18 minute read
Don’t Call It a Comeback
UR Nursing’s celebration of graduates has continued unabated during pandemic; School turns a corner in ’21, allowing students to attend Commencement in person
Photos by John Schlia
In the midst of a pandemic, a few months can make a big difference.
The UR School of Nursing held an online degree conferral ceremony in May 2020, then was able to host a physically distant pinning ceremony for grads in August. The school went virtual again for its pinning ceremony in December 2020, but welcomed students back to take part in a hybrid in-person Commencement ceremony in May 2021.
Dealing with the ebbs and flows of COVID caseloads and the subsequent fluctuations in federal and state guidelines and mandates presented the school with a multitude of significant logistical challenges. What was possible one week, may be verboten the next. One thing that remained steady throughout the past year and a half was the school’s commitment to celebrating the success of its students.
In December, amid tightening restrictions, the school held its first ever virtual pinning ceremony. Accelerated Bachelor’s Program for Non-Nurses graduates took part from their own homes, pinning themselves as their names were read over a Zoom call. Parents and friends were invited to watch from anywhere in the world.
This past May, more than 160 students were honored at an in-person Commencement ceremony at Kodak Hall at Eastman Theatre. The hybrid event was limited to graduating students and the platform party of faculty and staff, but parents, friends, and colleagues were invited to watch a livestream of the event online. In keeping with COVID safety protocols, students and faculty were seated at least six feet apart, and all were required to accessorize their academic regalia with masks.
Nearly 90 graduates attended in person and heard welcoming remarks from President Sarah Mangelsdorf and University of Rochester Medical Center CEO Mark B. Taubman, MD, as well as an address from School of Nursing Dean Kathy Rideout, EdD, PPCNP-BC, FNAP.
“I think it is very important for all of us to take the time to reflect on all that we have learned, all that we have accomplished,” said Rideout, whose Commencement remarks focused on silver linings and lessons learned during the pandemic. “As health care clinicians, researchers, educators and leaders of the present – and of the future – we can rise to the challenges in front of us and can do anything together.”
In addition to presenting degrees to bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral students, the school also announced the winner of its annual Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching to Dee Dee Rutigliano, ’14N, ’18N (MS), an instructor of clinical nursing.
On the following pages, you can read about a cross-section of graduates from the past six months.
The return of Commencement also marked the return of festively decorated mortarboards.
Dean Kathy Rideout delivered the Commencement address, highlighting silver linings and lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. PhD graduate and assistant professor of clinical nursing Sue Stanek bumps elbows with Associate Dean for Research Sally Norton after receiving her degree. The ceremony was livestreamed online so family and friends could watch live. Rideout greets DNP graduate Victor Hernandez as President Mangelsdorf looks on. After the ceremony, graduates headed outside and removed their masks to pose for photos with family and friends.
A career in health care may have seemed inevitable, but Juliana Weiss forged her own path into nursing
Her parents knew health care would be a great career fit for her, but Juliana Weiss ’20N is the kind of person who had to come to that conclusion on her own. After several years of soul-searching and two degrees, she finally found the inspiration to pursue a career a nursing.
While she begrudgingly accepted that perhaps her parents were on the nose in their assessment, the path Weiss took to nursing was uniquely hers. But she can credit her mother in particular for helping to steer her to the UR School of Nursing.
Weiss and her parents were on vacation, sitting in the lobby of Mohonk Mountain House in New Paltz when her mother struck up a conversation with a stranger sitting nearby. The young woman was a nurse from Rochester. When Weiss’ mother mentioned that Juliana was looking at attending nursing school, the woman talked glowingly of the UR School of Nursing and its one-year accelerated program for non-nurses (APNN).
“She was saying what a wonderful program it was and it was only one year long, and that Strong was a great hospital right across the street. I had my computer with me to do my prereqs, so that night I pulled up the website and looked at the school, and I thought it was great,” said Weiss, a Hudson Valley native who had been accepted at New York University, but was hoping to find other options outside of the New York City metro area. “I figured, ‘I’ll apply, why not?’ Five months later, I was doing my phone interview.”
Ironically, the woman who suggested UR School of Nursing wasn’t even a graduate of the school. She had gone to Monroe Community College. “I forget her name, but my goodness, I would give her a hug if I could!” said Weiss.
The decision turned out to be a fortuitous one for Weiss, who grew up around hospitals. Her father was a surgeon, and her mother was a physician’s assistant before transitioning to medical billing. Weiss was more into music and drama as a child, but her parents recognized that she had great ambition, a love for helping people, and a desire to dive into the middle of situations and find solutions. Those traits first led Weiss to an undergrad degree in sociology and a career working with nonprofits. Not satisfied that she was making a difference in people’s lives, Weiss went to get her master’s in nonprofit management at the University of Albany, where she landed an internship at a St. Jude Hospital field office before finding a job in a smaller regional hospital near her home.
“I’d be doing fundraisers and talking with doctors and nurses. Hearing their stories and listening to them talk about the medical team and what a difference they made in people’s Juliana Weiss, chosen as one of the cohort’s lives, I realized, class speakers, joined her classmates and partic‘That’s it! That’s ipated in the December pinning ceremony from the feeling I home due to COVID-19. want,’” Weiss said. “I’m sitting behind this computer, but now I see what my parents said. I want my hands in it. I want the nitty gritty.”
Two months after earning her master’s, Weiss started taking prerequisite courses for nursing school. She arrived at the UR School of Nursing in January of 2020, completed half of her first semester of work and on her first day back from spring break was sent back home because of COVID.
Fortunately, Weiss and her classmates were back in clinicals by August and later had a 10-week clinical rotation, which reassured her that she had made the right choice. By October, she had applied and been accepted into critical care nurse residency program at Strong, an intensive six-month program preparing new graduates to be an ICU-level critical care nurse.
“The APNN program is all-consuming, in the best way. I think you have to approach it with the attitude that you chose it because it’s 11 months and 29 days and you have to love it for that reason,” said Weiss, who was one of two students chosen as class speaker at the December cohort’s virtual pinning ceremony. “It’s a roller coaster. But it's true what the faculty told us at the beginning of the program, 'The days are long, but the year is short.'”
After Two Years with a Full Plate, Former Chef Justin Wilks Ready to ‘Embrace the Calm’
Things are finally starting to slow down for Justin Wilks ’21N. And he’s just fine with that.
Over the past two and a half years, Wilks has started a new job as an RN, fought a global pandemic, welcomed the birth of his first child, moved into a new home, and aced his baccalaureate-completion degree program at the UR School of Nursing.
Despite the swirl of change around of him, Wilks graduated from the UR Nursing RN to BS program summa cum laude and was honored at Commencement with the school’s Registered Nurse Award. The award recognizes a graduating nursing student who has achieved high academic standing, demonstrated outstanding ability practice professional nursing, and shown evidence of strong leadership potential.
“I figured out pretty quickly how to do new things on the fly,” he said. “I’ve definitely grown quite a bit in the past two years, and I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’m ready to take some time to reflect and spend time with my wife and daughter and relax. I’m really just embracing the calmness right now.”
Thriving amid chaos is nothing new to Wilks. Before entering the nursing field, he spent 10 years as a chef. In that career, he not only learned how to navigate a fast-paced, always-changing workplace, but he also saw firsthand how important it was to do everything needed to keep the consumer happy.
“I think that’s why I’ve always been so calm under pressure. I kind of thrive in that stressful environment,” he said.
“I do find that there are similarities. At the end of the day, you want to have someone have a great experience. Obviously, people are at the hospital for a much different reason, but they want to be taken care of and I want to try to accommodate them as best as I can and make sure they
have the best experience possible in the hospital.” Wilks had once considered a career in pharmacy, but he left the University at Buffalo for the kitchen. After nearly a decade working in various Rochester restaurants, he grew frustrated with the business and gravitated back to health care. He earned his associate degree at Monroe Community College while continuing to work full time, passed his boards and began his new career as a nurse on a cardiac and progressive care unit at Highland Hospital. Within months, he learned that he and his wife were expecting their first baby and he enrolled in the RN to BS program at the UR School of Nursing. With an unpredictable work schedule – exacerbated by COVID – and sleep schedule that comes along with a newborn, Wilks was grateful for the asynchronous nature of the program. He said he actually enjoyed the flexibility of getting up at 3 am to feed the baby and then being able to tackle a chunk of coursework in the middle of As someone who thrives under pressure, Justin Wilks left the night and still find classmates – behind the frying pan of cooking for the fire of nursing. and professors – online. After 10 years as a professional chef, he now works as an Wilks particularly singled out RN at Highland Hospital. His ability to succeed amid cha- Instructor of Clinical Nursing Mios was tested again, as he graduated summa cum laude chael Rosario-McCabe, MNE, RN. from the UR Nursing RN to BS program despite acclimating to his new job during a global pandemic, welcoming a “I don’t think he ever slept,” Wilks newborn baby, and moving into a new home. said. “I’ve been in a lot of college classes over the years – different programs, different schools – but his ability to be accessible, especially during the difficult times of COVID, I just felt like he really cared and supported students. “I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I started this program, but it’s made me a more well-rounded nurse and able to look at the patient’s needs more holistically. How can I support the whole person, not just the patient in the hospital? I’m looking beyond the hospital doors now, and that’s the greatest lesson I learned in the program.”
Carrying on a Family Legacy, Alana Ramos Exemplifies Compassion, Concern for Others
Courage, compassion, and concern for others.
When Alana Ramos ’14N, ’21N (MS) read those words to describe the winner of the Elizabeth Clinger Young Award, only one name came to mind: Mom. Her mother, Peg Beverly, was a beloved elementary school nurse for a dozen years in the tiny Gananda School District east of Rochester, and those traits are exactly the ones Ramos would choose to characterize her as a nurse.
Beverly passed away unexpectedly last August, so when Ramos learned that she was selected to be the recipient of the Elizabeth Clinger Young Award at the University of Rochester School of Nursing Commencement in May, she was blown away to be cast in the same light as her mother.
“I did a double take,” recalled Ramos, a graduate of the Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program. “When I first read it, I said, ‘That’s my mom!’ Those are the qualities she instilled in me, so this award is very meaningful to me.
Not surprisingly, family and the human connections formed in all the different types of relationships we have with others, play an outsized role in Ramos’ life. As a tribute to her mom’s legacy, Ramos plans to donate the monetary award to a nursing scholarship at Gananda that she and her sisters created in memory of their mom.
Almost a year earlier, when the science was not yet settled on exactly how COVID was spread, Ramos, working as an assistant nurse manager on a medical observation unit at Strong Memorial Hospital, worried about unknowingly carrying the virus home from the hospital and passing it to her son. Deciding that she wanted to take every precaution to keep her child safe, they didn’t see each other face to face for more than a month.
“There was so much unknown, but I was determined not to bring this thing home to him,” Ramos said. “It was so
hard. We FaceTimed every day, but that doesn’t really do it. The one silver lining of COVID is that it has reminded people the value of relationships and person-to-person contact. It’s highlighted how fortunate we are to have relationships with people.” Driven by the desire to connect and help those in her world, Ramos enrolled in the UR Nursing Accelerated Program for Non-Nurses (APNN) in 2013. She had been working at the Anthony Jordan Health Center in Rochester, dealing primarily with patients struggling with the dual daggers of addiction and poor mental health. She thought she wanted to go on to become a psych/mental health NP but her clinical rotations with the accelerated program helped to steer her to primary care. “Seeing patients and how we can tackle their problems in a more holistic way, that’s when I knew primary care was for me,” Ramos said. “I love that in primary care you do everything, be everything, and really be that central piece for patients.” A year after graduating, Ramos vaulted into a leadership role at Strong. She was promoted to assistant nurse manager and began working as a preceptor. She also re-enrolled at the UR School of Nursing looking to further her education. Upon graduating this past May, Alana Ramos, receiving her degree from Dean Kathy Rideout, was hon- she accepted an NP position ored at Commencement with the Elizabeth Clinger Young Award, given in the Solid Organ Transto the Adult Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner or Family Nurse plant department at Strong, Practitioner student who has displayed great compassion, courage, and working specifically with concern for others. liver transplants. She plans to spend some time focusing on becoming the best NP she can be, but also has her eyes set on pursuing another degree down the road, possibly a Doctor of Nursing Practice. “I’m so thankful for my UR Nursing education. I know that the U of R overprepares its nurses. I felt that way when I started – that I was getting a really solid foundation – and then in my role helping to educate other nurses, I can always see a difference when I’m working with a U of R grad. When I eventually go back to school, it will be there,” Ramos said. “I can’t imagine going anywhere else. It feels like home to me.”
While Finishing Doctoral Work, NP Lynn Cole Juggled Many Roles
Lynn Cole ’98N (MS) ’21N (DNP) is a juggler: Career, classroom, kids, canine, COVID-19.
Besides her full-time job in pediatric primary care at the University of Rochester Medical Center, Cole has been using evenings and weekends for the past three years to work toward her third degree, a doctor of nursing practice. A mother of four, ranging in age from 11 to 21, the pediatric nurse practitioner most recently added a “COVID puppy” to her list of responsibilities.
For her the question is not what comes next after graduation; the journey to the terminal degree was a goal in itself—an academic capstone of sorts for her already impressive professional vita.
After receiving a bachelor of science degree in nursing nearly three decades ago from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, and a master’s degree from the University of Rochester School of Nursing in 1998, Cole has worked her way up to associate division chief of the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics at the Medical Center. Along the way, she garnered a clinical excellence award from the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP) in 2006, an Autism Opportunity Award from Autism Up in 2016, and the George Spencer Terry, Jr. B’49 Endowed Fund in Nursing in 2019, given to a DNP student who is actively engaged in developing solutions to challenges facing nurses and health care providers.
The Pittsford resident specializes in the care of children with complex developmental and behavioral challenges, with a particular focus on autism, intellectual disability, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, and cerebral palsy. Cole coleads the University’s Autism Treatment Network, teaches at the School of Nursing, and is the director of clinical services at the University’s Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities.
As part of her doctoral degree, Cole dug into an area that she’s passionate about—fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD). “We started a new clinic here for FASD assessment and treatment about six years ago and quickly recognized that our capacity would never be large enough to serve all of the kids who need care,” says Cole.
The problem is pressing. Children and adults with FASD struggle with lifelong learning and behavioral problems, and without appropriate supports are at high risk for secondary conditions, such as mental health problems, trouble with the law, school disruption, and substance abuse.
Based on expert estimates that between 2 and 5 percent of American children are affected by FASD, the Rochester team calculated that in upstate New York alone there may be somewhere between 23,000 to 80,000 children outside New York City and the metropolitan areas with FASD. Yet, outside New York City, the Medical Center is the only FASD diagnostic site in the state, with a capacity of just 220 children a year.
That’s why as part of her doctor of nursing practice scholarly project, Cole created an extension for a program that builds upon Project ECHO, which was started at the University of New Mexico as a model for training community clinicians to provide care for people with chronic and complex health conditions. Cole and her collaborators adapted the existing model for their pilot ECHO FASD project in order to train regional clinicians on how to diagnose the complex disorder.
Now with one fewer thing left to juggle, what is Cole looking forward to? “More time for enjoying my kids, reading a book, doing some gardening.” Already her 15-year-old asked right before she defended her DNP project if she planned on keeping up her schedule of working after dinner, every night, forever. “No,” she told him. “Thankfully not.”
As part of her work to complete a doctor of nursing practice degree, pediatric nurse practitioner Lynn Cole helped develop a pilot project to expand access and treatment for children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.
