Xi Hopes

Xi Hopes

UR School of Nursing’s chapter of Sigma Theta Tau embarks on new efforts to engage membership

By Patrick Broadwater

The rationale was pretty simple. Jamie Oliva, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, decided to join the board of the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau because her career wouldn’t have reached the heights it has without the help of the international honor society.

Jamie Oliva

An assistant professor of clinical nursing at the School of Nursing and nurse scientist at Wilmot Cancer Institute, Oliva received critical scholarship support from Sigma to help fund her PhD dissertation. A nurse practitioner in the blood and marrow donor program at Wilmot, she examined transplant populations in an elaborate – and costly – research project that included laboratory supplies, equipment, and training to perform the lab procedures. Shortly after receiving her PhD in 2016, Oliva met with Wilmot’s new CNO, KC Clevenger, PhD, CPNP, CCRP, to discuss nursing research and was offered a brand new position, which allowed her to continue her own line of research on graft-versus-host disease, but also to mentor and guide Wilmot’s nurses so they, too, can be successful in research.

“My dissertation project was very expensive, and I would not have been able to do it without financial support,” said Oliva, who was inducted into Sigma in 1998 as a student in the UR adult nurse practitioner program. “The reason I wanted to get involved in board service is because I really Jamie Oliva felt like I wanted to give back to an organization that had done so much for me on a professional and a research level. Their involvement and support helped bring me to where I am today in terms of my professional career.”

Inspired by the professional boost she received, Oliva joined the board and spent four years as chair of the chapter’s governance committee. Now as the board’s newly elected president, she is leading efforts to rally the chapter’s membership to take the organization to greater heights and expand the opportunities that benefited her so much.

The annual induction ceremony is one of the biggest events of the year for the Epsilon Xi chapter of Sigma Theta Tau. The international honor society ceremony includes scholarship and awards presentations, a poster session and networking reception (above), and the official signing of the chapter register (below).

Photo: Reagan McNameeKing

“I’d really love to engage our members in Sigma activities and expand our awards and scholarships program,” Oliva said. “I think we can create some fundraising opportunities to help us do that.”

Sigma Theta Tau is the international honor society of nursing dedicated to advancing world health and celebrating nursing excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service. Founded in 1922, it now includes more than 135,000 members across more than 500 chapters in 90-plus countries. The Epsilon Xi chapter was chartered at the University of Rochester School of Nursing in February 1982, and its membership now tops 2,200 after this fall’s class of 89 was inducted in November.

Membership is open to students at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels, and is based on GPA, but there is also a mechanism for community leaders to join.

Aside from scholarship funding and the prestige that comes from being a member of an honor society, Sigma offers members the chance to network with other nurse leaders locally, nationally, and internationally, engage in collaborative research, benefit from a formalized mentoring program, and have access to important career aids, such as continuing education credits and a staff of more than 50 career advisors. Members are also involved in numerous charitable and philanthropic causes. In the past few years, the Epsilon Xi chapter has conducted community service projects with St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center, the Hillside Agencies, and East High, just to name a few.

“As nurses we see patients who come in with a variety of health problems and different backgrounds. The issue of health disparities is really a big problem. This helps us get to the root of that a little bit,” said Jane Tuttle, PhD, APRN, BC, FNP, CPNP, professor emerita at the UR School of Nursing, who recently stepped down after more than 25 years on the board. “I think we all have good instincts and if it comes through our work and we see the need to do it, then people just organize themselves around it.”

The Epsilon Xi chapter was cited for its excellence in 2016 with Sigma’s prestigious Key Award, which honors chapters for activities such as professional and leadership development, local, national, and international collaboration, membership recruitment and retention, and publicity and programming.

But Oliva’s vision for the chapter is to increase engagement of its memberships even further – to pare down the number inactive (non-dues-paying) members and to encourage active members to drive and participate in the chapter’s agenda.

“What is the local chapter, but its membership?” said Oliva. “As a board, we represent the membership. The membership tends to highly value community service, so we’d like to expand on that. We like when members come and give us input on community service projects and other projects that they would like to participate in."

“If you’re going to be a member of an organization, you should participate as best as you can. Why spend the time or money if you’re not going to do something meaningful,” said Tuttle. “This is a group that does great stuff. Not every school can say that.

“Getting scholars and good minds together to think about things and to celebrate that we’re a community of scholars and people that care about the bigger world, it’s simple, but I think it’s heuristic.”