Valerie Garr recently joined the College of Nursing as coordinator of diversity resources. She was formerly the Director of Diversity Relations & Outreach in the UI Office of Admissions.

In addition to stepping up efforts to recruit a more diverse student body and faculty, Garr hopes to improve cultural competency in the College's nursing curriculum, engage students, staff, and faculty in diversity programming and assist students with finding additional funding opportunities available to them.

In a presentation Sept. 3, Garr outlined an action plan developed by the college’s diversity committee. Among the actionable items is conducting an assessment of the diversity climate at the college. “Learning is about growth,” Garr points out. “Once we find our strengths, we can build on them. This exercise will help us identify areas of improvement and, ideally, we’ll be able to match perceptions with realities.”

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BSN Beginnings welcomes new students

A new tradition was born Aug. 24 with the College’s first BSN Beginnings event. To celebrate their admission to the College, 80 first-year baccalaureate students were ceremonially cloaked with their first white laboratory coats. 

Rita Frantz, Kelting dean and professor of the College welcomed students, family and faculty at the event, which was held in The University of Iowa Medical Education and Biomedical Research Facility. Kathleen Hanson, associate dean for academic affairs, offered remarks, and UI Provost Wallace Loh delivered the keynote address.

First-year BSN student, Cameron Jilovec, with Dean Rita Frantz (r) and associate dean Kathleen Hanson.


UIANS win Homecoming float contest

For the second year in a row, the University of Iowa Association of Nursing Students (UIANS) have taken top honors in the Homecoming float competition.

College wins $80,000 RWJF scholarship award

The College of Nursing has received an $80,000 scholarship award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) through the RWJF New Careers in Nursing Scholarship Program.

This groundbreaking national initiative, launched by RWJF and the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), aims to help alleviate the nation’s nursing shortage by dramatically expanding the pipeline of students in accelerated nursing programs.

Grants provided through this competitive program will be used to increase the number of students enrolled in the College’s accelerated Master of Nursing: Clinical Nursing Leader degree program. More ...

Alumni News

Two Distinguished Alumni Awardees are Nursing grads

Among those honored with Distinguished Alumni Awards bestowed during Alumni Weekend June 6-7, 2008 were two College of Nursing alumni.

Pamela Haylock, BSN 1971, MA 1977, was honored as a Achievement Award winner. A highly respected oncology nurse and consultant, Haylock has dedicated her career to improving the lives of people with cancer—a priority she first displayed in her visionary UI thesis on fatigue among patients receiving radiation. An advocate of the mind-body-spirit approach to cancer care and survivorship, Haylock has proven an international leader in the development of effective cancer programs, including the acclaimed “Cancer Survival Toolbox.” Past-president of the national Oncology Nursing Society, Haylock is a doctoral student in the University of Texas at Galveston School of Nursing.

The Distinguised Alumni Service Award was presented to Rafat Jan Rukanuddin, PhD 2004, an assistant professor and director of the BScN program at Aga Khan University’s School of Nursing in Pakistan, has shown commitment not only to her students and profession, but also to the service of others. In the aftermath of an earthquake in Kashmir in October 2005, she led a team of nurses to remote, dangerous areas to treat victims. A member of numerous health and education committees, Rukanuddin is founding president of Aga Khan’s Nursing Honor Society. She is also the first woman to hold the position of President of the Regional Ismaili Council for Karachi and Balochistan.

More Alumni Award news to come! College of Nursing alumni Cheryll Jones, BSN 1969, and Sharon Yearous, BSN 1993, MSN 1999, have been selected for 2009 awards!

Alumni Class Notes

Jane Kirsch, BSN 1950, was named a Wisconsin Legislators' Nurse of the Year.

Bonne Lorenzen, BSN 1963, MSN 1971, who works at Trinity Regional Health System in Rock Island, IL, is part of an Iowa Health System Health Literacy Collaborative. The collaborative examined the consent process, in an effort to improve communication with patient and their families as well as to improve patient safety. As a result, Trinity trialed and adopted a new consent form which incorporates teach-back as part of the consent process. A jointly authored article "Using Principles of Health Literacy to Enhance the Informed Consent Process" was published in the July, 2008 AORN Journal.

Sherrill Roskam, BSN 1975, graduated in 2004 from University of Washington with an MN, Neonatal Nurse Practitioner & Neonatal Clinical Nurse Specialist. She performs inpatient care in the NICU at Southwest Washington Medical Center. Sherrill says, "I'd love to hear from my classmates at twinbabyb@juno.com."

Vicki Rake Doner, BSN 1978, Davenport, IA is employed as the Workers' Compensation Nurse Case Manager for KONE Elevator/Escalator's US Operations at their Corporate Headquarters in Moline, IL.

Karen (Christensen) Hansen, BSN 1987, worked in intensive care at Immanuel Hospital in Omaha for two years after graduation. She spent 10 years as a surgical nurse at Methodist Hospital. After a 10-year break to raise two children, Karen returned to Methodist in surgery again in April, 2007. After being reoriented and updated on all the new technology, equipment, doctors, she is now a preceptor for new employees, and says, "Every day is an adventure and there is never a dull moment!"

Kim Meyerhoff, BSN 1987, and Greg Clancy, MSN 2000, played an integral role in a CEU September 5. "What's the Rush? A Collaborative Care Conference on Acute MI and Stroke" was offered at the Coralville Marriott Hotel & Conference Center. Kim was a speaker and Greg was the driving force behind the organizing of the conference. Kim was recognized as one of the 100 Great Iowa Nurses of 2008.

Rebecca Pomrenke, BSN 1997, received dual MSN degrees with emphasis on nursing education, and was the first graduate from the clinical nurse track at the University of South Alabama in 2007. She was honored by Sigma Theta Tau, Zeta Gamma Chapter with the Excellence in Nursing Practice award in May 2007. Rebecca is currently working as the clinical nurse leader at the University of South Alabama Medical Center. She also works part-time as clinical faculty at the College of Nursing.

Major Benjamin "Eli" Seeley, MSN, BSN, 1997, was named the Deputy Chief Information Officer and Chief of Clinical Informatics for both the Pacific Regional Command and Tripler Army Medical Center. Tripler Army Medical Center, the only federal tertiary care hospital in the Pacific Basin, supports 264,000 local active duty and retired military personnel, their families, and veteran beneficiaries. In addition, the referral population includes 171,000 military personnel, family members, veteran beneficiaries, residents of nine U.S. affiliated jurisdictions (American Samoa, Guam, and the former Trust Territories), and forward-deployed forces in more than 40 countries throughout the Pacific.

Erika (Enke) Klitzke, BSN 2003, received an MSN (PNP program) from Vanderbilt University in 2007 and is a CPNP. She currently practices in the Special Care Nursery at Lake Forest Hospital in Lake Forest, IL. Erika and her husband live in Grayslake, IL, and welcomed their first child, Emily, in February 2008.

After many years in the psychiatric/mental health field, Roy Metzger, BSN 1979, MSN 1981, has taken a position at Center Associates in Marshalltown. He completed a CNS in Correctional Health/ANP program at Emory University, and spent 11 years with San Diego (CA) County Mental Health Services in various jails and juvenile facilities as a CNS/ANP, four years as an NP at Ozark Center in Joplin, MO and nearly four years at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown, IA.

Carissa Scheve, BSN 2002, MSN 2007, ARNP, CPNP, practices as a PNP at Blank Children's Hospital in Des Moines where she works in the Pediatric Nephrology Clinic within the Children's Health Center.

Cyd Q. Grafft, MSN 1996, continues to work at Black Hawk Grundy Mental Health Center in Waterloo, IA as a psychiatric nurse practitioner using her initial degree of pediatrics (MA 1996) and her postmasters (2003) certification in child and family mental health.

Lindsay Stratton, BSN 2004, recently started her first semester at Rush University in the CRNA program. She has been working at University of Chicago Hospital in the SICU since graduating from the U of I.

Lois Hoskins, GN 1949, is a Professor Emerita of The Catholic University of America School of Nursing.

"Ancient Eastern Practices for Health and Fitness," by Alice Kuramoto, BSN 1967, has been published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal. She has had inquiries from researchers all around the world, from Australia, Japan, Oman, Columbia, France, Belgium, India, Mexico, and Brazil, including a request from Harvard Medical School. The chapter will soon be published in India as well. In addition she has given several presentations to nursing groups and to the American Society of Pain Management Nurses on the topic of Tai Chi and its health benefits.  

 

Deaths

Woodrow W. Morris Lectureship

“Earth’s Elders:
The Wisdom of the World’s Oldest People”

Jerry Friedman is the only person to ever photograph and interview so many people 110 years and older, making him an unwitting expert on super centenarians. As the 2008 Woodrow W. Morris lectureship speaker, he will discuss his book “Earth’s Elders: The Wisdom of the World’sOldest People.”

Woodrow Morris Lectureship

hotelVetro, E.W. Lehman Ballroom
201 S. Linn St., Iowa City
Nov. 12
7:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Q & A to follow

Friedman's work provides an unprecedented look at the hearts, minds and spirits of the extreme elderly, and reveals the common threads that connect super centenarians and hint at the secret to their longevity.

This free event is made possible by a gift from Woodrow W. and Mary Anders Morris, longtime friends of The University of Iowa College of Nursing.

For more information, call 319-335-7108 or e-mail kaygeguzis@uiowa.edu.

Long Term Care Conference Nov. 13 - 14

More than 200 healthcare professionals will attend the
19th Annual Long-Term Care Conference and Leadership Workshop  Nov. 13 – 14, 2008 in Iowa City.

The events are sponsored by the UI College of Nursing Adult and Gerontology Area of Study, the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center, the John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence.

Hartford Center News

Seminar addresses spiritual care

Nearly 80 people attended a Hartford Center-sponsored seminar focused on spiritual caregiving and its affect on providing quality care to older adults Oct. 1 at Mercy Medical Plaza in Iowa City. The presenter for “Caring for the Whole Person: Engaging the Spiritual Journey,” was Donald Koepke, director emeritus of California Lutheran Homes Center for Spirituality and Aging.

The all-day event touched on distinctions between traditional care based on the bio-medical model, and spiritual care. A method called “Spiritual Care in 30 Seconds” was shared with the attendees, who included chaplains, pastors, social workers, nurses and other health care and spiritual care providers.

GSTAR scholarships announced

Catherine Messinger, Ginger Rogers and Elizabeth Spies will each receive $5,000 per year in support for academic conferences and other endeavors through the Graduate Students in Training for Academic Roles and Service (GSTARS) scholarship program.

Funded by the Hartford Center for Excellence in Geronotological Nursing, the award assists students interested in long-term care practice settings.  

As a PhD student, Messinger’s area of focus is pain in elders in long-term care settings.

Rogers, who is working on a DNP degree, is a nurse care manager for EverCare in Omaha, the long-term-care division of United Health Care.
   

Spies is in the MSN program with a focus on care management of elders in care settings. 

   

 

 

Ongoing Hartford
Center Projects

"Depression Training to Promote Nurses as Advocates for Older Adults"

Researchers at the U of I have created and distributed a training program to help nurses recognize symptoms of late life depression and use evidence-based treatment. "Depression Training to Promote Nurses as Advocates for Older Adults" is a CD-ROM course, funded by the Wellmark Foundation.

“Although depression is widely recognized as the most common and treatable of all mental disorders among older adults, it is regularly unrecognized and untreated or under-treated,” says Assistant Professor Marianne Smith, UI College of Nursing. Nurses are often the gateway to competent screening, intervention, and referral.

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Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative core competency group meets

With a goal of improving the quality of mental health care provided to older adults, the John A. Hartford Geropsychiatric Nursing Collaborative aims to develop and disseminate core competencies and curriculum to 100 percent of nursing education programs whose graduates will care for older adults. The efforts will be aimed at all levels of nursing education, including continuing education, to ensure nurses have the most recent evidence-based guidelines for caring for elders with mental health issues.

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“Dementia Training to Promote Involvement in Meaningful Activity”

A CD-ROM course to teach activity-based interventions to nurses, social workers, and licensed therapy professionals, and assistive personnel who care for persons with dementia is expected to be released in January, 2009.

The goal of the program is to devise activities that are personalized to the individual and useable by all team members on a day-to-day basis.

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Gifts to the College

 

Giving and Saving:

Investing in the UI College of Nursing

Bridget Hoffman, Director of Development for the University of Iowa College of Nursing, The University of Iowa Foundation

As many of you may know, the Pension Protection Act of 2006 allowed alumni and friends like you, for a limited time, to “roll over” part of their IRAs to make charitable gifts without having to report the amount withdrawn as taxable income. This was great news for those of you who wanted to offer immediate and generous support, through the UI Foundation, for the UI College of Nursing’s people and programs.

Now, thanks to the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, you have even more time to take advantage of this rollover opportunity. The new legislation not only offers financial bail-out provisions, but it also extends the IRA charitable rollover provision from the Pension Protection Act of 2006. This allows individuals aged 70 ½ or older to make gifts of up to $100,000 a year directly from their IRA to a qualified charity without including the distribution in income and without having to claim a deduction. This legislation is retroactive to January 1, 2008, and extends the rollover provision through December 31, 2009.

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For additional information about supporting the college, please contact Bridget Hoffman, the UI Foundation’s director of development for the University of Iowa College of Nursing at bridget-hoffman@uiowa.edu or at 319-335-3305 or 800-648-6973.

To learn more about a variety of gift-planning options for the UI College of Nursing, through The University of Iowa Foundation, visit:
www.uiowafoundation.org/giftplanning

To make a gift for the college online today, please go to: www.givetoiowa.org/nursing

I have heard from a number of alumni and enjoy every contact. Please keep the news coming. Your successes are important to us and your classmates. -- Liz Swanson

Feel free to forward this newsletter to your classmates. To send your news or to UNSUBSCRIBE, call 319-335-7006 or e-mail elizabeth-swanson@uiowa.edu.

The University of Iowa College of Nursing
50 Newton Road, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1121
Phone: 319/335-7018 or 800-553-IOWA (4692) ext. 5-7018

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