FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                    May 10, 2007

NORTHWESTERN AMONG INSTITUTIONS RECOGNIZED BY REGENTS

            Northwestern Oklahoma State University was among 22 institutions throughout the state recently recognized for their outstanding partnerships with community businesses. The university was cited by the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education for its work with the Ketterman Simulation Laboratory located at the Enid campus.

Receiving recognition from the Oklahoma  State Regents for Higher Education are (from left) Dr. Roger Stacy, Northern Oklahoma College; Judy Colwell, Northern Oklahoma College; Dr. Patti Wilber, Northwestern Oklahoma State University; James Barker, INTEGRIS-Bass Hospital; Carrie Shreck, St. Mary’s Hospital; and Vice Chancellor Sid Hudson.

            In the summer of 2005, Dr. Robert Hoffman and Paul Ketterman visited with Northwestern representatives about the possibility of honoring Ketterman’s wife, Emma Lee Tucker Ketterman, who had died the previous year.

            Ketterman appreciated the care that had been given his wife by a Northwestern nursing graduate and wanted to help train more nursing students. Through his gift to the Northwestern Foundation, the laboratory began to develop.

            In order to make the Ketterman Simulation Laboratory a reality, Northwestern established partnerships with Northern Oklahoma College (NOC), INTEGRIS Bass Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center. NOC provided a SimMan, a portable and advanced patient simulator, from a grant it received. INTEGRIS and St Mary’s share the salary of a full-time lab coordinator.

            The high-tech Ketterman Simulation Laboratory provides simulation training to nursing students from Northwestern and NOC, as well as continuing education opportunities for professionals in the regional health care industry. It became fully operational for the fall 2006 semester.

“Each member of the State Regents’ Economic Development Council could nominate a particular partnership and ours was the Ketterman Lab partnership,” said Dr. Patti Wilber, director of the Walsh Center for Economic Development. “The State Regents provide a $500 grant that is matched by the institution to be used in fostering this partnership.”

            The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education’s Economic Development Grant for the Partnership Recognition Program is designed to highlight successful partnerships between higher education institutions and businesses and to further cultivate the higher learning environment through State Regents’ Economic Development Grants.

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