Voice, Spring 2013 by Boston College

william f. connell

school of nur sing Spring 2013

voice

Advancing education Nurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

From the Dean

Dear Friends, The William F. Connell School of Nursing is a bustling village—a productive and complex enterprise compelled by its mission to “prepare nurses whose practice reflects a humanistic ethic and is scientifically based, technically competent, and highly compassionate.” So it is not surprising that faculty, staff, and students work together to improve health care, educate future leaders, and develop the science that will shape health care in the years and decades to come. What surprises and impresses me, however, is the strength of our ties to so many collaborators and partners: families, alumni, patients, teachers, caregivers, policy makers, and other health care providers. Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

Spring 2013 news 4 Pinnacle lecture wrap-up, faculty honors, and alumni and student inducted into AAN

features

6 Advancing education Nurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

10 Beyond the bedside Nurse advocates make a mark in public policy arenas

In this issue of Voice, we feature members of our network, with stories about advocates for changes in health policy, preceptors who work with us to educate BC nurses of the future, and partner alumni and parents.

14 Flourishing in its fourth year

It takes a village to change health care. And I am so proud to be part of the Connell School village, and to share some of the stories that make it such an exciting place to be.

16 Chronicle

With Price Foundation help, KILN expands A CSON parent’s journey to Haiti

Yours,

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achievements

18 Faculty publications

Susan Gennaro Dean

16 dean Susan Gennaro editor Maureen Dezell managing editor Tracy Bienen

Voice Cover:2

contributors Alicia Potter Debra Bradley Ruder Michael Prager Alex Spanko

photographers Aaron Clamage Caitlin Cunningham Gary Wayne Gilbert Justin Knight Josh Levine Lee Pellegrini Tony Rinaldo Lexey Swall

Voice is published by the William F. Connell School of Nursing and the Boston College Office of Marketing Communications. Letters and comments are welcome: csonalum@bc.edu Communications Specialist William F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College 140 Commonwealth Avenue Chestnut Hill, MA 02467

On the cover: Sampson Samuel, a patient at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project’s McInness House, is examined by Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07. Photograph: Justin Knight Top: Pinnacle Lecturer Angela Barron McBride with Marina Iturralde ’15 and Carol Iturralde ’80, M.A. ’83. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

Middle left: Preceptor Claire Schneckenberger consults with Richard McCartney, M.S. ’13. Photograph: Justin Knight Middle right: Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo Bottom: “Haitian culture dictates that everyone must pay for health care,” said Erin Dromgoole ’13 (left). But her patient had spent all her savings on her husband’s care and couldn’t afford the modest fee, so “we paid for her clinic visit as a group,” said Dromgoole. Photograph: Lexey Swall

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News

by Alex Spanko

pinnacle lecture

an honor and appointment

“The demand for nurse leadership has never been greater,” Angela Barron McBride told an audience gathered for her fall 2012 Pinnacle lecture in the Murray Room in Yawkey Center. But McBride, a distinguished professor and university dean emerita at the Indiana University School of Nursing, cautioned against equating leadership with an administrative title. “Nurse leaders will play an important role in transforming the medical profession to match the needs of future generations, including the specific challenges that will arise as more people live into very old age,” said McBride. She laid out strategies for becoming an effective nurse leader and mentor at various career stages—and noted the need to have mentors along the way. McBride also offered suggestions on how to remain optimistic on the job, such as learning not to take the positive aspects of nursing for granted. “It’s only when you celebrate lots of little goodies that you actually have the energy for the big ones,” she said.

Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski, who was recently inducted into the Hall of Honor at her alma mater, Seton Hall University College of Nursing, was also appointed to the advisory committee for the Doctoral Advancement in Nursing project, co-sponsored by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Angela Barron McBride. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

the march of dimes applauds The March of Dimes Foundation’s Massachusetts chapter named Assistant Professor Holly Fontenot one of its 2012 Nurses of the Year, recognizing her work in administration and research. Fontenot was one of nine Bay State nurses honored by the organization.

marn recognizes cson profs The Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses (MARN) honored Assistant Professor Kelly Stamp and Professor Barbara Wolfe, CSON’s associate dean for research, at its April awards. MARN presented Stamp with its Excellence in Nursing Education Award, and Wolfe received the Mary A. Manning Nurse Mentoring Award. Assistant Professor Holly Fontenot. Courtesy Visions by Baker Photography

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Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski and Phyllis Shanley Hansell, dean of Seton Hall University College of Nursing. Photograph: Laurie McCoy Foster

aan welcomes seven from connell school

practice programs and director of the Doctor of

The American Academy of Nurses recently inducted doctoral candidate Rachel DiFazio, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Boston Children’s Hospital, and added eight Connell School alumnae to its roster of nearly 2,000 fellows. They are: Michelle Beauchesne, M.S. ’79, an associate professor and coordinator of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at Northeastern University; Susan Chapman, M.S. ’77, assistant adjunct professor at the University of California, San Francisco’s School of Nursing; Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, M.S. ’87, a professor of pediatric nursing at Villanova University and daughter of Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess; Jean D’Meza Leuner, M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’94, founding dean and professor at the University of Central Florida’s College of Nursing; Sara Looby, Ph.D. ’08, a nurse practitioner at Massachusetts General Hospital; Kris McLoughlin ’82, director of nursing education, performance improvement, and research at UCLA’s Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital; Kathleen Miller, M.S. ’80, associate dean for advanced

chusetts Medical School’s Graduate School of Nursing

Nursing Practice Program at the University of Massain Worcester; and Jeannine Rivet ’72, an executive vice president at UnitedHealth Group.

cson turns out for eastern nursing research society conference Professors June Horowitz and Dorothy Jones were recognized for their leadership promoting health through nursing science at the Eastern Nursing Research Society’s annual conference, held this April in Boston. Also at the conference, Mara Renold ’13 presented a research poster, “The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on Cardiovascular Health of Mexican-American Women,” and Ph.D. students Stacy Hutton Johnson and Katherine Phillips illustrated and discussed their research projects. Connell School faculty Dorothy Jones, Jane Flanagan, and Danny Willis worked behind the scenes on the planning committee for the conference. Associate Professor Rosanna DeMarco sits on the society’s board of directors.

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Advancing education

preceptors is on the rise, according to nursing experts. But many nurses choose not to teach in the field. Nursing journals describe a “shortage” of preceptors, and a 2009 online poll conducted by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners found that just three percent of respondents planned to “precept” in the coming year. In an age of health care cost containment, when nurses are expected to handle more patients and paperwork in less time than in the past, teaching on the job strikes some as more of a burden than an opportunity. While Boston College preceptors receive benefits—including partial tuition for course work, reimbursement for continuing education, or conference fees—they are not paid. But for nurse practitioners like Tefft, who has been working with students for 30 years, the rewards of precepting significantly outweigh its drawbacks. As she and several other veteran nurse-teachers see it, precepting isn’t just an added responsibility—it’s an integral part of being a nurse practitioner (NP). What’s more, they say, it’s as crucial to their success in a fast-changing field as it is to that of trainees. “I precept for the love of the job,” says Tefft, “and for the love of teaching. But I also do it to keep me on my toes.”

Nurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

Managing the match

By Alicia Potter Photographs by Justin Knight

t’s a december morning at harvard vanguard

Medical Associates in Somerville, and Maureen Gehlenborg, M.S. ’13, is giving a pregnant woman an ultrasound. “You have a busy baby!” she tells her. Cynthia Tefft, M.S. ’82, looks up from her notes and agrees. “Have you been seeing a lot of movement?” she asks. The woman laughs and relays her toddler son’s amazement at how much the baby kicks. Tefft takes the lead for the rest of the appointment, gently interviewing the woman about her birth plan, while Gehlenborg mostly listens. However, when the woman inquires about exercising post-C-section, Tefft turns to Gehlenborg for the answer. “Maureen has five years’ experience in labor and delivery,” she explains, and steps aside. Tefft is Gehlenborg’s preceptor, a clinician-teacher who transforms routine exams such as this into opportunities

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for learning. During their academic year together, she supervises Gehlenborg as she performs Pap smears, breast exams, HPV tests, and other aspects of pre- and post-natal care. She also guides the younger nurse as she further hones a critical skill: interacting with patients. Skilled nurses have played a role in educating students in clinical settings since the time of Florence Nightingale, and preceptors have augmented nursing education at Boston College since it opened its school of nursing in 1947. Today, approximately 300 preceptors each semester help train Connell School of Nursing (CSON) graduate students as they make the transition from classroom to clinic. They work in internationally renowned hospitals, public school systems, hospices, prisons, and homeless shelters. As advanced practice nursing programs attract more students, particularly in the Boston area, the demand for

As a nursing student, Tefft found her own preceptor, and there was a time when nursing schools left it to students to do so. “I went begging for someone to precept me,” recalls Associate Professor Jane Flanagan, who lines up students and preceptors for the CSON adult gerontological health track. The Connell School places a premium on what it calls “the match”: the highly individualized process of pairing student and preceptor to meet learning goals. “Making sure we get the right placements for students is huge,” says Flanagan. “We want to give students the clinical transition they need based on their experience.” CSON faculty members actively recruit new preceptors, often from the school’s alumni ranks. They also work closely with clinics to assess students’ progress, through both written evaluations and on-site visits. “We’re looking for excellent clinicians who are committed to the profession,” says Flanagan. “But they also must be able to balance, in a very artful way, recognizing when to push a student and when to give gentle direction.”

Associate Professor Jane Flanagan pairs preceptors and students. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

Preceptors, she adds, have to be “patient with the process of translating textbook knowledge to a clinical setting.” The clinical skills preceptors teach—the exams, tests, therapies, and procedures—vary by specialty and site. But one learning goal is universal: engaging the patient. Says Claire Schneckenberger, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and preceptor at Cambridge Health Alliance, “Knowing how to interact with a patient is the foundation for a successful evaluation.” Only experience can teach that. For instance, a women’s health student may leave the classroom knowing the mechanics of a pelvic exam but not how to ease the psychological discomfort that accompanies it. Such “softer skills,” says Tefft, are developed mainly through repeated exposure to patients. Even watching how an NP greets a patient can be educational, she adds. Schneckenberger, who cares for patients struggling with schizophrenia, mood disorders, trauma, and addiction, has her students sit in on evaluations and case meetings to sharpen their patient communication skills. Students learn, she says, just by listening. But as trainees move on to more direct patient contact, Schneckenberger finds that the preceptor’s biggest challenge becomes managing the students’ anxiety. “A good preceptor must be able to settle students down,” she explains. That means “helping them to develop the judgment to determine when a situation is an emergency versus when a situation is making them really nervous.” Gehlenborg agrees that the transition to hands-on learning can be stressful. “But having [Tefft] tell me that I can handle something makes a major difference,” she says.

Left: Maureen Gehlenborg, M.S. ’13, (center) and her preceptor Cynthia Tefft, M.S. ’82, examine Jennifer Caldwell at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

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Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07, and Sampson Samuel at Boston Health Care for the Homeless.

Preceptor Claire Schneckenberger (center) meets with Christian Dangremond, M.S. ’13; Somatra Simpson, M.S. ’13; Richard McCartney, M.S. ’13, and Mary Jepsen at Cambridge Health Alliance.

Re-defining “nurse practitioner”

A reciprocal relationship

Although some fast-paced developments in health care have added pressure to precepting, others are enhancing the experience. Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07, a preceptor and nurse practitioner at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, believes that today’s preceptors have a unique opportunity to represent the expanding role of the nurse practitioner.

Preceptors Susan Ferraro, Jennifer Kremer, Jesica Pagano-Therrien, Kate Bailey, and Jennifer Costa at UMass Memorial Medical Center.

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“Nurse practitioners’ responsibilities differ from setting to setting,” says Otenti, who handles many of the same primary care duties as a doctor. “By getting a firsthand example of what NPs do, students can see the limitations and the possibilities—and how they might push the boundaries of what it means to be a nurse practitioner.” Jesica Pagano-Therrien, a preceptor in the Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Disease units at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, hoped to widen NP students’ view of the field when, three years ago, she and two colleagues proposed a rotational program for the Connell School. Students, they reasoned, would benefit from partnering with NPs in a range of pediatric specialties and roles, “from clinicians to case managers.” The program now provides students with two- and three-week placements on medical teams in infectious disease, cardiology, surgery, nephrology, pulmonary medicine, and other areas. Preceptors at smaller, community-based sites are also exposing students to a collaborative model of care. At Cambridge Health Alliance, Schneckenberger’s students work on a team alongside social workers, psychologists, and physicians. In this case, the interdisciplinary approach significantly broadens Schneckenberger’s role as preceptor: in addition to overseeing three nursing students, she helps train medical residents and social work and psychology interns.

There is no denying that the extra responsibility of teaching makes for a busier day. As Pagano-Therrien puts it, “It can slow me down.” When it does, she says, she reminds herself why she chose to precept in the first place. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a preceptor who worked with me,” she explains. “If I’m running behind and feeling frustrated, I always return to the idea that my student deserves the same time and effort that I received from my preceptor.” The rewards of the relationship are readily evident: by the end of the academic year, students who had previously never laid hands on a patient are working independently, even running clinics under supervision. They take histories, conduct physicals, and make assessments and plans. As Schneckenberger observes, they “find their voice,” and interact confidently with patients and colleagues. Yet the students aren’t the only ones who grow. Teaching pushes veteran nurses to stay current, says PaganoTherrien, who often brushes up before explaining certain disease processes to a student. Schneckenberger looks to her trainees to help her stay abreast of new research. Tefft says that she is now more technology-savvy because of her students. As preceptors, says Tefft, “We get back as much as we give.”

CSON preceptors and students frequently stay in touch, sometimes for years, and many say the experience makes them feel part of a community. For Otenti, the potential to build a nursing network prompted her to precept immediately after graduation—and to return every year. As she keeps up with former students through Facebook, e-mail, and dinners, she is convinced that precepting can improve relations between older and younger nurses. “It’s really important for our profession that we stick together and build each other up,” she explains. “There’s a saying that ‘nurses eat their young.’ But if more nurses became preceptors, it could change nursing culture.” Back at Harvard Vanguard, Gehlenborg reports that she hopes to precept early in her NP career. Tefft quickly adds, “She’ll be good.” During their last appointment of the morning, a patient shares her plan for how she’ll handle her second pregnancy differently. Tefft nods in approval. “Experience is a wonderful teacher,” she says. ✹

are you Interested in precepting Boston College students? Contact Clinical Placement Specialist Erica Crawford at erica.crawford@bc.edu or 617–552–1558.

Spring 2013

Beyond the bedside Nurse advocates make a mark in public policy arenas By Debra Bradley Ruder

tiny puncture 15 years ago changed life

forever for Karen Daley, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’10. Daley was a veteran staff nurse in the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department in July 1998 when she drew a patient’s blood, reached to discard the needle, and brushed her gloved hand on a used needle protruding from a sharps box. A few months later she began feeling tired and nauseated, and tests confirmed that she’d been infected with both HIV and hepatitis C. Facing an uncertain future, Daley gave up her 26-year bedside nursing career and channeled her energy into lobbying for needlestick prevention laws and policies that have made the workplace safer for caregivers around the country. “I see the fruits of this when I go in for my blood work now,” said Daley, who is serving her second twoyear term as president of the American Nurses Association (ANA). She is part of a growing cadre of nurse leaders, including Connell School graduates and faculty members, who are influencing public health policy as lawmakers, heads of public health departments, researchers, educators, and in other roles. Good listeners, advocates, and problem solvers by trade, nurses—who make up the largest share of the country’s health care workforce—are parlaying their expertise in care delivery, prevention, and health promotion to help improve health on the local, state, and national levels.

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Karen Daley, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’10. Photograph: Aaron Clamage

The trend seems certain to continue: In a 2010 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–Gallup survey of 1,500 opinion leaders in insurance, health services, government, and industry, a majority said that nurses should play a greater role than they currently do in health policy planning and management. One of the most visible public policy advocates is Daley. As ANA president, she regularly speaks, testifies, and sits for interviews about public health issues, from gun violence to nursing staffing levels to care coordination to health care reform. But no topic compels her more than needlestick safety. Daley, who was leading the Massachusetts Nurses Association at the time of her accident, began pressing almost immediately for a statewide needlestick safety bill. “I had a great career. I loved what I did, and it made no sense to me why this had happened,” recalled Daley, who publicly revealed her infection during her Beacon Hill testimony in April 1999. “Now I had a mechanism for helping some necessary change occur, and that became my focus.” Over the next year—while undergoing grueling antiviral treatment—Daley traveled to more than 24 states to raise awareness among legislators, hospital executives, and nurses about the need for more protective devices, such as syringes with retractable needles. She championed proposed federal legislation requiring employers to use safer equipment and systems to reduce exposure to viruses and infections from needlesticks. Daley visited skeptical legislators and testified before Congress on behalf of nurses and health care workers, who sustain an estimated 600,000 sharps injuries a year. The late Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy called Daley himself to congratulate her when the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act passed in 2000. And she attended the White House ceremony when President Bill Clinton signed it into law. These laws have made a difference, notes Daley. In Massachusetts, sharps injuries among acute care hospital workers dropped by 32 percent between 2002 and 2009, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Yet hazards remain for caregivers everywhere. “Little by little, it’s getting better,” explained Daley. “Where safety devices are being used, we’re seeing many fewer injuries occur. But we aren’t where we need to be.”

Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

Expanding access Like Daley, Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76, knows that crafting legislation requires perseverance. During her eight years as a Massachusetts state legislator—including two as vice chair of the health care financing committee—Grant played a role in shaping the state’s landmark 2006 health care insurance reform law. The statute, which expanded coverage to nearly all Bay State residents, served as a model for the 2010 federal Affordable Care Act. Grant represented Beverly, a small city on Boston’s North Shore, from 2003 to 2011. One of four nurse lawmakers in the State House at the time, she shared her expertise from 30 years as a child and adolescent psychiatric nurse with fellow legislators who were developing the massive law. Among other things, she

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wanted to make sure that clinicians were involved in important decisions about containing health care costs and improving care. Grant also knew from experience about the value of preventive services such as patient checkups and certain diagnostic tests. As part of ongoing reform, she helped launch a legislative prevention caucus to educate Massachusetts lawmakers. Grant found her fellow lawmakers receptive to the nursing perspective. “Every legislator has a mother, a sister, a neighbor, or somebody who’s a nurse,” she noted during an interview on Beacon Hill. “The public trusts nurses. So nurses have a very powerful voice in a legislative arena.” Contributing to civic life comes naturally to Grant, who served as president of her class and the student senate at the Connell School. But she decided not to seek a fifth legislative term, and in 2011 joined the state’s executive branch to help implement the health care law. As clinical director of long-term services and supports at MassHealth (responsible for maintaining the safety net for vulnerable residents that is a centerpiece of the state’s health program), she oversees hundreds of facilities and community programs that serve elderly and disabled residents on Medicaid—working to ensure that people are well served and public money is well spent. Grant says she pushed buttons to vote on health issues in the legislature, and now she’s part of the effort to implement those legislative efforts. When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act last summer, Grant made a beeline to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s press conference applauding the decision. “I was grinning ear to ear,” she remembered. “This is one of those bills of the century, and we created a framework for it.” Grant is convinced that nurses’ political strength comes when they speak with a collective voice while working to change health care policy. “As a profession, we have to operate with a helicopter view, and then we’ll always be at the table,” she observed. In Daley’s opinion, advocacy and public policy engagement are part of nurses’ “social contract” to serve society beyond the bedside. Nurses should learn early on, she says, that activism “is part of what we do as nurses. This is part of how we make the system better for patients.” ✹

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Research for the public arena As alumni make their mark, Connell School faculty are researchers, activists, and teachers helping inf luence public policy on vital issues. Due out this spring, the latest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the U.S. “bible” for mental health care, will recognize binge eating disorder as an illness, rather than as a condition in need of further study.

Judith A. Vessey, the Lelia Holden Carroll Professor in Nursing, studies and writes about the “pervasive malignancy” of bullying among children and adults, an interest inspired by her work as a developmental pediatric nurse practitioner. She helped develop the federal government’s antibullying social marketing campaign (now part of stopbullying.gov) and drafted early policies on bullying for the National Association of School Nurses. At Boston College, Vessey teaches undergraduates and graduate students about health care policy. In one course, her students compare and analyze health insurance plans that reveal how similar coverage that costs one family more than $20,000 a year can cost another almost nothing. The assignment reminds students that “they need to read their own paperwork, that there are tremendous inequities in the system, and that having insurance will not necessarily protect you from financial hardship,” Vessey explained. “The bigger message is, from a social justice perspective, about the haves and the have nots.” Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess. Photograph: Josh Levine

Barbara Wolfe, associate dean for research and professor. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

The change was a victory for many, including Barbara Wolfe, CSON’s associate dean for research. She contributed to the new guidelines when she served for five years on an American Psychiatric Association work group that revisited the DSM’s eating disorders section. The manual influences both policy and practice, notes Wolfe, a psychiatric nurse who studies the psychobiology of eating disorders and was the only nurse on the 12-member committee. “It defines the disorders, the criteria for diagnosing them, and how people get reimbursed for treating them—basing it on the science.”

Judith A. Vessey, the Lelia Holden Carroll Professor in Nursing. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess has devoted her career to improving treatment for victims of violence and abuse—and understanding the behavior of criminals. A pioneer in forensic nursing, Burgess in the early 1970s cofounded one of the first hospital-based crisis counseling programs with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom (now sociology professor emerita). The two introduced “rape trauma syndrome” into the medical and legal lexicons. Burgess has worked with the FBI to develop criminal profiles, given expert courtroom testimony, and studied such topics as child molesters, cyber crimes, elder abuse, and murder-suicides. At the Connell School, she has taught courses in victimology and forensics. She also helped establish a master’s specialty in forensic nursing that trains students in caring for victims and perpetrators of violence, collecting evidence, developing policy, and influencing legislation. ✹

Spring 2013

Flourishing in its fourth year with price foundation help, kiln expands By Michael Prager

iffany maxwell, m.s. ’14, was working as

an electrical engineer, weary of spending most of her days sitting in front of a computer, when she decided to switch careers. She settled on nursing because “every nurse I talked to loved her job,” she says. She chose the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) based on the reputation of its master’s entry program for students with degrees in non-nursing fields.

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Fortunately for Maxwell, a first-generation university student from a multicultural Florida family, she was also able to take advantage of Keys to Inclusive Leadership (KILN), a four-year-old program that recruits and prepares students from nursing backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the profession to become future nurse leaders. The Price Family Foundation last year pledged $540,000 to help CSON expand and

enhance KILN—and open it up to 10 graduate students as well as 40 undergraduates. Each student works with one of 20 faculty mentors, who play a critical role in KILN’s program of services and supports. Those include intense tutoring and mentoring, stipends, scholarships, and grants for expenses such as exam review courses and conference registration fees. KILN mentors meet with students, guide them in curricular decisions, encourage their involvement in faculty research, and link them with resources. They introduce students to professional organizations, activities, and other opportunities in which they can meet and engage with nurse leaders. Maxwell, who speaks Spanish and hopes to work in underserved communities, was eager for guidance from an experienced professional. She found that and more in her mentor, Colleen Simonelli, a clinical associate professor and assistant department chair. Simonelli was drawn to KILN because of her own experience as a student with influential mentors. She meets with each of her charges individually, and has brought them together, she says, “so they can develop their relationships as well.” “She has been very encouraging to me to seek out other opportunities in the field, to attend lectures and conferences,” says Maxwell. Simonelli, she adds, is “a real motivating force. It’s been nice to have regular meetings, to really get into how the program’s doing for me, what I need to focus on, what I want after graduation—helping me to think ahead and plan for my future.” KILN’s goal is to help diminish obstacles that its students encounter in nursing school, according to CSON Associate Dean Catherine Read, who spearheaded the program in 2009. Its overarching ambition is to reduce health-care disparities by educating and encouraging nurses who are “culturally competent,” and capable of caring for patients in diverse communities. That involves more than recruiting students whose racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds reflect those of underserved patient populations, Read observes. It means making

sure students are prepared to take advantage of programs and services they need to pursue professional careers. Maxwell, who left the workforce to pursue her nursing degree, supports herself and relies on loans to finance her education. She has taken advantage of the advanced study grants KILN provides students who participate in workshops and seminars on topics such as congenital heart disease, which she attended at Massachusetts General Hospital in February. She is appreciative, she says, that the KILN program sponsored her membership in the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, whose national conference she hopes to attend in October. Sustaining and expanding KILN fits securely within the mission of the New York-based Price Foundation, whose priorities include trying to reach underresourced populations in need of better health care, and providing opportunities to economically disadvantaged young people in New Jersey and New York, said Joanne Duhl, executive director. The foundation’s firsthand involvement with young people gave it strong motivation to support KILN, said Duhl, who noted, “It’s always good to continue something that’s working.” KILN certainly seems to be doing that. The program calendar of activities is jam-packed. A KILN blog is replete with upbeat, newsy posts from undergraduates who’ve traveled to professional conferences such as the National Association of Hispanic Nurses Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and taken part in events such as last fall’s Training for Advanced Leadership in a KILN weekend retreat at Boston College’s Connors Family Retreat Center in Dover. Meanwhile, KILN appears to be making progress in nurturing a new generation of nurse leaders. This year, for example, the Massachusetts Student Nurses Association has a particularly strong Boston College flavor: Andrea Lopez ’14 is president-elect, Yesenia Japa ’14 is treasurer, Chenille Morrison ’14 is secretary, and Yvonne Shih ’15 is legislative chair. All four are part of KILN. So was Anna Diané ’12, who is now a consultant to the student association. ✹

Faculty mentors play a critical role in KILN’s program of services and supports.

Left: Clinical Associate Professor and Department Assistant Chair Colleen Simonelli and Tiffany Maxwell, M.S. ’14, work with a computer-programmable mannequin in one of the Connell School’s simulation labs. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

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Kirsten Grueter ’13 took charge of entertaining the youngest children while the nurse practitioners examined others at a Port-au-Prince orphanage.

Liz Thibodeau (left, with camera) films women’s health nurse practitioner Sophie Thibodeau (center) and Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan (right) as they show Shelby Kaubris ’13 (with purple pack) and Lindsay Lachky ’13 (left) how to perform a prenatal exam on Margalie Auguste (lying down).

chronicle a cson parent films her journey to haiti

Photographs by Lexey Swall

ideo producer liz thibodeau signed on to

the Connell School’s third clinical service trip to Haiti as a documentarian who would “witness” the week-long mission through her lens. She expected to bring back footage that would show “what it felt like to be there” as she traveled to orphanages and makeshift mobile clinics in five villages, observing the work of 21 CSON faculty, students, and alumni—including her daughter, Sophie Thibodeau ’07, M.S. ’12—as they saw upwards of 200 patients each day. “Everything changed once we went to our first clinic,” says Thibodeau, who produces nursing and medical videos at Take One Digital Media in Annapolis, Maryland. “I quickly became immersed in the mission of the nurses themselves.” Thibodeau was both participant and witness on the last day of the medical mission, when the team cared for Margalie Auguste, a 39-year-old pregnant woman from a local village, to the clinic (see photo above). The nurses examined the patient, learned she was about to deliver, and let her listen to her baby’s heartbeat. They showed her some exercises to help ease labor and delivery, and gave her a birthing kit, some clothes, and money. Thibodeau, Lindsay Lachky ’13, and Shelby Kaubris ’13 then walked Margalie home to the small, one-room shack she shared with seven—soon to be eight—family members. To Kaubris, the experience distilled the essence of community health nursing. She said, “We found Margalie out in the Haitian community, brought her back to our clinic to examine her, provided teaching and resources, and brought her home.” ✹

View Liz Thibodeau’s video at www.bc.edu/haitivideo 16 Voice

Katie Farrell ’13 (right) gets help from a Haitian translator (center) as she takes the health histories of a mother and her baby. When family members asked to be evaluated together, as many did, “it could take a good deal of time and patience to understand why a person had come to the clinic that day.”

“The clinic was crowded, and patients had to wait a long time in lengthy lines the day this photo was taken,” said Diana Paris, M.S. ’13. “People tried to get closer to the providers, which made patient privacy difficult to maintain.”

Because so many young children in Haiti suffer from croup and asthma, “it was important for us to listen carefully to each patient’s lungs to properly assess their breathing capacity,” said Julia Cambria, M.S. ’13. The Connell School team provided inhalers they brought to Haiti, but only had enough for patients who were wheezing badly or had “uncontrollable coughs.”

The little girl in this photo with Annie Harrington ’13 (left) and Katie Farrell ’13 (right) had contracted scabies, a highly contagious skin disease that can be spread through bedding and clothing. “We treated these small children by covering them head-to-toe with Permethrin cream, which needed to be left on for 24 hours,” said Farrell.

Spring 2013 17

Faculty publications Nancy Allen

Joyce Edmonds

Stamp, K.D., N.A. Allen, S. Lehrer, S.E. Zagarins, G. Welch, “Telehealth Program for Medicaid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Lowers Hemoglobin A1c,” Journal of Managed Care Medicine 15, no. 4 (2012): 39–46.

Edmonds, J.K., E.J. Jones, “Intrapartum Nurses’ Perceived Influence on Delivery Mode Decisions and Outcomes,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 42, no. 1 (2013): 3–11.

Stacey Barone

Jane Flanagan

Viola Benavente

Flanagan, J.M., A.L. Harris, D.A. Jones, “Advanced Practice Registered Nurses: Accomplishments, Trends and Future Development,” in Advanced Practice Nursing: Essentials for Role Development, 3rd ed., ed. L.A. Joel (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2013), 429–439.

Sherry, D., M.M. Fennessy, V. Benavente, T.M. Ruppar, E.G. Collins, “Important Considerations When Applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/ jnu.12012

Jones, D.A., M.E. Duffy, J.M. Flanagan, F. Foster, “Psychometric Evaluation of the Functional Health Pattern Assessment Screening Tool (FHPAST),” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 140–145.

Ann Burgess

Flanagan, J.M., “Authentic and Original,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 117.

Barone, S.H., K. Waters, “Coping and Adaptation in Adults Living with Spinal Cord Injury,” Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 44, no. 5 (2012): 271–283.

Victimology: Theories and Applications, 2nd ed., eds. A.W. Burgess, C. Regehr, A.R. Roberts (Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013). Burgess, A.W., G. Aragon, “False Confession vs. Investigative Logic,” The Forensic Examiner 21, no. 1 (2012): 10–17. Burgess, A.W., C.M. Carretta, A.G. Burgess, “Patterns of Federal Internet Offenders,” Journal of Forensic Nursing 8, no. 3 (2012): 112–121.

Donna Cullinan Read, C.Y., J.A. Vessey, A.F. Amar, D.M. Cullinan, “The Challenges of Inclusivity in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs,” Journal of Nursing Education (2013). DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20130225-01

Susan DeSanto-Madeya Contemporary Nursing Knowledge: Analysis and Evaluation of Nursing Models and Theories, 3rd ed., eds. J. Fawcett, S.A. DeSanto-Madeya (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2012).

18 Voice

Flanagan, J.M., “Relics Going Green,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 118. Flanagan, J.M., “The Depth of Language,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 24, no. 1 (2013): 1.

Holly Fontenot

Banister, G., S. Gennaro, “Mentorship and Best Practices for Mentorship,” in Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012), 197–215. Simonelli, M.C., S. Gennaro, “Innovative Strategies for 21st Century Perinatal Nursing Education,” MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing 37, no. 6 (2012): 373–378.

Pamela Grace Grace, P.J., E. Robinson, “Nursing’s Moral Imperative,” in Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012), 123–159. Zunner, B.P., P.J. Grace, “The Ethical Nursing Care of Transgender Patients,” American Journal of Nursing 112, no. 12 (2012): 61–64.

Katherine Gregory Gregory, K.E., S.S. Bird, V.S. Gross, V.R. Marur, A.V. Lazarev, W.A. Walker, B.S. Kristal, “Method Development for Fecal Lipidomics Profiling,” Analytical Chemistry 85, no. 2 (2012): 1114–1123.

LaCoursiere Zucchero, T., H.B. Fontenot, “A Second Look: The Impact of Running Away on Teen Girls’ Sexual Health,” Nursing for Women’s Health 16, no. 5 (2012): 411–417.

Gregory, K.E., “Microbiome Aspects of Perinatal and Neonatal Health,” Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing 25, no. 2 (2011): 158–162.

Sutherland, M.A., H.C. Fantasia, H.B. Fontenot, A.L. Harris, “Safer Sex and Partner Violence in a Sample of Women,” The Journal for Nurse Practitioners 8, no. 9 (2012): 717–724.

Sandra Hannon-Engel

Susan Gennaro

Wolfe, B.E., S.L. Hannon-Engel, J.E. Mitchell, “Bulimia Nervosa in DSM5,” Psychiatric Annals 42, no. 11 (2012): 406–409.

Gennaro, S., H.C. Fantasia, T. Keshinover, D. Garry, W. Wilcox, E. Uppal, “Racial and Ethnic Identity in Nursing Research,” Nursing Outlook (2013). DOI: 10.1016/j. outlook.2012.07.009

Hannon-Engel, S.L., “Regulating Satiety in Bulimia Nervosa: The Role of Cholecystokinin,” Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 48, no. 1 (2012): 34–40.

Allyssa Harris

Susan Kelly-Weeder

Kelly-Weeder, S.S., K.M. Jennings, B.E. Wolfe, “Gender Differences in Binge Eating and Behavioral Correlates Among College Students,” Eating and Weight Disorders 17, no. 3 (2012): e200–e202.

Sutherland, M.A., H.C. Fantasia, H.B. Fontenot, A.L. Harris, “Safer Sex and Partner Violence in a Sample of Women,” The Journal for Nurse Practitioners 8, no. 9 (2012): 717–724.

Read, C.Y., J.A. Vessey, A.F. Amar, D.M. Cullinan, “The Challenges of Inclusivity in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs,” Journal of Nursing Education (2013). DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20130225-01

Harris, A.L., M.A. Sutherland, M.K. Hutchinson, “Parental Influences of Sexual Risk Among Urban African American Adolescent Males,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/ jnu.12016

M. Katherine Hutchinson Harris, A.L., M.A. Sutherland, M.K. Hutchinson, “Parental Influences of Sexual Risk Among Urban African American Adolescent Males,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/ jnu.12016

Dorothy Jones Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012). Flanagan, J.M., A.L. Harris, D.A. Jones, “Advanced Practice Registered Nurses: Accomplishments, Trends and Future Development,” in Advanced Practice Nursing: Essentials for Role Development, 3rd ed., ed. L.A. Joel (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2013), 429–439. Jones, D.A., M.E. Duffy, J.M. Flanagan, F. Foster, “Psychometric Evaluation of the Functional Health Pattern Assessment Screening Tool (FHPAST),” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 140–145.

Catherine Read

Judith Shindul-Rothschild Shindul-Rothschild, J., “Collective Bargaining in Nursing,” in Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 6th ed., eds. D.J. Mason, J.K. Leavitt, M.W. Chaffee (St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders, 2012), 455–460.

M. Colleen Simonelli Simonelli, M.C., S. Gennaro, “Innovative Strategies for 21st Century Perinatal Nursing Education,” MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing 37, no. 6 (2012): 373–378.

Kelly Stamp Stamp, K.D., “A Second Look: Diastolic Heart Failure in Women,” Nursing for Women’s Health 16, no. 6 (2012): 495–500. Stamp, K.D., N.A. Allen, S. Lehrer, S.E. Zagarins, G. Welch, “Telehealth Program for Medicaid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Lowers Hemoglobin A1c,” Journal of Managed Care Medicine 15, no. 4 (2012): 39–46.

Melissa Sutherland

Amar, A.F., M.A. Sutherland, K. Laughon, R. Bess, J. Stockbridge, “Peer Influences within the Campus Environment on Help Seeking Related to Violence,” Journal of National Black Nurses’ Association 23, no. 1 (2012): 1–7. Harris, A.L., M.A. Sutherland, M.K. Hutchinson, “Parental Influences of Sexual Risk Among Urban African American Adolescent Males,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/ jnu.12016

Judith Vessey Selekman, J., J.A. Vessey, M.D. Bergren, “The School Nurse’s Role in Research and the Development of EvidenceBased Practice,” in School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text, 2nd ed., ed. J. Selekman (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2013), 142–162. Read, C.Y., J.A. Vessey, A.F. Amar, D.M. Cullinan, “The Challenges of Inclusivity in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs,” Journal of Nursing Education (2013). DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20130225-01 Vessey, J.A., “Yin and Yang,” Nursing Research 61, no. 6 (2012): 379. Vessey, J.A., “Bullying: A Pervasive Malignancy,” Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing 29, no. 5 (2012): 245.

Barbara Wolfe Wolfe, B.E., S.L. Hannon-Engel, J.E. Mitchell, “Bulimia Nervosa in DSM-5,” Psychiatric Annals 42, no. 11 (2012): 406–409. Kelly-Weeder, S.S., K.M. Jennings, B.E. Wolfe, “Gender Differences in Binge Eating and Behavioral Correlates Among College Students,” Eating and Weight Disorders 17, no. 3 (2012): e200–e202.

Sutherland, M.A., H.C. Fantasia, H.B. Fontenot, A.L. Harris, “Safer Sex and Partner Violence in a Sample of Women,” The Journal for Nurse Practitioners 8, no. 9 (2012): 717–724.

Spring 2013 19

william f. connell

school of nur sing 140 commonwealth avenue chestnut hill, ma 02467 www.bc.edu/cson

voice Recognize this paper? Written and first published by nursing students in 1947, the Boston College Co-Edition covered the School of Nursing in the days students commuted to their classes at Boston College’s Intown College in Back Bay. The University Archives is searching for issues of this paper. If you have any tucked away and would be willing to donate them, please contact the University Archives staff at the John J. Burns Library, 617–552–3282 or burns.reference@bc.edu.

Save the date saturday, june 1, 2013, 2:00–3:30 p.m. higgins hall, room 310 At this year’s Connell School of Nursing reunion, Dean Susan Gennaro will present the fifth annual Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award to Mimi Pomerleau, M.S. ’95, president of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Pomerleau will take part in a panel discussion on best obstetric practices from around the world immediately after the award presentation. A reception will follow. The reunion event is open and free of charge to all School of Nursing alumni. Read more and register at www.bc.edu/csonreunion.

non-profit org. u.s. postage paid boston, ma permit #55294