Jan/Feb 2024 Newsletter

Newsletter

January/February 2024

From graduation to white coat ceremonies, escape room activity, 100% NCLEX pass rate, attending policy conferences, student highlights, to welcoming new students - it's been a busy year for the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing at UMass Chan!

Thank you Sierra Perez, M.Ed. Assistant Director of Student Recruitment, Equity & Success for putting together this short video to show some of our students activities and how they are Advancing Nursing Together each day. https://youtube.com/shorts/UszVKHPIdeI? feature=share

Appreciative Reflection

“We do not need to travel the world when the source of joy and all beauty is right within us.”

Eknath

Easwaran

Faculty Spotlight

Dr. Dani Herbert, Coordinator of Adult-Gerontology Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Track and Dr. Shari Harding, Coordinator of the DNP Program had their article published in the Journal of Professional Nursing entitled “Transitioning from a Doctor of Nursing Practice clinical role to academic scholar.”

Highlights of the article include: DNP-prepared faculty have unique needs when transitioning from clinical to academia. DNP faculty may not be sufficiently prepared in the process of scholarship. Mentorship can support and provide DNP faculty with scholarship opportunities. DNP-prepared faculty can develop scholarship from clinical and teaching experiences. Read the whole article for 50 days free: https:// authors.elsevier.com/a/1ih2NV6qXstxuO

Dr. Mary Antonelli, Director-MS Interprofessional Leadership Program; Ricardo Poza, Assistant Dean for Curricular Innovation; Dr. Rachel Richards Instructor; and Dean Joan Vitello recently had their article published and was named in the AACN News Watch newsletter that goes out to AACN members nationally. See below for the full article.

In March-April 2024 Journal of Professional Nursing, Dr. Mary Antonelli and colleagues from the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School published an article titled Development of a Master of Science, Nursing and Interprofessional Leadership Program: AACN Essentials in Action. The article explores the development of a new master’s program focused on leadership acumen, interprofessional relationships, and knowledge of healthcare operations. The authors detail how this new program aligns with AACN’s 2021 Essentials

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S8755722324000140

Faculty Members Dr. Rosemary Theroux and Dr. Cathy Violette at UMass Chan Medical School, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing recently published an integrative review on fetal anomaly and family experiences in the Journal of Perinatal & Neonatal Nursing. Read more below.

https://bit.ly/4c4d68Q

Dr. Mary Antonelli, Director-MS Interprofessional Leadership Program and Dr. Sybil Crawford, Professor in the PhD program were part of an article that was recently published.

Signh,S., Cocoros, N.M., Li, X., Mazor, K.M., Antonelli, M.T., Parlett, L., Paulin, M., Harkins, T.P., Zhou, Y., Rochon, P.A., Platt, R., Dashevsky, I., Massino, C., Saphirak, C., Crawford, S.L., and Gurwitz, J.H. (2024). February 12, 2024

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0297562

The objective of the Developing a PRogram to Educate and Sensitize Caregivers to Reduce the Inappropriate Prescription Burden in Elderly with Alzheimer’s Disease (D-PRESCRIBE-AD) trial is to evaluate the effect of a health plan based multi-faceted educational outreach intervention to community dwelling patients with dementia who are currently prescribed sedative/hypnotics, antipsychotics, or strong anticholinergics.

Dr. Ken Peterson, Associate Professor in the DNP Program and also a Family Practice NP at Family Health Center of Worcester gave us some great advise "wear your masks when necessary".

Dr. Susan Feeney, Associate Dean for Advanced Practice Programs and Dr. Patricia White, Associate Professor attended the 2024 Annual Winter meeting of the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP) in Las Vegas.

Dr. RitaAmoah and Dr.Amanda Cornine, both faculty in the GEP program is part of the Junior Faculty Development Program. The JFDP program held a 2024 Virtual Poster Event February 5. To review the virtual posters go to their website https://www.umassmed.edu/JFDP/

Dr. Mechelle Plasse, Director of Mental Health Programming & Nurse Practitioner tracks has be accepted as a Distinguished Fellow of the NationalAcademies of Practice (NAP) in Nursing. Being a Distinguished Fellow in NAP is a very high honor that acknowledges her outstanding achievements.

Dr. Plasse will be recognized as a member of the Class of 2024 in an induction ceremony at the Annual Meeting & Forum, March 15-16, 2024, in Jacksonville, FL.

Student Spotlight

UMass Chan Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing hosted Sigma Global Nursing Excellence lota Phi at-Large Chapter. Enlighten and Inspire: An Evening of Scholarly Presentations March 27, 2024.

Presenters included:

Elizabeth Vequist, DNP, APRN, AGPCNP-BC

“Intervention to Promote Condom Use Among University Women”

Karina Michaela Del Mundo, DNP, MS, FNP-BC, FNP-C

“Cultural Competence and Sensitivity: Perspective of Patients Living with Diabetes"

William Chadbourne, MS, RN, PhD(c)

“The Experience of Medication Adherence among Psychiatric Patients in the Time of a Pandemic”

Discover how she's planning to help patients manage chronic pain as a family practice provider.

Morgan Hill, MS, pursued a Doctor of Nursing Practice at UMass Chan after witnessing her sister’s care team manage her sister’s chronic pain: https://direc.to/kWFK

Marisa DaSilva, Grace Milone and Chikodiri Ebe, DNP 3 students in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing offered FREE blood pressure screenings on Wednesday, Feb. 14 and 21. There was also complete a step test, CPR/first aid demos for people and pets, you could meet Sprite the therapy dog and get information from the Office of Well-Being.

Marisa DaSilva, DNP 3 student

Grace Milone, DNP 3 student

Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing student Elizabeth Osa-Agbontaen launched the new African Student Association to create a sense of community, improve understanding about customs and prepare providers to serve a diverse population: https://direc.to/kVNA

“We expect to be the only African student or part of a small group of African students. Once we saw that we are part of a larger group here at UMass Chan, we started to ask how we can share the customs we carry along and how can we celebrate, and show importance and value to these things.” - Elizabeth OsaAgbontaen, co-president.

If anyone is interested in joining or supporting our goal, please contact us via our official org email umasschansa@umassemed.edu.

The Nursing Skills Lab is one of the stops on our 360-degree virtual tour. Take a virtual tour of the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. https://www.facebook.com/umasschan/videos/1074272240482430

The final application deadline for the Graduate Entry Pathway program for Fall 2024 entry has passed. We look forward to welcoming a new cohort this September. WATCH as four students in DNP tracks describe the GEP program and their paths to nursing. https://www.facebook.com/umasschan/ videos/1125036642188838/

DNP students along with Dr. Susan Feeney went to DC for the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) 2024 Health Policy Conference. They learned the importance of policy and being an advocate not only for patients but also for the NP profession.

They were able to meet fellow NPs from across the country and meet with both Senators and MA State Representatives. Morgan Hill, DNP 3 said “I’m really eager to continue this work and make strides towards more accessible and equitable healthcare to patients not only in Massachusetts, but across the country.”

Congratulations Elizabeth Osa-Agbontaen, DNP Year 1 and Joshan Niroula, DNP year 3 student was among four teams of UMass Chan Medical School students have been awarded Martin Luther King Jr. Semester of Service awards to implement programs that will serve the community.

Elizabeth’s project is entitled “Empowering wellness within Worcester's African communities” and Joshan’s project is entitled “Improving access to immunizations for non-English speaking pediatric patients in Worcester”. Read more here: https://bit.ly/4bdf6ev

Cynthia Delmas, RN, Doctorate of Nursing Practice, Class of 2026 Candidate, Family Medicine Track was published in January edition of the Worcester District Medical Society's 'Worcester Medicine Magazine'.

She authored an article entitled 'Artificial Intelligence in Nursing'. Read her article on pages 20-21: https://issuu.com/wdms/docs/new-digitaltrue-final-wdms-worcestermedicine-wint

Operation House Calls. Maura Sullivan, who works with The Arc, does this presentation with the 2nd year DNP students every year. This year all four tracks attended.

It’s a great presentation through real life experiences with families who have children on the Autism spectrum-they share what it has been like for them in terms of receiving healthcare, insurance battles, common physical ailments that occur. Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing students will be grouped with T.H. Chan School of Medical students to do a virtual home visit with a family and then they write a reflective journal entry about the experience. In April there will be a large debrief scheduled for Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing students with T.H. Chan School of Medical to go over the experience with will be organized and facilitated by a member of The Arc.

Rachel Odillia, DNP 3 student; Rachel Murumba, DNP 3 student; and Christine Touhy, DNP Alumni had their abstract American Diabetes Association Guideline Adherence and Evaluation of Social Determinants of Health at A Nurse-Practitioner Owned Primary Care Practice, accepted for a Poster presentation at the 2024 American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) National Conference, June 25-30, 2024, at the Music City Center, Nashville, TN

Alumni Spotlight

Lisa Abbondanza, DNP, NP-C recent Post MS DNP graduate and Dr. Pat White, Associate Professor at the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing just had an article published in the Journal of Nurse Practitioners in titled “Evaluating a Scribe Program in Reducing Provider Burnout” based on Lisa’s DNP project. Read the whole article here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ S1555415523004154?dgcid=coauthor

Cassandra “Cassie” M. Godzik, PhD, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNE is a 2020 graduate of our program and is currently the Director of Nursing Education Initiatives at The American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

Dr. Godzik completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellow opportunity at Dartmouth Health System in New Hampshire. She worked on a T32 at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Health Systems in the Department of Psychiatry from 2020 until 2023. She is currently submitting local and multi-site grants for federal foundations and private foundations to secure monies to continue her work in strengthening the health and resilience of healthcare workers to improve systems across the United States.

Announcements

Black Maternal Health Week will be 4/11/2024 –4/17/2024.

There will be exciting lineup of activities including the inaugural lecture for the Health Equity Distinguished Lecture Series on 4/11/24 at noon in the Albert Sherman Center Amphitheater (see attached flier), a Wellness Fair, Grand Rounds by Pediatrics, OB/GYN, a Community Baby Shower, and more.

Please use QR code to sign up for updates and please reach out to Crista E JohnsonAgbakwu (Crista.Johnson-Agbakwu@umassmed.edu) for more information.

The UMass Chan Department of Public Safety rewarded Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing students and faculty with pizza today for filling a cruiser with 1,000 pounds of food during the Thanksgiving Stuff-a-Cruiser Food Drive!

In all, more than 2,000 pounds of nonperishable food items were collected to support Why Me & Sherry’s House and Veterans Inc.

welcomed more than 60 Worcester-area college students to campus on Friday to take a tour and learn about our health care and science programs. Our guests learned about how they can boost their graduate school candidacy through summer opportunities and what diversity, equity and inclusion looks like at UMass Chan.

UMass Chan Dominican Republic Health Initiative

The UMass Chan Dominican Republic Health Initiative is raises money to support their work in the Dominican Republic as a collaborative effort at UMass Chan Medical School involving nursing students, medical students, and faculty volunteers who travel to the DR, working with local non-organizational groups (NGOs) to improve health care for marginalized DR communities including Haitian migrant families with little or no access to healthcare.

Our train-the-trainer global health model works with local community health workers known as promotoras in DR bateyes known as sugar cane villages and barrios. Money raised will support training and education to address the needs of children and families in these impoverished communities including HIV prevention, hand hygiene to reduce infections, mental health well-being including psychological first aid and selfesteem, and reproductive health education for adolescents. With this work we donate supplies such as hygiene (soap, toothbrush, toothpaste) and reusable menstrual pads.

Please consider a donation to support this work. Thank you! https://p2p.onecause.com/umassfundraising/ karla-undefined-2

UMass Chan Medical School

ATTENTION STUDENTS

We are calling any and all UMass Chan students, from any of the three schools, with AND without past art experience, to help paint a brand-new mural in the old medical school building.

The mural design is bright and colorful, full of references to research and clinical science, and celebrating the collaboration between doctors, nurses, researchers, and other medical experts that makes new discoveries and breakthroughs possible. If you enjoy paint-by-number, this project is for you - at each paint session, there will be student leaders helping point you to the right color, and painters' tape on the wall to give you a clear space to fill in.

Sign up here - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/ d/1ch2RXJHgRFnAWmtxix0kPKQh2OhmthPsjvB61PJsG_s/ edit#gid=1893254170

ANNOUNCEMENT

AFellowship to recruit, educate, and retain Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioners at community health centers and hospital-licensed health centers!

The UMass Chan Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing has partnered with the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) to launch a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner (PMHNP) Fellowship.

All Massachusetts health centers that meet the criteria to qualify as a Federal Qualified Health Center (FQHC), a hospital-licensed health center or an FQHC look-alike are eligible to apply for funding. CHCs that serve diverse communities, rural communities, or are in a federally designated Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) or a Mental Health Professional Shortage Areaare strongly encouraged to apply. To learn more please visit the MassLeague PMHNP website

Open to recent PMHNP graduates, recently hired PMHNPs, and student nurses enrolled in a PMHNP program,the PMHNP Fellowship Program aims to recruit and retain well-qualified and diverse practicing level (graduates) and student PMHNPs to care for the behavioral health needs of populations served by Massachusetts’ CHCs. Applications are available here on the UMass Chan Tan Chingfen Graduate School website. All interested CHCs and PMHNP Fellows must submit an application.

“PMHNPs are a vital member of the interdisciplinary care team, " said UMass Chan Graduate School of Nursing Dean Joan Vitello-Cicciu. “UMass Chan Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing is excited to partner with EOHHS and the Mass League to help support future PMHNPs and provide invaluable training to students and new graduates while expanding much needed psychiatric care and capacity at our state’s community health centers.”

For more information, please contact Leanne Winchester at PMHNP.Fellowship@umassmed.edu

Webinar: Career Pathways in Nursing

The Office of Student Affairs and Admissions and faculty program directors hosted a highly engaged webinar with prospective students. Career Pathways in Nursing: Next steps for leadership, advance practice, academic and research role was hosted on Feb 5. We are excited to beacon the next generation of nurse leaders and scientists!

Watch the whole webinar here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bW2jvCN9gE

Look who stopped by Danielle’s baby shower.

Dr. Thin Malatesta’s daughter Via Rosemary Wai Malatesta. Via is about 4 months old now.

UPDATE

Aaliyah Taylor was born Wednesday March 6. 6.3 pounds, 17 inches. Congratulations Danielle and Taylor.

Congratulations to Aiden Soto who was awarded for having one of the top MCAS scores in Massachusetts. This was for 2023 which he was in 3rd grade, and it was his first-time taking the MCAS. His principle called to let his mom know he was given an award and a gift card. Aiden is on the spectrum and has had some delays and was nonverbal until about age 4. To see how bright he is and how far he's come is incredible.

Aiden is the son of Shya Monahan, Administrative Assistant and front desk face of the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. As you can imagine, Shya is a very proud mother.

Congratulations Danielle Bloh, Executive Assistant to Dean Joan Vitello. Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing threw her a baby shower in February. Danielle’s little girl is due around March 11.