History

In 1988 the Board of Trustees established the Center for Public Education which is dedicated to improving health, health consciousness and public understanding and utilization of the services of professional nurses. The Center’s primary goals are to monitor the public's perceptions of and responses to professional nursing services and promote direct public-nursing interaction through health education programs provided by professional nurses.

For many years the Center for Public Education served the Capital region by providing health education programs which also informed the public about the nursing profession. In collaboration with District 9 of the New York State Nurses Association, the Linking Education, Nurses, and Seniors (LENS). Today the LENS program provides a multitude of programs for seniors across the state.

By 2007 the Center for Public was endowed by the St. Luke’s Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae for one million dollars with generous gifts from alumnae and supporters. In recognition of the endowment the Center was renamed, The St. Luke's Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae Center for Public Education.

The Goals of the Center are:

  • To address the nursing faculty shortage along with nursing retention and recruitment;
  • To promote public education; and
  • To promote the visibility and understanding of the Center within the nursing community and the public at large.