from the dean susan gennaro
Dear Friends,
dean
I have been spending a lot of time
Susan Gennaro
lately packing precious things in
editor
bubble wrap as the Connell School
Maureen Dezell
of Nursing prepares for our May 20
managing editor
move from Cushing Hall to Maloney
Tracy Bienen
Hall. I am wrapping up photos of students, faculty, and staff; the Connell School seal; and gifts and keepsakes from important events such as Commencement and Boston College’s Sesquicentennial Mass at Fenway Park. As I enfold these Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert
voice
mementos in bubble wrap, I think
about the values they represent. And I think about how important it is to “wrap” those values just as carefully, to ensure that we are bringing the essence of Boston College nursing with us to our new home. I have carefully packed up our mission statement, which says explicitly that a Boston College nurse is a leader who cares expertly for body, mind, and soul. I am gently wrapping our strategic aims, which make
art director Diana Parziale
graphic designer Christine Hunt
contributors Timothy Gower Alexandra Hunt Zak Jason Alicia Potter Judy Rakowsky John Shakespear
photographers Caitlin Cunningham Gary Wayne Gilbert Lee Pellegrini
clear that we strive for excellence in education and research, and prepare nurses who value diversity and whose care is imbued with an awareness of global health. I am very carefully transporting our sense of community with us to Maloney Hall. Getting ready to move is difficult but we are excited. We invite you
Voice is published by the William F. Connell School of Nursing and the Boston College Office of Marketing Communications.
to come see us as we unpack in Maloney Hall. We’ll leave the light
Letters and comments are welcome:
on for you!
csonalum@bc.edu
Yours,
Communications Specialist William F. Connell School of Nursing Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Susan Gennaro Dean
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voice | spring 2015
cover Habin Cho ’16 with VA Clinical Instructor Tiara Alston ’12
contents
4
14
6 Clockwise from above: Susan Wilkinson, M.S. ’14; University of Pennsylvania’s Antonia Villarruel; Stewart Bond and Marie Boltz; Melissa Sutherland; CSON simulation lab
16
11
Spring 2015 news
Features
faculty publications
4 University of Pennsylvania School
6
17 Family-centered hospital support
Veterans Affairs clinical
of Nursing Dean speaks at
partnerships provide hands-on
CSON, Associate Dean of Graduate
care, learning
Programs M. Katherine Hutchinson’s research, Associate Professor Ellen Mahoney leads a center, and new CSON partnerships
helps both patients and caregivers
18
that helps schools support students
11 Associate Professor Melissa
with food allergies
Sutherland: Training attention on women and violence
19
Napping may affect students’ sleep, grades
14 Gerontological nursing center
Research leads to training module
embraces Connell
16 A brief history of nursing simulation
www.bc.edu/voice
boston college william f. connell school of nursing
3
news by john shakespear
Alumni notes The Association for Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired awarded Margaret Cleary ’59, M.S. ’61, the John H. McAulay Award at its August 2014 conference. The award honors professionals whose outstanding efforts have helped place people with visual impairments in productive employment. Karen Daley, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’10, was appointed to the Board of Trustees of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Valerie Lewis-Mosley ’79, one of two originators of the trademarked Boston College acronym AHANA (African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American), was the featured speaker at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Banquet on February 17. The scholarship is awarded to one Boston College junior each year for academic and extracurricular excellence and contributions to the African-American community on and off campus.
Above, top: Valerie Lewis-Mosley Photograph: Frank Curran
Above, bottom: Kelly DiStefano ’15 Photograph: Charlotte Parish/MTS
Annie Lewis-O’Connor, Ph.D. ’07, nurse scientist and director of the C.A.R.E. Clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, received a research excellence award for her poster, “The Voice of the Patient: Informing Practice, Policy and Research in Gender-Based Violence,” at the hospital’s fifth annual Haley Nursing Forum.
Events TELL US YOUR NEWS csonalum@bc.edu
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voice | spring 2015
Antonia Villarruel, dean of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, gave CSON’s spring 2015 Pinnacle lecture. A bilingual and bicultural nurse researcher, Villarruel spoke about her experience, leadership, and demonstrable success using community-based participatory research.
In December 2014, Hilda Alcindor, dean of the Faculté des Sciences Infirmières de l’Université Episcopale d’Haiti in Léogâne, talked to CSON students, faculty, and staff about the significant role nurses play in Haiti’s continual development. Since 2010, CSON has brought students and faculty on weeklong missions to Haiti to learn more about community health nursing.
Partnerships The Connell School of Nursing’s Comparative Global Health Care course added a new partner: Pontificia Universidad Católica (PUC) in Santiago, Chile. Launched in 2010, the elective is a result of an academic partnership between CSON and two Swiss universities—Haute Ecole de Santé Vaud and Institut et Haute Ecole de Santé La Source. Together, the universities offer a three-credit course held alternately in Boston, Lausanne, Switzerland, and now Chile. PUC will host the course in January 2016. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing gave its Exemplary AcademicPractice Partnership Award to the Connell School and five other members of the Northeast Region VA Nursing Alliance, a collaboration between the VA Boston Healthcare System and a coalition of Massachusetts nursing schools. Meanwhile, the Veterans Health Administration awarded CSON and the VA Boston Healthcare System a grant to establish a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency pilot program, one of only four such partnerships between schools of nursing and the VA in the U.S. Read more on p. 6.
Faculty accomplishments Associate Dean of Graduate Programs M. Katherine Hutchinson led a binational team of researchers who found that engaging the mothers of girls in Jamaica could help reduce the risk of HIV infection among local adolescent girls (who have more than twice the risk of contracting HIV than other groups, studies show). With support from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), Hutchinson’s team tested a mother-focused HIV-risk education strategy that had been shown to be effective in the U.S. “We found evidence that the whole mother-daughter approach could be effective at changing some of the known mediators of risk,” Hutchinson reported to the NIH’s Global Health Matters newsletter. She emphasized that HIV prevention methods must adapt to each country and region’s specific set of cultural mores and circumstances. Through participation in the study, nurses, faculty, and students from the University of the West Indies learned research skills with an eye toward growing Jamaica’s research capacity. The American Association of Nurse Practitioners will induct Associate Professor Susan Kelly-Weeder as a Fellow in June at its national conference, which celebrates 50 years of the nurse practitioner role. Assistant Professor Kyung Hee Lee was a corecipient of the 2014 Nursing Outlook Excellence in Practice Award, presented at the American Academy of Nursing’s annual meeting in Washington, D.C. Lee and her coauthor received the award for their article “Missed nursing care: Magnet versus nonmagnet hospitals.”
Associate Professor Cathy Read received the American Nurses Association Massachusetts annual Mary A. Manning Nurse Mentoring Award in April. Associate Professor Kelly Stamp was elected a Fellow of the American Heart Association. Faculty Kelly Stamp, Melissa Sutherland, and Lichuan Ye were promoted to asso‑ ciate professor with tenure. Associate Professor Melissa Sutherland recently received a grant of nearly $170,000 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to pursue a study of violence screening in college health centers. Read more on p. 11.
Associate Professor Ellen Mahoney is director of research for Boston College’s National Resource Center for Participant-Directed Services (NRCPDS). The center is partnering with the University of Illinois at Chicago, the National Council on Aging, and other experts to form the new Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Family Support, which will advance research, inform policy, and develop best practices for family caregivers of seniors and persons of all ages who have disabilities. The Center on Family Support received a five-year grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the Administration for Community Living. Boston College’s research program will focus on identifying the support needs of families in self-directed home and community-based service programs at all stages of the caregiving path. School of Social Work Professor Kevin Mahoney is founding director of NRCPDS. Mahoney and Mahoney also received a Research Across Departments and Schools Award from Boston College for their proposal, Voices of Veterans in Veteran-Directed Home and Community-Based Services.
Carroll Chair and Professor Judith Vessey was awarded an exploratory/developmental research grant (R21) by the National Institutes of Health for her project, Development of the CABS: Child-Adolescent Bullying Screening. Lichuan Ye, associate professor and Haley Nurse Scientist, was one of three speakers at “Innovations in Nursing Practice: Harnessing Technology at the Bedside,” a symposium at Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s fifth annual Haley Nursing Forum. She gave a presentation about her research, which focuses on health promotion through improving sleep and the management of sleep disorders. Ye also received a Boston College Ignite Award for her Sleep Promotion Toolkit for hospitalized patients. The Ignite Program is intended to help University faculty engaged in research compete for external funding.
Student news Kelly DiStefano ’15 presented her poster “The Global Women’s Health Provider: Examining Obstacles and Interventions in Maternity Care in Nepal” at Boston College’s inaugural Research Day in December 2014.
In memory Nursing Professor Emerita and alumna Marjory Gordon, the first president of the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association and a “Living Legend” of the American Academy of Nursing, died April 29, 2015. She will be remembered for her assessment theory, Gordon’s Functional Health Patterns, and as the author of four books including the Manual of Nursing Diagnosis.
boston college william f. connell school of nursing
5
Veterans Affairs clinical partnerships provide hands-on care, learning by judy rakowsky Photographs: Caitlin Cunningham
When Susan Wilkinson, M.S. ’14, worked as an emergency nurse for five years before graduate school, she often was struck by seeing people stigmatize those with mental illnesses. She developed a desire to work in mental health at the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) with its Jesuit traditions and championing of social justice. Now she has embraced it as a passion in the Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency program, a pioneering three-year partnership between the Connell School and the VA Boston Healthcare System that provides specialized training and professional development to nurse practitioners who work with veterans and their families. Above: Susan Wilkinson, M.S. ’14 Above, right: Anne O’Malley ’16 with patient Peter Kyer
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voice | spring 2015
Offering nurse practitioners the sort of extremely focused, on-the-job transitional training once reserved for physicians, the Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency program expands and strengthens the already strong bond that the Connell School and the VA Boston have developed while collaborating on a range of clinical training programs through the years. Meeting the psychiatric and psycho logical needs of veterans is a pressing concern for the VA, and the Connell School’s strong curriculum in mental health helped the VA Boston land the mental health nursing residency, said Cecilia McVey ’72, the associate director of Nursing and Patient Services for the VA Boston Healthcare System. “If it were not for that base, I don’t think it would have been accredited,” she said. “But the program was funded to be one of the first in the United States.” (CSON is one of four similar mental health nurse residency partnerships nationwide. The others are the Birmingham VA Medical Center– University of Alabama at Birmingham, Durham VA Medical Center–Duke University, and the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center–Medical University of South Carolina.)
Trailblazing partnerships CSON is also one of six Boston-area nursing schools that eight years ago formed the Northeast Region VA Nursing Alliance (NERVANA), which linked Boston, Regis, and Simmons colleges, Northeastern, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and UMass-Lowell with the VA Boston Healthcare System and the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford, Mass. The goal was to establish venues in which nursing students could provide care for veterans while improving their clinical skills, and supervising faculty augmented the teaching staffs at VA facilities as the VA enhanced its appeal as a future employer. The alliance has also provided a forum for
7
clinical and academic partners concerned with patient care. Experimental at first, NERVANA has
The VA staff nurses supervise and train students like Anne O’Malley ’16, who welcomes the DEU experience. “For eight
bridge the transition from the sheltered academic environment to the clinical.” Rotations include acute inpatient, acute
been recognized as a national model:
hours a week, I am taken through a typical
psychiatry, detox and residential treatment
In October, the American Association of
shift and able to understand the critical
as well as triaging in an emergency room
the Colleges of Nursing gave NERVANA
thinking that is done with each nursing
setting, said Sherley Belizaire, the VA’s
its Exemplary Academic Practice
intervention,” O’Malley said. “Being part of
director of the Mental Health Nurse
Partnership Award.
the DEU has given me the opportunity to
Practitioner Residency. In addition, each
perform most daily tasks on my own with
resident works with a fixed group of coun-
exchange of the latest things in practice
the guidance and support of my nurse.”
seling patients for the entire residency.
and the latest in academe,” said McVey,
“This is a great opportunity for our
They participate on teams that include
“The best thing is to have that fertile
who was a driving force in establishing the
students to get a fantastic learning expe-
an attending psychiatrist, a social worker,
regional alliance.
rience from the staff, who teach them and
a psychologist, and other nurses, and inter-
NERVANA’s initial focus was on
empower them to become better nursing
act with fellows in pharmacology and
hands-on undergraduate education at
students,” said Barone. “And it’s a big cost
sociology, Belizaire said. They also learn
Boston and Bedford VA facilities. In 2012,
to the hospital. They are paying the salaries
about the latest research and most promis-
the alliance added a postbaccalaureate
of three nurses to be with the students.”
ing new therapies.
12-month nurse residency, in which RNs
Because it is dedicated to training and
less than a year out of school acquire
supervising students, the VA experience
clinical experience to improve their skills
offers them opportunities they might not
and readiness for a career. (Each resident
have in other clinical settings, said Barone,
also develops an evidence-based research
who supervised
project during the year.) The residency,
clinicals for 12 years in
which grew to a class of 10 this year, has
the oncology unit at the
earned a three-year accreditation from
Beth Israel Deaconess
the Commission on Collegiate Nurse
Medical Center. Research
Education. Two of the three CSON gradu-
shows that a DEU offers
ates who have participated in that program,
better instruction and
Tiara Alston ’12 and Allison Cotta ’13, now
feedback from staff
work for the VA. Megan Hopper ’14 is a
nurses about the latest
resident at the VA Boston’s AG unit in
equipment, medications,
West Roxbury.
and practices.
The clinical experience is invaluable,
A dedicated unit for under- Immersion for nurse graduate training opens practitioners CSON’s newest foray with the VA is the January 2015 opening of a dedicated educa-
The 12-month Mental
tion unit (DEU) on the cardiothoracic
Health Nurse Practitioner
surgical f loor of the West Roxbury cam-
Residency pilot program
pus of the VA Boston. Clinical Associate
launched last summer,
Professor Stacey Barone oversees the
with Wilkinson and the other nurse prac-
Connell School unit, where she supervises
titioner residents in the VA Boston taking
and teaches six third-year CSON students
classes with Harvard Medical School
in her Adult Health II Clinical course
psychiatry residents and rotating on multi-
along with three staff nurses—postbacca-
disciplinary teams. “It’s very intense,” said
laureate resident alumna Alston is one—
Wilkinson, who was born in Uganda and
each of whom is paired with two CSON
competed nationally for one of four posi-
undergraduates.
tions in the Boston program. “It helps you
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voice | spring 2015
Above: Patient Douglas Preman with VA Clinical Instructor Sean Chenery Inset: Cecilia McVey
said Clinical Assistant Professor Pam Terreri, one of two CSON faculty advisors.
“The best thing is to have that fertile exchange of the
“Most nursing graduates go through their
latest things in practice and the latest in academe.”
academic training and emerge having met all the requirements for certification to operate in an independent role but they
—Cecilia McVey ’72, associate director of Nursing and Patient Services for the VA Boston Healthcare System
don’t have a lot of clinical experience to draw on,” she said. tion in time for the start of the program in
as they prescribe medications and order lab
an enduring national model, a goal that
July. And she said the Boston VA’s hope is
tests, MRIs and CT scans.
Terreri and CSON Clinical Instructor Lori
for the program to grow beyond four slots
Solon are working on as they compare
and to be marketed nationally.
The VA hopes the residency will become
notes in regular conference calls with their
Solon said the residency is critical to building confidence and skills while resi-
The Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
dents benefit from feedback and guidance.
Residency is filling a particularly strong
The VA is also an ideal teaching environ-
need, said the faculty advisors. Nurse prac-
ment for nurse practitioners who focus on
competitive, Belizaire said, with all appli-
titioners work more autonomously than
the patient in context. For instance, when
cants required to be 2014 nursing school
other nurses and in many states they oper-
an addiction outpatient has already gone
graduates who completed board certifica-
ate completely independent of physicians
through withdrawal and has left a struc-
peers in the other three-year pilots. Admission to the program was extremely
boston college william f. connell school of nursing
9
tured setting, it is the nurse practitioner that helps figure out how well the veteran’s network of support is working and whether he has developed resources to stay sober. “They think about the whole patient,” said Solon. Wilkinson said it is challenging to treat patients with many-layered diagnoses and fraught life situations: for example, veterans who are homeless as they struggle with posttraumatic stress or substance abuse problems. “It’s a very tough population, there’s a lot going on,” said Wilkinson. “No matter how many appointments you secure, often they won’t show.” The complexity of the cases the VA handles offers important experience as well as insight to residents, Solon said. No matter where they go on to work, they will be able to draw on knowledge of how best to treat veterans, whether or not their diagnoses are linked to exposure to trauma, and in some cases sexual trauma, she points out. As challenging as Wilkinson finds the patients and the residency itself, “it’s really worth it,” she says. Wilkinson has developed a particular interest in addiction and substance abuse and in linking that work with psychiatry and medicine. And she wants to stay with the VA. “This is a really unparalleled opportunity. You are partnering with people who have been in the field so long and you get to learn from people who know so much.” The partnership has been a great success from the VA’s perspective because it is attracting and retaining top-notch nurses while providing cutting-edge clinical experiences and developing best practices for treating veterans, McVey said. “Having all of those students exposed to the VA and my staff exposed to teaching in varying ways is just amazing; it’s helped the schools and us. I think it’s making better nurses to care for American veterans—and they are not just in veterans hospitals.” n Learn more about VA partnerships at the CSON reunion. Details on back cover.
Left: Stacey Barone with Habin Cho ’16 Below: Preceptor Christelle Dragon with postbaccalaureate resident Megan Hopper ’14
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voice | spring 2015
Melissa Sutherland: Training attention on women and violence by timothy gower Photograph: Ravi Jain
Melissa Sutherland was working on a study at a sexually transmitted infections clinic when she met the woman with the broken arm. A research assistant, Sutherland’s job was to interview female patients in order to identify women who had been victims of sexual violence within the previous six months. Those who fit the criteria would be invited to participate in the study. This particular patient said no, she hadn’t been experiencing any violence. Before checking her off as ineligible, Sutherland asked one more question: How did you break your arm? “Well,” the woman said, “I got pushed down the stairs.” “I still think about her,” says Sutherland, now an associate professor of nursing at Boston College, seated in her tidy Cushing
lend urgency to Sutherland’s goal: finding better ways to identify and help women at risk.
Hall office. “She had been pushed down the steps by her partner and that’s how her arm got broken. So she was experiencing
Sutherland was born and raised in upstate New York and
violence.” Sutherland isn’t sure why the woman initially withheld
graduated from Cornell University with a degree in rural
the truth, but this encounter and others like it helped persuade
sociology. She went on to study nursing a few hours from her
her that sexual violence is a public health problem that too
hometown of Goshen, at Binghamton University. She became
often goes undetected. These experiences helped to inform her
a clinical instructor at the university’s nursing school, but also
research, which focuses on sexual violence and its impact on
took a job treating patients as a nurse practitioner in a sexually
women’s health, particularly among female college students.
transmitted infections (STI) clinic run by the New York State
Sutherland recently received a grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to
Department of Health. In 2004, Sutherland enrolled at the University of Virginia
pursue her study of violence screening in college health centers,
to pursue a doctorate in nursing. Her advisor was Professor
which has become a particularly resonant topic of late. Last year,
of Nursing Barbara Parker (now retired), a noted authority on
the National Football League came under fire for failing to
violence against women. It was Parker who helped to convince
adequately punish player Ray Rice for beating his fiancée in
Sutherland to focus her research on what Sutherland called
a hotel elevator—an episode caught on a hotel security video.
“the intersection between violence and sexual health.” Once
Meanwhile, a controversial Rolling Stone article about an alleged
Sutherland began to investigate, she discovered that sexual
gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house raised
violence is a problem that is often missed—or ignored.
national awareness of sexual violence on campus. Both episodes
The Institute of Medicine and several major medical boston college william f. connell school of nursing
11
Sutherland’s pilot study showed that 36 percent of the 615 female students interviewed had been subjected to intimate partner violence or sexual violence.
organizations in recent years have advised health care providers
The most frequent victims of rape and sexual assault are
to screen patients for domestic violence. Yet, as Sutherland would
women between 18 and 24, Sutherland observes. Some research
soon discover, those recommendations haven’t been widely
has suggested that female college students are more at risk than
embraced in the United States, particularly on college campuses.
nonstudents, but a 2014 Department of Justice study challenged
Surveys indicate that only about one-third of college health centers
that assertion. To Sutherland, debating whether campuses are
include questions about sexual consent and sexual violence on
the sites of more or less sexual violence distracts from the real
routine intake forms—and fewer than half ask about the problem
problem. “The fact is, women in college are still at risk,” she says.
during gynecologic visits. Sutherland says health care providers are even less likely to
Sutherland received her doctorate from the University of
inquire about intimate partner violence (IPV), something up
Virginia in 2008 and arrived at Boston College a year later. Since
to 5.3 million women in the U.S. experience each year. One of
then, she has fixed her sights on broadening and deepening
Sutherland’s research goals is to find out why doctors and nurses
her understanding of the experience of IPV and sexual violence
are reluctant to screen women for violence in the same way they
among college women. Last year, she completed a pilot study in
might ask about smoking or alcohol consumption. New practice
which she interviewed 615 female seniors at two universities in
recommendations like these may take time to catch on, she
the United States northeast. She found that 36 percent reported
acknowledges. But Sutherland suspects that some health care
they had been subjected to IPV or sexual violence in their
providers may consider sexual violence to be a private matter
lifetime—and that eight percent of the women she interviewed
and none of their business.
said they had been victims at the hands of a current or former
Yet, Sutherland is quick to note that victims of IPV and
partner within the previous six months. The vast majority of those
sexual violence are at risk for injury, death, STIs, unintended
who had visited their campus health center said they had not been
pregnancy, and psychological distress. Studies show that these
asked about sexual violence.
women also have increased rates of chronic pain, gastrointestinal
With her recent NICHD grant, Sutherland is expanding this
disorders, migraine headaches, anxiety, depression, and post-
research in a study of 1,000 female students at five colleges
traumatic stress disorder. Failing to screen for sexual violence,
in Massachusetts and New York who have visited their campus
Sutherland says, represents “a missed opportunity” to improve
health centers within the last three months. Sutherland will also
women’s health.
ask health care providers on those five campuses to describe not
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voice | spring 2015
only their screening practices but their attitudes and beliefs
this semester. Sutherland, who is coteaching the course with
about screening for sexual violence. She plans to complete the
social epidemiologist Summer Hawkins of the Graduate School
study in 2016.
of Social Work, is also involved in an effort to develop an interdis-
“The findings from Melissa’s study are going to give us a much richer understanding of what’s actually going on in practice,”
ciplinary public health minor at the University. Sutherland has mixed feelings about the recent controversy
says M. Katherine Hutchinson, an associate dean at the Connell
at the school that awarded her doctorate, U.Va. Last fall, a Rolling
School of Nursing. A few researchers have investigated the
Stone feature article recounted the harrowing experience of a
violence-screening practices of college health centers in the
woman who said she was sexually assaulted and beaten by a
past, she says, but combining the perspectives of providers and
group of fraternity brothers. Neither the reporter nor the mag-
their patients—college women—will offer unique and valuable
azine corroborated key claims in the story, and details emerged
insights: “That kind of information is going to guide recommen-
that called into question the woman’s credibility. On the one
dations about how to redesign practice.”
hand, Sutherland was frustrated by the media’s focus on whether
For Sutherland, that means identifying and eliminating
the young woman had lied. “That distracts from the real issue,
barriers that keep providers from screening college women for
which is that this continues to be a problem for women,” says
sexual violence. After all, she asks, what’s the point in doing
Sutherland. Yet the U.Va. story, like the Ray Rice controversy, has
research unless it can help produce better patient care? Tacked
a silver lining, she says. “People are talking about violence against
to the bulletin board in her office since her first week at Boston
women in a way we’ve never spoken about it.”
College is a yellow sticky note imprinted with the words So….
Sutherland hopes her work will help health care providers,
what? “You have to be able to answer that question for your work
especially nurses, become a bigger part of that conversation.
to be meaningful,” she says.
“Asking women about violence in their lives says that you care,”
Sutherland’s mind seems to have a hard time staying still; in conversation, she’s lively and energetic, leaping from one
she insists. “If we don’t address it, we’re telling patients that it doesn’t matter. Violence does matter.” n
idea to the next. That vitality infuses her teaching style too. “Students rave about her,” says Hutchinson. In 2014, she introduced a new course, Public Health in a Global Society, which
n Melissa Sutherland talks about her research at www.bc.edu/sutherland
proved so popular it had a lengthy wait list when it was offered boston college william f. connell school of nursing
13
Gerontological nursing center embraces Connell by alicia potter Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert
Last fall, the National Hartford Centers of Gerontological Nursing Excellence (NHCGNE) welcomed the Connell School of Nursing as one of its newest members, recognizing the School’s commitment to educating nurses for an aging population and advancing gerontology research and policy. A collaboration between the Gerontological Society of America’s Coordinating Center and nursing schools across the country, the NHCGNE seeks to develop faculty, advance nursing science, promote best practices, foster leadership, and design policy that improves nursing care for older adults. Stewart Bond and Marie Boltz
14
voice | spring 2015
nursing education at the highest levels in
on gerontology at all—will benefit in other
School “in a high-caliber academic
research, curricula, and policy. Faculty also
areas, including the undergraduate curricu-
community that’s as dedicated as we are
must show leadership in gerontology beyond
lum. “We’re looking in-depth at ways we can
to improving care for older people,” says
their university, such as appointments at
add even more aging content,” says Bond.
Associate Professor Marie Boltz, who
academic medical centers and involvement
Already, Connell School faculty have
oversaw the School’s complex application
in professional associations.
integrated gerontology into the required
The membership puts the Connell
to the NHCGNE with Assistant Professor
Currently, 13 Connell School faculty
courses Health Assessment Across the
Stewart Bond. Connell is now one of 36
members, or about 25 percent, cite geriatric
Lifespan and Adult Health Nursing Theory
nursing schools chosen to participate in
nursing as an area of research or practice
I and II in an effort to introduce the
the organization since it launched in 2000
specialty, note Boltz and Bond. Four teach in
specialty by sophomore year and dispel
with nine school members.
the Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse
negative stereotypes about older adults.
Practitioner program, which enrolls 18 to 21
(Those, studies have found, contribute to
Boltz foresees the designation opening up collaborative and interdisciplinary research opportunities with other NHCGNE schools for faculty and students at all levels—
Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral. It
expects adults age 65 and over to make up 20 percent of the
also will provide resources for gerontolo-
population by 2030, an Institute of Medicine report finds less
gical curriculum development, she said. The John A. Hartford Foundation, a prom-
than one percent of nurses specialize in gerontology.
inent private philanthropy founded in 1929 to enhance the health of older Americans,
students per year. Connell School faculty
the shortage of gerontological nurses.)
donates the majority of NHCGNE’s more
are widely published and represent a wide
The Connell School can also consult with
than $74 million in funding.
range of gerontology interests: dementia,
NHCGNE directors on program review and
palliative care, oral health in older adults,
teaching resources, and with faculty from
ship provides the Connell School with a
health disparities, chronic illness and dis-
member schools.
prestigious endorsement that can be
ability, and interventions to improve func-
beneficial in admissions and marketing
tioning, among others.
The National Hartford Centers’ member-
outreach, says Boltz. It may also “shed
Boltz noted that member schools receive financial support for the Hartford
Both Boltz and Bond emphasize that
Foundation’s annual leadership conference
more light” on gerontology for students who
membership will not change the direction
and other events to allow for more junior
haven’t considered working with older
of the Connell School’s work. Instead, says
faculty and students to attend. In addition,
adults, adds Bond. Statistics show that
Bond, “it will build on and enhance it.” For
she says, the Hartford Centers offers webi-
reaching these young nurses is critical, even
instance, membership will support faculty
nars on innovative approaches to geron‑
urgent. Although the U.S. Department of
and student research efforts by allowing
tological education and clinical care issues,
Health and Human Services expects adults
“better and easier access to a large network
such as delirium and oral health. And even
age 65 and over to make up 20 percent of
of collaborators,” he explains.
the casual undergraduate events that Boltz
the population by 2030, an Institute of
Funding opportunities also will expand.
is planning—brown-bag seminars about
Medicine report finds less than one percent
“We’ll have access to interuniversity
attitudes toward aging and opportunities in
of nurses specialize in gerontology.
grants for colleges that work together on
gerontology, for example—will be promoted
aging issues,” says Boltz, adding that this
with the NHCGNE imprimatur.
Boltz and Bond believe that the NHCGNE
As these efforts roll out this year,
membership will raise gerontology’s profile
research is often interdisciplinary and
at the Connell School. “Students are going
therefore of high interest to the Connell
NHCGNE will provide a high-profile
to see more coordinated efforts and collabo-
School. The NHCGNE offers its own
opportunity to affirm the Connell School’s
rations among faculty and students around
competitive pre- and postdoctoral grants,
clinical expertise and scholarly achieve-
this key demographic,” says Bond. “They’re
with preference given to applicants from
ments in gerontology, explains Boltz. “It’s
going to see our expertise but also the
member schools. In 2014, these fellowships
recognizing our commitment to excel-
opportunities.”
totaled $1.2 million.
lence—our passion, really—for issues of
To qualify for membership, a school must demonstrate contributions to gerontological
Nursing students who are not yet involved
care for older adults.” n
with gerontology research—or not focused boston college william f. connell school of nursing
15
MOVE TO MALONEY
A brief history of nursing simulation by zak jason
recently proliferated. The number of nurs-
because it allows
of nursing education for more than 100
ing schools using medium- or high-fidelity
students to perform
years. Until the twentieth century, nurses
simulators jumped from 66 in 2002 to 917
tasks that they may
trained in real time—on the battlefield,
in 2010.
not see in their
Simulation manikins have been a staple
for instance, or in rudimentary clinical
Simulation education today appears to
clinical rotations,
settings. Then, in 1911, the rosy-cheeked
work just as well, if not better, than clinical
such as attending vaginal births and
Mrs. Chase made her debut. Hartford
experience, according to a comprehen-
assessing typical pediatric development.
Hospital approached the Rhode Island doll
sive National Council of State Boards of
manufacturer M.J. Chase Co. to design the
Nursing study that followed 666 students
home in Maloney Hall will feature a
first manikin tailored for health care prac-
at 10 U.S. prelicensure programs for two
2,000-square-foot laboratory twice the size
tice. Modeled and named after her creator,
and a half years. The study, published in
of its lab in Cushing Hall. It will include
Martha Jenks Chase, Mrs. Chase stood
the July 2014 Journal of Nursing Regulation,
12 new low-fidelity manikins (double the
5’4” and featured stitched knees, hips,
found that students who spent 50 percent
current cadre) of varying ages and skin
elbows, and shoulders. Three years later,
of their time in simulation education
tones, and three high-fidelity manikins
she acquired an arm injection port and an
scored higher than a control group on
that perspire, breathe, and even speak:
internal reservoir. She and pediatric simu-
assessments of mental health, medical-
birthing manikin Sim Mom, adult Sim
lation “baby Chase” dolls remained ubiqui-
surgical, maternal-newborn, and
Man, and Baby Hal. Smith said the new lab
tous in nursing schools for six decades.
community health nursing. While
additions will allow the faculty to “create
continued research into nursing training
any situation to ensure [the students] prac-
breathing and heartbeats replaced Mrs.
methods is needed, simulation will
tice the critical skills they need.”
Chase in the 1970s. Computerized,
remain essential, according to Amy Smith,
gender-specific simulators that bleed,
director of CSON’s clinical learning
blink, cry, and react in real time have
and simulation laboratories. It is crucial
Specialized manikins with realistic
The Connell School of Nursing’s new
n
Above: 1920s Mrs. Chase Medical Doll Photograph: 1stdibs.com
Below: Manikins in Cushing Hall’s clinical learning laboratory Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham
Additional research by Alexandra Hunt
16
voice | spring 2015
faculty publications
Family-centered hospital support helps both patients and caregivers Elisabeth Bailey Bailey, E.M. & Young, C.M. (2015). Adolescents and the media. In T.P. Gullotta, R.W. Plant, & M. Evans (Eds.), Handbook of adolescent behavioral problems: Evidence-based approaches to prevention and treatment (2nd ed., pp. 383–394). New York, New York: Springer.
Marie Boltz Boltz, M., Resnick, B., Chippendale, T., & Galvin, J. (2014). Testing a family-centered intervention to promote functional and cognitive recovery in hospitalized older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(12), 2398–2407. doi: 10.1111/jgs.13139 Chippendale, T., & Boltz, M. (2014). Perceived neighborhood fall risks and strategies used to prevent outdoor falls: Does age matter? Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 62(11), 2210– 2212. doi: 10.1111/jgs.13117
Ann Wolbert Burgess Burgess, A.W., Sekula, L.K., & Carretta, C.M. (2015). Homicide-suicide and duty to warn. Psychodynamic Psychiatry, 43(1), 67–90. Herlihy, P.A., & Burgess, A.W. (2014). Breaking the silence of MST (military sexual trauma). Journal of Employee Assistance, 44(4), 10–13.
Sean Clarke Ismail, F., & Clarke, S.P. (2014). Improving the employer-regulator partnership: An analysis of employer engagement in discipline monitoring. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 5(3), 19–23. Roch, G., Dubois, C.-A., & Clarke, S.P. (2014). Organizational climate and hospital nurses’ caring practices: A mixed-methods study. Research in Nursing & Health, 37(3), 229–240. doi: 10.1002/nur.21596 D’Amour, D., Dubois, C.-A., Tchouaket, E., Clarke, S., & Blais, R. (2014). The occurrence of adverse events potentially attributable to nursing care in medical units: Cross sectional record review. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 51(6), 882–891. doi: 10.1016/j. ijnurstu.2013.10.017
Providing education and support for family members of hospitalized older adults can promote patients’ functional and cognitive recovery and lessen family caregivers’ anxiety and depression, according to a study led by Associate Professor Marie Boltz and published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in December 2014. Boltz and her research team tested an intervention program called Family-Centered Function-Focused Care in hospital settings. The program’s aim was educating and supporting patients’ family members throughout the hospitalization period and maintaining patients’ ability to perform daily activities by making sure they stayed active every day. The study was conducted in three separate units of a community teaching hospital, with 97 patient-caretaker pairs participating. In one of the units, a specialized nurse led the family-centered program with the support of the research team and hospital staff, conducting educational sessions for unit nurses, patients, and family members and keeping up with caregivers and patients throughout the period of hospitalization and afterward. Patients in the control group received normal function-focused care, without added communication with their family members. The researchers found that patients who received family-centered care experienced less severe and briefer periods of delirium; were more able to perform daily activities such as bathing, dressing, and eating; and were readmitted to the hospital less often than patients in the control group. Family caregivers also benefited from the intervention, telling researchers that they felt more prepared to give care and experienced less anxiety and depression.
O’Keefe-McCarthy, S., McGillion, M., Clarke, S.P., & McFetridge-Durdle, J. (2014). Pain and anxiety in rural acute coronary syndrome patients awaiting diagnostic cardiac catheterization. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1097/ JCN.0000000000000203 Clarke, S.P. (2014). Review: A realist logic model of the links between nurse staffing and the outcomes of nursing. Journal of Research in Nursing, 19(1), 24–25. doi: 10.1177/1744987113482433 Clarke, S.P. (2014). Patient- and family-centred care: Some solutions [Editorial]. CJNR (Canadian Journal of Nursing Research), 46(3), 3–5. Clarke, S.P. (2014). Coming to terms with the nursing discipline: A call for more bicultural troublemakers. [Editorial]. CJNR (Canadian Journal of Nursing Research), 46(4), 3–6.
Susan DeSanto-Madeya Willis, D.G., DeSanto-Madeya, S., & Fawcett, J. (2015). Moving beyond dwelling in suffering: A situation-specific theory of men’s healing from childhood maltreatment. Nursing Science Quarterly, 28(1), 57–63. doi: 10.1177/0894318414558606 Flanagan, J.M., DeSanto-Madeya, S.A., & Simms, B. (2014). Using Skype to facilitate presence at the end of life. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing, 16(8), 489–494. doi: 10.1097/NJH.0000000000000106
Joyce Edmonds Edmonds, J.K., Cwiertniewicz, T.R., & Stoll, K. (2015). Childbirth education prior to pregnancy? Survey findings of childbirth preferences and attitudes among young women. Journal of Perinatal Education, 24(2), 93–101. doi: 10.1891/1058-1243.24.2.93
boston college william f. connell school of nursing
17
faculty publications
Jane Flanagan Flanagan, J.M., DeSanto-Madeya, S.A., & Simms, B. (2014). Using Skype to facilitate presence at the end of life. Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care Nursing, 16(8), 489–494. doi: 10.1097/NJH.0000000000000106
Holly Fontenot Sutherland, M.A., Fantasia, H.C., & Fontenot, H.B. (2015). Reproductive coercion and partner violence among college women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/15526909.12550 Fantasia, H.C., Sutherland, M.A., Fontenot, H.B., & Ierardi, J.A. (2014). Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about contraceptive and sexual consent negotiation among college women. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(4), 199–207. doi: 10.1097/JFN.0000000000000046
Susan Gennaro Budin, W.C., Gennaro, S., O’Connor, C., & Contratti, F. (2014). Sustainability of improvements in perinatal teamwork and safety climate. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 29(4), 363–370. doi: 10.1097/ NCQ.0000000000000067 Gennaro, S. (2015). Where should you share? [Editorial]. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 47(1), 1–2. doi: 10.1111/jnu.12119 Gennaro, S. (2014). Are we there yet? [Editorial]. Journal of Nursing Scholarship 46(6), 389–390. doi: 10.1111/jnu.12111
Pamela Grace Dionne-Odom, J.N., Willis, D.G., Bakitas, M., Crandall, B., & Grace, P.J. (2014). Conceptualizing surrogate decision-making at end of life in the intensive care unit using cognitive task analysis. Nursing Outlook. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j. outlook.2014.10.004 Grace, P.J., Robinson, E.M., Jurchak, M., Zollfrank, A.A., & Lee, S.M. (2014). Clinical ethics residency for nurses: An education model to decrease moral distress and strengthen nurse retention in acute care. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(12), 640–646. doi: 10.1097/ NNA.0000000000000141
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voice | spring 2015
Research leads to training module that helps schools support students with food allergies As the rate of children’s food allergies has increased in recent years, so has the need for effective and accessible allergy management training for school staff. In a study published online in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, Connell School Clinical Assistant Professor Laura White and her team of researchers found that a short, comprehensive computer module on the fundamentals of food allergies increased knowledge and confidence among teachers and school staff dealing with them. The 30-minute PowerPoint program, developed by pediatric allergists with guidance from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health School Health Services, provided training in allergy prevention, recognition of symptoms, treatment, and social-emotional issues surrounding allergies, such as bullying. School nurses—all members of the Massachusetts School Nurse Research Network—offered the module to teachers and staff at six Massachusetts public schools as an optional supplement to health-focused orientation sessions. The researchers evaluated knowledge, confidence, and attitude toward student allergies before and after participants viewed the module and found increases in participants’ scores in all three areas after viewing the module. Participants reported that they learned new information, such as the fact that allergens are present in some nonfood school materials, and new practices, such as injector insertion. According to the authors, the results revealed a particular need for staff education about allergy-related bullying. Before viewing the module, only 29.4 percent of participants viewed students with food allergies as at risk of being bullied compared with 85.9 percent of participants afterward.
M. Katherine Hutchinson
Tam Nguyen
Cederbaum, J.A., Petering, R., Hutchinson, M.K., He, A.S., Wilson, J.P., Jemmott III, J.B., & Jemmott, L.S. (2015). Alcohol outlet density and related use in an urban Black population in Philadelphia public housing communities. Health & Place, 31, 31–38. doi: 10.1016/j. healthplace.2014.10.007
Golden, S.H., Purnell, T., Halbert, J.P., Matens, R., Miller, E.R., Levine, D.M., Nguyen, T.H., Gudzune, K.A., Crews, D.C., Mahlangu-Ngcobo, M., & Cooper, L.A. (2014). A communityengaged cardiovascular health disparities research training curriculum: Implementation and preliminary outcomes. Academic Medicine, 89(10), 1348–1356. doi: 10.1097/ ACM.0000000000000426
Susan Kelly-Weeder Kelly-Weeder, S.S., Phillips, K., Leonard, K., & Veroneau, M. (2014). Binge eating and weight loss behaviors of overweight and obese college students. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 26(8), 445–451. doi: 10.1002/2327-6924.12070
Han, H.-R., Huh, B., Kim, M.T., Kim, J., & Nguyen, T.H. (2014). Development and validation of the assessment of health literacy in breast and cervical cancer screening. Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives, 19(sup 2), 267–284. doi: 10.1080/10810730.2014.936569 Kim, M.T., Kim, K.B., Han, H.-R., Huh, B., Nguyen, T.H., & Lee, H.B. (2014). Prevalence and predictors of depression in Korean American elderly: Findings from the memory and aging study of Koreans (MASK). The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j. jagp.2014.11.003
Napping may affect students’ sleep, grades
Judith Shindul-Rothschild Shindul-Rothschild, J. (2015). Substance use. In G. Harkness & R. DeMarco (Eds.), Community and public health nursing: Evidence for practice, 2nd ed. (pp. 325–356). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Shindul-Rothschild, J. (2015). Community mental health. In G. Harkness & R. DeMarco (Eds.), Community and public health nursing: Evidence for practice, 2nd ed. (pp. 439–468). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Melissa Sutherland Cory, A., Boyle, K., McClain, N., & Sutherland, M.A. (2014). Examining nutrition among a sample of 3- to 5-year-old children living in rural Jamaica. Pediatric Nursing, 40(6), 279–283. Sutherland, M.A., Fantasia, H.C., & Fontenot, H.B. (2015). Reproductive coercion and partner violence among college women. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1111/15526909.12550 Fantasia, H.C., Sutherland, M.A., Fontenot, H.B., & Ierardi, J.A. (2014). Knowledge, attitudes and beliefs about contraceptive and sexual consent negotiation among college women. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 10(4), 199–207. doi: 10.1097/ JFN.0000000000000046
Patricia Tabloski Kosar, C.M., Tabloski, P.A., Travison, T.G., Jones, R.N., Schmitt, E.M., Puelle, M.R., Inloes, J.B., Saczynski, J.S., Marcantonio, E.R., Meagher, D., Reid, M.C., & Inouye, S.K. (2014). Effect of preoperative pain and depressive symptoms on the risk of postoperative delirium: A prospective cohort study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 1(6), 431– 436. doi: 10.1016/S2215-0366(14)00006-6
Judith Vessey Vessey, J.A., Strout, T.D., DiFazio, R.L., & Walker, A. (2014). Measuring the youth bullying experience: A systematic review of the psychometric properties of available instruments. Journal of School Health, 84(12), 819–843. doi: 10.1111/josh.12210 Vessey, J.A. (2015). The bottomless glass of pink lemonade. [Editorial]. Journal of Pediatric Nursing. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.pedn.2014.12.007
Turning a scientific lens toward concerns on college campuses, Connell School researchers found that undergraduates who habitually take long and late naps may be risking the quality of their nighttime sleep. Assistant Professor Lichuan Ye, CSON doctoral candidates Stacy Hutton-Johnson and Kathleen Keane, and collaborators from Boston College’s biostatistics department and the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York used a web-based survey to study the sleeping habits of a random sample of undergraduate students. Their paper appeared online in the Journal of American College Health in January. The researchers used students’ self-reported answers to an online questionnaire to measure quality of sleep and disturbances over a one-month period using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Students also reported the frequency, length, and timing of their naps as well as their grade point averages and self-assessed mood and energy levels. The study confirmed previous findings that college students nap frequently (75 percent reported taking a nap in the previous month). It also showed a strong correlation between napping often, long, and late in the day and staying up late. The majority of students self-identified as “night owls” (66.3 percent), and 59.7 percent of students qualified as “poor sleepers” based on their PSQI results. The authors suggest that their findings not only confirm sleep habit patterns among university students but also indicate a link between frequent, long, and late naps and lower academic performance. The research suggests a need for interventional strategies to help college students improve their sleep, the authors said.
Laura White White, L.S., Aubin, J., Bradford, C., Alix, C., Hughes, L., & Phipatanakul, W. (2015). Effectiveness of a computer module to augment the training of school staff in the management of students with food allergies. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.anai.2014.11.020
Danny Willis Dionne-Odom, J.N., Willis, D.G., Bakitas, M., Crandall, B., & Grace, P.J. (2014). Conceptualizing surrogate decision-making at end of life in the intensive care unit using cognitive task analysis. Nursing Outlook. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j. outlook.2014.10.004 Willis, D.G., DeSanto-Madeya, S., & Fawcett, J. (2015). Moving beyond dwelling in suffering: A situation-specific theory of men’s healing from childhood maltreatment. Nursing Science Quarterly, 28(1), 57–63. doi: 10.1177/0894318414558606
Easton, S.D., Leone, D.M., Sophis, E.J., & Willis, D.G. (2015) “From that moment on my life changed”: Turning points in the healing process for men recovering from childhood sexual abuse. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 24(2), 152–173. doi: 10.1080/10538712.2015.997413
Barbara Wolfe Phillips, K.E., Keane, K., Wolfe, B.E. (2014). Peripheral brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in bulimia nervosa: A systematic review. Archives of Psychiatric Nursing, 28(2), 108–113. doi: 10.1016/j.apnu.2013.11.006
Lichuan Ye Ye, L., Johnson, S.H., Keane, K., Manasia, M., & Gregas, M. (2015). Napping in college students and its relationship with nighttime sleep. Journal of American College Health. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1080/07448481.2014.983926
Research summaries by John Shakespear boston college william f. connell school of nursing
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william william f. f. connell connell school school of of nursing nursing 140 140 Commonwealth Commonwealth Avenue Avenue Chestnut Hill, Hill, MA MA 02467 02467 Chestnut www.bc.edu/cson www.bc.edu/cson
Save the date Connell School annual reunion Saturday, May 30, 2015 1:30 p.m. Higgins Hall, room 300 Cecilia McVey ’72, associate director of Nursing and Patient Services at the VA Boston Healthcare System, will receive the 2015 Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award at the Connell School of Nursing reunion. Dean Susan Gennaro will present the honor, and McVey will take part in a discussion immediately after the presentation. A reception in the Connell School’s new home in Maloney Hall will follow. The event is open and free of charge to all School of Nursing alumni.
Read more and RSVP at www.bc.edu/csonreunion
non-profit org. u.s. postage paid boston, ma permit #55294