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PROJECT HEAL HELPS PEOPLE RECOVER FROM SERIOUS EATING DISORDERS AND ALSO PROMOTES HEALTHY BODY IMAGE
MICHELLE CASEY: My name is Michelle Casey, and I am a graduating senior of Rutgers School of Nursing Class of 2015! I went into nursing because I wanted to change the lives of those who have eating disorders. Eating disorders are the mental illness with the highest mortality rate. After losing my mom to an eating disorder, I embarked on my own battle with Anorexia Nervosa, and am now fully recovered. As a registered speaker with the National Eating Disorders Association, I give talks around the tri-state area, and my story has been told in The Daily Targum as well as Seventeen Magazine. This led me to becoming a chapter leader of Project HEALNew Jersey Chapter, along with my co-leaders Christina Zapata and Amanda Parker. We raise money for those who cannot afford treatment for their eating disorders, but feel ready and motivated to receive help. I recently worked on a campaign with z100’s Elvis Duran and the Morning Show with producers and Rutgers Alums Carla Marie and Sam Coppolino to go make-up free for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week. That week, we raised $1,164.00 with Dolly Moo Body Love, an all-natural beauty products company, and received national attention through the support of z100. We are currently planning our spring “Life is Short Eat Dessert First” Coffeehouse on May 1, 2015 at 7PM at the Glenburn Estate in Riverdale, New Jersey. We definitely need all hands on deck! If you would like to help, or need resources about eating disorders and the recovery process, please reach out to me at newjersey@theprojectheal.org!
“WE TOOK COMMUNITY NURSING TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF CARE. I EXPERIENCED BEING A LIMITED AND RESPECTED RESOURCE FOR THE EXTREMELY POOR AND RURAL. I WOULD DEFINITELY RECOMMEND THIS EXPERIENCE. FRIENDSHIPS GO BEYOND BORDERS, LANGUAGE, AND CULTURE. I LEARNED MORE FROM THEM THAN I COULD EVER IMAGINE.”
JULIE-ANNE TIANCO
COCHABAMBA AND MOROCHATA, BOLIVIA
MAXIMIZING YOUR COLLEGE EXPERIENCE: 4
APRIL ANCHETA: FIGS? As in the fruit? As in Fig Newtons? Nope窶馬either. FIGS, which is an acronym for First-year Interest Group Seminars, is a one-credit course graded Pass/No-Credit that is offered each fall for freshmen students admitted to the School of Arts and Sciences, School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Rutgers Business School on the New Brunswick campus. What makes FIGS courses unique from other courses offered at Rutgers is that they are taught completely by select few upperclassmen students called Peer Instructors. Only two universities in the country offer an opportunity like this one, and Rutgers is one of them! In this upcoming fall of 2016, I will actually be a Peer Instructor for the FIGS section Exploring Nursing, for which I am so excited! Throughout my time at Rutgers, countless fellow students and executive board members, professors, and advisors have helped mentor and shape my experiences here, so much that I feel as if it is my time to share all that I have learned. And what better way to give back than by mentoring freshmen students in a topic I love. The overall goals of Exploring Nursing are two-fold: 1) to give students a firsthand perspective of this specific topical area, and 2) to acclimate freshmen students to college life at Rutgers. So, in this course I plan to teach not only about what nursing is, the different pathways you can take in nursing, and how to build a successful nursing career, I also plan to teach about diversity and multiculturalism, personal wellness, and the importance of involvement! One of the main goals of every nurse is to help his/her patients reach their fullest potentials, to achieve self-efficacy. By becoming a Peer Instructor to eager and curious freshmen minds, I hope to start my personal journey of enabling others to become their best selves early by providing freshmen the tools for collegiate success. Do you know someone who is going to be a Rutgers freshman in the fall? If so, encourage him/her to register for FIGS: Exploring Nursing today!
FIRST YEAR INTEREST GROUP SEMINARS ARE INTRODUCTORY ONE CREDIT CLASSES OFFERED BY CERTAIN MAJORS THAT ALLOWS ITS STUDENTS TO EXPLORE THEIR INTERESTS THESE CLASSES ARE TAUGHT BY SELECT PEER INSTRUCTORS AND FELLOW STUDENTS OF THE MAJOR THESE CLASSES ARE GRADED BASED ON A PASS OR FAIL SCALE
REACH OUT FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES
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JUSTIN MERCADO: When the nursing students were gathered into a classroom and lectured on the importance of externships, I could not tell you what one was. However, I could have painted horrifying murals depicting my anxiety level given the fact that we were right in the middle of exams and supposedly late in the process of searching for an externship if we had not already started. I did not even have a résumé at the time. We were all told about one specific opening and you could feel everyone rushing toward this concept of a program that was so foreign to me. Many of us interviewed at the same time in groups and that went about as well for me as I expected my first interview to go. In my frantic search I decided to email the nurse recruiter at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey even though they did not advertise a program on their website (like many other hospitals). The recruiter got back to me and told me that there would be a program, to send her my résumé, and to come in for an interview. I did not know whether to be happy, nervous, or sweaty. I went for my interview and one of the educators had a hard time holding back laughter because he could not understand a “smart” word I used and the other told me I could not be older than 15. In a not-so-shocking turn of events I was met with an experience that was completely the opposite of what I expected. Thinking I failed to leave on good terms, I went home and proceeded to blame my mom for being so short and my dad for not coming through genetics wise. In a very shocking turn of events, they called me about a week later to tell me they had an offer for me.
“ MY EXTERNSHIP PROVIDED ME WITH AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPACT I COULD HAVE JUST AS A STUDENT.”
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RUTGERS STUDENT NURSING ASSOCIATION
I was to be placed in Same Day Surgery as well as the main Operating Room. My first day on the unit consisted of a tour that included watching an open-heart surgery, which was a good example of how things escalated so quickly. The program included accompanying a nurse in the actual operating rooms and getting to learn his or her role intra-operatively. In addition, more time was spent with nurses both in pre-op and post-op while performing tasks such as phlebotomy, IV removal, and blood sugar testing. Personally, my most important goal and achievement was a sense of comfort in the hospital environment that I could not find in clinical. More specifically, my externship provided me with an understanding of the impact I could have just as a student and eventually as a patient care assistant, on a patient’s experience before surgery, which, many times, frightens them. As redundant as it sounds, in addition to technical skill development, my program gave me the opportunity to experience effective relationship development with employees and patients. I always had a hard time seeing myself as being part of such relationships when reading a textbook or presentation. Like that image on one of those “life as a nurse” websites, I learned that when going into a vein for blood withdrawal it is important for the patient to know that no one wants to get it right the first time more than the person with the needle. On the other hand, yes, prepping a patient by shaving specific areas of their body can get as uncomfortable as it sounds, but, similarly, no one more so than the patient wants it to be performed in the least awkward way possible. Acknowledging the separate yet complementing points of view for such tasks in the relationship and building on them to make a patient’s day better, thus driving them to the point where they feel the need to give high-fives, hugs, or remember your name is what made the process of an externship worth it for me.
ELIZABETH DAVIS: The Rutgers Student Nurses Association, or RSNA for short, is the preprofessional organization for nursing students at Rutgers and is a constituent of the New Jersey Nursing Students Inc. (NJNS), which is a part of the National Student Nurses Association (NSNA). What does that mean exactly? RSNA’s goal is to help student members become the best professional nurses they can be! Any student enrolled in Rutgers School of Nursing can hold membership in NSNA (which makes them an automatic RSNA and NJNS member). RSNA is led by a student-run Executive Board and faculty advisor, Dr. Barbara Cannella. The 2014-2015 RSNA Executive Board includes: President- Elizabeth Davis, Vice President- Beverly Lu, Secretary- Michelle Bradford, Treasurer- April Ancheta, Academic Assistance Chair- Melissa Behmer, Public Relations Chair- Theresa Hroncich, Community Outreach Co-Chairs- Rachel Woo and Stefanie Albert, and Breakthrough to Nursing/ Resolutions Chair- Subbashini Neelam. Throughout the year RSNA holds various events and fundraisers for both members and non-members. Some of this year’s events and fundraisers include: Adopt-aFamily Gift Drive, Community Health Screenings, Bake Sales, NCLEX Study Seminar with Kaplan Nursing, Apparel Sales, and more! RSNA also sponsors a group of student members to attend the NJNS Annual Convention in Atlantic City each year as delegates and monitors. In April, there was also a small group of RSNA members sponsored to represent Rutgers and New Jersey at this year’s NSNA Annual Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. Both conventions provide nursing students the opportunity to learn first hand what is going on the nursing field today while meeting fellow nursing students and professional nurses from across the state and the nation. Joining RSNA is a wonderful way to get involved and have fun at RUSON by preparing you for the next step after college with leadership and networking opportunities, community outreach, and more! Have any questions or want to join? Email rutgersnursing@gmail.com for more information. Enjoy the summer and we look forward to seeing you at RSNA events next year!
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WHAT’S GOING ON IN THE RUTGERS SCHOOL OF NURSING AND THE IN’S AND OUTS OF THE NURSING PROGRAM
MELISSA BELMER: Melissa Behmer is this year’s Academic Assistance Chair on the Executive Board of the Rutgers Student Nurses’ Association. There is one academic assistant for each grade, i.e., a sophomore tutor for the freshman class, a junior tutor for the sophomore class, a senior tutor for the junior class. In the beginning of the school year, those interested fill out an application and return it to the Academic Assistance Chair, who decides the tutors for the school year based on GPA and responses to application questions. Each academic assistant holds office hours each week and contacts the students for which he/she is responsible with the dates, times, and locations. During office hours, students can come to the academic assistants with any questions they have or clarifications they need on academic material either in person or via email. This is a truly beneficial program in that students who succeed in the nursing program are great role models, tutors, and sources of information for their peers going through the same classes and similar experiences.
AMANDA BAEZ: The Blackwood campus is a melting pot. Our cohort is a close knit group of nontraditional students from varying backgrounds. Many of us have families of our own, work full time, and volunteer our time in the community. We are also a very small group. Our senior class has only 16 students and our junior class has 23. The most noteworthy characteristic our students share is their ability to endure through tough circumstances. We have all encountered some type of life stressor that has made it difficult to complete our studies, but despite the challenges we have faced we have all persevered.
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NATALIIE RUIZ: When I applied to this program I expected it to be tough because they advise against keeping employment. Knowing this information I made the tough decision to leave my full time job and fully immerse myself into the second degree nursing program. For many of us in the program it has been years since we have been in school so the first semester is definitely a difficult one, it's like I was shell shocked. Between no longer being able to provide financially and buckling down with the studies it was an onerous transition period. Once I learned how to study for nursing (still learning) and made a schedule it seemed a bit easier. Our semesters go by rather quickly, practically no break in between the average break is two weeks and then we are on to the next level. I am in the forth and final level and I cannot believe the amount of content and skills I have learned, it feels like just yesterday I applied to this program. In summary the accelerated program is an intense program not only because we cover so much content in a short amount of time but because we are balancing our lives in addition to this many of us have families and obligations that we did not have when we pursued our first degree. Every time I'm invited to an event I look at it as a new opportunity to network to meet different people. Lately I have been fortunate to meet a lot of students who were just recently in my shoes. I find that I get great advice and make new friends. Once we graduate we will have to support each other in the field and I feel that attending events and fundraisers allow me to branch out and start making connections even before I land my first RN position. JENNIFER GOLDBERG: Every semester we run a bake sale to benefit a charity chosen by level 4 students. This semester our bake sale benefitted the Eliminate Project which works to provide vaccination to prevent neonatal tetanus worldwide. The Eliminate Project boasts the statistic $1.80 saves 2 lives. We were able to raise approximately $497.97 from the bake sale, which, according to the statistic, means we hope to save about 277 lives! As far as student benefit, we run mix and mingles where students of different levels come together in the lounge at a scheduled time to enjoy snacks and interact with each other students they would not normally have the opportunity to. It is especially beneficial for lower level students to have the chance to gain insight about classes from upper level students. To quote my classmate Sara, being in an accelerated program feels like running a sprint and a marathon at the same time. We all went through a traditional undergrad degree, so we can safely say that this program is done at double, or sometimes quadruple the speed of a 4 year degree program. Sleep is sacrificed more than it has ever been in our lives. However, it is also a really awesome feeling to think about how much we have already learned in less than a year, and how much we will know by the end of 15 months. When you enter this program you accept the fact that you are going to eat, sleep, and breathe nursing, and everything else in life has to take a backseat, though that is much easier said than done. People outside of the program don’t understand what it is like, but I am lucky to have really awesome classmates. It’s different than a traditional program as we all have every class together, in the same room, every semester as we progress through the 4 levels. We have really become our own family and are always there to support each other in class and clinical. I went to college originally to become a high school English teacher and coach. I love working with kids both in the classroom and on the field. However, as I went through my education courses, particularly clinical practice, I realized that I did not love what I was doing like my classmates did. Towards the end of college I became sick and was hospitalized on a couple of different occasions. While there, I was able to experience the importance of nurses, and realized that they are the ones who interact most with the patient. After this experience, I realized that without your health, not much else in life is important. So, during my last year of college I decided I wanted to become a nurse to help people regain and maintain their health. I can honestly say that while this program is quite stressful, I love it. I really enjoy going to class and clinical and know I made the absolute right choice. In my free time (which really does not exist in this program) I work as an EMT at the Westfield Rescue Squad, and coach field hockey at A.L Johnson High School in Clark.
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MICHELLE BRADFORD: The honors program at RUSON is invite-only during the beginning of your sophomore or junior year. Students with a cumulative GPA of 3.8 (or top 10% of their class, depending) are invited to join. Once in, a GPA of 3.7 must be maintained in order to stay in the program. When I was invited to join before the start of my junior year, so were many of my classmates. However, most declined the offer in fear that it was going to be too much work to juggle alongside our already-challenging classes and clinicals. I am here to say that RUSON honors is truly what you make of it. The faculty are very understanding and flexible. They know that your direct schoolwork is priority, and they will work with you to schedule meetings around your classes, exams, clinicals, and extracurriculars. The basis of the honors program is that there is one faculty advisor who oversees the progress of all projects and holds approximately five meetings per semester. During these meetings, all honors students come together and discuss their projects, as well as other topics, e.g., evidence based practice, oral presentation skills. In order to begin an honors project in the first place, each student needs to seek out one faculty member of his/her choosing, who conducts research in his/her area of interest (which does not have to be within nursing). Next, the student will either join in a current research project being conducted by said faculty member, or may create a separate research project under this faculty member’s supervision. By all means, the research does not have to be primary, nor does it need to involve the IRB. An example of primary research being done currently is called “Identified Stressors in Children and Adolescents after Superstorm Sandy,” which studies the emotional effects of Superstorm Sandy on children and adolescents via a survey taken online by this population (Senior Honor Student: Elizabeth M. Davis; Faculty Mentor: Margaret Quinn, DNP, RN, CPNP). An example of secondary research being done is my own personal project entitled “Impaired Quality at Night: A Systematic Review of the Evidence Concerning Shift Work and Errors and Productivity,” which analyzes the literature linking shift work (defined as any work shift outside regular day shift parameters of 6:00am and 6:00pm) to errors and decreased performance in the workplace over countless industries in the form of decreased quality of products, outcomes, or patient care (Faculty Member: Pamela de Cordova, PhD, RN). During the honors journey, students have grand opportunities that other undergraduate students may never get to experience, such as poster or podium presentations at national conferences, publication in a peer-reviewed journal, experience in the IRBapproval process, and direct involvement in true, legitimate research at the doctorate level. At the end of senior year, each student prepares a presentation for the Honors Symposium, which myriad undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members, administration, and anyone else who is interested will attend. After all, the end goal and overall purpose of research is dissemination of findings! I encourage everyone to strive to be invited to the honors program, and if invited, to accept the offer. The honors program is an amazing, incomparable experience and glimpse into the world of research, which is yet another branch of nursing. Your participation in the program will definitely set you apart from competitors when job hunting and will prepare you to join Nursing Research Councils as RNs. My last piece of advice is: do not simply go to school and return home, nor clock in-and-out as an RN and return home; get involved and contribute to something greater than yourself!
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RESEARCH
MINIMUM GPA
ACCEPTED
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MONTHLY MEETINGS
CLINICALS TAKE PLACE DURING THE JUNIOR AND SENIOR YEARS STUDENTS ARE PUT INTO GROUPS AND WORK IN DEPARTMENTS UNDER A CLINICAL INSTRUCTOR
SURAYA ALMOSBEH UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
EXPERIENCES YOU CAN EXPECT IN YOUR JUNIOR AND SENIOR YEARS SURAYA ALMOSBEH: For most nursing students, clinical is their first experience of what it’s like to be a nurse. From the moment you enter the hospital, your responsibility is to learn as much as you possibly can about the physical roles and duties of a nurse, as well as the evidence and rationale behind them. Although this may differ from clinical to clinical, you will most likely be assigned to one patient. Don’t be scared to introduce yourself to them. Be friendly, be respectful and be professional. You will be responsible for obtaining the patient’s vital signs, doing a full physical assessment, administering medications as prescribed and providing appropriate education if needed. Depending on their condition, you might be assisting the patient with activities of daily living, bathing, feeding and dressing changes. Regardless of what clinical, you must keep in constant rapport with your nurse, keeping them updated with any important changes you observe throughout your shift. While these physical duties are important, remember to not blindly follow them. Constantly remember why you are doing these actions. This means asking all the right questions: Why is the patient here? What nursing interventions should I expect? What is the rationale behind those interventions? What information, both subjective and objective, should I prioritize when creating a plan of care? Now remember, you are not a walking textbook and the answer may be unclear to you. If that occurs, simply utilize the reliable resources you have, or those offered by the hospital, to find out more information. If you’ve done what you have needed to and have all the answers you need, the best recommendation is to watch and learn! Keep in mind that as the student nurse, there are specific things you simply cannot do, however, observing is not one of them. Do not underestimate the power of strong observational skills. Feel free to ask if you can remain in the room when your nurse is doing things you cannot or when other health care providers visit your patient. If a fellow student has an interesting patient scenario, ask if you may observe on their next assessment. There are so many opportunities to learn in clinical, but you must be open to them. Practice your professional and personal skills. Use this time to grow as future nurse and keep in mind that clinical is what you make of it.
“WHILE THESE PHYSICAL DUTIES ARE IMPORTANT, REMEMBER TO NOT BLINDLY FOLLOW THEM. CONSTANTLY REMEMBER WHY YOU ARE DOING THESE ACTIONS.” 11
. . PRESIDENT AT LARGE
SURAYA ALMOSBEH
SUALMO@SCARLETMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
RUSON SGA VICE PRESIDENT
REBECCA LINTAG
RAL186@SCARLETMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
RUSON SGA SECRETARY
RACHEL SISON
RNS66@SCARLETMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
RUSON SGA TREASURER
KEVIN LO
KCL53@SCARLETMAIL.RUTGERS.EDU
COMMUNITY OUTREACH COORDINATOR
MOLLY NAFT
MOLLYNAFT@GMAIL.COM
UNIVERSITY SENATOR
PAK CHAU
PAKWACHAU@GMAIL.COM
STUDENT AFFAIRS REPRESENTATIVE
JESICA LEE
JESICA.G.LEE@GMAIL.COM
ACADEMIC AFFAIR REPRESENTATIVE (NB)
JEFFREY DYNOF
JEFFREY.DYNOF@RUTGERS.EDU
ACADEMIC AFFAIR REPRESENTATIVE (NWK)
MILLICENT MOSERAY
MILLYANDB@GMAIL.COM