2015
College of Health Science and Public Health 668 N. Riverpoint Blvd. Room 133 Spokane, WA 99202-1677
College of Health Science and Public Health
Message from the Dean
I am pleased to greet you as the founding dean of the College of Health Science and Public Health at Eastern Washington University on the Spokane campus. It has already been an exciting few months since I arrived in Spokane in July. As you will see, the faculty and staff in the college have been engaged in a wide range of community-based projects, events and services. We are happy to have two new faculty and three new staff members, along with the new Area Health Education Center partnership with the University of Washington. As we welcomed CHSPH students back onto the Spokane campus in the fall, most of our programs have transitioned to the semester schedule—or are in the process of doing so—to better align with our Washington State University partners on campus for interprofessional education opportunities. I look forward to working with our campus, community and alumni partners to advance the mission of the College of Health Science and Public Health and am pleased to update you on some of our highlights and successes in this newsletter. Laureen O’Hanlon, Dean College of Health Science & Public Health
ewu.edu/chsph
community outreach and service-learning projects EWU’s Dental Hygiene department partnered again this year with the Mighty Mouth Campaign to support Spokane Teeth Week, which ran from Oct. 17-25. EWU dental hygiene students gave presentations at local elementary schools throughout the week about the importance of oral health. Dental hygiene students and alumni also volunteered at the SmileMobile, a mobile dental clinic that provides dental care primarily to children with limited access to care. The week wrapped up Oct. 24, with a Teeth Party at the Mobius Children’s Museum, featuring Timmy the Tooth. Two second-year EWU occupational therapy students, Aubrey Weirick and Gary Spillane, have partnered this fall with the Vets Garage in Spokane to develop a health and wellness class designed for veterans. PTSD, social isolation issues and self-advocacy skills are among the topics the class is addressing with veterans. The class began in September with an intake day and meets weekly at the Vets Garage in its new location across from the Spokane County Regional Health District building. The Vets Garage is a community space for veterans to work on developing practical job skills, get support with adjusting to civilian life and connect with other Spokane-area veterans. Seniors in EWU’s undergraduate program in communication disorders (COMD) are volunteering each Friday this fall at St. Aloysius School in Spokane to run literacy centers in two kindergarten classes. The seniors create and implement curricular theme-based literacy activities each week that incorporate interactive storybook reading, story grammar elements, vocabulary, phonemic awareness and writing. The kindergarteners rotate through four different classroom stations staffed by COMD students. As part of this service-learning work, EWU students also assist classroom teachers with literacy screenings and data collection in the fall and spring.
CHSPH
MPH students see health policy at work in Olympia EWU students from the Master of Public Health (MPH) program traveled to the Washington state capitol Feb. 16-17 to meet with a range of lawmakers and health policy officials who are involved in the legislative process for statewide public health policy issues. State Rep. Marcus Riccelli (D-Spokane), who teaches MPH’s Advanced Health Policy seminar course, arranged the trip, which he said was “a chance for MPH students to experience the legislative process firsthand from the inside.” Students began the seminar by participating in EWU’s lobby day where they spent a full day in small group meetings with representatives and senators advocating on issues important to higher education and EWU students. The second day MPH students attended a House Health Care & Wellness Committee hearing where lawmakers discussed HB 2009, the bill to eliminate the philosophical or personal objection exemption from child immunization requirements. They heard testimony from supporters and opponents of the bill, which proved one of the most controversial public health policy issues confronted that session. MPH students spent a majority of their time in Olympia visiting with lawmakers, health policy officials and lobbyists. Students had the opportunity to meet directly with agency and gubernatorial staff, including Secretary of Health John Weisman. They met with important Washington health
care policymakers like Rep. Eileen Cody (D-Seattle), Chair of the House Health Care & Wellness Committee, along with non-partisan and partisan health care staff, to gain insight into their roles and how they support legislators. They were briefed by the Washington Health Care Exchange and the Health Care Authority on the progress of the Affordable Care Act in the Washington. They met with health care lobbyists representing a diverse range of interests—the Washington State Hospital Association, Washington State Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Children’s Alliance—to better understand their role in the legislative process. In all, students met with more than 30 different lawmakers and policy professionals in 17 meetings during their two days in Olympia. MPH student Jeri Rathbun said she appreciated that Riccelli designed the trip’s activities around topics of interest selected by students in the course. She also said it was “especially neat” shadowing Riccelli in full-on legislator mode in Olympia, since the students had only spent time with him in the classroom. As part of the Advanced Health Policy seminar course, the trip was meant to build upon the Health Policy class that the group took in the fall, Riccelli said, and to “help them truly engage where public policy and politics intersect and bring the process to life.”
CHSPH hosts “Death Over Dinner” conversations
The CHSPH has coordinated three “Death Over Dinner” conversation events this fall at the EWU Spokane campus. The “Death Over Dinner” dates are Oct. 13, Oct. 21 and Nov. 16. Joyce Goff, program specialist for the MPH and HSAD programs, planned and coordinated these events for the college. “Death Over Dinner” is an international movement founded by Michael Hebb of the University of Washington to increase our awareness about how we experience the process of dying and how we can improve this process as a society, for ourselves and for our loved ones. Attendees have an opportunity to view/listen/read selected materials about death and dying and participate in a discussion facilitated by a community health care member over a two-hour period that includes dinner. The animating idea behind the “Death Over Dinner” movement is that, historically, difficult topics are best covered at the dinner table. “The dinner table is the most forgiving place for difficult conversation,” the “Death Over Dinner” website notes. “The ritual of breaking bread creates warmth and connection, and puts us in touch with our humanity.”
CHSPH students represent EWU at the CLARION National Case Competition For the first time, EWU sent an interprofessional student team from the College of Health Science and Public Health (CHSPH) to the CLARION National Case Competition last April at the University of Minnesota. CLARION is a student-driven and faculty/staff-advised organization at the University of Minnesota that conducts interprofessional activities throughout the year in the health sciences, including the Case Competition. This prestigious competition brings together interprofessional student teams from across the United States to complete a rootcause analysis and present solutions based on a fictional sentinel event to senior health care executives who judge the competition. EWU’s competition team consisted of students Jeri Rathbun (public health), Glenn Heffley (health services administration), Aubrey Weirick (occupational therapy) and Lindsay Doerschuk (dental hygiene). Two additional students, Katie Del Monte (public health) and Misty Murphy (health services administration), formed the observation team; both will be involved in next year’s competition team. Joyce Goff (Program Specialist, Master of Public Health and Health Services Administration programs) served as the competition team’s advisor. The competition team conducted a root-cause analysis of a sentinel event involving a fictional case related to the effects of stroke based in rural Kentucky. With the information gleaned from the root-cause analysis, the team developed an evidence-based and sustainable solution to address the needs of a health care system in rural Kentucky, which encompassed initial stroke prevention, acute care, rehabilitation, return to the community and prevention of a second stroke. The observation team and team advisor attended as many presentations from other universities as possible, not only to gain insights for future competitions, but to learn about the innovations each interprofessional team proposed to address stroke in our communities. EWU’s competition team received very positive feedback about their solution and presentation from the CLARION judges. In particular, EWU earned praise for the unique mix of health care disciplines represented on its competition team. Interprofessional practice in health care contributes to improved patient outcomes, and participation in the CLARION National Case Competition highlights the CHSPH’s commitment to interprofessional education and practice within the health disciplines. CHSPH will send its second competition team to the Case Competition next year and hopes to build off the success of its inaugural competition team. You can learn more about the CLARION National Case Competition at ahc.umn.edu/chip/ clarion/casecomp/.
New Faculty and Staff The CHSPH welcomes two new faculty and three new staff this fall: • Lorie Speer, assistant professor, Dental Hygiene • Megan Chatellier, assistant professor, Physical Therapy • Krista Loney, director, Eastern Washington Area Health Education Center • Joyce Goff, program specialist, MPH & HSAD programs • Erik Hoffman, advisor/recruiter, CHSPH
Sleep Over for Science—“the healthiest slumber party you will ever attend”—comes to EWU Spokane Throughout the 2015-16 academic year, CHSPH students, staff and faculty will assist with an overnight youth science camp on the EWU Spokane campus known as “Sleep Over for Science.” Targeted for students in the fourth through sixth grades, Sleep Over for Science aims to inspire and educate students who want to learn more about science and health careers. Krista Loney, EWU’s new director for the Eastern Washington Area Health Education Center (EWAHEC), has expanded the program to offer three different Sleep Over for Science sessions this year, compared with just one in prior years. She touts Sleep Over for Science as “the healthiest slumber party you will ever attend.” Sleep Over for Science is a collaborative event featuring health sciences programs from Eastern Washington University, the University of Washington School of Medicine and Washington State University. Examples of the sessions that CHSPH programs will offer to students who attend include: • Put a Filling in a Tooth, hosted by the Dental Hygiene program. • Foam and Dome and Visual Impairment, from the Occupational Therapy program. • Zombie Preparedness and Contagion, offered by the Public Health program. The first session took place Nov. 6-7, with sessions planned for Jan. 29-30 and April 8-9. The first session, whose 75 spots filled up in just two-and-a-half days, brought students from schools in Ferry, Lincoln, Okanogan, Pend Oreille and Stevens counties. Students from Chelan, Douglas, Grant, Kittitas, Klickitat and Yakima counties have been invited to attend the second session, and the third session will bring in students from Adams, Asotin, Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Garfield, Walla Walla and Whitman counties.
Physical therapy and dental hygiene students train together on assisting patients with wheelchairs The EWU physical therapy and dental hygiene programs collaborated earlier this fall on a lab activity focused on assisting patients with wheelchairs in the EWU Dental Hygiene Clinic. In both clinical practices, safely assisting patients as they move from one place to another is critical. This year, 13 second-year of Physical Therapy (DPT) students planned and conducted an instructional lab for 31 second-year dental hygiene students. With coaching and feedback from DPT students, dental hygiene students practiced various transfer techniques from a chair or wheelchair to the dental chair for treatment. These ranged from offering minimal assistance to assisting someone who might need to be lifted from a wheelchair to the dental chair. This lab activity helped dental hygiene students learn how to safely assist patients while protecting their own backs and necks, and it also provided practice for the DPT students who are often called upon in their work settings to instruct other health care providers in safe and efficient transfer techniques. The activity exemplifies the College of Health Science & Public Health’s sustained commitment to interprofessional collaboration and education.
Physical Therapy Hosts “Go Baby Go” Workshop EWU’s Department of Physical Therapy hosted Sam Logan, assistant professor of physical therapy , from Oregon State University, Oct. 24, to lead his “Go Baby Go” workshop for clinicians and CHSPH students on powered mobility for young children with mobility needs. Powered mobility refers to powered devices like power wheelchairs, scooters and other power operated vehicles. Logan presented recent advances in science, training and technology that are quickly closing the gaps in providing powered mobility to young children and addressed practical issues and barriers to real-world implementation, such as incorporating powered mobility into schools, homes and communities. The workshop also included a “build session” in which participants worked in teams to do basic modification of seating, steering and drive systems to prepare a car for a child with mobility needs. The workshop’s goal was to provide participants with evidence and resources that support early powered mobility from both a research and clinical perspective. The workshop brought together 36 participants, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, a speech and language pathologist, representatives from NuMotion (a complex medical equipment vendor) and 12 CHSPH students. The participants worked on modifying five ride-on cars during the workshop and worked with seven young children (ages 1½ to 3) and their families to try out the cars. EWU’s Physical Therapy program co-sponsored the interprofessional workshop with NuMotion and the Spokane Guild School. Darl Vander Linden, professor of physical therapy at EWU, helped organize the workshop. Vander Linden said he hopes to develop ongoing financial support from the community for a Spokane Go Baby Go project to allow for additional purchasing and modifying of ride-on cars for children in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene area.
Awards & Recognition Roberta (Robbie) Jackson, senior lecturer in the Department of Communication Disorders, received Honors of the Association from the Washington Speech-Language-Hearing Association (WSLHA)—the association’s highest honor—at their 2015 convention, which was held Oct. 8-10. Jackson was recognized for her outstanding contributions in academic teaching, clinical service, service to WSLHA and contributions to the profession. Janis Battan, special faculty lecturer and academic fieldwork coordinator for occupational therapy, received the Rosemary Funk Award from the Washington Occupational Therapy Association (WOTA). The award recognizes the lifetime achievement of a practitioner who has made long-term contributions to WOTA and the profession of occupational therapy. Olugbemiga Ekundayo, associate professor of Public Health at EWU, recently joined the board of the Health Sciences & Services Authority of Spokane County (HSSA). The HSSA invests in research and innovation in health sciences and public health to bolster Spokane County as a nationally competitive health care economy. Denzel Johnson, an MPH student at EWU, was named a recipient of the Keeper of the Dream award from EWU’s Africana Studies program last spring in recognition of his academic achievement and service to the community. “Denzel is an inspiring example of a community-oriented grad student who combines a wonderful and outgoing personality with solid academic skills and an impressive drive for success,” MPH associate professor and program director Frank Houghton said.
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