PITT NURSES in SERVICE Cover: Patricia Dallas Horoho (MSN ’92) Is the Surgeon General of the U.S
PITT
UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SPRING 2012 SCHOOL OF NURSINGNurse MAGAZINE
PATRICIA DALLAS HOROHO (MSN ’92)
PITT NURSES IN SERVICE Cover: Patricia Dallas Horoho (MSN ’92) is the surgeon general of the U.S. Army and commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Command. She is the first woman and first nurse to be nominated for the position and confirmed by Congress in the 236-year history of Army medicine.
Inside PITT NURSE
IN SERVICE As Army Surgeon General, Horoho Pioneers Alumni Profile ...... 25 Leadership for Nurses and Women ...... 2 Grants List ...... 31 A career marked by significant firsts Alumni News + Notes ...... 34
For Some Nursing Students, Active Duty Is Nurse Beat ...... 40 Just Another Day on the Job ...... 6 Remember When ...... 44 Delivering care to people who put their lives on the line for freedom
Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) at the University of Pittsburgh ...... 9 Providing the tools, training, and experiences students need to succeed
In the VA System, Opportunities Allow Nurses to Shine ...... 10 Serving our wounded warriors and their families
Red Cross Nurses Prevent and Relieve Suffering ...... 13 Offering aid and compassionate services wherever they are needed for more than 130 years
Public Health Nursing: The Potential for Change ...... 16 Understanding and treating clinical and social issues for entire populations
IT’S ALL THERE
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2 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING DEAN'S MESSAGE
Nursing once again health care costs, experts continue to advocate for advanced practice nurses topped the list of most (APNs) to meet the growing need for trustworthy professions primary care providers. The Institute of Medicine’s landmark 2010 report in the most recent Gallup, The Future of Nursing concludes that N it is more important than ever for Inc., poll, the 12th time APNs to be allowed to practice to the in the 13 years it has full extent of their education, training, and competency as more people need been included. more care.
Florence Nightingale defined nursing The American Nurses Association as a science and an art. Nursing is both (ANA) states that the public’s contin- of those things, but above all it is a ser- ued trust in nurses is well deserved, vice profession. Nurses serve in many reflecting an understanding of and ways, including as clinicians, research- appreciation for the many ways that ers, educators, and leaders. And they nurses provide expert care and advo- work in a wide variety of environ- cacy. ANA further notes that major ments, from clinics and hospitals to national policy issues show a similar homes and in the field. Wherever their trust in nurses. Both the Affordable skills are needed, there are nurses. Care Act (ACA) of 2010 and The Our mission is to ensure that there are Air Force Reserve Officer Training Future of Nursing: Leading Change, enough well-prepared nurses to meet Corps. They echo Nightingale, who Advancing Health recommendations current and future needs. said, “I can stand out the war with call for nurses to take on greater lead- any man.” ership roles and to collaborate fully This issue of Pitt Nurse looks at some with other professionals to provide of the ways that nurses make an impact But care doesn’t end at the edge of essential health care as a growing in their communities, advance the the battlefield. America’s wounded number of individuals gain greater profession, and address the challenges warriors continue to receive care access to services. of health care in the 21st century. from Pitt nurses in military hospitals and through the U.S. Department of There is already a shortage of provid- One shining example is featured on Veterans Affairs system. Other Pitt ers to meet the current demand for our cover. Patricia Dallas Horoho nurses work with a wide variety of primary care services, and the demand (MSN ’92) was recently named the aid organizations, including the is expected to increase significantly 43rd surgeon general of the U.S. Army American Red Cross. as ACA makes health care coverage and commanding general of the U.S. available to an additional 32 million Army Medical Command. She is the No matter what career path they Americans. While it is great news that first woman and the first nurse to follow, Pitt nurses share a common so many will now be covered for ser- be nominated for the position and dedication to improving the health and vices and treatment that they could not confirmed by Congress in the 236-year quality of life of individuals, families, previously afford, health care reform history of Army medicine. Horoho also and communities. will be a hollow promise if these was honored as a Distinguished Alumni individuals do not have access to com- Fellow of the University of Pittsburgh petent health care providers. Quality in February. care depends more than ever on nurses Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob, PhD, FAAN and other health professionals. We have also profiled a number of Dean, University of Pittsburgh students and alumni who are military School of Nursing As our nation struggles with the dual veterans or currently serving in the challenges of providing broader access military. Many of our students partici- to quality health care and controlling pate in the U.S. Army, Navy, or
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 1 2 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING IN SERVICE
As Army Surgeon General, Horoho Pioneers Leadership for Nurses and Women
atricia Dallas Horoho, a lieutenant Among her many mentors, Horoho credits general (three stars) in the U.S. her grandfather, an Italian immigrant named Army, has enjoyed a career marked Eddie Tarone, with instilling the values that by significant firsts: She was the first she considers the bedrock of what it means woman and the first nurse to command to be an American: faith, family, honesty, the Walter Reed Health Care System, and and being a team player. A coal miner with a she stood up the first medical response to the sixth-grade education, Tarone never bought attacked side of the Pentagon when it was anything on credit. He later opened a small struck by terrorists on September 11, 2001. bar and owned apartments, making his way in his new homeland and teaching his Ten years after that fateful morning in the descendants the value of a kind word. Pentagon, Horoho (MSN ’92) was again honored as a pioneer, becoming the first “I never heard my mom or him say a bad nurse and first woman in the 236-year word about anybody,” recalls Horoho, history of Army medicine as well as the whose mother, Jo Dallas, has been one of U.S. Department of Defense to serve as a her most ardent supporters. surgeon general. Today, her parents live with Horoho, her “I would submit that I am just the next husband Ray, and their three children. She person who is passing through the crack that credits their support for allowing her to has been opened by pioneers and leaders spend 28 years on active duty while serving who came before me, regardless of gender, as a mother, wife, daughter, officer, warrior, culture, race, or creed,” she says. “And I will and nurse. take that role seriously. It’s a tremendous honor to be able to serve in that position.” As the senior officer of the U.S. Army Medical Department, the surgeon general On her most recent deployment to Afghan- provides advice and assistance to the istan, officers and enlisted men and women secretary of the Army and chief of staff of alike approached Horoho to say that her the Army on health care matters. In her new nomination to the surgeon general’s post role, Horoho serves as medical commander inspired them and gave them hope that their for a health care organization that provides daughters could one day serve in such a role. health care to 3.9 million beneficiaries— including both active and retired personnel Considering that nurses could not com- and their dependents—and oversees 616 mand when Horoho first joined the service fixed medical facilities as well as 345 field in 1983, her rise to the highest rank in the units. The budget alone, which she also medical corps becomes virtually meteoric. manages, is $13 billion.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 3 General Raymond T. Odierno (left), U.S. Army chief of staff, and retired Colonel Ray Horoho (right), her husband, pin the three-star epaulets on the shoulders of Lieutenant General Patricia D. Horoho, the 43rd surgeon general and commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Command, on December 7, 2011, at a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Arlington, Va. Photo Courtesy of U.S. Army. Photo by Rob McIlvaine.
“It’s a very comprehensive system,” says Horoho, who served Working in a dynamic environment means nurses must have as deputy surgeon general prior to her confirmation. the courage to change. “If you don’t change, you become irrelevant,” she says. “And for nurses, I think it takes a Hands-on Leadership tremendous amount of courage to connect emotionally and spiritually with patients.” Although she has three offices in the United States—in the Pentagon; elsewhere in the Washington, D.C., area; and at the medical command in San Antonio, Texas—Horoho also Looking Ahead intends to travel to parts of the world where Army Medical During the next four years of her tenure as surgeon general, Department members are assigned. “I want to be able to Horoho plans to focus on collaborative partnerships and hear and see how the provision of care is implemented in all the collective health of military service members, their environments where care is rendered,” she says. families, and all those entrusted to their care. She believes that the Army Medical Department can work not only with That desire to see firsthand what is happening on the ground colleagues within the Department of Defense but also with has followed Horoho throughout her military career. Though civilian counterparts in an effort to improve American service she initially joined with the intention of staying three years members’ health and well-being and can partner to improve and “seeing the world,” as she puts it, she quickly learned the health of the nation. that the Army offered a breadth of experiences and opportu- nities that could not be duplicated in civilian life. She also urges young nurses to develop a strong clinical back- ground that will better inform them as they eventually move She has traveled to Haiti, Egypt, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, on to leadership roles. By learning how to balance direct Australia, Switzerland, and virtually all of Europe. patient care with administrative experience, they will have Everywhere she goes, she helps to ensure that the best added insights about the impact policies have on care. possible care is available for American service members. Moreover, she has served in a diplomatic role by helping to “You need to be able to be open to new experiences and partner with other countries to improve care. make sure that life is a continual lifelong learning process,” she says. “Army service allows you to meet international health care leaders and be able to look at where there’s a global issue that And while she cites many role models—as varied as President might spark collaboration,” she says. Ronald Reagan; Anna Mae Hays, the first woman to earn the rank of brigadier general; and Elizabeth L. (Noroian) As a nurse leader, Horoho often speaks about her “C4SG” Graham (BSN ’68, MN ’70), PhD, her trauma instructor philosophy: Connection, Character, Competency, and at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing—she says Conviction, along with Serving and the Gifts offered by none is as influential as her mother and grandfather. the profession. “The reason those words are so powerful is because we have strategic implications at the point of health “None of this would have been possible if the two of them care delivery,” she says. “We not only impact the health of had not been instrumental in guiding me to pursue a profes- that patient and his or her family members, we also have the sion in nursing,” she says. ability to impact the strategic aspect of health care.”
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From February to July 2011, while phenomenal leader,” Barrow says. “It’s booth at the School of Nursing that Patricia Dallas Horoho (MSN ’92), a been an absolute honor and privilege to day. A couple of weeks later, I was lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, serve as a member of her team.” enrolled in Army ROTC classes, worked as the deputy surgeon general and several months later, I signed my Fand chief of the U.S. Army Nurse Corps Barrow and Bujak first crossed paths ROTC contract.” at the Office of the Surgeon General for at the University of Pittsburgh School the U.S. Army, she was supported by of Nursing when they both gave brief Barrow calls Bujak an exceptional two other Pitt nurses: Corina Barrow presentations at a freshman orientation Army Nurse Corps officer with a very (MSN ’03), a lieutenant colonel in the session in 2002. Barrow, a graduate bright future. “It’s nice to know that U.S. Army and military nurse fellow student, discussed her experience as an something I said made a difference and and Malgorzata Bujak (BSN ’05), Army nurse and her then current assign- inspired such an amazing young lady a captain in the U.S. Army. ment in the Long-term Health Education to serve our nation,” she says. “The
ARMY STRONG:
3PITT NURSES SERVING TOGETHER
This was not Barrow’s first experience Program at Pitt, while Bujak, a sopho- Army Nurse Corps is a wonderful with either Horoho or Bujak. Between more at the time, discussed her freshman profession; we could not have made July 2008 and December 2009, she year experience at Pitt. a better choice.” worked as Horoho’s executive staff officer in the Office of the Army Nurse “I was impressed with Barrow’s excite- Bujak agrees. “It was the best decision Corps in San Antonio, Texas. At the ment and passion for being an Army I made in my life,” she says. “I am time, Horoho was dual hatted as nurse, her amazing and unique experi- grateful for the wide range of oppor- chief of the Army Nurse Corps and ences in the U.S. Army, and the great tunities Pitt provided me and with the commander of the Western Regional benefits for joining the service,” Bujak many adventures I’ve had with the Medical Command at Fort Lewiswis says.says. “SheShe inspired Army so far.”far. in Washington. me to ggoo talk to thethe U.S. ArmArmyy After serving on Horoho’s teamm fforor ROTCROTC recruit-recruit- 18 months, Barrow was selecteded fforor a ers,ers, whowho con-con- Congressional Fellowship withh Senator venientlyveniently hhadad Dan Inouye and served as his mmilitaryilitary an ininformationformation nurse fellow from January 201010 to January 2011. During her fellowship,owship, Barrow was selected to attend tthehe Industrial College of the Armeded Forces at the National Defense Universityersity in Washington, D.C. For the six mmonthsonths between the time her fellowshipip ended and school began in August,ugust, Barrow returned to Horoho’s stastaffff anandd worked with Bujak. “LTG Horohooroho is a
(left to right): Lieutenant Colonel Corina Barrow, Lieutenant General Patricia Horoho, and Captain Malgorzata Bujak pictured together at the Army Nurse Corps Transition Conference in Alexandria, VA in November. Lottie Brewer (right) with her roommate, U.S. Air Force Major Kimberly Lopez, pictured in front of the ICU in Balad, Iraq. It is becoming more common for health care personnel from the Army, Navy, and Air Force to join together to staff the military hospitals. Although it isn’t usual for Army and Air Force personnel to be roommates, rooms are filled as personnel arrive.
When Heather Kowger is work- FOR SOME NURSING STUDENTS, ing on the front lines as a military ACTIVE DUTY IS flight nurse, perhaps in a plane JUST ANOTHER that is corkscrewing through the air on approach to a site that DAY ON THE JOB could be remote and dangerous, she keeps one thought in mind: If this soldier were my son, I would want somebody out there doing this for him.
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The mother of a 3-year-old boy, her a better civilian nurse by refining When it came time to pursue a master’s Kowger (BSN ’03), BSEME, is a captain her skills and helping her to become degree, she thought becoming a family in the 911th Aeromedical Evacuation more adaptable, she believes. nurse practitioner would be the best fit. Squadron, part of the Air Force Reserve Command stationed near the Pittsburgh The Transition from “I like caring for patients all across the International Airport. It is a job she life span, from little children all the way has held for nearly seven years and one Active Duty to elderly patients,” she explains. she considers an honor. Lottie Brewer (BSN ’02) agrees that Brewer’s husband, Rob, is an Army caring for soldiers is a unique and eye- “I get to provide the best care I can major who remains on active duty opening experience. Brewer, who was for people who are putting their lives while pursuing his graduate degree at on active duty with the U.S. Army until on the line for freedom,” says Kowger, Pitt’s Graduate School of Public and July 2007, later went into the reserve who works as an emergency room International Affairs. He will finish and remains in the Individual Ready nurse at UPMC Presbyterian in her in December, then move to his next Reserve while she completes her gradu- civilian life. assignment in Washington, D.C. ate studies in Pitt’s nurse practitioner And if that weren’t enough, Kowger program and cares for also is studying in the School of her 2-month-old son and Nursing’s nurse anesthesia program, 2-year-old daughter. “I get to provide the from which she anticipates graduating “I really love to take in April 2013. best care I can for care of the wounded Nurses who serve in the military are a warriors,” says Brewer, people who are special breed, but some, like Kowger, who has been stationed putting their lives on set themselves further apart by dedicat- in Germany and deployed ing themselves to continuing their to Iraq. “They’re different the line for freedom.” from any other popula- education even while service remains Heather Kowger a major commitment in their lives. tion you could care for. They’re thankful for “It puts a whole new perspective on everything you do—[even] things,” says Kowger, who has been something as simple as a nurse for 13 years and previously taking them a glass of water. If she finishes on schedule in August worked as a paramedic. Though she 2012, Brewer hopes to join him and “It’s very humbling, because they’re worked as a civilian flight nurse from work as a family nurse practitioner at the ones who are out there making 2001 to 2008, she says there are his base, Fort Belvoir. some differences when working with sacrifices for our country, and we deployed soldiers. should, quite frankly, be thanking “It helps that I had the prior service,” them,” she says. she says, though she adds, “If all else “There, your patients are very apprecia- fails, I can always volunteer to return to Brewer worked as a medical-surgical tive of your care,” she says. “You have active duty.” these 19-year-old Marines who took a nurse for three years and served in bullet, or they had an IED [improvised an intensive care unit while she was explosive device] explode, and every- deployed. Later, she worked in same- A Deliberate Choice day surgery. thing is: ‘Thank you, ma’am.’ ” Maya Clark, a captain in the Air Force “I really like Army nursing,” she says. Reserve, is training to become a flight She has seen soldiers try to refuse pain nurse in the same unit as Kowger. She medication from between clenched “They give you so many opportunities. I had my basic training through my joined the reserve in 2008 and enrolled teeth; she knows that a flight nurse in in the School of Nursing’s PhD pro- a war zone might have to figure out college degree, but once you are on active duty, you get trained in many gram in January 2010, with an antici- how to feed or medicate an aircraft pated graduation date of August 2012. full of patients if a plane breaks down. more skills than you would have the Working within these unpredictable opportunity to do in civilian life.” and often dicey parameters has made
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 7 A onetime medical-surgical nurse and nurses also must invest much more in the Accelerated Second Degree BSN acute care nurse practitioner, Clark time to keep their skills sharp. They program, Barkovich served as a motor grew up with the military as the sometimes fly cross-country all week- transportation operator with special daughter of an Army-enlisted man. She end and can be diverted to attend to initially planned to go on active duty in a specific Air Force mission. They can the U.S. Air Force right out of nursing be deployed overseas on as little as school but was diverted by a job that three days’ notice. offered to pay for her master’s degree. So what appealed to Clark about that kind of schedule?
“It’s just a different sort of manage- ment, and it allows you to have a Joe Barkovich standing large amount of autonomy that you post outside the Iraqi city don’t necessarily get as a nurse in the of Fallujah. The photo was inpatient setting,” she says. “That taken by an Iraqi police officer who was part of seemed to me to be the best way to a group being trained put my skill set into practice but also by Barkovich’s unit. to give back to the community that I had grown up with.”
She also was impressed by the dedica- combat medic training with the U.S. tion of the unit’s nurses, more of Marine Corps during his second tour whom volunteer for deployment than of duty in Iraq in 2005. Captain there are slots available. Maya Clark Marine Corps training helped prepare “It’s a pretty amazing thing to Barkovich for the rigors of the second watch,” says Clark. “For anybody “I always knew that I wanted to do degree program. “The Marines taught who has taken nursing to this flight nursing,” she says. “I figured me that you just do it,” he says. extreme, you always want to learn the reserve was a happy medium. It “Eventually the strain will go away something different. In addition to allowed me to join the service and give and you’ll be better for it.” In addition continuing to learn, we also keep back, but it also allowed me to become to leadership and management skills, ‘doing.’ ” a flight nurse.” Barkovich learned to look for under- Joe Barkovich agrees and believes standing and not to make assumptions. Clark was accepted to Pitt at the same nursing can provide another opportu- “In the field, as in nursing, it can be a time she was supposed to attend flight nity to make a difference. A student matter of life or death,” he says. school, a requirement for the job she wanted. So she asked the School of Nursing to help her balance the two. “Without even one second’s hesitation, Yellow Ribbon Program they said, ‘It’s fine, we’ll work it out,’ ” she says. The University of Pittsburgh is proud to participate in the Yellow Ribbon Program. After flight school, which lasts a month, All eligible undergraduate and graduate students will have all of tththeireir Clark learns water survival. And that’s tuition and fees paid for by the University in partnership with thee U.U.S.S. before she ever starts the role. Department of Veterans Affairs as part of the Yellow Ribbon Program.oogram. Out-of-state and graduate students who are entitled to the maximumaximum As Kowger describes it, the schedule benefit rate may receive this funding if the school in which theyey of an Air Force flight nurse requires are enrolled participates in the Yellow Ribbon Program. considerable dedication. Though There are currently 521 registered student veterans earning most reservists sacrifice one weekend their undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees a month and two weeks a year, flight at Pitt. Veterans are enrolled in every school at the University.
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RESERVE OFFICER TRAINING CORPS (ROTC) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH
U.S. AIR FORCE, U.S. ARMY, U.S. NAVY
The Reserve Officer Training Corps Completion of the ROTC program and a book allowance. Regardless of (ROTC) is an educational program that leads to commissions as follows: scholarship status, all contracted offers full-time students an opportunity cadets also are eligible for a monthly Second lieutenant in the U.S. to become military officers while com- s stipend. The Air Force and Naval Air Force pleting a degree. This elective curricu- ROTC programs offer special scholar- lum, which students take along with s Second lieutenant in the U.S. ships for nursing students, and the their required college classes, provides Army, Army National Guard, School of Nursing makes every effort the tools, training, and experiences or Army Reserve to adjust clinical and lab assignments necessary to help them succeed in to accommodate the demanding any competitive environment. s Ensign in the U.S. Navy or schedules of ROTC students. second lieutenant in the U.S. Students may elect to participate in Marine Corps programs through the Air Force or Army ROTC at the University of All three programs offer stipends or For more information about ROTC at Pittsburgh or through the Naval ROTC scholarships. Depending on the ser- Pitt, visit www.oafa.pitt.edu/rotc.aspx. program at Carnegie Mellon University vice, qyqualified students may receive as PiPitttt students.students. sscholarshipscholarships that papayy full tuition, fees,
Front row, left to right: Ryan Chambers, Navy ROTC, Class of 2014; Alison Rutter, Navy ROTC, Class of 2013; Grace Schott, Navy ROTC, Class of 2014; Nora Brodsky, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2014; Shannon Carr, Navy ROTC, Class of 2015; Anna Sala, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2014; Emmanvelle Tietbohl, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2012; Talor Forbes, Navy ROTC, Class of 2013; and Amanda Watts, Navy ROTC, Class of 2015. Back row, left to right: Emma Pannepacker, Navy ROTC, Class of 2012; Jessica Meyer, Navy ROTC, Class of 2012; Elena Lages, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2014; Amy Farr, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2013; Colleen Casey, Navy ROTC, Class of 2015; and Brett Freund, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2013. Not pictured: Virginia Lee, Navy ROTC, Class of 2012; Elizabeth Walker, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2012; and Julie St. George, Air Force ROTC, Class of 2013. Members of the Army ROTC were on physical training and not available when this photo was taken.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 9 On the wall of the entrance at the U.S. This phrase, which evolved into the mission state- ment of the VA in 1959, follows Jennifer Onaitis Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Legler through every workday. Whether she is help- headquarters in Washington, D.C., are ing to shape a more equitable disability rating system for service members and veterans, shaking hands with a pair of plaques bearing these words a Medal of Honor recipient, or reviewing testimony that will be presented to Congress, Legler (BSN ’74), from Abraham Lincoln’s second MSN, is constantly mindful of the population she is inaugural address: “To care for him honored to serve. The same is true for many nurses who have forged careers in the VA. Though they who shall have borne the battle, and may not be military personnel themselves, they feel a special kinship and responsibility to the veterans and for his widow, and his orphan.” families under their care.
“I really fell in love with the system,” says Melanie Erskine (BSN ’78, MSN ’85). Erskine has worked at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) for 30 Above: Lauren Broyles, left, and Melanie Erskine in the lobby of years as a psychiatric clinical nurse specialist after a the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System location in Pittsburgh.
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IN THE VA SYSTEM, Opportunities ALLOW NURSES TO SHINE
brief stint in civilian acute care. “We’re all working “I’m a creative person, and it gets back to oppor- toward the common good of veteran care.” tunities in the VA,” she says. “I’m afforded a lot of opportunities to use that creativity.” When she works with groups of veterans, she notes that they become more homogenous, regardless of age or background. Passion Reborn For Legler, joining the VA after 14 years as an admin- “As veterans, they share a very rich history. So no istrator and director of nursing in a psychiatric facil- matter what era they’re from … put them in a room ity was a new lease on her love for the profession. and they come together because of the commonalities they share. And we treat them, I believe, with grati- “I wanted to refresh my career after being in the tude and respect.” private, for-profit side of health care,” she says.
Though Erskine’s career has encompassed many Years earlier, her mother had suggested that she roles—substance abuse and nursing management consider working for the government, noting that her among them—health and wellness has proven to be brother had worked as an operating room nurse at the most enduring interest. Currently, she is oversee- the VA in Buffalo, N.Y. So when Legler learned about ing a program called MOVE!, which offers weight a job opening at the Washington, D.C., VA Medical management to veterans and their families at the Center, she applied. Immediately, she felt as though VAPHS and in five outlying clinics. she’d come home.
With the help of a dietitian and a kinesiotherapist “They didn’t pigeonhole me and say, ‘Oh, you’re a who is a certified tai chi instructor, Erskine presents psych nurse,’ ” she recalls. “They really appreciated a holistic approach to weight loss and wellness that my background and allowed me to use my health seeks to recalibrate the way the patient thinks about care experience extensively. … It’s really a great food and exercise. opportunity to do what you find interesting. You always seem to be able to find your niche.” “I really focus on encouraging the veteran to take control of his or her health by buying healthful, She transferred to VA headquarters eight years ago natural foods; eating three to four meals a day; drink- and considers the 16 years she has spent with the ing water; shopping on the perimeters; and leaving VA to be the best she’s ever had as a nurse. She has the boxed meals in the center of the grocery store,” helped to make the disability rating system more she explains. “Weight loss is the by-product, because transparent so that men and women on active duty I’m really encouraging health and the promotion of know what kind of compensation they can expect well-being.” if they are medically unable to continue to serve. She has helped to create a computer-based military In 2011, she received a grant to roll out the program cultural awareness program for VA employees to for VA employees, offering such perks as morning help them understand the differences among various boot camp, after-work yoga, stress management, and branches of the service and between officers and healthy cooking classes. enlisted personnel as well as the different health issues that each conflict from World War II forward Erskine praises the VA for allowing her the opportu- has brought to light. nity to implement a holistic approach.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 11 In every project, she feels that she’s Adam Gordon, a VA physician and member of making a difference. the research center, served on Broyles’ dissertation committee. He was one of the first to suggest the “It’s kind of nice to work on a national VA to her as a source of postdoctoral training and level on programs that may be in fellowships. existence 50 years from now,” she says. Of reviewing congressional testimony, “It was a really great fit,” she says. “I wanted some- she adds: “I never thought I’d be doing thing that was going to impact clinical practice more that when I was in school.” quickly and more directly.”
But her Pitt education did prepare her Because the VA is a closed health care system—one for the rigor demanded by the VA. that serves as both provider and payer—Broyles knows that her research is relevant, important, and “We were guided to really make an timely to them. “Everything the VA funds is congru- in-depth analysis, whether it was ent with its mission,” she explains. “It gives me a the disease our patient had or how sense of purpose and accountability for my research, to manage a shift or a unit,” Legler because I know it’s going to be used.” recalls. “There wasn’t a lot of leeway for slacking off; you really had to The system also shapes the way Broyles writes grants: know what you were doing, be proud With a priority on research that translates to frontline of it, and stand behind it.” clinical care, “You really have to make a clear justifi- “It’s really a great cation and establish a significant link to the work you She recalls some of the more poignant propose,” she says. opportunity to moments on the job, such as the day do what you find she greeted a flight that carried all the Recently, Broyles learned that she was awarded fund-d- living Medal of Honor recipients to ing for a three-arm randomized, controlled trial of a interesting.” Washington. In describing the experi- nurse-delivered intervention for reducing alcohol usese ence, she gets emotional. in hospitalized patients who are hazardous drinkers.s. She has completed three years of preliminary researchrch Jennifer Legler “If I never meet another celebrity, it’s in this area and is now ready to determine the impactact OK,” she says. “I met these guys.” of the intervention on patients’ drinking levels and alcohol-related problems. Her ultimate goal is to Applied Research translate what she learns into VA policy and practice,ce, allowing VA nurses to be pioneers in addressing Lauren Broyles (PhD ’08) echoes Legler and Erskine hazardous drinking in the hospital. when she speaks of the career opportunities the VA offers. A research health scientist with VAPHS, she For a nurse whose interests lie in research, Broyles was looking for a specific combination when she highly recommends a career working with veterans,, completed her doctoral program: a very applied form particularly in the target priority areas listed in of research coupled with the opportunity to work the VA’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative. with vulnerable populations. Among others, these include substance use disorders,rs, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injury, mental She found both in the VA’s Center for Health Equity health, HIV/hepatitis C, and cardiovascular disease.. Research and Promotion, which focuses on health Seeing that research result in better patient outcomeses disparities. Veterans often are vulnerable because of is a major benefit of the VA system, she says. comorbidities such as mental illness, substance abuse, and other stigmatized conditions. “You can have the most wonderful intervention in the world, but the challenge is to get providers and “A fair number of veterans are homeless because of health care systems to put it into practice,” she says.s. some of those medical and behavioral health issues,” The field of implementation science is something in Broyles says. And all of these—substance abuse, which the VA is a world leader. Adds Broyles, “I feelel homelessness, and mental health—are national prior- needed, and I feel relevant and confident that I can ity areas for the VA. make a difference in the next five to 10 years.”
12 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING IN SERVICE
Red Cross Nurses Prevent and Relieve Suffering
For more than two decades, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing professor Barbara Spier and her gerontology students were regular visitors at the Douglas Plaza Apartments, where they performed health screenings for the elderly tenants of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-subsidized high-rise near Pittsburgh.
While driving to the grocery store in February 2006, Spier (BSN ’68), PhD, heard a radio report about a fire at Douglas Plaza. Without a moment’s hesitation, she turned her car around and sped toward the burning building.
“I wasn’t sure if I was doingg the rightg thing,”g Spier recalls, “but I felt this pressing ururgege to go and helhelp.”p.”
SSpierpier worked late into the cold winter ninightght ttoo care for many of the 160 displaced occupants anandd to hhelpelp tractrackk ddownown ttheirheir memedications and valuables. Amid the chaoschaos ooff tthehe tratragicgic fifirere tthathat kkilledilled one peperson and injured 17 others, a rescue worker overheard a resident askinaskingg SSpierp for medical assistance.
“Isn’t that above and bebeyondyond what a Red Cross volunteer should be doing?”doing?” the firefifirefighterghter asked, assuassumingm Spier worked for the emergency responseresponse ororganization.ganization.
“I’m“I’m nnotot a RReded CCrossross vvolunteer,”olunteerr,” sshe replied to his surprise.
TheThe next mornimorning,ng, SpSpierier sisignedgned uupp ffor training to join the Disaster Action Team ooff tthehe SoutSouthwesternhwestern PenPennsylvanian chapter of the American RedRed CrossCross..
SinceSince tthen,hen, sshehe hhasas vovolunteeredlun two to three weeks of her time eacheach year fforor ddisasterisaster ddeployment across the United States, serving ice storm victivictimsm in New York, flood survivors alongalong tthehe Texas/LouiTexas/Louisiana border, and hurricane and tor- nadonado victims in ththee SSouth. She also is on call for 12 hours eacheach weeweek—includingk—includin Christmas Eve—to respond to fires andand ototherher ddisastersisasters near her Pittsburgh-area home.
SpierSpier is just one oof the many Pitt nursing faculty mem- bers,bers, stustudents,dents, aandn alumni who are making an impact inin ttheirheir llocalocal cocommunitiesm and nationwide by lending theirtheir time anandd ttalentsa to the American Red Cross, foundedfounded in 1881881 by nursing icon Clara Barton.
Barbara Spier
PITTPITT NURSENURSRSER SPRINGSPRINRI G 20122012 1313 “As a nurse, I can usually remain very calm during a disaster; Schmidt has since responded to dozens of tornadoes, winter you are used to helping people cope with very difficult storms, and other emergencies as a Red Cross volunteer things,” says the 70-year-old Spier, who taught at Pitt for nurse. More importantly, perhaps, she has dedicated her 31 years before retiring in 2003. “I can establish a rapport career to training thousands more nurses in disaster response. with the victims very easily, and I’m very comfortable talking to them and assessing their needs.” In 2005, when some 70,000 Hurricane Katrina evacuees arrived in Arkansas, Schmidt taught scores of nurses and Disaster relief nursing combines these traditional skills of physicians how to work in Red Cross shelters. She then a nurse with training specific to crisis scenarios, such as developed an accelerated curriculum to teach disaster services managing shock and panic and shelter mobilization. It can be to her senior-level community health nursing students. The demanding and dangerous work that certainly isn’t for every- American Red Cross recently initiated a nationwide nurse one. Volunteers may face harsh conditions without running training program based on her model. water or electricity, food shortages, or worse. Workdays are long and stressful and can take an emotional toll. “My fantasy is that when another hurricane happens, I can visit a local radio station and say, ‘This is Dr. Cheryl Schmidt. For nurses up to the challenge, disaster relief is a life- If you learned how to volunteer with the American Red changing experience with many rewards, according to Cheryl Cross, come on down! We need you!’ ” she says. Schmidt (PhD ’99), associate professor and associate dean for service at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences This past June, Schmidt was honored for her work as one of College of Nursing. four nurses in the United States selected by the International Committee of the Red Cross to receive the Florence As a child, Schmidt watched her mother don a white nurse’s Nightingale Medal. It’s the highest international honor in uniform, cap, and Red Cross pin to volunteer at blood drives. the profession and is bestowed in recognition of exceptional She followed that lead by helping with blood drives as a courage and devotion to the sick, wounded, and disabled. student nurse and later teaching first aid and CPR. The award also is shared by Pitt nursing alumnus Phyllis In June 1999, Schmidt answered the urgent call for nurses in Janocha (BSN ’51), who received the Florence Nightingale Little Rock, Ark., after the deadly crash of American Airlines Medal in 2002. Flight 1420. As a retired U.S. Army Nurse Corps lieutenant colonel, Schmidt knew how to care for patients in the field. In 1975, Janocha was recruited with a group of fellow school She monitored rescue workers for heat-related injuries and nurses to help the Red Cross develop a disaster response plan performed first aid at the crash site. She later provided coun- for Allegheny County. Two years later, she put the skills she seling to flight survivors and their families as they viewed the burned, twisted remains of the plane.
Cheryl Schmidt in her disaster vest, with some of her nursing students who collected supplies for over 300 Red Cross comfort kits for disaster victims.”
14 IN SERVICE
“To be able to help people who had lost learned into action after being called out service response to the United Airlines to a devastating flood in Johnstown, Pa. everything is the Flight 93 crash in Shanksville, Pa., “I got hooked on disaster nursing,” she during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. recalls. “To be able to help people who most satisfying thing had lost everything is the most satisfying “Mental health is a much-needed service thing I have ever done.” I have ever done.” at these tragedies—for the victims and their families, but also for the volun- From that time on, Janocha kept her bag Phyllis Janocha teers,” she says. packed at all times, responding to more than 50 national disasters and countless At age 83, Janocha doesn’t head out other local disasters in more than 30 to crash sites anymore, but she is still years as a Red Cross volunteer. She stood in the aftermath pitching in behind the scenes at the Red Cross to support of San Francisco’s Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 and other volunteers. Spier, too, vows “to keep doing the best I Hurricanes Andrew in 1992 and Wilma in 2005. In addition, can for as long as I can,” motivated by the spirit of resilience she became a renowned expert in what many disaster work- of those she helps. ers consider the most stressful of tragedies: plane crashes. She recounts the story of a firefighter who retrieved a bag of As part of a Red Cross Aviation Incident Response holiday gifts and the family Bible for a woman whose house Team, Janocha assisted with USAir Flight 427, which burned to the ground one recent Christmas Eve. crashed outside Pittsburgh in 1994, killing 132 people, and TWA Flight 800, which exploded after leaving New “She was so grateful, and instead of dwelling on what York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing was lost, she was overjoyed by what she had,” Spier says. all 230 passengers in 1996. She also directed the health “You don’t forget things like that.”
A Brief History of the American Red Cross Every day on the news we hear about another disaster. And In addition, the American Red Cross offers compassionate every report seems to end with the reassurance that the Red services in five other areas: community services that help the Cross is on the scene, providing relief to the victims. Since its needy; support and comfort for military members and their founding by Clara Barton in 1881, the American Red Cross has families; collecting, processing, and distributing lifesaving blood been the nation’s premier emergency response organization. As and blood products; educational programs that promote health part of a worldwide movement that offers neutral humanitarian and safety; and international relief and development programs. care to victims of war, the American Red Cross also provides aid to victims of devastating disasters. Important milestones in the history of the Red Cross: 1859 Henry Dunant organizes volunteers to help wounded 1914 The Red Cross water safety program begins. soldiers after the Battle of Solferino. 1917 President Woodrow Wilson calls on youths to join the 1861 Clara Barton begins her relief work with Union soldiers in newly formed Junior Red Cross. the Civil War. Barton subsequently worked on the battle- 1941 fields of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) and the The Red Cross begins a national blood donor service to Spanish-American War (1898). collect blood for the U.S. military. 1950 1863 Dunant establishes the International Committee of the The Red Cross expands its blood program for the military Red Cross. during the Korean War. 1968 1864 The first Geneva Convention is adopted to protect sick At total of 480 Red Cross staff members serve with the and wounded soldiers on the battlefield; the Red Cross military during the Vietnam War. emblem—a reverse of the Swiss flag—is established. 1974 CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) training is intro- 1869 Barton learns about the Red Cross while on vacation duced as a Red Cross program. in Switzerland. 1987 The Red Cross opens a new blood research laboratory. 1881 Barton and friends establish the American Red Cross. 1991 Elizabeth Dole becomes the first female president of the 1909 The American Red Cross begins a first aid program. American Red Cross since Barton.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 15 Holly Williams evaluates health information at a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
PUBLIC HEALTH NURSING: THE POTENTIAL FOR Change
16 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING IN SERVICE
“IN THE ARENA OF PUBLIC HEALTH, I EXPERIENCED A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF RESPECT AND INDEPENDENCE FOR NURSES.” Holly Williams
As a young bedside nurse, “I needed to test my wings and see how else I could contribute, so I told them I would volunteer overseas for a year—and there Holly Williams felt frustrated was dead silence on the phone,” she recalls. “It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I later learned that most people signed up for with the disrespect for nurses three months at most at that time.” at her hospital and the end- Three weeks later, Williams (BSN ’76) found herself in a refugee less red tape of the American camp on the Thailand/Cambodia border, where some 55,000 sick and starving people had fled the killing fields of the Khmer health care system. On a whim, Rouge regime. she dialed the International Behind the barbed wire that surrounded the camp, in a bamboo Rescue Committee, a non- pediatric clinic, Williams found her calling. “In the arena of public health, I experienced a whole new level of respect and independence governmental organization that for nurses,” she says. responds to the world’s worst While most nurses care for individual patients, public health nurses humanitarian crises. also advocate for the health of whole communities. They monitor health trends and the spread of disease, educate people about health issues, implement disease prevention programs, and improve access to care for vulnerable and at-risk populations.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 17 “WHEN I REALIZED THERE IS A WHOLE BRANCH OF NURSING THAT LOOKS AT WHAT IT TAKES TO CARE FOR ENTIRE POPULATIONS OF PEOPLE, I BEGAN TO SEE THE FULL RANGE AND BREADTH OF WHAT THIS PRO- FESSION CAN AND SHOULD BE.” Alison Colbert
It’s work that combines personal adventure and “Nurses just excel at the ability to multitask and see community service, taking Williams and many other the broader picture,” she says. “We know how to University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing alumni listen, how to teach, how to negotiate, and how to be across the country—and around the globe—to bring good logisticians. We’ve had to do those things our health and hope to people most in need. entire career.”
After her refugee camp experience, Williams went on That’s just as true in Pittsburgh as it is in Phuket, to earn a PhD in medical and cultural anthropology Thailand, says Diane Johnson (BSN ’97), who at the University of Florida. She was accepted into has dedicated most of her professional life as a the Epidemic Intelligence Service program at the psychiatric nurse serving the homeless in Western Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Pennsylvania. Atlanta, Ga., and assigned to CDC’s Malaria Branch. At the same time, she was commissioned into the U.S. Johnson supervised the Neighborhood Living Project, Public Health Service, in which launched in 1999 by Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Leading a multidisciplinary team of doctors, she now holds the rank of captain. In 2005, she nurses, case managers, peer specialists, and drug and switched to the CDC International Emergency and alcohol specialists, Johnson helped to provide clinical Refugee Health branch, where she continues to and housing services to area homeless affected by do operational research and work with displaced mental illness and substance abuse. She and her col- populations. leagues received an American Psychiatric Association Achievement Award and other national honors Her career has taken her across Africa and Southeast for their efforts. More recently, Johnson worked Asia—and closer to home in the aftermath of disas- as a project coordinator for the federally funded ters such as Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 Haiti Allegheny ONTRACK Initiative at Health Care for earthquake. Nurses are uniquely equipped to respond the Homeless in Pittsburgh to better integrate medical to complex humanitarian crises like these, and the and behavioral health services for individuals who demand for nurses in public health service is high, are homeless in Allegheny County. according to Williams.
18 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING IN SERVICE
“I continue to learn a lot more from the clients I serve “WE NEED A LOT MORE NURSES IN than they ever learned from me,” she says. “They are THIS FIELD OF PUBLIC HEALTH. OUR very resilient, strong, amazing human beings who manage to cope even in the face of a lot of adversity.” TRAINING DEVELOPS OUR CRITICAL
Last year, Johnson was named the associate and THINKING SKILLS, WHICH CAN BE clinical director for POWER—or Pennsylvania APPLIED AT THE BEDSIDE AND AT THE Organization for Women in Early Recovery—based in Pittsburgh’s East End, which provides gender- COMMUNITY LEVEL. I THINK WE HAVE responsive and trauma-informed treatment and A BETTER UNDERSTANDING THAN support for women struggling with the disease of addiction through residential and outpatient pro- MANY OTHERS OF NOT JUST THE grams. “Many of the women we serve have seen quite SOCIAL ISSUES FACING OUR CLIENTS a bit of trauma in their lives, which has a strong cor- relation with the disease of addiction, and the disease BUT ALSO THE CLINICAL PICTURE itself often leads to more traumatic events, including IN TERMS OF MEDICATIONS AND homelessness, incarcerations, and loss of families. DISEASE PROCESSES.” “We need a lot more nurses in this field of public Diane Johnson health,” says Johnson, who also is a trainer in dialec- tical behavioral therapy. “Our training develops our critical thinking skills, which can be applied at the bedside and at the community level. I think we have a better understanding than many others of not just the social issues facing our clients but also the clinical help women stay (or become) engaged with their picture in terms of medications and disease processes.” own health and health care when they return to their communities. Alison Colbert (PhD ’07) agrees. “Leaving jail is a very tumultuous—and potentially “I’ve come to believe that you could put a nurse dangerous—time for many women,” she says. “I almost anywhere and people will benefit,” says hope to help them maximize their chances for success Colbert, an assistant professor in Duquesne in the outside world.” University’s School of Nursing. “It’s about more than just being there, though. It’s about nurse-led change.” Colbert began her career in public health doing communications for a specialty hospital for people In 2010, Colbert won a three-year, $350,000 Nurse with HIV/AIDS in Texas and then earned her master’s Faculty Scholar award from the Robert Wood degree in nursing as a community health specialist at Johnson Foundation to develop interventions to the University of Texas at Austin. She later worked improve the health of incarcerated women as they with HIV/AIDS patients as the director of nursing at reenter society. This prestigious award is presented to a Los Angeles, Calif., clinic. junior faculty members who show promise as future leaders in academic nursing. “When I realized there is a whole branch of nurs- ing that looks at what it takes to care for entire She explains that women in jail have high rates populations of people, I began to see the full range of infectious disease, substance abuse, and mental and breadth of what this profession can and should illness. They often are able to care for their health be,” she says. “It’s for people who are creative and behind bars with some professional support—whether innovative and want to try new things. It’s for people that means dealing with an addiction or getting who don’t take no for an answer and who see the back on their medications for a chronic illness—but potential for making real change.” struggle on their own after release. Colbert is design- ing an intensive nurse case management program to
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 19 IN SERVICE
A Brief History of
Nurses have been tending to wounded warriors on and off the Nursing in battlefield for as long as there have been wars. Some of the greatest advances in the profession and science of nursing have occurred during periods of war, when the demands for nursing skills are most extreme. Following is a very brief overview of the Military the history of military nursing.
1755 1862 Rabia Choraya, head nurse or Louisa May Alcott travels to matron in the Moroccan army, Washington, D.C., to work as a nurse travels with General Edward in a Union hospital. Alcott wrote about Braddock’s army during the her experiences for a Boston, Mass., French and Indian War. newspaper. Published in book form in 1869, Hospital Sketches provides a 1798 poignant window into the suffering of The U.S. Public Health Service Civil War soldiers and their loved ones Commissioned Corps, one of the as well as insight into their care. seven uniformed services of the United States, has its beginnings 1862 with the creation of the Marine The Reserve Officer Training Corps Hospital Fund, which was reorga- (ROTC) program originates at nized in 1871 as the Marine Norwich University in Vermont under Hospital Service. the terms of the Morrill Act of 1862, which established the land-grant 1854 colleges. One of the federal govern- Florence Nightingale and 38 volunteer ment’s requirements was that these nurses are sent to Turkey to care for schools include military tactics as part injured soldiers in the Crimean War. of the curriculum.
1861 1863 Dorothea Lynde Dix, a well-known Nightingale establishes the Nightingale humanitarian working on behalf of the Training School. mentally ill, is appointed superintendent of women nurses for the Union Army. 1871 John M. Woodworth is named the first 1861 surgeon general of the United States. Sally Louisa Tompkins opens the Robertson Hospital for 1877 Confederate troops after the Visiting nursing begins when the Battle of First Manassas in women’s branch of the New York the Civil War. City Mission sends its first trained nurses into the homes of the 1862 indigent. Walt Whitman travels to Washington, D.C., search- 1881 ing for his brother, who had Clara Barton founds the American been wounded in the Battle of Red Cross and becomes its Fredericksburg. Whitman spent the first president. next three years nursing wounded soldiers and chronicling “the struggle” from the perspective of the hospital bedside.
20 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING 1893 19321932 Lillian Wald and Mary Lauretta M. SchSchimmolerhim establishes the Brewer start community nurs- Aerial Nurse CoCorpsorp of America. ing, the forerunner of public health nursing. 1938938 TheTh Nurses N Memorial M in Arlington 1901 National Cemetery is erected to honor The U.S. Army Nurse Corps nurses who served in the armed forces is formally established. Only during World War I. More than 600 college graduates are accepted. nurses are buried at Arlington.
1908 1942 The U.S. Navy Nurse Corps The Naval Flight Nursing School is is established. organized at Bowman Field in Kentucky.
1909 1943 The American Red Cross Nursing The Cadet Nurse Corps is Service is established. established to recruit students for military or civilian nursing roles. 1909 As military demands depleted the The University of Minnesota civilian supply of nurses, it became awards the first bachelor’s degree difficult to maintain high standards in nursing, setting a new standard for nursing services on the home in the training of nurses. front. Preserving the strength and health of civilian shipbuilders 1915 and those who manufactured the Edith Cavell, superinten- nation’s war materiel was crucial to dent of a nurse training the war effort. Subsidizing nursing school in Brussels, education in order to train more Belgium, nurses both nurses was the obvious solution to German and Allied this potential health problem. soldiers before being executed by a German 1945 firing squad for harboring President Harry S. Truman submits a British and French soldiers recommendation for a comprehensive and helping them to escape momoderndern nnationala health program Belgium. to CongCongress.
1918 19481944 The U.S. Army School of TThehe NationalN Health Service Nursing is established. iiss launched.lauu
1925 1949194 Mary Breckinridge A totaltota of 1,199 Army nurses are founds the Frontier transtransferredf to the new Department Nursing Service and of tthehe Air Force. travels 700 miles on horseback surveying 1950195 the needs of rural MobileMobil Army Surgical Hospital Kentuckians. (MAS(MASH)S units are organized to bring medical care closer to the front lines during the Korean War.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 21 Pitt–Bradford Nursing Professor Helps Open Cameroon Clinic
University of Pittsburgh at Bradford nursing professor Tammy Haley (MSN ’02) is finishing her dissertation for a PhD in nursing and her thesis for a master’s in public health—more than enough to keep her busy over the summer.
Still, when the opportunity arose to spend a month using her nursing skills at a new health clinic in the western African nation of Cameroon, she was eager to go. Tammy Haley surrounded by children from the Ekona district of Cameroon
22 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING As a nurse practitioner with a focus on rural medicine, the background is as a family nurse practitioner, her current clini- mission was a natural fit, she said. “The idea of being able cal practice is in family planning and women’s health. “My to provide health care, the area of my specialty, made it a practice is very different than this practice. The point was to unique opportunity.” provide them better health care, so to go unprepared would have been a real disservice.” Haley, coordinator of Pitt–Bradford’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program, returned in mid-July from the medical She found a mentor in another member of the congregation, mission. She traveled as part of a five-member group that physician Anita Herbert. “She gave me the tools and knowl- included UPB nursing student Amy Silvis and Christina edge and really made sure as soon as I committed to this that Siewe, the wife of Youmasu Siewe, director of the Center I was as prepared as I could be.” Haley spent three months for Rural Health Practice at UPB. brushing up on routine problems that might be seen in a family medicine practice and preparing The group also included Silvis’ for treating less-familiar tropical younger sister, Rachel Avey, illnesses such as malaria and who recently graduated from The establishment of the typhoid. high school, and Patricia Rouse, a nurse from Arkansas, where clinic makes health care In Cameroon, along with pro- the Siewes resided prior to viding patient care, the volun- coming to Bradford in 2009. more accessible to some teers helped put documentation “It was an interesting mix of 28,000 people who live in and record-keeping systems in people. We all brought different place for the new clinic, she skills to the table,” Haley said. or near the Ekona region. said. “It was a really tall task.” Siewe, a nurse, founded the Many of the people who live A nurse had been providing Good Samaritan Health Center care, but the clinic had been with her sister through efforts in the farming community functioning only in a skeletal that began about five years ago, are poor and must walk to capacity until recently, when Haley said. Information on it obtained nongovernmental the clinic is available at www. get medical care. organization status. That goodsamaritancameroon.org. made it an officially recognized entity, Haley said. “This was a The two-story cement clinic huge expansion in services for building stands on the site them.” Although additional of the sisters’ childhood home in the Ekona district Cameroonian staff had been hired, they didn’t start working of Cameroon. at the clinic until after the U.S. group came, Haley said. Now the clinic has nurses and a midwife on staff as well as a physi- That connection, Haley said, “made it personal.” cian who sees patients there one day a week. In addition to outpatient services, it can house eight patients in four Haley learned about the clinic last fall through fundraising hospital rooms. efforts by Holly Spittler, UPB associate dean of student affairs and director of career services. Spittler attends The establishment of the clinic makes health care more acces- Bradford’s First Presbyterian Church, which took on the sible to some 28,000 people who live in or near the Ekona project as part of its mission work after the Siewes became region. While a government hospital is nearby, “This is closer active in the congregation. and more acceptable,” she said, noting that many of the people who live in the farming community are poor and must walk to Haley, a nurse practitioner, asked whether volunteers were get medical care. On clinic days, Haley and the staff saw about needed. “There were some nurses going but because there 40 patients a day, diagnosing problems ranging from high were some donations of medications going as well, they blood pressure to HIV. needed someone who could prescribe medications. I filled that bill,” she said. “I diagnosed more HIV there than I have in my practice here, ever,” she said. Although the clinic could provide pre- and Making the commitment to the monthlong trip meant Haley post-HIV testing counseling, it was not equipped to treat needed to brush up on her family medicine skills. While her the disease, so patients were referred to the government-run
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 23 medical facilities. “It seemed to me that most people who had “You write directly in their medical book. Any tests are writ- a diagnosis did get treatment,” she said. ten directly in the medical book. Then that medical book is given to the lab and the lab writes the results. Then if you give However, most of the illnesses and disorders the team treated medicines, you write the medicines … and if they needed to go were largely a result of poor hygiene and sanitation, Haley to the pharmacy, they simply took their medical book to the said. “It was something that could be addressed in a mean- pharmacy and had their medicines filled,” she said. ingful way.” If prescription refills were necessary, patients would need to Haley said she had traveled to Africa twice before, albeit not return to their provider each month to have them written into as a health care volunteer. “One of the big things for me that the book. Some aspects of the system were convenient. “Some was different in this village than in other villages: Animals patients brought 10 years’ worth of records,” Haley said. run free in the streets.” Pigs, That made it quick and easy to goats, chicken, and cattle roam review what treatments already in town, she said, noting that a had been tried. But patients who flock of chickens wandered into wanted to withhold information the clinic lobby one day. easily could “forget” their book, she said. “When you’re thinking of the impact of biologic agents Although Haley said she would on health and you have pigs like to return to the clinic, it’s roaming the street and chickens likely that future service there roaming the street … to me that would be in a different capacity. would be something that public “The need potentially for me health education efforts could to go as a health care provider remedy or make a difference might not be as great as it was with,” she said. initially,” since the clinic now has a medical staff in place. Cameroon is officially bilin- gual—residents speak French However, she sees a potential or English. Although Haley role as a trainer, given that was in an English-speaking part Ekona Mbenge street many of the supplies that were of Cameroon, “Their English shipped to the clinic from is not our English,” she said, America were unfamiliar. adding that a translator often was needed, especially for com- municating crucial instructions, such as how to use prescribed “Really basic stuff like tape that we use in the hospital,” she medications or the importance of boiling drinking water. said, was completely foreign to the Cameroonian staff, who were accustomed to cutting adhesive sheets called plasters into “It was really important that a local person provided clinical strips. They didn’t realize that the rolls of tape sitting unused instructions,” Haley said, adding that a local nurse explained on their shelves could be used in the same way, she said. what she was saying to patients. “They had a hard time understanding me sometimes,” Haley said. “It’s hard to expect somebody to utilize all these really great things that we can bring and provide if they don’t have any She found many cultural differences in the course of pro- idea what to do with them,” Haley said. viding care for patients in Cameroon. There is no health insurance system, so care is pay as you go. “If you don’t have Reflecting on her trip, Haley said, “I think it’s going to be a money up front for care, you don’t get care,” Haley said. really great teaching tool.” Although she has taught concepts of cultural sensitivity and awareness previously, actually In addition, in Cameroon there are no hospital meals or facing such dramatic cultural differences provided a new hospital gowns. Patients rely on their families to bring them perspective, she said. food, clothes, and other necessary items, Haley said. Another difference: “Patients’ medical records were kept by the “It was good hands-on experience.” patient. And they transported their own medical books with them to the provider,” said Haley. By Kimberly K. Barlow, published in the University Times, September 1, 2011 Reprinted with permission
24 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING ALUMNI PROFILE A Voice for Nursing
Theresa Brown (BSN ’07), PhD, made a midlife career change that confounds Tmany people. She left a comfortable position as an English professor at Tufts University to pursue a career in nursing.
It was not that she did not enjoy teaching writing, but after her son was born, she realized that she wanted a job where she could “We need the public to take care of people rather than grade or judge them. When Brown became pregnant with twins, she was impressed by the midwives hear the voices of more who helped her through her pregnancy. With the encouragement of friends and family, she entered nursing school. Six years later, when nurses, for more nurses her twins were eight, Brown earned her nursing license, and she has never looked back. to tell the truth about It was an enormous transition from English professor to nurse. “I what we do, to talk was accustomed to meditative talk with colleagues over coffee and the security I got from books,” she says. “Whatever my failings as about everything nurses a teacher, I was comfortable knowing that no one’s life was on the line.” But Brown left the comfortable life of academia for nursing do and why it matters, to find work that felt more meaningful. about the reality and As a nurse, Brown has seen it all: the struggles with treatment, the confrontation with death, and the successes that gladden the hearts the ideal in nursing.” of nurses and other health care providers. “It’s messy and stressful, and I wouldn’t exchange it for a dream classroom full of well-read, Theresa Brown hardworking, intellectually curious college students—not in a mil- lion years, not ever,” she says. “Where else can I go to sample daily the richness of life in all its profound chaos?”
Brown managed to combine her talents for nursing and writing in columns for the New York Times Well blog that describe her
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 25 “Nurses tell me, ‘Keep on doing what you’re “The only reason any of doing,’ ” she says. After her article on doctor bully- ing, a nurse told Brown that she cut the article out this matters is because and gave it to a doctor where she worked. Another nurse told Brown that she shared her article on of the patient. We need having a bad day with her husband and family so empowered professionals they would understand what she does. “It amazes me that my writing has given such a voice to nursing.”
on the medical and Brown’s mission is to educate the public about what nursing side to get the best nurses do, to raise the profile of nursing, and to be an advocate for nursing. “The only reason any of this patient care possible.” matters is because of the patient,” she says. “We need empowered professionals on the medical and nursing Theresa Brown side to get the best patient care possible.”
In 2009, President Barack Obama invited her to the White House, where she was joined by about 150 other nurses to support the Affordable Care Act. In a experiences as a nurse. She also wrote speech about health care reform, Obama quoted from a book, Critical Care: A New Nurse one of Brown’s blog posts that described a patient Faces Death, Life, and Everything in who spent much of his dying months worrying about Between. Along the way, Brown has how to pay for his leukemia treatments. “It was a evolved into an advocate for issues proud moment for me and for nursing—the president related to nursing, patients’ rights, of the United States quoting a floor nurse,” she says. and health care reform. “As a nurse and a writer, it’s not always clear how much of a larger effect my work has. It was gratifying “When my first article was printed, to see that by combining both jobs, I could contribute I was amazed at the response,” she to the national conversation about health care.” says. “Nurses told me how grateful they were to have someone give them a voice.” Through her academic training, Brown grew to love Brown believes that there needs to be a stronger ideas and believed that smart thinking could make cultural narrative for nursing. “We need the public to the world a better place. She still believes that and hear the voices of more nurses, for more nurses to tell remains committed to clinical nursing. “That idealism the truth about what we do, to talk about everything may hold some truth—at least I hope it does—but in nurses do and why it matters, about the reality and my own life I took a more practical route. At work the ideal in nursing.” now, I worry about what to do if a potassium level is dangerously high, if a patient cannot breathe, if a People ask Brown if she is a writer or a nurse. “I third round of chemotherapy has failed to make a think of myself as a hybrid: a bedside nurse who puts dent in someone’s disease,” she says. “At universi- my literature background to use by writing about ties, there is always time for thinking, talking, and nursing,” she says. “One informs the other.” writing—all things I enjoy and believe are important. But only in the rush of hospital nursing did I find the Brown ended up resigning from her first nursing job work environment I craved—to fight for and care because she and her employer could not agree on for real people rather than struggle with ideas and guidelines for her writing. After working so hard to words. Still, in working with those people, I found realize her dream and become a nurse, it was not easy my way back to words and to a seemingly endless to leave clinical nursing to keep being a writer, but so supply of heartbreaking, inspiring, and important many other nurses expressed to her that her writing stories to tell.” made a difference to them that Brown did not think she could, or should, give it up.
26 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING CAMEOS OF CARING
Cameos of Caring® Program and Awards Gala
Since 1999, the Cameos of Caring message has become a prominent voice on behalf of the nursing profession, reach- ing well beyond local boundaries. The Cameos of Caring awards program continues to fulfill its mission: to bring recognition to the individuals who define the profession andd to promote nursing as a viable and rewarding career choice.
In 2011, 64 nurses from 45 area health care facilities, eight schools of nursing, and two international facilities were honored at the 13th annual Cameos of Caring Awards Gala.a. Since 1999, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing has honored 600 nurses with prestigious Cameos of Caring awards. Their personal stories have tugged at our hearts and inspired us. Among the 2011 honorees were 11 gradu- ates and one current graduate student of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing:
Tracy Brnusak (BSN ’05)
Michelle Cain (BSN ’90)
Jeannine DiNella (MSN ’04) Above: Sandra Engberg, associate dean for clinical education, Nadine Cozzo Englert (MSN ’01) presents a Cameos of Caring Endowed Nursing Scholarship Gloria Gotaskie (BSN ’77, MSN ’94) to Meghan Vucetic, a nursing anesthesia student. Kathleen Graham (BSN ’79) Left: Michelle Cain (BSN ’90), an Edward Hetherington (BSN ’10) awardee from Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, is escorted by Kathy Magdic (MSN ’92, MSN ’95, DNP ’10) Camellia Herisko (MSN ’94, MSN ’97), director of nursing. Angela Panos, graduate student
Vivian Petticord (MSN ’09)
Eileen Roach (MSN ’03)
Shirley Powe Smith (BSN ’59, MNEd ’79) Proceeds from the Cameos of Caring Program and Awards Special thanks to the event sponsors: Gala benefit the Cameos of Caring Endowed Nursing Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) Scholarship Fund. In 2011, 25 Cameos of Caring scholar- ships were awarded. Since the fund was established in 2000, Cura Hospitality 146 scholarships have been awarded to provide financial Jewish Healthcare Foundation support for nurses seeking to enhance their education. STAT Staffing Medical Services, Inc.
Visit www.nursing.pitt.edu/cameos for more information University of Pittsburgh Medical Center about the Cameos of Caring awards program.
PITTPITT NURSENURSE SPRINGSPRING 20120122 27 STUDENT PROFILE
Sisters on a Mission: A First-person Account by Kelsey Buchanan
OnO August 3, 2011, my sister, Lindsey, andan I left for Belize in Central America,A ready for an adventure but notn sure what we would find when wew landed. It was the summer before mmy junior year, and Lindsey would bbe starting her freshman year at the UUniversity of Pittsburgh School of NNursing in the fall. Months ago, tthis had seemed like a great idea. WWe had always talked about going overseas on some sort of mission trip, but now that it was actually happening, neither of us felt as preparprepared for the trip as we had hoped.
Personally, I don’t exactly know what I was expecting to find in Belize. I think somehow in my mind I had conjured up this pretty little image of me squatting by a mud hut, adorable children clustered around me, as I provided quality health care while educating their parents about proper hygiene and a balanced diet.
Reality check. A sand fly dive-bombs my forehead, and I wipe away the sweat streaming down my face. I haven’t stopped sweating since our plane landed here in Belize. A family of four sits in front of me. The mother pulls up her shirt and begins unashamedly breast-feeding her 18-month-old daughter while her toddler son tugs on her skirt. The oldest daughter sits politely next to her mom, looking around the clinic. The family speaks only Spanish, so I have to work through a translator to get the family history. I go through diagnoses in my mind—what: itching; when: mostly at night; how long: the past two weeks … oh my gosh … I think they have scabies. Oh this is bad, really bad. Infection control would be having a fit right now if we were in the United States. We’re sharing equipment amongst everyone, and I haven’t been washing my hands between patients because there’s no running water. And now I probably have microscopic bugs burrowing into my epidermis. Perfect.
It didn’t take too long for me to adjust to this new way of living, however. I quickly became accustomed to the perpetual heat and made friends with the little gecko who liked to hang out on the wall next to my bed. The first week of Left, from left to right: Lindsey and Kelsey our trip flew past. Our clinics were set up so that the first day in a new village, we Buchanan pausing for a much-needed break. went from house to house checking to see if anyone was sick or wanted to see the Above, top to bottom: The pig foraging in the doctor. The language barrier was frustrating. We had a crash course in medical front yard posed a sanitation issue; just one and basic conversational Spanish before we went out into the field, but even after of many vibrant flowers we saw in Belize; mastering some key phrases, I still needed a translator to help me understand the three sweet Belizeans that were treated for Belizeans’ responses. It was a happy moment when my “Habla inglés?” was met parasites; a breathtaking view from the top of Mayan ruins at Xunantunich
28 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING August 4, 8:41 p.m. The whir of the three fans in our room provides a gentle background sound as I lie on my bunk and begin to write. The past two days have been a blur. … We landed in Belize City on Wednesday around noon (Belizean time) and spent the rest of the day getting settled in the with a “Sí, sí.” In the villages, we handed out tickets to anyone guesthouse where we will be staying for most who needed to see the doctor, telling them where the clinic was and of the trip. We also divided three garbage bags’ what day and time they were scheduled for. Following the house worth of medications into separate piles for the visits, we had two days of clinic, where we treated about three different clinic sites we will be serving. 25 people a day. Driving from the airport to Cotton Tree Village, we caught our first glimpses of true third-world During one of our clinic days, we cared for a family that was poverty. Houses lined the western highway, most literally starving to death. The mother weighed less than no more than wooden shacks. Some were on 80 pounds and had recently delivered her seventh child. The stilts; others looked like they might blow away in father was a pastor and depended on the donations of villagers the first strong wind that came their way. Clothes to feed his family because he was not paid for his services. were strung along clotheslines, flapping back In addition, the five school-age children were not attending and forth in the breeze like invisible children school because the family could not afford the enrollment dancing to music only they can hear. fees. Over the next couple of days, our team gathered food and school supplies for the children as well as paid their school fees. It was a humbling and emotional experience to take the food and supplies to this family’s house and watch as the mother was left speechless, the glitter of unshed tears in her eyes. For a couple hundred dollars, we made it possible for this family to eat and for five children to receive an education. This August 10, 10:15 p.m. was monumental, as education equals jobs and opportunities that would otherwise be unattainable. Without an education, without Earlier today, Rose, our team leader and being taught the values of motivation, innovation, and inspiration, surrogate mom for the trip, asked us if many of these children resort to drug abuse, alcoholism, and other we wanted to go dancing tonight. Of damaging lifestyle choices, never knowing that there’s something course we said yes and all piled into the better to do with their lives. Imagine never knowing that there’s an van, expecting to hit the Belmopan night- entire world outside your village where your life has value and you life. So it was a bit of a surprise when we can be a powerful influence on your community! pulled up to the community center. Rose had neglected to mention that we’d be Belize left a lasting impression on me, and I hope to go back dancing with senior citizens! We had a someday soon. Our team treated more than 100 patients in three blast, though, participating in a senior different villages and gave away medications, school supplies, wellness program, complete with low- and toiletries to villagers who could never have afforded even a impact aerobics and marching around the tube of triple antibiotic ointment. And while I go home, back community center to circus tunes. to the comforts of my life here in the United States—where my choices are latte or cappuccino, and do you want fries with that?—our team leader, Rose, and the other dedicated health care workers we met in Belize are still working tirelessly to promote health and wellness in their villages. I never could have imagined the demands placed on a community health nurse in that environment, and now I have so much respect for all that those women and men do to try to improve the health of their communities. It’s an inspiration for me to do my part in educating those around me and in telling my story so that I, too, can have an impact in my own way. Belize taught me that no act you do is too small to have an impact on someone, and if you’re passionate and willing to put forth effort in what you do, it could very well be enough to change a life. A view of the Mopan River
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 29 DEVELOPMENT
Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial Fund
Pitt alumnus and dedicated volunteer J. In spring 2011, an anonymous donor Roger Glunt has been working tirelessly offered to match all gifts raised for to raise funds to honor his sister, School the Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial of Nursing alumnus Nancy Glunt Fund, up to $150,000, through July 31. Hoffman (BSN ’62), whose life was Glunt worked with the development cut short by cancer. As a tribute to his staff at the school and coordinated sister, Glunt plans to establish a chair in several fundraising events, including an oncology nursing at the University oncology chair fundraising dinner at of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. the home of Margaret (Peg) (MSN ’86, PhD ’01) and Michael Rosenzweig and The School of Nursing is among the the Sixth Annual Nancy Glunt Hoffman first schools in the country to offer a Memorial Golf Outing, hosted by graduate program in oncology nursing Mike Bryson at the Allegheny Country and enjoys strong collaborative rela- Club. In addition, the school received As a tribute to his sister, tionships with several of the nation’s gifts from lifetime donors to the fund, Roger Glunt plans to leading institutions in oncology and Hoffman’s classmates, and School of clinical care and research, including the Nursing faculty and staff members. establish a chair in University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and University of Pittsburgh Cancer Through these fundraising efforts, the oncology nursing at the Institute. A chair in oncology nursing school raised $178,023 by July 31. The University of Pittsburgh is essential to continuing the lifesaving anonymous donor presented Glunt with work of early detection and improved a $150,000 check that was added to School of Nursing. treatment. With a focus on developing the Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial highly visible academic research and Fund. The balance in this fund is now clinical programs, the individual named more than $1 million and has moved to the chair will make significant contri- the school closer to the $1.5 million butions to oncology nursing practice. necessary to endow a chair in oncology nursing at the University of Pittsburgh.
Lila Decker Endowed Nursing Scholarship The School of Nursing is pleased to She has worked tirelessly to facilitate effort wasn’t shared with Decker until announce the creation of the Lila medical services, often on a one-on-one June 1, when $200,000 had been Decker Endowed Nursing Scholarship basis, easing the pain of patients and raised. She was extremely surprised to honor Lila Decker, a senior patient the anxieties of families in the most and humbled at the news. services coordinator in the Office trying of times. of the President at the University of Through the generosity of many, Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). As a tribute to Decker and her work, the $250,000 fundraising goal was The scholarship will support a student a committee of colleagues and friends, reached in January 2012. Decker will in the undergraduate program who is led by cochairs Suzy Broadhurst and have the opportunity to meet and interested in direct patient care. Cliff Rowe, mounted a campaign in personally congratulate the scholar- spring 2011 to raise the $250,000 ship’s inaugural recipient at the School Decker has provided expert, compas- necessary to endow the scholarship. of Nursing’s Scholarship Luncheon in sionate care for UPMC patients and The campaign plan consisted of two September 2012. their families for more than 20 years. fundraising phases, and word of this
30 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING Active Grants (as of December 1, 2011) $5,000 or more Denise Charron-Prochownik Longitudinal Effects of Receiving Preconception Rose Constantino Michael Beach Counseling in Early Adolescence Comparing Online with Face-to-Face HELPP New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program Agency: American Diabetes Association Intervention in Women Experiencing Intimate Agency: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Research Foundation Partner Violence Agency: American Nurses Foundation Mandy J. Bell Reproductive Health Intervention for Teen Girls Genomics of Endoglin Pathway with Diabetes Mellitus (DM) Elizabeth Crago in Preeclampsia (GEPP) Agency: NIH/National Institute of Child Health The Role of Estradiol in the Delayed Cerebral (with Conley) and Human Development Ischemia after Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Agency: National Institutes of Grant Code: R01 HD044097 Hemorrhage (with Sherwood) Health (NIH)/National Institute Agency: Neuroscience Nursing Foundation of Nursing Research (NINR) Eileen Chasens Grant Code: F31 NR011379 Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), Sleepiness, Annette DeVito Dabbs and Activity in Diabetes Brief Nursing Intervention to Prevent Catherine Bender Management Poor Psychosocial Outcomes in Living Donors Predictors of Adherence to Hormonal Therapy Agency: NIH/NHLBI (with Dew) in Breast Cancer Grant Code: R21 HL089522 Agency: NIH/National Institute of Neurological Agency: Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) Disorders and Stroke Foundation Maya Clark Grant Code: R21 NS011149 Experience of Managing Interdisciplinary Training of Nurse Scientists End-stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Dietary Phase III Trial of Pocket PATH: A Computerized in Cancer Survivorship Research Modifications (with Hoffman) Intervention to Promote Self-care Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: NIH/NINR Grant Code: T32 NR011972 Grant Code: F31 NR013410 Grant Code: R01 NR010711
Cumulative Interferon Dose Susan Cohen Marilyn Davies in Patients with Melanoma Acupuncture for the Treatment of Insomnia Providing Health Information to Households Receiving Pretreatment (with Glick) with Preschoolers at Risk of Obesity with the Antidepressant Agency: NIH/National Center for Agency: CRDF Mirtazapine versus Placebo Complementary and Alternative Medicine Agency: Schering Corporation (NCCAM) Heidi Donovan Grant Code: R21 AT004429 Web-based Ovarian Cancer Betty Braxter Symptom Control: Nurse-guided Doulas as Change Agents: My Doula and Yvette Conley vs. Self-directed Me Project Genetics of Age-related Maculopathy Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: University of Pittsburgh Central (with Gorin) Grant Code: R01 NR010735 Research Development Fund (CRDF) Agency: NIH/National Eye Institute Grant Code: R01 EY009859 Willa Doswell Lora Burke Protecting Daughters against Cancer (PDAC) in Advancing Real-time Data Collection: Adaptive Targeted Research and Academic Training a Multi-ethnic Sample of Mothers and Their Sampling and Innovative Technology of Nurses in Genomics Preteen and Adolescent Girls Agency: NIH/National Heart, Lung, and Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: ONS Foundation Blood Institute (NHLBI) Grant Code: T32 NR009759 Grant Code: R01 HL107370 Linda Dudjak Genomic Variability and Nurses’ Contributions to Value-based Care Grace Campbell Symptomology after Agency: University of Pittsburgh Health Policy Post-stroke Cognition as a Fall Predictor during Traumatic Brain Injury Institute (HPI) Inpatient Rehabilitation (with Matthews) Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: NIH/NINR Grant Code: R01 NR013342 Grant Code: F31 NR011561
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 31 Active Grants (continued)
Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob Leslie Hoffman Ann Mitchell University of Pittsburgh Clinical and Long-term Oxygen Treatment Trial Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Translational Science Institute (with Sciurba) Treatment (SBIRT) Training for Emergency (with Reis) Agency: NIH/NHLBI Department Registered Nurses Agency: NIH/National Center for Grant Code: HHSN268200736193C Agency: HRSA Research Resources Grant Code: UL1 RR024153 Self-regulated Exercise in Cystic Fibrosis: Marci Nilsen A Randomized Trial (with Orenstein) Interaction Behaviors’ Effect on Nursing Care Adherence and HRQOL: Translation Agency: NIH/NINR Quality of Older Adults in the ICU (with Happ) of Interventions Grant Code: R01 NR009285 Agency: NIH/NINR Agency: NIH/NINR Grant Code: F31 NR012856 Grant Code: P01 NR010949 Rosemary Hoffmann Role of Nursing in Care Coordination in the John O’Donnell Sandra Engberg Patient-centered Medical Home (PCMH) Emerging Learning and Integrated Technologies Efficacy of Acupuncture in Treating Agency: HPI Education (ELITE) Urinary Incontinence Agency: HRSA Agency: NIH/NCCAM Kathleen Hopkins Grant Code: R01 AT002175 Management of Pain following Lung Cancer Nurse Anesthetist Traineeship Surgery (with Hoffman) Agency: HRSA University of Basel Scientific Leadership Agency: ONS Foundation Agency: University of Basel Kathryn Puskar Julius Kitutu Addiction Training for Nurses Using Screening, Mechanisms of Action of Hydroxycloroquine in Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment Reducing Risk of Type 2 Diabetes (with Toledo) Agency: Health Resources and Services (ATN-SBIRT) Agency: NIH/National Institute of Diabetes and Administration (HRSA) Agency: HRSA Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) Grant Code: R21 DK082878 Advanced Education Nursing Traineeship Nurse Education Practice and Retention Agency: HRSA Agency: HRSA Judith Erlen Clinical Oncology Program Biostatistical Center Jennifer Lingler Jill Radtke (with Constantino) Alzheimer Disease Research Breast-feeding the Late Agency: NIH/National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center (with DeKosky) Preterm Infant: A Grounded Grant Code: U10 CA069974 Agency: NIH/NIA Theory Study (with Cohen) Grant Code: P50 AG005133 Agency: NIH/NINR Multisite Collaborative Study for Adherence, Grant Code: F31 NR011562 Virologic, and Clinical Outcomes (with Liu) Development of a Protocol for Disclosing Agency: NIH/National Institute of Mental Health Amyloid Imaging Results in Mild Cognitive Margaret Rosenzweig Grant Code: R01 MH078773 Impairment The ACTS Intervention to Reduce Breast Agency: University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Cancer Treatment Disparity Sandra Founds Agency: American Cancer Society (ACS) Biomarker Assay Development for Translation Faith Luyster of Discovery-based Placental mRNA Enhancing Motivation for Continuous Positive Elizabeth Schlenk Candidates to Serum Protein Concentrations in Airway Pressure (CPAP) Therapy Adherence in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Early Pregnancy to Predict Preeclampsia Obstructive Sleep Apnea Research Center—Research Core Agency: Preeclampsia Foundation Agency: NIH/NHLBI (with Newman) Grant Code: K23 HL105887 Agency: Centers for Disease Control Mary Beth Happ and Prevention Patient Participation in Treatment Decisions Judith Matthews Before and After a Program to Facilitate Patient Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS): Medium Promoting Physical Activity in Older Adults Communication in the ICU Collaborative Research Monitoring Human with Comorbidity Agency: Greenwall Foundation Performance with Wearable Accelerometers Agency: NIH/NINR (with Redfern) Grant Code: R01 NR010904 Agency: National Science Foundation
32 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING Jennifer Seaman Quality of Care for Older Adults at End of Life in ICU (with Happ) Research Collaborators Agency: John A. Hartford Foundation For more than 50 years, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Susan Sereika have helped redefine the science and practice of nursing through multidisciplinary and Biobehavioral Studies of Cardiovascular multi-institutional translational research. Research collaborators include the following: Disease (with Manuck) University of Pittsburgh Collaborators Outside Collaborators Agency: NIH/NHLBI Aging Institute of UPMC Birmingham City University Grant Code: P01 HL040962 Alzheimer Disease Research Center Carnegie Mellon University Pathophysiology of Parathyroid Hormone- Clinical and Translational Science Institute Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC related Protein 1-36 in Humans (with Stewart) Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts Duquesne University Agency: NIH/NIDDK and Sciences Duke University Grant Code: R01 DK051081 • Department of Psychology Emory University Graduate School of Public Health Paula Sherwood Health Research, Inc. School of Education Mind-body Interactions in Neuro- Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC oncology Family Caregivers School of Health and Rehabilitation Michigan State University at Irvine Agency: NIH/NCI Sciences Mount Sinai Medical Center Grant Code: R01 CA118711 School of Information Sciences Saint Francis University School of Medicine Determining Genetic and Biomarker Predictors • Saint Mary’s Hospital of Delayed Cerebral Ischemia (DCI) and Department of Critical Care Medicine Thomas Jefferson University Long-term Outcomes after a Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH) • Department of Medicine University of Basel Agency: NIH/NINR • Department of Neurology University of California at Irvine Grant Code: R01 NR004339 • Department of Obstetrics University of California at Los Angeles Gynecology, and Reproductive University of Hawai’i at M¯anoa Chantel Snyder Sciences University of Michigan Genomics of the VEFG Pathway in Neonatal • Department of Pediatrics Respiratory Distress Syndrome (with Conley) University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill • Department of Psychiatry Agency: NIH/NINR University of Pennsylvania Grant Code: F31 NR012606 • Department of Radiology University of Pittsburgh Medical Center School of Pharmacy (UPMC) Karen Wickersham School of Social Work University of Washington Medication Taking for Non-small Cell Lung Swanson School of Engineering Cancer (NSCLC) Patients Receiving Oral University of Wisconsin–Madison Targeted Therapy University Center for Social and Urban Washington University in St. Louis Research Agency: ACS Wake Forest University University of Pittsburgh Diabetes Institute Wayne State University A Study of Medication Taking for NSCLC Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic Patients Receiving Oral Targeted Therapy Western Psychiatric Institute of Pittsburgh (with Erlen) West Virginia University Agency: NIH/NINR Yale University Grant Code: F31 NR011261
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 33 ALUMNI NEWS + NOTES
Maryann F. Fralic (MSN ’73), Sherry Zisk (BSN ’73, MNEd who has demonstrated innova- 1960s DrPH, FAAN, received the ’79) was recently appointed tive leadership in the field of Nancy Grove (BSNEd ’68), American Organization of Nurse chief nursing officer at Weirton credentialing and/or licensure PhD, University of Pittsburgh at Executives (AONE) 2012 Medical Center. Prior to this by developing, implementing Johnstown nursing program Lifetime Achievement Award. appointment, Zisk was a transi- and researching programs or professor emeritus, chairs This award honors tional leader at the practices. Under Murphy’s lead- the scholarship committee of an AONE member University of Virginia ership, ONCC has experienced the auxiliary of Conemaugh who is recognized Children’s Hospital in substantial growth over the past Memorial Medical Center. She by the broader Charlottesville, Va., two decades and currently also created a heart pacing nursing community and had a longtime administers seven certification group as a means of offering as a significant association with the programs. Highly regarded as expert education to those in her leader in the nurs- Western Pennsylvania an expert in the credentialing community dealing with heart- ing profession and Hospital, serving as industry, Murphy has served as related issues and their families. has served AONE in vice president and a commissioner on the National an important lead- chief nursing officer Commission for Certifying Carol Ann Landis (BSN ’67), ership capacity— and director and Agencies and as president of DNSc, FAAN, professor, biobe- demonstrating the assistant director of the ICE Board of Directors. havioral nursing and health sys- qualities of leader- Maryannn F. Fralic nursing services. Kirsti Hetager Stark tems, University of Washington, ship and service to (BSN ’74, received the 2011 Pathfinder the nursing profession by his or 1980s MSN ’85) is the graduate Distinguished Research Award her professional and personal advisor in the University of Beverly S. Karas-Irwin (BSN from the Friends of the National example. Fralic was honored at Pittsburgh School of Nursing’s ’83), a student in the School Institute of Nursing Research. an award presentation during student services office. of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing This award recognizes a nurse the AONE 45th Annual Meeting Practice (DNP) program, deliv- Nora Baker Warshawsky researcher whose long-standing and Exposition in Boston, ered a podium presentation (BSN ’82) completed a PhD commitment to nursing research Mass., on March 22, 2012. program at the University of has made a difference in the titled “The Effectiveness of Denise Custer Myers Zingiber officinale (Ginger) on North Carolina at Chapel Hill in lives of people with health care 2011. An assistant professor at needs. Landis researches sleep (BSN ’73), director of risk man- Acute Postoperative Nausea agement at Monongalia Health and Vomiting” at the 23rd the University of Kentucky and health consequences of College of Nursing, she teaches disturbed sleep. System in Morgantown, W.Va., annual Greater Pittsburgh recently received two honors. Nursing Research Conference in in the DNP program and is the Mary Salvatore Leo (MNEd ’67) From the American Society for October 2011. Additional group population and health systems retired in 2005 at age 88 from Healthcare Risk Management members included DNP student track coordinator. UPMC Braddock after a 50-year (ASHRM) of the American Pamela Hash, MSN; nursing career there. Hospital Association, she was specialty role graduate student 1990s awarded fellow designation due Amber Jobe (BSN ’05); acute Peter Albert (MSN ’93), a 1970s to successfully meeting pre- care nurse practitioner program suicide prevention coordinator Leota (Lea) T. Acord (MN ’74), scribed requirements of the student Anita Lachell (BSN at VA Butler Healthcare, pre- PhD, professor, College of Professional Recognition ’09); and nurse anesthesia stu- sented a poster on a tool Nursing, Marquette University, Program in education, experi- dent Lorreen Mattson. developed for tracking the ence, personal development, follow-up of veterans at high represented the University of Cynthia Miller Murphy and professional competence, risk of suicide at the Pittsburgh at the inauguration (MSN ’84), execu- as established by the Board of VA National Mental of Marquette’s new president, tive director of the Directors of ASHRM. From the Health Conference in Scott R. Pilarz, last September. Oncology Nursing West Virginia Center for Nursing, Baltimore, Md., Certification Cor- Susan Bakewell-Sachs Myers was a recipient of the in August 2011. poration (ONCC), (BSN ’79), PhD, has been 2011 Excellence in Specialty received the 2011 appointed interim provost at Nursing award, an award honor- Mary Patricia Mellors Credentialing the College of New Jersey ing nurses from nurses who Lewis (PhD ’99), Industry Leader- (TCNJ), supervising its liberal believe that the recipients con- BSN, was promoted ship Award from learning, study abroad, and tribute in meaningful ways to to associate dean at the Institute for honors programs. She most enhancing the quality of health the SUNY Delhi Credentialing recently served as the Carol care in West Virginia and of the School of Nursing in Excellence (ICE). Kuser Loser Dean of TCNJ’s clients they serve. Delhi, N.Y. Nursing Cynthia Miller Murphy School of Nursing, Health, and This award recog- was the first depart- Exercise Science. nizes an individual
34 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING ment to receive school designa- a research health scientist In Memoriam tion at SUNY Delhi. in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Center for Lois M. Bushko T. Jean Mazero Liana K. Novick Martinez Health Equity Research and (BSN ’51, BAS ’79) (BSNEd ’46) (MSN ’98) holds a post-master’s Promotion at the VA Pittsburgh January 13, 2004 November 25, 2008 certificate from the University Healthcare System; core faculty of Washington. She is currently Kelly McCann Butschle Ruth Mrozek member at the VISN 4 Mental an emergency and acute care (BSN ’98) (BSN ’64, MN ’70) Illness Research, Educational clinical nurse specialist at the August 17, 2011 December 5, 2011 and Clinical Center; and assis- Lovelace Health System in tant professor of medicine at Emma Bantley Soloweigh Ellen J. Wright Norton Albuquerque, N.M. Her career the University of Pittsburgh Custer (BAS ’79) accomplishments include being School of Medicine, has made (BSN ’44) August 11, 2011 honored with a Bronze medal significant contributions to the April 28, 2008 for saving the life of an officer in Doris Sherman Petrosky field of addictions in general as the Hawai’i Police Department Dorothy Leppert Howard (BSNEd ’50) well as to advancing the addic- and being named “Florence (BSN ’54) November 21, 2011 tions nursing profession. May 9, 2011 Nightingale to the Homeless.” Ellenor Williams Vajda Martinez was a lead paramedic Katie Ness Kandrysawtz Shirley Boatman Jennewine (BSN ’44, MLIT ’49) instructor and served as a (BSN ’05) earned a master’s (BSN ’66) December 2, 2011 Hurricane Katrina volunteer. degree from Millersville November 8, 2011 University in May 2011 and is Edna Mae Wilson Diana Openbrier (MN ’78, working as a certified registered (BSN ’52) PhD ’90) works in a family prac- nurse practitioner at Springdale August 25, 2011 tice as a nurse practitioner and Pediatric Medicine in York, Pa. certified diabetes educator in Jacksonville, Fla. She presented Lisa Pietrusza (BSN ’09) is a poster and slide presentation a psychiatric staff nurse at at the American Academy of Excela Health Latrobe Hospital Nurse Practitioners 2011 annual and holds a certificate in clinical meeting. Openbrier’s research aromatherapy. focuses on novel approaches to Ellen Reynolds (MSN ’00), a motivating patients with diabe- pediatric nurse practitioner in tes to meet clinical guidelines Tara Rinier Work, (BSN ’08), the recipient of the 2011 Linda the Benedum Pediatric Trauma using a computerized data earned a Master’s of Science in Strangio Editor’s Award for her Program at Children’s Hospital management system. Nursing degree at Waynesburg article, “Intrahospital Transport of Pittsburgh of UPMC, University and is a nurse to the Radiology Department: 2000s received the Association of educator on the adolescent Risk for Adverse Events, Camp Nurses Article of the Year medicine and admission team Nursing Surveillance, Utilization Karen Hiscock Bell (BSN ’05) award for her article, “Coping at Children’s Hospital of of a MET, and Practice is a cardiac nurse in the post- with Concussion at Camp: New Pittsburgh of UPMC. She is Implications,” which appeared cardiac intervention/progressive Concepts in Management.” also a certified pediatric nurse. in the June 2011 issue of the critical care unit at Chester She also has been appointed Journal of Radiology Nursing. County Hospital in West to the National Association of 2010s The award was formally pre- Chester, Pa. She has been Pediatric Nurse Practitioners sented at the Association for Chloe-Chlothilde E. Chapman involved in the hospital’s wound Position Statement Committee. Radiologic & Imaging Nursing’s (BSN ’11) is a registered nurse care council, falls prevention Annual Convention, in San Heidi L. Stogard (MSN ’08), in the trauma and burn unit at task force, unit council, and Francisco, calif., in March 2012 previously a pediatric nurse the University of Alabama nursing informatics council. Bell and honors the memory of the practitioner at Pediatric Hospital in Birmingham, a Level is a member of the American late Linda Strangio, past editor Alliances, is currently a subin- I trauma center. Association of Critical-Care of Images (former name of the vestigator on the TODAY study. Nurses and is certified in CPR, Journal of Radiology Nursing) She is internationally board cer- Lora K. Ott (MSN ’95, PhD BLS, and ACLS. and a certified critical care and tified as a lactation consultant ’11), assistant professor in the radiology nurse. Lauren Matukaitis Broyles and spent 10 days in Nairobi, College of Health and Human (PhD ’08) was recognized by Kenya, in January, providing Services Nursing and Allied the International Nurses Society pediatric care to that under- Health Professions at Indiana on Addictions with its 2011 served population. University of Pennsylvania, is Research Award. Broyles,
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 35 ALUMNI NEWS NOTES
Nursing Alumni Celebrate Class Reunions and Homecoming 2011
The School of Nursing hosted its annual 50+ Reunion Luncheon and Homecoming Tea on Friday, October 14, 2011, as part of the University’s Homecoming 2011 weekend. s Alumni from grad classes ending in 1 and 6 marked milestone reunions. s Alumni celebrating 50 reunion years and more were treated to a complimentary, by-invitation-only luncheon. s Honored luncheon guests were alumni from the Classes of 1946, 1951, 1956, and 1961. They were given a special welcome from Associate Dean for Sandra Engberg and were “pinned” anew by Engberg and Professor Judith Erlen, PhD program director and health and community systems department chair. s The alumni program included the following: - School update presentation by Engberg - Recognition of 2011 Distinguished Alumni awardees Lora E. Burke (PhD ’97) and Nancy L. Rothman (BSN ’63) - Recognition of the 2011 Outstanding Young Alumni awardee Brent A. Dunworth (BSN ’96, MSN ’99) - Recognition of the 2011 Honorary Alumni awardee Yvette P. Conley, MS, PhD s Class reunion photos, a self-guided tour of the school, and a homecoming tea roundedd out the afternoon’s festivities. s Nursing alumni then joined all University of Pittsburgh alumni at the University’s Welcome Back Reception in the Cathedral of Learning. s The nursing alumni who traveled the far- thest distance were Jacqueline Marsh Smith (BSN ’61), traveling 2,541 miles from Kent, Wash., and Ruth Ann Brawdy (BSN ’61), traveling 2,529 miles from Lakeside, Calif. s The best-represented class was the Class of 1961, marking a 50-year reunion with 28 returning classmates. Thanks to our alumni who made our 2011 alumni event a success! Mark your calendars for the School of Nursing’s 2012 Alumni Program and Homecoming Tea in October (date to be announced).
Above, left: Nursing Alumni Society President Juliana Shayne (BSN ’73) presents Yvette Conley with the 2011 Honorary Alumni Award. Right, top to bottom: Class of 1961 was proud to pose with their Pitt nurse caps, Class of 1981, Class of 1956, and Class of 1951
36 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING 2011 Legacy Laureate Nursing Alumni Society Honored Recognized by the Pitt Ruby L. Wilson (BSNEd ’54), EdD, FAAN, was named Alumni Association a 2011 University of Pittsburgh Legacy Laureate and The Nursing Alumni Society (NAS) was the returned to campus to attend a special recognition recipient of two Pitt Alumni Association event hosted by Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg on recognitions last fall. NAS maintained Gold Thursday, October 13, as Homecoming 2011 began. Banner status within the alumni associa- Her visit also included a stop at the School of tion’s Banner Program and received a $500 Nursing, where she addressed faculty, staff, and scholarship contribution. Additionally, the students at an afternoon reception. alumni association selected NAS to receive Assistant to the chancellor for health affairs at Duke a $1,000 grant that supported the school’s University and dean emerita of the Duke School of second annual 50+ Reunion Luncheon Nursing, Wilson has served in a number of pioneering during Homecoming 2011. leadership positions nationally and internationally throughout her professional career. She collaborated with her Duke colleagues to initiate the first master’s degree program in clinical nursing, which became a national model for graduate nursing specialization. As a member of the Institute of Medicine, Wilson served on the 1983 National Nursing Study, which resulted in the for- mation of the National Institute of Nursing Research. In 2008, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Duke School of Nursing, and in 2009, she was named a Living Legend by the American Academy of Nursing. The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing honored Wilson with its 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award.
University Marks 225th Anniversary in 2012 as the School of Nursing Launches Plans for Its 75th Anniversary in 2014
Founded in 1787 as the Pittsburgh Academy, the University of Pittsburgh has been on a transformational journey from regional university to international research university. It has risen to prominence and today ranks among the nation’s top public research universities. The University’s rich history has shaped its future of promise and has contributed to Pitt building better lives for 225 years. The 225th anniversary officially kicked off in February 2012 at Honors Convocation, when Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg addressed faculty, students, staff, and friends, and will come to a close during homecoming weekend in the fall. A Web site showcasing 225 stories and a complete list of 225th anniversary activities can be found at www.225.pitt.edu. Make plans to return to campus and be a part of this celebration. The School of Nursing’s 75th anniversary planning will continue as we move toward 2014. An enthusiastic planning committee is in place with alumni representation across a variety of decades. The anniversary celebration will have something for everybody. Visit www.nursing.pitt.edu often to stay informed as plans evolve. As alumni, you are part of the UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH school’s history and an even SCHOOL OF NURSING bigger part of its success! 75 75 YEARS OF NURSING EXCELLENCEs1939–2014 ALUMNI NEWS NOTES
Call for 2012 Call for 2012 Outstanding Distinguished and Young Alumni Award Honorary Alumni Nominations Award Nominations Our young alumni are impacting nursing practice as they build professional careers as nurse administrators, nurse educators, nurse Our alumni represent the University of Pittsburgh locally, practitioners, and nurse researchers. Each represents the future of nationally, and internationally through their work as the profession. nursing professionals. The School of Nursing annually selects one or more distinguished alumni and honorary Nomination packets for this award will be accepted through alumni awardees to be recognized during its annual May 1, 2012. Please submit packets to University of Pittsburgh, alumni program. School of Nursing, Alumni Office, 218 Victoria Building, 3500 Victoria Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. Nomination packets* for the 2012 Distinguished and Honorary Alumni awards will be accepted Recipient Selection Criteria: through May 1, 2012. Distinguished and Honorary s Must be 40 years of age or younger and hold a degree from the Alumni Award nominations should be submitted University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, with the degree to the University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing, granted within the past 10 years Alumni Office, 218 Victoria Building, 3500 Victoria Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. s Must have attained a high level of professional accomplishment Distinguished Alumni Award s Must have high standards of personal integrity and character Additional Selection Criteria: Nominees for the Distinguished Alumni Award must be University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing graduates s Candidates currently enrolled in a degree-granting program of and are considered on the basis of leadership; achieve- study, regardless of institution, may be considered for this award ment; and contribution in areas such as: academia, provided a first degree from the University of Pittsburgh School administration, clinical practice, research, and service of Nursing was granted within the past 10 years. (professional and community). s Candidates may include community service and other accom- (Distinguished Alumni Award nomination packets should plishments achieved while pursuing their degree in addition to indicate in which area nominees should be considered.) activities since receiving their degree. s Nomination packets should include a maximum of three letters Honorary Alumni Award of support. This award recognizes an individual who is not a gradu- s Nomination packets should include a current résumé or ate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing but curriculum vitae. who has demonstrated extraordinary service to and support for the school’s mission. s Additional supporting materials (e.g., special honors, award recognition, press clippings, etc.) also may be included. *Nomination packets for both the Distinguished Alumni Award and the Honorary Alumni Award should include Selection Procedure: any materials (such as curriculum vitae or résumé) and information that supports the nomination (e.g., letters of s The Nursing Alumni Society Executive Board and School of support or pertinent materials that enhance CV items). Nursing dean will review nomination packets. For more information, please contact Assistant Director For more information, please contact Assistant Director of Alumni of Alumni Relations Joan Nock in the Nursing Alumni Relations Joan Nock in the Nursing Alumni Office at 412-624-2404 or Office at 412-624-2404 or [email protected]. [email protected].
Call for Applications: Ruth Perkins Kuehn Research Award The purpose of the Ruth Perkins Kuehn Research Award for the practice of nursing must be evident. Please visit is to encourage the research career development of www.nursing.pitt.edu/department/cre/research_funding.jsp University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing alumni and for further details after April 15, 2012. faculty. It is anticipated that a research grant for a The application deadline is 4 p.m. eastern daylight time, maximum of $20,000 will be given to fund clinical research Friday, July 6, 2012. in fiscal year 2013. A clear application providing support
38 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING Continuing Nursing Education
The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing’s Office practice. A current calendar of scheduled educational of Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) provides a variety of activities is available on the School of Nursing Web site, on-campus and online educational activities to promote life- www.nursing.pitt.edu; click on the link for continuing long learning for professional nurses focusing on the areas education. For specific information or with questions, call of advanced practice, education, leadership, and reentry into 412-624-3156 or e-mail [email protected].
SPEAKERS BUREAU SAVE THE DATE The Office of Continuing Nursing Education is creating a speakers ELITE SIMULATION WORKSHOP bureau of alumni experts. Alumni interested in developing and present- May 23 and 24, 2012, Pittsburgh Airport Marriott ing live and/or online CNE learning activities for the School of Nursing should complete a short form found on the School of Nursing Web site, The Emerging Learning and Integrated Technologies Education (ELITE) www.nursing.pitt.edu; click on the link for continuing education and Faculty Development Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of select “Speakers Bureau.” Nursing will host a two-day simulation workshop in partnership with the fifth annual WISER Symposium on Nursing Simulation. ALUMNI LEARNING NEEDS ASSESSMENT NEW ONLINE PROGRAMS The Office of CNE is conducting an assessment of the learning needs of our alumni. This assessment will guide future CNE planning and is a re- ADDICTION TRAINING FOR NURSES (SBIRT) quirement of our American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) accredi- tation. Alumni are encouraged to complete a brief questionnaire that How can nurses identify and help patients who use, misuse, and are can be found on the School of Nursing Web site, www.nursing.pitt.edu; dependent on drugs and alcohol? click on the link for continuing education and select “Learning Needs This online learning activity is intended to educate professional nurses in Assessment.” Your participation is greatly appreciated. the knowledge and clinical application of Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) for the identification of a patient’s ON-CAMPUS ACTIVITIES alcohol and other drug use. Participants will have the opportunity to PHARMACOLOGY AND CLINICAL PRACTICE evaluate their progress in learning about the evidence-based practice UPDATE SERIES model through video lectures, case studies, and a quiz. April 14, May 5, and June 2, 2012 Program Fee: $30 This series continues to be well attended and is now available via video- Continuing Nursing Education Contact Hours: 1.5 conference at all of the University of Pittsburgh regional campuses. The series provides the latest pharmacology updates along with correspond- MOVING THE CLASSROOM INTO THE 21ST CENTURY ing clinical practice implications. A complete listing of topics can be found on the CNE Web site. This online learning activity is intended to assist nurse educators with applying instructional design, learning strategies/activities, and instruc- Program Fee: $60 per session (discounts are available when tional technologies to maximize both teaching and learning. The modules registering for two or more sessions) provide direction for the integration of technology tools to enhance both Continuing Nursing Education Contact Hours: 3 per session student learning and the professional practice of nurse educators. Practice activities are provided to help the participants gain the knowl- NURSING NOW CONFERENCE: LEADING CARE IN edge and skills presented in the content. AN AGE OF COMPLEXITY Program Fee: $80 June 4 and 5, 2012, University Club Continuing Nursing Education Contact Hours: 4 The conference presents nurses with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and insight for successfully navigating today’s complex health care environment in the areas of leadership, clinical practice, and information technology. For more information and registration, visit www.nursingnowconference.com. For more information or to register for any of these continuing nursing Program Fee: $349; $50 discount for Pitt and UPMC employees and education activities, go to www.nursing.pitt.edu and click on the link first author poster presenters for continuing education. Continuing Nursing Education Contact Hours: 11 The University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing is an accredited provider of continuing nursing education by ANCC (provider number 206-3-E-06).
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 39 * NURSEBEAT Faculty Awards strategic direction for public, private, feder- ally funded, and state-funded investments in and Honors health information technology initiatives, including health information exchange capa- Michael Beach (MSN ’01, MSN ’02, bilities and other related initiatives. DNP ’09), assistant professor, acute/tertiary care, was selected by the Mobile Acute Jennifer Lingler (MSN ’98, PhD ’04), assis- Care Strike Team Concepts of Operations tant professor, health and community sys- for a new facet of Disaster Medical tems, was elected to serve on the steering Assistance Team through the U.S. committee for the Education Cores of the Department of Health and Human Services. Alzheimer Disease Research Center and Michael Beach Alzheimer Disease Centers. Ann M. Mitchell Rose Constantino (MN ’71, PhD ’79), JD, FAAN, associate professor, health and com- Kathy Magdic (MSN ’92, MSN ’95, munity systems, received the 2011 Most DNP ’10), assistant professor, acute/tertiary Distinguished Alumni Award from Adventist care, and coordinator of the acute care University of the Philippines. nurse practitioner (ACNP) area of concentra- tion, was elected chair of the ACNP Content Willa Doswell, PhD, FAAN, associate pro- Expert Panel of the American Nurses fessor, health promotion and development, Credentialing Center. was selected by Genetic Alliance, a world health advocacy organization, to be part of Ann M. Mitchell, PhD, FAAN, vice chair for its Consumer Task Force on Newborn administration and associate professor, Screening in raising awareness about new- health and community systems. received the born screening and mother parenting skill 2011 Education Award from the International Rose Constantino during the first months of life. Nurses Society on Addictions in recognition John M. O'Donnell of her outstanding contribution to education Marilyn Hravnak (MSN ’83, PhD ’00), BSN, in addictions nursing. FAAN, professor, acute/tertiary care, was the lead author of an abstract that won the Michael Neft, BSN, MSN, DNP, assistant Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) professor, acute/tertiary care, was selected neurology specialty award. The abstract, to continue to serve as chair of the American “Monoamine Relationship to Blood Load Association of Nurse Anesthetists Practice following Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Committee. Hemorrhage,” was presented at the SCCM John O’Donnell (MSN ’91), BSN, DrPH, Critical Care Congress. Elizabeth Crago, director, nurse anesthesia program and MSN, research associate, acute/tertiary associate professor, acute/tertiary care, care, was a contributing author. was elected treasurer of the Pennsylvania Marilyn Hravnak Paula Sherwood Irene Kane (MN ’80), PhD, assistant profes- Association of Nurse Anesthetists. sor, health and community systems, was Paula Sherwood, BSN, MSN, PhD, associ- elected chair of the University Senate ate professor, acute/tertiary care, was Benefits and Welfare Committee. selected as a fellow of the American Elizabeth LaRue, MLS, PhD, assistant Academy of Nursing (AAN). She will be professor, health and community systems, inducted at the AAN convention in October. was selected to serve on the Pennsylvania Janet Stewart, BSN, MSN, PhD, assistant eHealth Collaborative Advisory Committee professor, health promotion and develop- for the improvement of health care delivery ment, was presented with the 2011 and health care outcomes in Pennsylvania. Research Article Award from the journal The committee provides leadership and Research in Nursing & Health for her article, “Test of a Conceptual Model of Uncertainty Susan Albrecht in Children and Adolescents with Cancer.” Mary Beth Happ, BSN, MSN, PhD, FAAN, professor, acute/tertiary care, after December 1, 2011 received the 2011 Distinguished Alumna Grants Award from the Frances Payne Bolton Susan Albrecht (BSN ’75, MN ’78), PhD, School of Nursing at Case Western FAAN, associate dean for external relations Reserve University. Happ also has been and associate professor, health and appointed to the UPMC Health System community systems, received a grant Chair in Nursing Science. Appointment from the Health Resources and Services to a named chair is one of the highest Administration for “Nursing Faculty honors that any university can bestow Loan Program.” upon a member of its faculty.
40 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING Two Faculty Members Honored
Alice M. Blazeck and Jason (Jake) Dechant were among five University faculty members to receive the 2012 Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award from Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg. Each awardee received a $2,000 cash prize, a grant of $3,000 for the support of his or her teaching activities, and recogni- tion at the University of Pittsburgh’s 36th annual Honors Convocation. Blazeck, (BSN ’75), MSN, DNSc, assistant professor in the Department of Acute/Tertiary Care, was honored for her innovative teaching methods. “You have influenced positively the development of nursing students and helped prepare them to become admirable clinicians,” said the chancellor. “As is evident from your excellent student evaluations, your commitment to teaching and creating engaging learning situations in your classroom is well appreciated by your students.” Blazeck was previously recognized by the School of Nursing with two Distinguished Clinical Scholar Awards and the 2011 Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Dechant, BA, MA, instructor and course director in the Department of Health Promotion and Development, was recognized by Nordenberg for his impact on the nursing school’s teaching mission. “You have revised the anatomy and physiology curriculum, introducing an innovative two-semester model that integrates tech- nology with more traditional educational methods,” the chancellor noted. “As is evident from your excellent student evaluations, you have that rare ability to engage each student in a class and to adapt your teaching style to optimize student learning in the classroom.” Dechant received the School of Nursing Dean’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004.
Sue Wesmiller (BSN ’77, MSN ’83, Tonya Rutherford-Hemming, BSN, MSN, PhD ’10), postdoctoral scholar, acute/ EdD, instructor, health and community sys- tertiary care, received a grant from the tems, earned her EdD at Northern Illinois Oncology Nursing Society Foundation for University after successfully defending her “Variability of Genes of the Serotonin dissertation, titled “Learning in Simulated Pathway and Postoperative Nausea and Environments: Impact on Learning Transfer Vomiting in Women with Breast Cancer.” and Clinical Skill Acquisition in Nurse Practitioner Students.” Degrees Danielle Wymard-Tomlinson (BSN ’77, MSN ’81, PhD ’10), DNP, instructor, acute/ Brenda Cassidy (MSN ’86, MSN ’97, tertiary care, earned her DNP at Carlow DNP ’11), instructor, health promotion and University. Her capstone was titled “The development, successfully defended her Effects of an Educational Program on Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) capstone Self-reported Moral Distress in Critical project titled “A Quality Improvement Care Nurses.” Initiative to Increase HPV Vaccine Uptake and Dose Completion Rates Using an Evidence-based Educational and Reminder Strategy with Parents of Preteen Girls.” Transitions Dawn Chambers, BSN, MSN, DNP, New to the School of Nursing are the instructor, acute/tertiary care, earned her following: DNP degree at Carlow University. Her cap- Karen Harrison, MSN, part-time instructor, stone project was titled “Staff Compliance acute/tertiary care of a Multidisciplinary Rounding Protocol in the Medical Surgical Intensive Care Unit.” Faith S. Luyster, MA, PhD, full-time research assistant professor, nontenure Geraldine Maurer, BSN, DNP, clinical stream, health and community systems instructor, health promotion and develop- ment, earned her DNP at Waynesburg Julia Paronish (MSN ’11), part-time University. Her capstone project was titled instructor, acute/tertiary care “Assessing the Beliefs, Knowledge, and Donette Svidron (MSN ’10), part-time Attitudes of Nurses towards Evidence- instructor, health and community systems based Practice at a University Hospital in Debra Thompson an Urban Setting: Assessment and Debra Thompson, (BSN ’77, MSN ’81, Education Action Plan.” PhD ’10), part-time assistant professor, acute/tertiary care
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 41 * NURSEBEAT Faculty Members and Alumni Inducted 2011 Nightingale into the American Academy of Nursing Awardees The following University of Pittsburgh Janice Penrod (BSN ’76) alumni and faculty members were The following University of Pittsburgh L. Kathleen Sekula (MSN ’86, PhD ’98) School of Nursing faculty members and inducted as fellows of the American student were honored at the 2011 Academy of Nursing: Paula Sherwood, BSN, MSN, PhD Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania: Margaret-Ann Carno (PhD ’02) Linda Siminerio, MS, PhD Michael Beach (MSN ’01, MSN ’02, Susan Gaskins, MPH DNP ’09), assistant professor, acute/ tertiary care, finalist for Advanced Practice RN Alice Blazeck (BSN ’75), MSN, DNSc, Student Awards and Honors assistant professor and vice chair for administration, acute/tertiary care, Graduate students Amanda Federovich, Anesthetists (PANA) Fall Symposium. winner for Nursing Education Katrina Hribik, Emily Miller, Jess Their faculty mentors are Puskar and Monocello, and Lindsay Walker (BSN ’03) John O’Donnell (MSN ’91), BSN, DrPH, Annette DeVito Dabbs (PhD ’03), FAAN, created a poster that was accepted by associate professor, acute/tertiary care, associate professor and vice chair for the 23rd Annual Greater Pittsburgh Nursing and director, nurse anesthesia program. research, acute/tertiary care, winner for Research Conference, which was spon- Fusselman and Wright presented at the Nursing Research sored by the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare symposium in October. System. The title of the poster was Elizabeth Crago, MSN, postdoctoral Kimberly “Decreasing Vasospasm by Maintaining a Graduate students Chao and student, acute/tertiary care, scholarship Anderson Normal Body Temperature in Subarachnoid published the results of their winner Hemorrhage Patients.” Their project mentor staff-driven quality improvement project, was Kathryn R. Puskar (MN ’71), MPH, the Use of a Computerized Report Tool to DrPH, FAAN, professor, health and commu- Aid in Charge Nurse Change of Shift Mary Rodgers Schubert, MPM, director nity systems, and coordinator, psychiatric Communication, in the November 2011 of continuing education at the School mental health concentration. issue of Nursing2011 Critical Care. Their of Nursing, recently became president of mentor is Irene Kane (MN ’80), PhD, assis- the Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania. Graduate students Shera Stack and Adelle tant professor, health and community She also has served as development Lotinsky (BSN ’10) presented their poster, systems. committee chair and executive committee “Sepsis: The Nurse’s Role in Reducing Cost Undergraduate student Jarae Payne chair within that organization.g and Mortality,” at the 2011 Student Nurses’ Association of PennsylvaniaPennsylvania annuaannuall summit received an Evelyn Paige Parker in OOctober.ctober. Scholarship from the Association of Pittsburgh Black Nurses, a chapter of the GraduateGraduate students MaryMary CelisCelis, KellyKel Kerris National Black Nurses Association, Inc. (BSN(BSN ’09),’09), TammyTammy NovotneNovotne, andand JessicaJ Malinda Miller SarnoSarno produced a poster, “Econo“Economicm , a graduate student in the Impact of Chlorhexidine SponSpongege fofor Central nurse anesthesia program, was selected VenousVenous Catheters,” which Celis anandd Kerris as the student representative to PANA. In Shannon Barr presented at the SSoutheasternoutheastern PenPennsylvania addition, (BSN ’09) was ChapterChapter of the American AssociatiAssociationo of named a delegate to PANA representing the Critical-CareCritical-Care NursesNurses’’ TTRENDSRENDS in CCritical University of Pittsburgh. Both positions are CareCare NursingNursing conference in October.Octob selected by the PANA Board of Directors. Jin Ah Lee FourFour nursenurse anesthesiaanesthesia students—students Undergraduate student had AnthonyAnthony ChaoChao, LanceLance FusselmanFussel , a poster abstract, “Race and Gender DavidDavid HefferanHefferan, andand ChrissyCh Differences in Subjective Reporting of Pain WrightWright—worked—worked togethertoge and Mean Maximum Pain Scores,” selected on a pposter,oster, “Anest“Anesthesiah as the BSN poster to represent the school Providers ContribuContributet to at the Eastern Nursing Research Society OperatingOperating Room 2012 conference. Contamination,”Contamination,” wwhich was accepted for presenta-p tion at the PennsylPennsylvaniav AssociationAssociation of NNurseurs
42 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING Upcoming Events 22 Nursing Students Spring Graduation Ceremony Homecoming Weekend 2012 Participate in Fourth Annual Saturday, April 28, 2012 Date to be announced Pitt Make A Difference Day 6 p.m. Alumni Program and Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Homecoming Twenty-two nursing students were among more than Hall & Museum 2 p.m. 4,000 University of Pittsburgh students who rolled up 4141 Fifth Avenue First-floor Lobby, Victoria their sleeves to participate in the fourth annual Pitt Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Building Make A Difference Day (PMADD) on October 22, 2011, Reception immediately Classes ending in 2 and 7 will in Oakland and surrounding communities. following in the commons be recognized as milestone Pitt students were dispersed to nearly 70 different sites room, Cathedral of Learning reunion classes. and worked with local partnering groups—including Nancy Glunt Hoffman Memorial Cameos of Caring® Awards Gala Habitat for Humanity, Tree Pittsburgh, L.I.V.I.N.G Golf Outing Ministry, and the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force—to assist Saturday, November 3, 2012 with such service tasks as cleaning up local neighbor- Monday, July 23, 2012 6 p.m. Reception and hoods, planting trees and gardens, painting, and assist- 11 a.m. Registration Auction ing at food banks. 12:30 p.m. Shotgun Start 7 p.m. Dinner and Awards Presentation Modeled after the national Make A Difference Day, 5 p.m. Reception, Auction, PMADD provides an opportunity for Pitt students to and Dinner David L. Lawrence enhance their roles as leaders in community-wide Convention Center Allegheny Country Club volunteerism and service, foster collaboration across Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom RD 6, Country Club Road student organizations, unify the Pittsburgh campus, 1000 Fort Duquesne Boulevard Sewickley, PA 15143 and inspire Pitt pride. Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Summer Graduation Ceremony Friday, August 10, 2012 University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Room 125, Victoria Building
Enjoy this lovely ceramic Nightingale Lamp, symbolic of modern nursing and a reminder of the University of Pittsburgh NightingaleNighti School of Nursing’s tradition of passing the light, for only $25. LampLamp I would like to order lamp(s) at $25 each. Total enclosed: $ The lamp Florence Nightingale carried on her rounds among the injured British soldiers during the Crimean War as she delivered care and collected data to support changes in hospital care became the symbol Name: of her efforts to improve the practice of nursing. Through the years, this lamp has become the symbol Address: of the nursing profession’s commitment to the task of ensuring continuous progress and improvement of nursing practice. E-mail:
The tradition of the “passing of the light” was Please make checks payable to University of Pittsburgh. established at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing to symbolize the passing of this commitment Mail or drop off check and order form to: from one generation of nurses to the next. This lovely University of Pittsburgh ceramic Nightingale lamp is a symbol of modern School of Nursing nursing and a reminder of the School of Nursing’s Joan Nock tradition of passing the light. 218 Victoria Building 3500 Victoria Street Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Thank you for your support of the Nursing Alumni Society and School of Nursing students! All proceeds benefit School of Nursing students.
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 43 REMEMBER WHEN
Can you identify the year and the faces below?
If so, contact Joan Nock at 412-624-2404 or [email protected]. We will publish your answer in the next issue of Pitt Nurse. Want to share your memories with fellow alumni? Just send us your favorite photo of yesteryear, and we’ll run it in an upcoming issue. Submit your pictures to: University of Pittsburgh, School of Nursing, 218 Victoria Building, 3500 Victoria Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15261. All pictures will be returned.
Remember When? Photo from Summer 2011 Issue The photo that appeared in the summer 2011 issue has been identified as having been taken at the Pinning Ceremony on April 22, 1979, and shows classmates from the Class of 1979. The alumni pictured are (left to right) Karen Bobetich, Karen Bovard Gowin, Geneva Brand Blankenhorn, and Patricia Brennan Zenner. Phone calls and e-mails came in from Bobetich; Zenner; Zerelda Brand Del Fiugo (BSN ’61), Blankenhorn’s sister; Janna Skurla Sherrill (BSN ’79); Robert DeLillo (BSN ’79); and Joy Seder (BSN ’81).
44 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH SCHOOL OF NURSING UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH What’s Happening? SCHOOL OF NURSING ALUMNI SOCIETY Please share information about your career achievements, advanced education, publications, presentations, honors received, and appointments. We’ll include your news in the Alumni EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE News & Notes section as space allows. Indicate names, dates, and locations. Photos are welcome! Please print clearly. 2012 Officers –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––------–––––– President Name (include name at graduation as well as current name) Juliana Shayne (BSN ’73) Immediate Past President –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Beth A. Mastrangelo (BSN ’99) Degree(s) and Year(s) of Graduation Vice President –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Michael W. Cellurale (BSN ’06, MSN ’11) Home Address Postbaccalaureate Representatives –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Gloria P. Gotaskie (BSN ’77, MSN ’94) A. Jane Haines (MSN ’89) Is this a new home address? ___ Yes ___ No Representative to the Pitt Alumni Association –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Michael W. Cellurale (BSN ’06, MSN ’11) Home Telephone Ex Officio Jacqueline Dunbar-Jacob, PhD, FAAN –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Professional Position At-large Alumni Support Monretta D. Aarons (BSN ’59) –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Jessica Devido (BSN ’04, MSN ’08) Name of Employer Rachel Goettler (BSN ’07, MSN ’11) Luevonue Lincoln (MN ’78, PhD ’82) –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Pearl F. Moore (BSN ’68, MN ’74) Employer’s Address Michele M. Prior (MN ’80) Chad Rittle (BSN ’00), DNP –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Misha Sidberry-Bunch (BSN ’99) E-mail Address Shirley P. Smith (BSN ’59, MNEd ’79), PhD –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– News PITT NURSE Associate Dean for External Relations –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Susan A. Albrecht (BSN ’75, MN ’78), PhD –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Director of Advancement and External Relations Jennifer Fellows –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Director of Development Complete and return to: University of Pittsburgh Janice Devine School of Nursing Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Pitt Nurse Joan F. Nock Joan Nock Assistant Director of Alumni Relations Assistant Director of Public Relations 218 Victoria Building Joan E. Britten 3500 Victoria Street Pittsburgh, PA 15261 Contributing Writers Jennifer Bails E-mail: [email protected] Joan E. Britten Clare Flanagan Niki Kapsambelis Joan F. Nock The University of Pittsburgh, as an educational institution and as an employer, values equality of opportunity, human dignity, and Christine O’Toole racial/ethnic and cultural diversity. Accordingly, as fully explained in Policy 07-01-03, the University prohibits and will not engage in discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, sex, age, marital status, familial status, Design sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, genetic information, disability, or status as a veteran. The University also prohibits and will not engage in retaliation against any person who makes a claim of discrimination or harassment or who provides information Jane Dudley, Department of University in such an investigation. Further, the University will continue to take affirmative steps to support and advance these values consistent Marketing Communications with the University’s mission. This policy applies to admissions, employment, and access to and treatment in University programs and activities. This is a commitment made by the University and is in accordance with federal, state, and/or local laws and regulations. Principal Photography For information on University equal opportunity and affirmative action programs, please contact: University of Pittsburgh; Office of Center for Instructional Development & Distance Education Affirmative Action, Diversity, and Inclusion; Carol W. Mohamed, Director (and Title IX, 504 and ADA Coordinator); 412 Bellefield Hall; Ken Weingart 315 South Bellefield Avenue; Pittsburgh, PA 15260; 412-648-7860. For complete details on the University’s Nondiscrimination Policy, please refer to Policy 07-01-03. For information on how to file a complaint under this policy, please refer to Procedure 07-01-03. Published in cooperation with the Department of University Marketing Communications. UMC80198-0312
PITT NURSE SPRING 2012 45 NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE School of Nursing PAID 218 Victoria Building PITTSBURGH PA 3500 Victoria Street PERMIT NO. 511 Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Nursing Now Conference: Leading Care in an Age of Complexity
Register today for the inaugural Nursing Now Conference, cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and the UPMC Center for Nursing Excellence and Innovation, to be held June 4 and 5, 2012, at the University Club in Pittsburgh. The conference presents nurses with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and insight for successfully navigating today’s complex health care environment in the areas of leader- ship, clinical practice, and information technology. Featured speakers: Marion J. Ball, EdD, Senior Advisor, Heathcare and Life Sciences Institute, IBM Research, and Professor Emerita, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing Tim Porter-O’Grady, EdD, DM, APRN, FAAN, Author and Consultant Gail Wolf, PhD, FAAN, Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Deb Zimmermann, MSN, Chief Nursing Officer, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System For more information and registration, visit www.nursingnowconference.com.