies—that’s extremely valuable.

William Roth
You have, over the last three years, met numerous alumni of the Conway School of Nursing. What do you find is a hallmark of our alumni? What are things you'd want to say to our alumni about being more involved with this school?

Maria Nolan
I think our alumni are remarkable. We have had probably more military leaders from the Conway School of Nursing—in the Army Nurse Corps, the Navy Nurse Corps, the Air Force Nurse Corps—than any other school.

So I think that speaks to our development of leaders. And we’ve also had graduates of the Conway School of Nursing who have been deans at other universities and schools of nursing. They have been chief nursing officers. So we clearly are preparing nurses who are confident and know they are called to lead.
I would say to all of our alumni—whether they have been a leader in a healthcare institution or a leader at the bedside, a leader in their primary care clinic—we need their help.

We would love to partner with them to help impact the next generation of Conway School of Nursing graduates. And I’m always willing to meet with alumni, to let them tour our beautiful new building, and perhaps most importantly, meet our students.

I hear over and over again, when alumni meet our students: “Your students are amazing. Your students are so impressive. I’ve never seen anything like this.” When the alumni come back, they love the students we have—and the students we’re graduating.

William Roth
So, to wrap up our conversation, I was wondering if you could take the concept of the Conway School of Nursing and just give us your thoughts, vision and what you think of it.

Marie Nolan
So, when I think of the Conway School of Nursing, I think of our mission and what makes our students different.
And I think our philosophy of focusing on human dignity. Human flourishing and human freedom are the hallmarks of the Conway School of Nursing graduate. Our students are developed as whole persons by the faculty, the staff, and one another. And our students see the patients entrusted to their care—the families and communities entrusted to their care—as whole persons they’re called to care for in mind, body, and spirit, as part of doing God’s work through their nursing practice.

So I think that is one of the most important things we do at Conway School of Nursing, and it says who we are.

William Roth
Dean Nolan, I want to take an opportunity to say thank you for giving us this much of your time. We hope that others have found that this conversation was informative and gets you excited to be more involved—whether as a prospective family, an alumna, or someone interested in coming back and getting more training at the graduate level—to be part of this exciting time here at the Conway School of Nursing.

Thank you, Dean Nolan.

Marie Nolan
Thank you very much.