WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing’s Rice Inducted into the American Academy of Nursing

PULLMAN, Wash – Michael J. Rice, professor at Washington State University’s Intercollegiate College of Nursing, was inducted Nov. 11 into the American Academy of Nursing.

Rice was nominated for the honor by two current Academy Fellows and selected by the academy’s 15-member Fellow Selection Committee for his outstanding achievements in the nursing profession. He was formally inducted as a Fellow with 54 other nurse leaders during the academy’s Annual Awards Ceremony and Induction Banquet in Miami, Fla. 

The academy anticipates national and international trends in health care and addresses resulting issues of health care knowledge and policy. The invitation to Fellowship recognizes accomplishments within the nursing profession and affords an opportunity to work with other leaders in health care in addressing the issues of the day. The academy’s mission is to serve the public and nursing profession by advancing health policy and practice through the generation, synthesis and dissemination of nursing knowledge.

Rice has served as professor and nurse practitioner at WSU‘s Intercollegiate College of Nursing since 1989 and is co-director of the doctoral program. He received his bachelor’s degree in nursing at Mount Marty College in Yankton, S.D. in 1974, his master’s degree in psychiatric nursing from the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, in 1976, and his doctorate in clinical nursing research from the University of Arizona College of Nursing in 1988. He has been nationally board certified by American Nurses Credentialing Center in Psychiatric Mental Health since 1995 and is licensed as a psychiatric ARNP in Washington state.

Rice provides national and international consultation on technology in health care for Spyglass, a market intelligence firm. His expertise focuses on the current and future potential of mobile computing and wireless technologies within the healthcare industry. Rice also serves on several editorial review and advisory boards.

His federally funded “Medically in Need Rural Area” (MIRA) project is a model for rural psychiatric nurse practitioner distance education. Using videoconferencing and PDAs, it was the first psychiatric nurse practitioner program ever governmentally funded. The model won the 2002 EDUCAUSE award for Excellence in Application of Technology for the Benefit of Humanity and the 2003 award for Best Paper in Industry and Corporate Training: EISTA, International Institute of Informatics. Rice is the only nurse to have been awarded the EDUCAUSE and EISTA awards.

Established in 1968, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is the nation’s first, oldest and most comprehensive nursing education consortium. The College of Nursing offers baccalaureate, graduate and professional development course work to nursing students enrolled in Spokane through its four consortium partners, Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Washington State University and Whitworth College. The same programs are also offered in several communities across the state including Yakima, Vancouver, Tri-Cities and Walla Walla using WSU’s Academic Media Services’ interactive video system and web-based instruction.

As the largest college of nursing in the Pacific Northwest, the WSU Intercollegiate College of Nursing is currently educating more than 925 upper-division undergraduate and graduate students, and each year graduates more entry-level nurses than any other educational institution in the state. In addition, its faculty researchers are contributing significantly to the knowledge base of the profession and of healthcare.

For more information about the Intercollegiate College of Nursing, please visit the Web site at nursing.wsu.edu. For more information about the American Academy of Nursing, please visit their Web site www.aannet.org.