YEAR IN REVIEW 2018–19
“BC has taught us to take care of the whole patient.” maria meyer ’19 2019 finnegan award winner
YEAR IN REVIEW 2018–19
Dear Connell School community, At the Connell School pinning ceremony in May, Isabelle Kelly ’19 recalled the first time she started to feel like a nurse. “It was in adult health lab, as we learned to use our stethoscopes listening to our partner’s heart,” she said. “Our first competency was on manual blood pressure, and at the time we were so worried we would never know how to master this skill. Now it is second nature.” Maria Meyer ’19, who, at Commencement, received Boston College’s top undergraduate honor—the Finnegan Award—also spoke at the pinning ceremony. “There is no denying that we learned so much in the past four years,” she said. “We have gone from being timid sophomores to confident, soon-to-be nurses who accept challenges and walk into patient rooms with ease and a smile. “BC has been cultivating us as nurses and as people since day one,” with nursing seminars, retreats, service learning organizations, and other co-curriculars, she noted. “Let me put it this way: Pretty much any nurse can insert a Foley catheter. But it takes a special nurse to put in a Foley catheter while also caring for the patient. BC has taught us to take care of the whole patient, and for that, we are so thankful. “Thank you for teaching us all what it truly means to be a BC nurse.” I couldn’t express the Connell School’s goals any better myself. And I hope you will take some time to read about the many ways we’ve achieved them in our annual Year in Review, which details faculty, alumni, and student accomplishments. It also points to the most important achievement that Isabelle and Maria expressed: The Connell School exists to shape students into nurses who care for and about their patients and their families. As always, we look forward to hearing about your formation into nursing. Please let us know what you’re up to at csonalum@bc.edu. Sincerely,
Susan Gennaro Dean www.bc.edu/cson2019
YEAR IN REVIEW
research The National Institute on Aging awarded Clinical Associate Professor Susan DeSanto-Madeya an R21 Exploratory/Developmental Research Grant for the project “Pilot Study of Standardized Patient-Centered Medication Review in Home Hospice.” Associate Professor Holly Fontenot and a team of co-investigators received an American Cancer Society Research Scholar Grant for their four-year study “Cervical Cancer: Progress for Prevention,” which focuses on cervical cancer screening practices currently in effect, and anticipates the ASCCP/National Cancer Institute guideline revisions.
Assistant Professor Britt Pados received funding for a Kimberly-Clark Nursing Research Grant from AWHONN for “Patterns and Predictors of Problematic Feeding in Very Preterm Infants after Neonatal Intensive Care.” Associate Professor Joyce Edmonds and her research team were recently awarded grants for their project “Defining the Role of Nurses in Influencing the Likelihood of Getting a C-section.” Edmonds will provide scientific direction and oversight on the project, which received funding from the Rx Foundation and CRICO. Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam and Associate Professor Allyssa Harris received a Boston College Research Incentive Grant to pursue their work on “Understanding Arab American Parent Child Sexual Communication.”
The European Society of Cardiology presented its Best Research Award to Associate Dean for Research Christopher Lee and his team for an international comparison of physical symptom burden among adults with heart failure. The society also honored Lee at its annual congress in Munich Christopher Lee and Tina Hansen, president, European Society of Cardiology’s Association of Cardiovascular Nursing & Allied Professions
for his top-cited paper “Trajectories of Heart Failure Self-Care Management and Changes in Quality of Life.”
2018–19
faculty This year, six distinguished scholars and clinicians joined the Connell School faculty: • Senior Scholar Laura Dzurec, who studies workplace bullying • Associate Professor Elizabeth Howard, who takes a data-driven and strengths-based approach to studying the aging population • Associate Professor Corrine Jurgens, an expert on biobehavioral factors of cardiovascular health • Associate Professor Karen Lyons, who studies how best to optimize the health and well-being of caregivers and care recipients • Assistant Professor Monica O’ReillyJacob, a health policy researcher who studies the efficiency of nurse practitioner-provided care • Clinical Assistant Professor Victor Petreca, who treats inmates and detained immigrants in prisons The American Nurses Association Massachusetts presented Associate Professor Jane Flanagan with the 2019 Excellence in Nursing Education Award at its annual dinner in March. Assistant Professor Carina Katigbak was inducted as a fellow of the American Heart Association in Chicago in November. In January, the Eastern Nursing Research Society Board of Directors elected her its secretary. Associate Dean for Research Christopher Lee lectured on “Integrative Biobehavioral Research in Heart Failure” at the National Institute of Nursing Research
Director’s Lecture Series at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. He detailed his innovative approach to the study of chronic illness for an audience that included some of the nation’s top nurse scientists. Associate Professor Allyssa Harris received an Inspiration in Women’s Health Award at the Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health conference in San Antonio last October. The award recognizes singular contributions to policy, leadership, and advocacy for women’s health care. TIME magazine spoke to Clinical Instructor Alison Marshall about new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data that shows why rates of sexually transmitted disease are at an all-time high in the US. In their new book Redefining Retirement for Nurses: Finding Meaning in Retirement (Sigma Theta Tau International), Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski and a coauthor present stories from nurses who have continued to contribute to society after retiring. Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam— an epidemiologist whose research spans disease epidemiology, mathematical modeling, and HIV/AIDS—suggests in an article she co-authored in Public Health Post that allowing respondents to identify as Middle Eastern and North African in federal studies such as the US Census could improve understanding of disease risk and prevention. She also appeared on New England Cable News to discuss the national outbreak of measles.
YEAR IN REVIEW
students In summer 2018, eight Boston College undergrads and 14 Swiss students took part in Comparative Health Care, a course designed to explore different countries’ health care systems. The students visited Swissnex Boston, a nonprofit that connects Switzerland with North America in science, education, art, and innovation; the VA Boston Healthcare System in West Roxbury; and the Pine Street Inn, New England’s largest homeless services provider. Caitlin Keenan ’19, a member of the Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, was featured in a Boston College video about leadership. “Being a leader is about maturity, being able to see the big picture, and put others before yourself,” Keenan says. In recognition of Maria Meyer’s academic achievements, leadership, and service, Boston College President William P. Leahy, S.J., presented her with the Edward H. Finnegan, S.J., Award at Commencement. The award is given annually to the graduating senior who best exemplifies Boston College’s motto “Ever to Excel.” CSON students Alexa, Jaclyn, and Kylie Russell, all members of the Class of ’22, are the first triplets to study at Boston College in the same school while pursuing the same major.
alumni The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation named Courtney Pladsen ’07 a Culture of Health Leader. Pladsen, whose work focuses on providing care to underserved populations, including those experiencing homelessness, will work to develop health equity in Portland, Maine. Katie Huffling ’01 received Health Care Without Harm’s 2018 Charlotte Brody Award, which recognizes nurses who promote and protect environmental health. Huffling is a certified nurse-midwife and the executive director of Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments. Recent CSON graduates Kerstin Peterleitner ’18 and Molly Tobin ’18 came to the aid of a 61-year-old man who was bitten by a shark while swimming near Longnook Beach in Truro, Mass. In a letter to the editor of the Boston Globe, Rosemary Phalen ’78 highlighted CSON’s end-of-life simulation program, recently featured in Boston College Magazine. Since 2013, the program has prepared students to support dying patients and their families.
international programs More than 50 undergraduate nursing students studied abroad in 2018–19 in Argentina, Australia, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Ecuador, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
2018–19
In January, six Connell School undergraduates and one graduate student traveled to Santiago, Chile, with Associate Dean for Graduate Programs Susan KellyWeeder to take Comparative Health Care, a program that combines coursework with tours of urban and rural health care facilities to teach direct patient care. Kelly-Weeder also worked with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile faculty and medical doctors to develop the first family nurse practitioner (FNP) program in Chile, which graduated its first student in May. Also in January 2019, Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan traveled to Léogâne, Haiti, with 12 undergraduates and five graduate students. The group returned to villages that BC nursing students had visited in past years, providing care and health classes to approximately 1,250 people in mobile
clinics and orphanages. The group distributed 550 pairs of The Shoe That Grows, specialized children’s footwear. Eight seniors and two graduate students traveled with Clinical Instructor Rosemary Byrne and Ph.D. candidate Jane Hopkins-Walsh to the Dominican Republic in January. Working with local health care promoters, the students went on home health care visits; gave presentations on diabetes, respiratory illnesses, toxoplasmosis, and HIV; and spoke at elementary schools about the importance of exercise. Four CSON students spent a semester in Quito, Ecuador, where they attended Spanish-language classes at Universidad San Francisco de Quito and completed Population Health Clinicals in a public community health center, gaining experience in health care delivery.
During spring break in March, eight CSON seniors and three graduate students traveled with faculty members Rosemary Byrne and Sherri St. Pierre to Guatemala. There, guided by the director of health care promoters, they did home visits, provided fluoride treatments and health classes at schools, and saw patients during focused visits. Students also gave talks on diabetes, reproductive health, and respiratory issues.
YEAR IN REVIEW
Clinical Instructor Rosemary Byrne led eight CSON undergraduates to Ecuador in May as part of Global Health Perspectives, a month-long course that provides a firsthand look at the health care system.
events Sheila Davis, chief of clinical operations and chief nursing officer at Partners in Health, gave the spring 2019 Pinnacle Lecture in April. She discussed her work developing malnutrition programs in South Africa, managing Ebola responses in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and championing global health equity. For the fall 2018 Pinnacle Lecture in October, Lorna Finnegan, president of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties and executive associate dean at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing, spoke about preparing transformational nurse leaders.
Alumni, faculty, and friends attended the presentation of the Connell School’s 2018 Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award to John Welch, M.S. ’12, a senior nurse anesthetist at Boston Children’s Hospital and former chief clinical officer for Ebola response at Partners in Health. He then discussed health care in Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the United States.
cson community In the U.S. News & World Report 2020 Best Graduate Schools rankings, CSON rose four spots to 28th Best Nursing School Master’s Program. It also placed • 11th in Nurse Practitioner: Psychiatric/ Mental Health, Across the Lifespan • 12th in Nurse Practitioner: Adult Gerontology, Primary Care • 22nd in Nurse Practitioner: Family The school’s Nurse Anesthesia program maintained its ranking at 22nd.
In September, the Connell School convened two of the minds behind the hit Netflix crime drama Mindhunter: CSON Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess and retired FBI Special Agent John E. Douglas, her longtime colleague and co-author. The two developed the theory and techniques of criminal profiling dramatized in the show.
2018–19
The National League for Nursing named the Connell School of Nursing a Center of Excellence in Nursing Education.
are frequently from backgrounds that are underrepresented in the field of professional nursing.
At the New England Regional Black Nurses Association’s annual presentation of Excellence in Nursing Awards in February, the school was recognized for 10 years of support.
Christopher Lee, CSON’s associate dean for research, distilled the school’s researchers into three key categories— Health Equity for Women and Children, Person- and Family-Oriented Aging, and Safety and Quality of Care—that he calls “Pillars of Innovation.” This April, students in Donna Cullinan’s Population Health Practice in the Community course volunteered serving dinner at Rosie’s Place, the first women’s shelter established in the United States, which provides support and a safe environment for poor and homeless women.
CSON Dean Susan Gennaro; Sasha DuBois, vice president of NERBNA; Amari Harrison ’20
Connell School administrators and faculty have finalized the curriculum for CSON’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, which will welcome its first cohort in fall 2019. A rigorous program leading to the most advanced practice degree in the field of nursing, the DNP program focuses on translating research findings into clinical practice. The Connell School’s Keys to Inclusive Leadership in Nursing (KILN) program celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2019. The program’s goal is to reduce health care disparities by educating students to lead efforts to improve health care in underserved communities. KILN scholars, often students of limited financial means,
IN MEMORY Karen Margaret Meneses, M.S. ’80, Ph.D. ’92, died in August in Florida at age 65. Judith Surveyer Mitiguy ’65, of Warwick, RI, died in December at age 74. Joanne O’Sullivan Oliveira, M.S. ’97, Ph.D. ’03, died in June near her home in Beverly Hills, Florida. She was 64 years old.
YEAR IN REVIEW
by the numbers Students
undergraduates
431
female students
first-year students
ahana* students
93%
25%
43%
total number of students
713
master’s students
260
ph.d. students and candidates
* Individuals of African, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American descent
22
us states and territories
countries
36
Faculty
6
Alumni
full time
51
part time
52
total number of alumni
10,230
us states and territories
52
countries
24
2018–19
about us Degrees, programs, and certificates
Advanced practice nursing specialties
b.s.
• Adult-gerontology primary care
m.s. Three routes of entry to master’s degree programs in advanced practice nursing: traditional, accelerated, RN to M.S.
m.s./m.a. in Pastoral Ministry (joint degree program with the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry)
m.s./m.b.a. (joint degree program with BC's Carroll School of Management)
• Family health • Nurse anesthesia • Pediatric primary care • Psychiatric/mental health • Women’s health
m.s./ph.d. ph.d.
learn more www.bc.edu/cson2019