A supplement to the
Friday, May 8, 2015
Welcome to Nurses Week
W
hen most of us have to see health-care professionals, it’s not because we want to do it. We don’t feel well, and it’s scary. At the Erie Times-News, we often receive letters to the editor from folks who are grateful for the care they received from nurses. The letters are from the heart, and folks admit they were scared until a caring healthcare professional offered a kind word, a gentle touch, and an explanation of tests and healing help that didn’t sound like medical-eze. Often those compassionate words come from nurses, and it’s time to honor them. National Nurses Week 2015 started on Wednesday and ends on Tuesday — the birthday of Florence Nightingale. Take time to thank a nurse. You can do it on the web at www.allnurses. com, www.thankanurse.com or do it on Facebook at Thank A Nurse or on Twitter @ thank_a_nurse, #nursesrock, or skip all the social media, and just a hug a nurse today. — Pam Parker
Student highlights helping By ANNA MCGOVERN Villa Maria Academy senior “There are many in the world who are dying for a piece of bread, but there are many more dying for a little love.” — Mother Teresa
I
agree wholeheartedly with her. Diseases of the body can be fixed by medicines offered by the wonderful people at hospitals and nursing homes. Sometimes the body can be fixed, but the soul and heart are still struggling. This is where love comes in. Smiling at someone can make one’s day. I believe there are many individuals who are very lonely. They are looking for someone to talk to them, to keep their minds off what is happening uncontrollably to them. I began a project as a volunteer at Saint Vincent Hospital the summer after my freshman year. During my second summer in the junior volunteer program, I was able to work with the nurses in Four-North West a couple times each week, filling patients’ water cups, ordering their meals, preparing their rooms and other duties. I also started conversations with patients. It was so nice to hear about their lives, and it gave me great joy if I could make
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Saint Vincent Hospital
Anna McGovern volunteered at Saint Vincent Hospital and visited with patient Mike Baumgrotz and many others as part of her volunteer efforts in 2014. them smile or laugh. I realized how lonely some of the patients were. They watched television or stared at the wall until visitors or nurses stopped in. Some enjoyed the peace and quiet, but others wanted a conversation. I tried to think of ways to keep patients company while they were working hard to get better. My Nana, who is my father’s mom, had been hospitalized for a long time
From left, Margaret “Peggy” Boyd, D.N.P.; Levi Black, D.N.P.; and Cynthia “Cindi” Dahlkemper, D.N.P, are the first graduating class of Gannon University’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice program.
CONTRIBUTED PHOTO/Gannon University
Nurses excel at Gannon By JOHN CHACONA Gannon University
F
or decades, Gannon University’s Villa Maria School of Nursing has supplied nursing professionals for health-care providers worldwide, but in December, the School of Nursing graduated its first doctors. They are Levi Black, Peggy Boyd and Cindy Dahlkemper, initial graduates of Gannon’s new Doctor of Nursing Practice program. Black is a nurse anesthetist who is assistant director of the UPMC Hamot School of Anesthesia. Boyd is a nurse midwife whose most recent practice was on the immense Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Nebraska and Oklahoma. Dahlkemper is a family nurse practitioner in the emergency medicine department at Saint Vincent Hospital. In response to the changing role of nurses in the dynamic health-care sector of the economy, the program is open to advanced practice registered nurses who hold a Master of Science degree in nursing and are certified in their specialty. The three DNP graduates are just one of the milestones being celebrated during National Nurses Week by Gannon’s VMSON. The Commission on Collegiate
Nursing Education of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing issued three certificates, each of which was for the full 10-year accreditation, the maximum time period for which accreditation is granted. The certificates were for the baccalaureate degree programs in nursing, the master’s degree programs in nursing and the postgraduate advanced practice registered nurse certificates. Community service is a hallmark of nursing at Gannon University, and 18 student nurses in their senior year conducted a health fair at the John F. Kennedy Center as part of the national Million Hearts initiative to prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes by 2017. Another group of 20 Gannon student nurses organized and staffed a family health fair called “A Magical Day with Disney” at the John E. Horan Community Center to promote a healthy lifestyle. The events were outreach efforts that provide community-based clinical experience for the student nurses. The university also marked an inaugural student-faculty global immersion in India. Gannon faculty and nursing students taught and performed screenings in a remote
➤ Please see GANNON, 6N
and told me how lonely it can be. Older people are fearful that they might never leave the hospital. Although my Nana never says so, I can see the fear and worry in her eyes whenever she has a doctor’s appointment. She is afraid of the very real possibility of admission to the hospital for a long time. I plan to become a nurse one day and to care for patients who may be alone in the hospital. Even if I
might be with them for only a short time, my goal was that they feel special. I kept notes and some approved photos of my visits and created a journal. I prompted the Interact Club of Villa Maria Academy to make cards for the patients. My mentor, Judy Stear, introduced me to Maureen Chadwick, R.N., M.S.N.,
➤ Please see VINCENT, 12N
Compassionate care By NICK PRONKO UPMC Hamot
F
or the more than 1,100 nurses at UPMC Hamot, the people they care for on a daily basis — young and old, and men and women of all races and ethnicities — aren’t just patients. They are family, at least as long as they are in the nurses’ care. “Our philosophy is to treat each patient like we would treat one of our loved ones,” said Janet Rice, an R.N. with UPMC Hamot’s Physical Rehabilitation Services, Orthopedic Clinic. “That’s the level of care patients have a right to expect, and that we would expect if we were patients.” Said Susan Kaminski, an R.N. with UPMC Hamot’s Admissions Team, “Above all else, patients want to be treated competently and compassionately and with the highest degree of respect and dignity. Anything less, and we have not met our obligations to that patient.” Like Rice and Kaminski, Linda Caputo, who also serves as a registered nurse with the Admissions Team, knows compassion goes hand in hand with principles like ethical practice and quality care. “Nursing is about doing the right thing for every patient, every time,” Caputo said. Health care has evolved to the point that many of the little things nurses often do for patients, like getting them a warm blanket, weren’t necessarily the focus of courses in nursing school. Seemingly simple gestures — when taken in sum, and especially when patients are suffering — can have a profound impact on their well-being and the healing process, including the emotional aspect of returning to health. “The ability to make a positive difference for a patient is one of the
Linda Caputo
Janet Rice
Susan Kaminski
best parts of nursing,” Caputo said. “It might be sitting with them and holding their hand for a few minutes until a family member arrives. To the patient, it makes a world of difference.” Kaminski, too, relishes opportunities to make patients more comfortable, perhaps by making sure they have something to read, or helping them order breakfast. In addition, she focuses on serving as an advocate for patients. “Patients aren’t always aware of all of their options,” she said. “As nurses, it’s important that we educate them about all of the risks and benefits related to their care. What they may want or feel is best — like pain management or palliative care — isn’t always what the doctor feels is best. In those situations, it’s especially important that we advocate for the patient.” In addition to serving as an advocate, Rice strives to go above and beyond for her patients. “Ideally, the health-care system shouldn’t have walls,” she said. “Sometimes you have to work beyond the normal parameters of nursing, even if it isn’t technically our responsibility, like making sure the patient has a way to get to an occupational therapy appointment, for example. “The best part of nursing is knowing that I always get more back from my patients than they get from me. For the nurses here, it’s more than a profession we love — it’s something we’re very passionate about.”