WeRise Newsletter Department of Nursing | North Carolina University | Winter 2020 Issue 003
Among the academic ashes rises resilience
University has continued its mission, to prepare compassionate and caring nurse leaders in health care who transform communities. Our innovation led us to conduct our first livestreamed pinning
As we continue to meet the challenges of this turbulent and
ceremony, our first ever virtual White Coat Ceremony
eventful historical year, faculty, staff and students demonstrate
and Homecoming celebration. Students participated
excitement and optimism for our shared future. The World
in planning and preparing for the Fall. To prevent the
Health Organization designated 2020 as the International Year
spread of COVID-19, classes are offered online and
of the Nurse and the Midwife. To the world, and to our
hybrid with students switching attendance each
communities nursing practice and education look very different
week. Faculty, staff and students complete a COVID
now compared to a year ago. North Carolina Central University
screening survey before coming to campus.
had planned various ways to celebrate and honor nurses.
Temperature checks are completed upon entrance
Although, our celebration did not materialize as planned, this
to the building as well as verification of the survey
year, we demonstrated to the world what nursing is and what
completion. The nursing departments adheres to
“
d emonstrate d e w r, a e y ‌this is hat nursing w d rl o w e to th ans in the e m g in rs u n and what community.
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nursing means in the community. As with every public health crisis this country has faced, nurses are the experts leading at the frontlines of the healthcare response. In the midst of COVID-19, North Carolina Central We Rise Newsletter Winter 2020
physical distancing guidelines with classrooms at 40% capacity and students seated 6 feet apart. Students are mandated to wear masks, which are available on-site if needed.
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July Pinning Ceremony
I am humbled by the strength, flexibility, and resilience that I have witnessed among our students, faculty and staff members. Students in the community course and Student Nurses Association presented a webinar: Breaking the Silence-You’re not crazy in collaboration with United Chinese American and NAMI NC (National Alliance on Mental Illness). To encourage physical and mental health self-care, we
Lastly, in each newsletter, I would like to recognize our alumni who are both inspiring and exemplifying the mission of the department. As you continue to uphold the values, mission and vision of NCCU, please inform me and provide your information to my email address, yvanriel@nccu.edu. As you celebrate the season of gratitude, please continue to stay safe and healthy. Â
Yolanda M VanRiel Yolanda M. VanRiel, PhD, RN-BC, ONC, CNE, ANEF Department Chair
have implemented a Relax & Refresh series for faculty and students. The first one was Get Fit with Britt, Certified Personal Trainer, and Ready to Bake session on pie making with Dr. Helen Gordon. Other Relax & Refresh series sessions are being planned for the Spring.
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The Central 5
With Dr. Erma Smith-King
Five faculty members completed the NLN Coaching for Excellence in Nursing that began on August 21 and ended on October 4. The five-module online course was designed for nursing educators to enhance their teaching and learning skills with learners. It covered applying adult learning theory to practice, using Socratic dialogue to promote reflective learning, fostering a safe and effective learning environment, and debriefing critical situations. Faculty were able to practice skills through video recording and submitting the videos to a consultant from NLN for peer review and feedback. Each faculty received a certificate of completion and a complimentary electronic copy of the textbook, "Critical Conversations: The NLN Guide for Teaching Thinking."
The faculty members who completed the course are: lst step, Dr. Sujayalakshmi Devarayasamudram, 2nd Step, Ms. Tajauana Robinson, 3rd step, Ms. Jian (Lily) Chen, 4th step, Dr. Darlene Hicks. Dr. Erma Smith-King on the fifth step was the faculty lead. Not pictured: Dr. Valerie Cohen.
To be Published… A commentary written by Dr. Erma Jean Smith-King, "The Perils of Videoconferencing," was accepted for publication in the NBNA News, a quarterly publication of the National Black Nurses Association. The article explored the science behind video fatigue and presented measures for mitigation and will appear in the Fall edition in December.
UNC Digital Learning Initiative Dr. Erma Smith-King was selected as one of six Associate Faculty Fellow to provide support for digital learning across the UNC system for the Fall Semester. The UNC Digital Learning Initiative workshop, Designing Effective Online Courses (DEOC), was offered in two- and four-week modules that enrolled over 2, 200 faculty. Dr. SmithKing worked with the UNC System Faculty Fellows to facilitate the DEOC workshops. The other five fellows were from UNC-Asheville, North Carolina State University, Western Carolina University, Winston Salem State University, and Pembroke University. Dr. Smith-King was also selected for the inaugural cohort of Office of eLearning Fellows to assist in scaling support efforts for remote learning to the broader NCCU community for this academic year.
Dr. Erma J. Smith-King began her career at North Carolina Central University in 1987 as a Project Administrator in the Department of Health Education. She remained in that role until 1992. In 2006, Dr. Smith-King served as a Research Grant Coordinator in the Department of Nursing and subsequent to that role, Smith-King became a member of the Department of Nursing faculty in 2007. Currently, Dr. Smith-King is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nursing. Smith-King teaches in the RN to BSN program. The RN to BSN program is designed for registered nurses with an Associate’s degree or a diploma in Nursing who wish to pursue a Baccalaureate degree in Nursing completely online.
Credit: nccuonline.nccu.edu/why-nccu-online/facultyspotlinght/
A Webinar: Breaking the Silence, You’re Not Crazy C
ommunity health students and SNA organized a mental health webinar on 09/17 "Breaking the Silence: You’re not Crazy" for mental health
education focusing on college students. Over 70 participated the event. The webinar was coordinated by Jessica Jones & Shericka Weeks with KiAsia Smith. The community health class small group leaders Anna Nguyen, Renee Mtendera, Taysha Elliot-Camero, Alexander Ross, and Maiya Vick helped assemble great questions. The webinar was supported by National Alliance of Mental Illness NAMI NC chapter and United Chinese Americans UCA . Dr. Yolanda VanRiel, Dr. Sen Xu, Ms. Gail Pruett, Tim He, and Sandy Chen were featured speakers/panelist. Jessica Jones hosted the event, and community health class instructor Lily Chen moderated the Q & A.
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"Congratulations to Dr. Yolanda VanRiel, Chair, Department of Nursing! She was recently elected to the National League for Nursing (NLN) Board of Governors for a three-year term. Headquartered in Washington DC, the NLN is led by a board of governors elected at large by the membership for three-year terms.” —Patricia McDowell
ALUMNI
HIGHLIGHT N
ancia Odom is a published author, Board Certified Nurse Informatics professional and transformative manager with Informatics degrees from Duke University and University of North
Carolina-Chapel Hill. Leadership experience includes patient throughput, hospital operations, supply chain logistics, project management and complex system implementation in the private healthcare sector. Current Employment: Nursing Informatics Systems Specialist III, Duke Health Technology Solutions. I lead a team of clinical application analysts. We manage patient, clinical and life safety software for Duke University Health System and Hospitals. Year of Graduation: 1998 Career highlights (education, certifications, awards):
Master of
Science in Nursing Informatics (2003, UNC-Chapel Hill); Master of Management in Clinical Informatics (2020, Duke University) ANCC-Informatics Nurse (2011-present) Class of 2020 Student Graduation Speaker, Duke University Master of Management in Clinical Informatics (2020) Published author in International Medical Informatics Association journal (2018) Pearls of wisdom for nursing students or your favorite quote: Document, document, document! If you didn't document it, it didn't happen! Always remember you are not a machine. Regular self-care and emotional intelligence are critical to preventing burnout. Don't forget to take care of YOU!
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Busy Organizing
With Lily Chen
I
had a pretty busy week organizing two events. Please
see attached Our 11/15 Youth Mental Health Webinars conducted in Chinese that I helped organize and
Moderated with local NC and national Chinese organizations . It was attended by over 500+ participants (waiting for the official count, just looked at the raw data) representing 38 states and other countries (China, Canada, and Singapore- yes NCCU is going international!!), reported in Chinese media including the largest in the country “The World Journal “ and NC local media with 34k+ reads. We also felt so overwhelmed with the need with such huge knowledge gap in our community in mental health . The recording of our webinar is here and sorry it is in Chinese but just as FYI, and already has 460 views in several days.
https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=-ps8h3ftKM&app=desktop We also organized 11/12 "Meet and Greet Clinical Scholar event" with our community with 181 participants" (in English) to share with our community about what we do to break silence about mental health in Asian American communities.
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D
r. Ernest Grant, President of American Nurses Association and NCCU Alum, took time out of his busy schedule and came to our community class to speak about health policy. It was very inspiring and informative. Students and faculty members learned a lot about how policy works.
L
ily Chen, a lecturer in North Carolina Central University’s Department of Nursing, has been named as a
Robert Woods Johnson Foundation Clinical Scholars Fellow for 2020-2023.
https://youtu.be/VpG9OCgS_Ww
Mask Donation to the Department of Nursing We Rise Newsletter Winter 2020
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Relax and Refresh Series
Getting Together‌Virtually
Virtually Baking with Dr. Gordon
Virtually Exercising with Brittany Wall
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“
T
he student welfare committee would like to say Happy Veterans Day to all those who have served and continue to serve our country. This is a momentous day that we must cherish and remember those who paved the way for our freedom. On behalf of the Student Welfare Committee, we salute you!
” Dr. Valerie Cohen
“
I
want to take the time to express our gratitude to all the Veterans who have served in the armed forces. Thanks for your sacrifice and service.
We Rise Newsletter Winter 2020
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Dr. Yolanda VanRiel
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T
he Association of College & University Educators (ACUE) Micro Credential on Effective Online Teaching is a nationally recognized training that prepares faculty to use pedagogical approaches to enhance the student's online experience. The
following nursing faculty were a part of the recent cohort sponsored by the Office of Faculty Professional Development: Jian Chen, Dr. Sujayalakshmi Devarayasamudram, Dr. Erma Smith-King, Dr. Shinel Stephens, and Dr. Yolanda VanRiel. The training addressed practices from developing self-directed learners and providing clarity of assignment expectations to using visualization tools that deepen the online experience. Goals of the training included to foster lifelong learners and to help students take greater ownership for their own learning. The training was very useful to the faculty in helping to Submission by: Dr. Shinel Stephens
develop effective course modules and micro lectures. Students utilizing the modules this fall commented that the modules are a helpful resource that enhances the learning experience.
D
r. Sujaya taking lead in order to collect winter clothes for the homeless population and sanitary items drive for CAARE beneficiaries.
Pictured: Homeless population warm clothes drive.
Submission by: Dr. Sujayalakshmi Devarayasamudram
Pictured: Ashley Brown receiving two scholarships, Helen Miller and the Chi Eta Phi Sorority scholarship. Seen with Dr. Grant.
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And the Show Must Go On!
T
with Roger Collins
his term is a theatrical credo dating from the nineteenth century. I’ve chosen this idiom as the title because it definitely applies to the attempts of the Nursing Dept. to
online event, our painful lesson was that combining two formats — YouTube and Zoom — didn’t exactly yield us the excellent results that we enjoyed with the July 30 event. However, I think the juniors appreciated what we were trying to do. I am pleased to say that the Nov. 24 Pinning/
celebrate the accomplishments of its Nursing students over the
Graduation live ceremony ran exceptionally well. The
past 6 months.
room restriction of 10 persons was very artfully
Although the Covid crisis successfully shut down the traditional celebrations involving crowds, the Student Faculty Welfare Committee (Courtney Collins, Patricia McDowell, Roger Collins, Valarie Cohen, Tajauana Robinson) was determined to make as big a splash as possible in order to make sure that the students felt special and acknowledged. To begin with, on July 30, the department held a Pinning/
managed, utilizing 3 different classrooms and streaming live on Youtube, which garnered nearly 200 viewers. The net result was a successful ceremony for all of the participating graduates who will have that memory forever etched in their minds. Hail to the NCCU Nursing Dept.; the show(s) not only went on but marched on very well indeed!
Graduation ceremony for the May graduates in the Nursing auditorium; it was different but still effective. We were thankful that we were able to do an actual live ceremony as opposed to an online celebration. The negative kickback, however, is that due to pandemic limitations and the fact that it was offered 10 weeks after the May graduation date, many graduates had already moved. As a result, only 14 students could actually participate in the live ceremony. On Sept. 25, we celebrated the White Coat Ceremony with the entire Junior class. Although all students participated in this
We Rise Newsletter Winter 2020
Pictured: Dr. LaVerne Reid
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Pictured: Nov 2020 Pinning Ceremony
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We Rise Newsletter Winter 2020
editor-in-chief COURTNEY COLLINS contributors (alphabetical) Lily Chen Roger Collins Sujaya Devarayasamudram Patricia McDowell Erma Smith-King Shinel Stephens Yolanda VanRiel
Winter 2020 Issue 003
Visit https://www.nccu.edu/chs/nursing