"Preparing future nurses is what I have been called to do," says Dr. Nina Ouimette of the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing. Ouimette has recently been named the new dean of the school that sits on the northwest corner of Hendrick Medical Center.

Ouimette is an experienced pediatric nurse and has been with the Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing for nine years. She is also a highly experienced informatics nurse, which has to do with the compiling of digital life-long medical records.

"Informatics is a leading area of nursing," explained Dr. Carley Dodd who has been serving as the interim dean of PHSSN. "She always gets high marks from her students," he says. "One of Nina's strengths is that she listens well and makes decisions after she has all of the facts," says Dodd. Dodd has been on loan to the school and will return to his teaching and research job Dodd says he will be available to help the transition go smoothly.

The nursing school is in a unique position, serving students from Hardin-Simmons University, as well as McMurry University and Abilene Christian University. Ouimette takes over the dean's role just as classes are getting underway. Ouimette explains that the mission statements of the three Christian universities are reflected in the quality Christian education offered at the nursing school. PHSSN is the only nursing consortium in the United States.

Ouimette is particularly interested in expanding classroom technologies. For instance, she wants to see lectures recorded for PowerPoint presentations to be used with other interactive teaching devices. Ouimette says she is especially proud of the school's high-tech assimilation learning lab. The lab houses 12 simulation manikins who don't seem to mind a cold stethoscope. The lab is where the real hands-on learning takes place for the students.

Sitting directly across Ambler from HSU, the facility also houses five large classrooms and a computer lab, as well as offices for 14 full-time faculty members.

The Patty Hanks Shelton School of Nursing has almost 200 students. When college students finish the first two years of their undergraduate work at one of the four-year universities in town, they are eligible for admission to the nursing school. Ouimette says they currently are serving about 140 undergrads and about 50 students looking to obtain a master's degree.

Ouimette's other vision for the school is in missions. "Already, some of our students are going on to be medical missionaries. We have a recent graduate serving in Turkey and several others working in clinics in Africa," says Ouimette.

The nursing school goes to Kenya every other year to offer an international nursing symposium. Earlier this year, 112 missionary nurses from 28 countries attended the event.

The veteran pediatric nurse first served as an adjunct faculty member at Hardin-Simmons for the nursing school. One year ago, she was named director of the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program after spending a year as interim director.

Ouimette says she enjoys mentoring and helping her faculty of nurses grow in their teaching skills. She also enjoys filling the needs of her students. Hardin-Simmons development officer Cheryl Purcell says she recently was in contact with a scholarship donor who was interested in helping a financially struggling student "Nina knew exactly who the recipient needed to be," says Purcell.

Dr. Ouimette is married to Dr. Mark Ouimette who is professor and head of geological and environmental sciences at Hardin-Simmons. They have three grown children.