Veteran educator Kay E. Thurn assumed the chair of DePaul’s Department of Nursing on Nov. 1, just as administrators learned that DePaul students recently achieved universal passage on a key national nursing examination.

Thurn, who served more than 30 years at St. Xavier University, most recently as interim dean of its nursing school, will work to expand DePaul’s innovative nursing program.  Thurn is a registered nurse and holds a master’s degree in psychiatric nursing and a doctorate in clinical psychology. She succeeds Susan Poslusny, who has chaired the program for 15 years and introduced many innovations and degree programs during her tenure.  

DePaul’s nursing program focuses largely on the graduate-level Master’s Entry to Nursing Program (MENP) that provides access to nursing for the non-nurse with a college degree. Under Poslusny’s leadership in 2000, DePaul became the first school in Illinois to offer such a program.  DePaul’s graduates who sat for the 2009 National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses had a 100 percent success rate in passing the exam, a distinction shared by only a handful of the hundreds of nursing programs in the country. 

“We are thrilled to have a professional of Kay’s caliber continue the outstanding leadership our nursing department has enjoyed for many years,” said Charles Suchar, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, which houses the department.  “I can think of no greater testament to the quality of our program than the outstanding success of our latest cohort of students who each passed this critical examination.”