FALL 201 8
Collaborations That Expand Our Nursing Knowledge
8-1-18 / Kenny, the School of Nursing’s first resident therapy dog, spent his first two years of puppyhood training to provide comfort and relief to his human companions, thanks to his devoted handler Edie Barbero, an assistant professor of psychiatric/ mental health nursing. Today, Kenny’s work brings him to UVA Medical Center each week where he lifts patients’ (including 6-monthSPRING 2018 old Juan Carlos Garcia and his mother, Gabriela, patients at UVA’s Eye Clinic) and clinicians’ spirits alike. Kenny often 6 travels Heroes’ Narrative with a School of Nursing-sponsored 8 A PATH FORWARD Compassionate Care Cart—a mobile station 18 On My Bookshelf laden with snacks, water, and meditation and yoga schedules—and makes 22 regular Taking Prevention on the Road appearances in spots where nursing 28 Class News & Notes students congregate, tending the happy, the 30 Getting Political homesick, the harried, and the exam-weary. 32 Air hugging an angel Photo: Coe Sweet
FALL 201 8 6 8 10 20 28 32
The Conways’ Gifts: By the Numbers A Vision for Compassionate Care MIND THE GAP: Collaborations That Expand Our Nursing Knowledge Bedtime: A Boon for the Aging Brain? Class News & Notes In Praise of Preceptors
6 Heroes’ Narrative 8 A PATH FORWARD 18 On My Bookshelf 22 Taking Prevention on the Road 28 Class News & Notes 30 Getting Political 32 Air hugging an angel
FROM THE DE AN
The Power of Partnerships “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing will be changed if it is not faced.” – James Baldwin
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e celebrate partnerships. Whether they are with our natural colleagues in medicine, or across disciplines, like engineering, education, architecture, and public health, we show up, reach out, and gather scholars and practitioners into our fold with enthusiasm. Often, while these R DY LO ME relationships are borne out of necessity—many grants require interdisciplinary partners—they also expand our vision as we solve some of the world’s thorniest problems. That’s powerful. In this issue, we highlight stories of nurse scientists advancing knowledge through sometimes unlikely alliances, uncovering wisdom, and fostering team science. And while these partnerships are, at their core, about scholarship, they’re also about friendship, too. Friendship and wisdom “We must become the help us understand that we need to face things. As Baldwin nation’s most racially notes, facing things is the only way to harness change. We bridge our knowledge gaps by asking key questions. literate school of nursing, Given the recent one-year anniversary of a white nationalist fulfilling in my last year rally in my Charlottesville hometown, my questions remain: as dean a core part of How do we face a racist society? What can we do as a this School’s mission nursing school and as individuals to dismantle racism? and vision—perhaps the And how will we prepare nurses to do the same, no matter most critical and vexing where they work and learn? issue of our time.” This October, School of Nursing leaders joined with a wide variety of UVA peers for an eight-week intensive. With guidance from Professor Shaun Harper’s Race and Equity Institute at the University of Southern California, my colleagues Susan Kools and John Gates created a bold proposal to train leaders in higher education to “stop graduating racists.” As the only nursing school in the nation invited to this pioneering effort, we plan to engage deeply to close this gap, and, we hope, be a model for others. When UVA President Jim Ryan invited the community to share its aspirations for UVA, my response was crystal clear: become the nation’s most racially literate school of nursing, fulfilling in my last year as dean a core part of this School’s mission and vision—perhaps the most critical and vexing issue of our time. As President Ryan says, the future is ours to shape. Let’s do it together.
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EDITOR Christine Phelan Kueter CONTRIBUTORS Louisa Baker Jessica Eustace Caroline Hirst Christine Kennedy, RN, PhD, FAAN Kelly Williams McCaskill PHOTOGRAPHY Dan Addison Tim Cox Christine Phelan Kueter Jackson Smith Sanjay Suchak Coe Sweet DESIGN Communication Design Inc. ALUMNI COUNCIL COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR Matt Lemieux (CNL ’11, PNP ’15) UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF NURSING Established in 1901
Dorrie Fontaine, RN, PhD, FAAN
Virginia Nursing Legacy is published twice a year by the UVA School of Nursing and the Nursing Alumni Association with private funds.
Sadie Heath Cabaniss Professor of Nursing and Dean
MAGAZINE.NURSING.VIRGINIA.EDU
WORTH NOTING
IN BRIEF 2018 3.26 Associate professor Cathy Campbell graduated from Santa Fe-based Upaya Zen Center’s chaplaincy program after three years and more than 1,500 contact hours. 4.10 Nine undergraduates enrolled in the new “Wisdom in Nursing” program, which partners nursing students with area Charlottesville patients over the next three years and offers supportive resilience training.
Bluefields, Nicaragua
In Sync with Study Abroad
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wealth of didactic courses and robust clinical requirements often mean that nursing school doesn’t sync with study abroad. But thanks to an $87,000 Jefferson Trust Award, the School’s global offerings are even richer—and within reach for even more nursing students. Guided by Global Initiatives’ Director Emma Mitchell (MSN ’08, PhD ’11), assistant professor of nursing, the grant encourages creativity and community by wrapping students’ educational and research experiences around sustained research projects overseen by nursing faculty alongside academic and community peers in Bluefields, Nicaragua. Bluefields—on the Caribbean side of the Central American nation—is home to Bluefields Indian and Caribbean University and the site of one of the School’s reimagined global initiatives. Rather than a “parachute in, parachute out” approach, explains Mitchell, the new study abroad “is a thoughtful and intentional way to engage with partners in a manner that’s bilateral, productive, and truly based on a respectful partnership.” Built around a core of research projects that are mutually beneficial—disaster preparedness, emergency response, and cervical cancer screening—experiences are centered on locally determined needs and
priorities. By offering student experiences several times a year, relationships and initiatives are nurtured across time without the connectivity gaps that sometimes plagued the old model. Even with violence that, in 2018, beset capital city Managua, the partnership continues. UVA students will continue to have three chances to travel to Bluefields: a popular J-Term course focused on coffee growers and public health, a week-long community clinical opportunity, and a month-long summer experience. All nursing students studying in Nicaragua assist Mitchell— who studies the feasibility and acceptability of cervical cancer screening tests via telemedicine—in collecting and analyzing data and interviewing participants. “Nurses should be culturally competent, open, and respectful, and sometimes we lose that, when we see someone so different from ourselves,” says Shernai Banks (CNL ’19), of Philadelphia, who traveled with Mitchell to Central America last July. “But studying abroad changes things, opens up your perceptions. I’m excited to bring what I learned back to the United States.” +
4.17 The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s “Future of Nursing” Director Sue Hassmiller delivered the 2018 Catherine Strader McGehee Lecture. 4.18 to 21 UVA Center for ASPIRE’s twice-annual Train-the-Trainer Faculty Development Program—one of three national sites funded to teach interprofessional education—attracted its highest number of organization teams to date. 4.23 Associate professor Ishan Williams, assistant dean of the School’s Inclusion, Diversity & Excellence Achievement initiative, was elected president of the Southern Gerontological Society. 5.1 Assistant professor Tomeka Dowling assumed the presidency of the Virginia League for Nursing. 1 5.10 Nearly 300 preceptors—veteran nurse mentors—were honored with gifts, food, and thanks at the 3rd Annual Preceptor Appreciation Day. 2 2 1
1 WATCH ‘WHEN NURSING SCHOOL SYNCS WITH INCREDIBLE STUDY ABROAD’ MAGAZINE.NURSING.VIRGINIA.EDU
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WORTH NOTING
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Howie-Esquivel
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5.12 Joanne and Bill Conway’s third $5 million gift brings their total support of the School to $15 million. 5.20 Under sunny skies, 254 nursing students earn their degrees at UVA’s 189th final exercises. 3 5.21 Compassionate Care Initiative founding member and UVA palliative care nurse Jonathan Bartels received the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Pioneering Spirit award for 2018 for “The Pause.” 4 5.31 Associate dean Susan Kools received the 2018 Nahm Research Award from her alma mater, UCSF. 6.2 to 6.10 Reunions drew nearly 150 nursing alumni back to UVA, including 50 members of the class of 1968 who were installed as the newest members of the Thomas Jefferson Society. 6.18 Camille Burnett and Pamela DeGuzman (COLL ’92, BSN ’96, Darden ’00, MSN ’00, PhD ’12) were named associate professors with tenure, 4
and Randy Jones (BSN ’00, MSN ’02, PhD ’05) was promoted to full professor.
cohort of Jonas Scholars, each of them earning a $10,000 grant over two years.
6.19 Associate professor Jeanne Alhusen was chosen for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s yearlong Leadership for Academic Nursing Program.
9.22 Assistant professor Emma Mitchell and student Genevieve Beaird (PhD ’19) received the Virginia Nurse Association’s 40 Under 40 award.
8.27 In the Rotunda’s historic dome room, Dean Dorrie Fontaine offered her 11th, and final, State of the School address.
11.1 Two new American Academy of Nursing Fellows—associate professors Jeanne Alhusen and Jill Howie-Esquivel— bring the School’s number of Academy Fellows to 32, and its national academies fellows to 45. 5 +
9.5 Jonas Philanthropies named DNP student Gabriela Paniagua-Stolz and PhD student Katy Platz to their 2018–2020
New Palliative Care Courses Offered
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his fall, graduate nursing students are building and augmenting their palliative care know-how in two new courses: Palliative Care: The Discipline (fall 2018), and Advanced Pain and Symptom Management (spring 2019). In addition to satisfying students’ hunger for palliative care topics, these courses—along with the School’s existing Ethics course—prepare students for the Advanced Certified Hospice and Palliative Nurse exam administered by the Hospice and Palliative Care Credentialing Center. “There is a breadth of expertise in palliative care here at UVA,” says professor Clareen Wiencek, a long-time palliative care nurse practitioner who directs the School’s graduate programs, “and these courses represent our first step in satiating students’ and clinicians’ hunger for information in the area.” +
“They don‘t know what to say. They don’t want to make a mistake, so they don’t say anything, and that makes patients feel isolated. Even the medical forms they have to fill out are unsettling. So male, female— what if you identify as gender fluid? There’s no box for that.”
In the years since I moved from working in a trauma center in New York City to doing research at the University of Virginia, memories of that ER stay with me. Now, I’m studying an intervention that, while not a fix-all, may help prevent injury to patients and providers—it may even save lives. In hospitals on four continents, what we call ‘The Pause’ has become a standard of care. Here's how it works: When a patient dies, any member of the care team tending him calls out for a pause. They might say something like, Can we stop for a second to consider this person who’s died? They loved and were loved. They were someone’s friend and family member. Just for a minute, in our own way and in silence, let’s take a moment to honor this person and the efforts we each made on their behalf. The group is then silent for about 45 seconds. It’s personal, optional, and simple.”
Associate Dean and professor Kenneth White, to WVTF/NPR, “UVA hosts conference for healthcare professionals on caring for LGBTQ patients” (4-25-18)
What They Said
Assistant professor Tim Cunningham (CNL ’09), director, Compassionate Care Initiative, in the Richmond Times Dispatch Commentary section, “The Power of a Pause” (8-25-18)
The religion component is getting more important, but less transparent . . . It wasn’t until the 1970s and Roe v. Wade that the bishops started getting more involved.”
Emily Drake speaks at the March for Moms rally in D.C.
“We nurses are on the frontlines of this maternal mortality story; we see it every day. Helping families through a successful birth, sending them home with a beautiful new baby, babies that become orphans, new fathers that become widowers . . . Ask any nurse—we have story after story. And we’re not keeping quiet anymore. We want this maternal mortality to stop.” Professor Emily Drake (BSN ’85, MSN ’93), immediate pastpresident of the Association for Women’s Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, at the Washington, D.C., March for Moms Mother’s Day rally on the Mall (5-18-18)
Professor Barbra Mann Wall, director of the Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry, to the New York Times, “As Catholic hospitals expand, so do limits on some procedures” (8-10-18)
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THE CONWAYS’ GIFTS In 2018, philanthropists Joanne and Bill Conway gave a third $5 million gift to the School, bringing their total support to a record-setting $15M since 2013. The funds, in turn, have transformed programs and people alike, expanding degrees, diversity, and, most recently, helping fund incoming nursing students across 11 programs with financial need.
BY THE NUMBERS number of nurses who will be supported over next five years
160+ $22,280
average annual award bestowed to nursing students
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$15M total support from Conways since 2013
+
M
#1 Conways’ gift is the biggest current-use gift in School history
2,150 number of volunteer hours provided by Conway Scholars+
2x increase in CNL program size and scope since initial gift in 2013
18M number of lives a nurse will potentially touch over the course of a typical 30-year career
+ through June 30, 2018
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PHIL ANTHROPY
A VISION FOR
Compassionate Care BY JE S SIC A EUS TACE
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magine a healthcare setting where patients receive expert, empathic care, and healthcare providers are rarely stressed or overwhelmed, and you’ll see the vision that’s guided the Compassionate Care Initiative (CCI), established by Dean Dorrie Fontaine in 2009. Today, with lead gifts from Shelley and Dan Boyce, and Becky and Pete Ruegger, that vision and an associated fund to guide it is already on track toward its $1 million endowment goal. Ultimately, this newly established Fontaine Fund for Compassionate Care will offer healthcare providers—particularly nurses—the tools they need to lead fulfilling, productive work lives free from the debilitating stress that often leads to burnout and attrition. With the goal of helping staff to take better care of themselves so they may provide exceptional patient care, the School’s faculty, administrators, staff, and students are learning concrete ways to insert compassion into every human-to-human interaction they have. CCI has evolved into a highly integrated program that touches students, faculty, and staff throughout UVA, the broader community, and beyond. CCI promotes clinician (and student-clinician) wellness and high-quality, compassionate clinical care through a variety of courses, retreats, and workshops, and by supporting Compassionate Care Ambassadors as role models in the workplace. Going forward, CCI also will pilot new research to scientifically measure the impact of activities that promote resilience and reduce burnout and attrition in the healthcare setting. Offering free classes in yoga, T’ai Chi, meditation and resilience, the group will continue to expand programs and offerings across UVA. As she prepares to step down as dean in 2019, the fund also honors Fontaine’s decade of leadership and vision by sustaining CCI, the most comprehensive mindfulness program of its kind in the nation. The Fontaine Fund, held by UVA Health Foundation, will support CCI operations and ensure its continued development. +
Background photo: Since its inception in 2009, Fontaine has been a devoted member of CCI’s Wednesday morning meditation, led by UVA nurse Jonathan Bartels, rising at 5:30 each week in order to make the 6 a.m. call time. Serious about its impact on her resilience, Fontaine often jokes that Wednesdays are the “best time to ask for a favor.” 8
The Fontaine Fund for Compassionate Care PURPOSE
To support and sustain compassionate care initiatives at UVA into perpetuity GOAL
$1M endowment provides $50K a year for CCI activities Interested in supporting the Fontaine Fund? Contact Kelly McCaskill, executive director of development: kmw4y@virginia.edu; (434) 924-0097 Want to support the Nursing Annual Fund in Dean Fontaine’s honor? Send your gift in the attached envelope or give online: http://at.virginia.edu/supportnursing
FONTAINE FAREWELL EVENTS Do you live in the Richmond, Va., Atlanta, or Washington, D.C., areas? Come say goodbye to Dean Fontaine in person! Be on the lookout for an invitation to a “Farewell Dean Fontaine” event in spring 2019.
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Cardiovascular disease scholar Jeongok Logan, an assistant professor of nursing, pores over sleep study data with her research team.
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MIND THE GAP
Collaborations That Expand Our Nursing Knowledge BY ME L IS S A CR AW F ORD (CNL ‘15)
It’s hard for me to believe I’m the first person to have thought of this,” laughs associate professor Pamela DeGuzman (COLL ’92, BSN ’96, Darden ’00, MSN ’00, PhD ’12) of the research she’s just begun, which aims to demonstrate how many of Virginia’s ruraldwelling toddlers, often far from a pediatrician’s office, fall through the cracks when it comes to early autism screening. In the best cases, DeGuzman explains, “we screen at 18 months, but the last early childhood vaccination lands at 15 months. Our hypothesis is that parents may finish their vaccinations and, if the child doesn’t get sick enough to need care, don’t return for autism screening until the pre-kindergarten required visit up to three years later”—a point, DeGuzman says, that may be too late.
JACKSON SMITH
“Child brain development is so plastic,” says DeGuzman, “but when caught early, and with the right therapy, autism is something we can do something about—provided we get there early enough.”
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“Tapping the rich expertise that surrounds us not only expands the strength of our nursing science, it’s efficient, logical, and yields powerful results.” Dean Dorrie Fontaine
Nurse scientists’ work reflects a concept instilled across all levels of nursing education: holistic care. That means understanding patients’ present, their future, and the barriers they face, including poverty, education, and finances—even the critical absence of transportation. Nurses are also able to visualize gaps in care, and perhaps most crucially, recruit the right resources to get the job done. For DeGuzman’s research, the work also means enlisting the assistance of Geoting Huang, a Geographic Information System (GIS) specialist and assistant professor of urban planning at UVA’s School of Architecture. GIS imaging is the visual representation of data within set borders—a state, county, ZIP code, or neighborhood, for example—and its visuals pack a powerful punch when trying to make a point about health, politics, or economics. But if reading a GIS map is easy, filling in that map with meaningful color blocks requires data analysis best left to an expert. Says DeGuzman, “Dr. Huang is amazing with data. He is the one who can show the statistical significance needed for a study to be accepted as relevant and important. DeGuzman adds that Huang is "the critical partner" she needs as a nurse to prove her hypothesis and potentially change the manner in which children are screened for autism.”
They might begin as cold calls, or tentative email queries, then expand into conversations over coffee, and, when the partnership’s right, agreed-upon topics and purpose. They’re encouraged by seed grants. And they’re fortified as each scholar—a nurse, a mathematician, an architect, an engineer, a psychologist, a computer science expert, or a software engineer—comes to understand and appreciate a new scientific language and culture. It all translates into a nursing paradigm in which many hands, many perspectives, and many nurse leaders bring exponentially greater opportunities to improve patient care. Together, these scholars of disparate professions come to move as one to urge health science forward with common purpose: improving care, bettering quality of life, and seeking—and seeing—positive health outcomes.
PARTNERS AGAINST PAIN “The unpredictable nature of cancer pain is, for some patients, the worst part,” says Virginia LeBaron (BSN ’96), an assistant professor of nursing who’s built a career caring for patients suffering with cancer pain, work that’s both affirming in its help, and confounding in its scope. “Anywhere from 60 to 90 percent
If DeGuzman’s research and Huang’s analysis indeed shows a gap in rural Virginia’s autism screenings, the work will continue, spurring a series of subsequent collaborations with Curry School of Education scientists, UVA statisticians, and others. It’s just one example of how nurse scholars continue to partner across professions in ways that embolden and enrich their work.
While partnerships are nothing new, UVA nurse scientists’ collaborations are expanding, as they unbrick the traditional silos that keep disciplines apart.
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DAN ADDISON
“For a long time it’s been clear that to produce the best research we can no longer just talk amongst ourselves, or even just with our colleagues in medicine,” says Dean Dorrie Fontaine. “Tapping the rich expertise that surrounds us not only expands the strength of our nursing science, it’s efficient, logical, and yields powerful results.” Engineering professor John Lach, LeBaron, and Leslie Blackhall, associate professor of medicine, hold a BESI-C prototype, the novel wireless technology they’re using to monitor patients’ environments and pain.
of patients with cancer report poorly managed pain, which, of course, affects sleep, mood—even whether patients come back for treatment.”
Discovering the nature of pain—the when, where, and why of it, as well as how the environment, sleep habits, and interactions with at-home caregivers play a role in its exacerbation or alleviation—has been on LeBaron’s mind for years. But it wasn’t until she met UVA engineering professor John Lach and palliative care physician Leslie Blackhall that plans for an investigation began to coalesce. “We would have these great conversations about what could be possible with a tech approach to pain management,” says LeBaron, of early meetings with Lach, “given that we are both interested in the health application of wireless and bodysensing technology. When we heard about the Engineering in Medicine (EIM) seed grant, it was the perfect opportunity to work together.”
JACKSON SMITH
60–90%
of cancer patients report poorly managed pain
“You have to learn each other’s languages because, even if you are talking about the same thing, you approach the topic from different angles.” Virginia LeBaron, assistant professor
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“We know sleep quality affects cardiovascular health, and know that blood pressure variability is an independent factor that predicts cardiovascular disease. So how can we connect the dots?” Jeongok Logan, assistant professor of nursing
Today, a $100,000 EIM seed pilot program grant is bringing together LeBaron’s expertise with late-stage cancer patients, Lach’s tech savvy, palliative care physician Leslie Blackhall’s patients, who were willing to volunteer as study subjects, and a device affectionately nicknamed “BESI.” BESI-C—which stands for Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer—is a package of wireless and sensing technology developed by Lach that continuously records external data—such as light levels, temperature, and noise volume—coupled with readings from a smart watch worn on the wrist monitoring a patient's heart rate, activity level, sleep duration, and quality of sleep. The smart watch is also used to collect data regarding a person’s mood or their pain levels through prompts with a simple question. To better understand cancer pain at home, when patients experience pain, or when their caregivers observe it, they mark the event on the watch, information that’s then integrated with environmental data to “create a rich context to help us understand not just that pain exists, but its context,” LeBaron explains. The data will ultimately provide a foundation on which personalized pain management strategies may be built. So if a patient’s pain appears linked to activity level in the home, or room temperature, for example, lighter clothing or the number of visitors may be appropriately shifted. In the highinterest field of precision medicine, BESI-C may be a gamechanger for cancer patients being cared for at home. “Our long-term goal for BESI-C is to actually help predict pain,” explains LeBaron, “and, equally importantly, empower patients and caregivers to intervene before an episode of pain actually takes place.” Looking at the same problem from the viewpoints of many disciplines also makes a difference in cracking the code of cancer pain, LeBaron says. “You have to learn each other’s languages,” she adds, “because, even if you are talking about the same thing, you approach the topic from different angles.”
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DATA IN DREAMS
NP+E
Taking on the number one cause of death in the United States requires expansive work from a world-class team, like the six UVA scholars currently linked across nursing, public health, mechanical engineering and medicine investigating the causes of cardiovascular disease. Sorting through more than 5,000 sleep recordings from UVA’s sleep lab—called polysomnographs, or PSGs—is Jeongok Logan, assistant professor of nursing and a scholar in cardiovascular disease, Min-Woong Sohn, a statistician, Jennifer Mason Lobo, a professor of public health sciences, Soyoun Kim, a social worker and research analyst in public health, Younghoon Kwon, a professor of medicine, and Hyojung Kang, a scholar in artificial intelligence and machine learning. “Previous studies have overlooked the multi-dimensional nature of sleep and its complex interactions with cardiovascular risk factors,” says Kang, “typically focusing on a single domain of sleep—like sleep quality, duration, and circadian rhythm—rather than on the entire spectrum of sleep simultaneously.” The yearlong, $132,000 study will drill down through the data using machine learning analytics to overcome the challenge of simultaneous assessment of the many variables contained in a good night’s sleep—first identifying which of the 5,000 patients have cardiovascular disease, and then seeking commonalities among them—to source those elements of disordered sleep that lead to hypertension and cardiovascular disease. “We want to know how sleep contributes to cardiovascular disease and health,” explains Logan. “We know sleep quality affects cardiovascular health, and know that blood pressure variability is an independent factor that predicts cardiovascular disease. So how can we connect the dots?” The search for a causal link between sleep disorders and cardiovascular risk will look at the many variables recorded during a PSG, including brain waves, eye and muscle movement, heart rate, breathing, oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. Lobo, Sohn, and Kang are programming and
RN+MD+ENG+DrPh+AI+MSW
+ENG+MD
managing the machine learning aspects of the data with engineering students tackling programming and input data alongside nursing students who use their clinical knowledge to validate data and identify outliers (a heart rate so far out of normal range that it indicates a device error, for example). Because of the significant size of the data set, part of the work involves nursing, medical, and engineering students trimming away unnecessary numbers, yielding information that Logan—who’s studied the sub-clinical markers of cardiovascular disease, and how people progress toward high blood pressure—will analyze. If the study is successful, the researchers hope to pinpoint the specific variables in sleep that put people at risk for cardiovascular problems. But the benefits are broader than that. Engineering students will also come to understand the clinical environment, and its terminology, helping them design with patient care in mind, while nursing students will grow familiar with the algorithms and programming necessary for predictive medicine.
VISUAL METAPHORS A keen interest in technology, coupled with a background in oncology and pediatric critical care, led Jessica Keim-Malpass (MSN ’05, CNL ’08, PhD ’11), an assistant professor of nursing, to join UVA’s Center for Advanced Medical Analytics, a group of clinicians and quantitative scientists dedicated to using clinical data to forecast illness. Led by Randall Moorman, a physician with background in computational predictive models and physiological research who heads Advanced Medical Predictive Devices, Diagnostics, and Displays (AMP3D), UVA’s commercial partner, the group is piloting new software to predict patient deterioration through a CoMET® (Continuous Monitoring of Event Trajectories) score. CoMET has already found early success in UVA’s Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where it helped caregivers predict interventions for catastrophic events before they became a life-threatening emergency.
What’s Machine Learning?
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he advent of the electronic medical record systems have created an incredible abundance of health information for scholars to mine. But how can investigators navigate this data tsunami without getting overwhelmed? That’s the task for engineering technology and a data analysis program type called “machine learning” that transforms a surplus of variables into meaningful data for health researchers. “Machine learning is the field of study that gives computers the ability to learn without explicitly being programmed,” explains Hyojung Kang, research assistant professor in the School of Engineering’s Systems and Information Engineering department. “It searches through noisy and massive amounts of information and identifies the hidden patterns and correlations within, which enables effective problem solving and accurate predictions. Machine learning is increasingly applied in the healthcare domain, ranging from the identification of risk factors associated with diseases to the evaluation of treatment effectiveness.” +
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RN+M
Jessica Keim-Malpass, assistant professor of nursing
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JACKSON SMITH
“Nurses want to know what goes into any model that's been developed to augment their care. We are trained to look for the why before we intervene.�
+MD+ENG+CS With $340,000 from UVA’s UVA’s Translational Health Institute of Virginia (THRIV), Keim-Malpass led the introduction of CoMET to UVA’s Surgical/Trauma ICU nurses, a natural fit given her in-depth understanding of ICU nursing, and work that’s helping shape the way the new system is conveyed to clinicians going forward. “Nurses want to know what goes into any model that’s been developed to augment their care,” explains Keim-Malpass, who notes that the CoMET visuals help clinicians get a quick read on what’s likely to happen with their patients. “We are trained to look for the why before we intervene.”
More than ever, today’s nurse scholars at UVA are eager collaborators, in stark contrast to decades of independent scientists who toiled alone toward breakthroughs that cemented their name in history. And while there is a place for lone researchers, today’s best scholarship is done hand-in-hand, combining the expertise and perspective of many, colleagues equal partners in the game. Discoveries that better our health and human life on our delicate planet are needed now more than ever. Thanks to the interdisciplinary cooperation of our scholars, UVA is getting that work done. +
CoMET’s why is based on data gathered every two seconds from vital monitoring equipment used in the ICU—heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and so forth. The software then crunches that data, yielding a portrait of risk for emergent intubation (on the x-axis) and hemorrhage (on the y-axis). Patients with elevated risk appear as sky-streaking comets, labeled by their room numbers. As risk increases, the comets grow larger, taking on distinctive red and orange hues. Still, a dramatic CoMET score doesn’t automatically mean clinicians intervene before a critical event takes place. It does mean, however, they’re likelier to be ready for it. “It’s hard to act on proactive data,” explains Keim-Malpass. “It can happen that you’re looking at your patient and, even though their breathing, heart rate, blood pressure are all good, you’ve got a CoMET score showing high likelihood of intubation. It can be hard to make sense of that at first.” Guided by principles of stakeholder engagement to inform CoMET’s introduction “recognizes nurses’ need to know what components go into the score, and how it turns out a number,” says Keim-Malpass. Creating a revolutionary patient care technology is in itself a challenge, but even studied and proven, its ultimate success depends on buy-in and implementation. Nurses, with good reason, are inherently critical thinkers who won’t act on interventions without rationale, Keim-Malpass notes. With the multitude of lessons learned from CoMET’s pilot, KeimMalpass, Moorman, and their colleagues are on a path toward better understanding the process of introducing new technology into the clinical context.
PARTNERS IN SCHOLARSHIP: Nurse researcher Keim-Malpass chats with CoMET creator Randall Moorman, MD, in the halls of UVA Medical Center.
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ANNUAL REPORT
$8,470,462
Total new gifts & commitments
FISCAL YEAR 2018 July 1, 2017 – June 30, 2018
$59,661,222 $515,833
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Endowment total
Nursing Annual Fund total — a new record! (76% contributed by the Dean’s Circle Leadership Annual Giving Group)
Increase in Global Scholarships
Simulation Center Upgrades
“I am so grateful for the contributions from generous alumni, who gave me the opportunity to travel to Roatan, Honduras, to provide care and do research, work that's helped me recognize my passion for nutrition and its role in preventative care. The impact has been profound on my life, and nursing education.”
“We've upgraded our movable work stations and sent our teams to simulation conferences to learn, clarify, and simplify communication processes, work that's since been merged into our nursing simulations and courses.”
Kendra Wisinski, MSN ’19
Ryne Ackard, director Mary Morton Parsons Clinical Simulation Learning Center
How the Annual Fund helps our School
admissions recruitment — 3%
simulation upgrades — 6%
global scholarships — 12%
nursing organizations and center support — 2%
White Coat Ceremony — 2%
student conference travel — 8% nursing student activities — 4%
nursing research awards — 5% faculty travel and professional development — 19%
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SANJAY SUCHAK
academic scholarships — 39%
IMPAC T
BEDTIME: A BOON FOR THE AGING BRAIN? BY CHRISTINE PHEL AN KUE TER
C
ould teaching individuals with mild cognitive decline sized actigraphs capture minute details about subjects’ sleep how to sleep better actually stave off their descent into and wake patterns, data that, with subjects’ pre- and postAlzheimer’s disease and dementia? intervention sleep diaries and interviews, will enable Mattos to That’s Meghan Mattos’ (COLL ’06, CNL ’09) focus. And assess sleep and cognitive change over time. with support from a $300,000 Translational Health Research While earlier versions of SHUTi have been tested and Institute (THRIV) grant, Mattos—an assistant professor who’s validated, this newer version—which is being evaluated as part studied rural-dwelling adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment of a National Institutes of Health grant—has been optimized for (MCI)—will assess the effect of an online sleep education adults 55 and older through the use of more senior actors and program developed by UVA psychology professor Lee Ritterband with the inclusion of topics more relevant to this population, in older adults with this early form of dementia. such as pain and nocturnia (the need to wake up several times The hypothesis, Mattos explains, is not only that the sixa night to urinate). week program may offer MCI patients non-pharmacological Older adults with MCI, who are significantly more likely insomnia relief, but that purposefully to develop Alzheimer’s and associated improving their sleep patterns through are familiar terrain for “We don’t know if bad sleep dementias, an accessible online program may slow Mattos. With the sizable proportion of is causing dementia, or their otherwise likely decline towards older adults who suffer from insomnia— Alzheimer’s. dementia is causing bad sleep, roughly one-third of older Americans— “We don’t know if bad sleep is causing “we’re looking at something that’s an but we do know that there’s dementia, or dementia is causing bad issue for a large part” of the population, a relationship between them.” Mattos says. sleep,” explains Mattos, “but we do know that there’s a relationship between them, Currently, there’s no known cure for and hope to find out what is causing what”—and what difference MCI. Current treatments focus on maintenance of cognitive a program like Ritterband’s SHUTi OASIS (Sleep Healthy function and management of behavioral symptoms to slow or Using the Internet for Older Adult Sufferers of Insomnia and delay disease symptoms. Sleeplessness) might make. “Targeting this at-risk group is important because there’s Recruiting subjects age 55 and older from UVA’s Memory no drug, and no way to ward off time to possible progression and Aging Care Clinic, Mattos will enroll individuals diagnosed to Alzheimer’s and other dementias,” says Mattos, “so if this with MCI and insomnia who, over six weeks, are taking a intervention improves these patients’ quality of life, and and series of online hour-long “core” classes: everything from gives more functional ability, and joy in life—well, that’s why we sleep hygiene to guided relaxation techniques. Wristwatchwant to do this.” +
1/5 Assistant professor Meghan Mattos, part of the School’s Aging Research Team. 20
Proportion of American adults over age 65 diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment (Gauthier, 2006)
Help advance our science! Interested in learning more about SHUTi OASIS, and the current ongoing trial for older adults with sleep difficulties? Please visit shutioasis.org for more information.
GUT REACTIONS BY CHRISTINE PHEL AN KUE TER
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“I think we’re largely unaware of the long-term effects prophylactic antibiotics administered to pregnant women have on infants.”
f our microbiotas are the metaphoric equivalent of forests, explains Stephanie Prescott (PhD ’19)—complex environments with various interdependent species of plants and animals—antibiotics are like forest fires, wiping out the flora and fauna that creatures rely upon. That’s the case with mouse pups born to mothers that were administered doses of commonly used antibiotics during gestation. But while the mouse mothers’ microbiota eventually returns to normal after just two to three doses of antibiotics, explains Prescott, changes to their babies’ microbiomes persist. “Now that we know that this limited exposure to antibiotics makes a long-lasting difference in offspring,” says Prescott, two years into her National Institute for Nursing Research (NINR)-funded program at the National Institutes of Health, “we need to understand what difference the difference makes.” For her dissertation, Prescott is focused on the effects prophylactic antibiotics have on mouse pups’ likelihood of obesity, cancer development, allergies, chronic inflammation, and their ability to withstand infection, as well as whether behaviors like breastfeeding mitigate these effects. It’s all part of work she’s doing with noted National Cancer Institute researcher and physician Giorgio Trinchieri, who is focused on the role of inflammation and innate resistance, and the impact that microbiota have in cancer development, progression, and therapies to fight it. Already, Prescott has found that female pups exposed to antibiotics during gestation, and then raised on a Western diet (35 percent fat, 50 percent carbs, very little fiber), are 37 percent more likely to be obese than those from mothers not exposed to antibiotics. In addition, both male and female offspring had fattier, more inflamed livers. And while it’s too early to advise limits on pregnant women’s exposure to antibiotics, Prescott—who also works as a neonatal nurse practitioner at INOVA Children’s Hospital— lately finds herself pausing before writing prescriptions for antibiotics, even as the vast majority of pregnant women receive antibiotics at least once, and more than 40 percent receive antibiotics immediately prior to delivery.1 “I’m not ready to say that we shouldn’t prescribe antibiotics, because they do save lives,” she says. “But whenever we decide to do anything, there’s this cost-benefit analysis, and I think we’re largely unaware of the long-term effects prophylactic antibiotics administered to pregnant women have on infants.” The work’s made Prescott appreciate the interplay between human beings and the bacteria living in and on us that assists with everything from digestion to immune function, an evolutionary language Prescott’s NINR mentor Wendy Henderson—herself an expert in digestive disorders—is fascinated by, too. As principal investigator for NINR’s Division of Intramural Research, Henderson’s also keenly invested in bringing voices like Prescott’s to the research table. “Training in these methods allows nurse scientists to know the language, and affects their perspective,” says Henderson. “Nurses have unique questions. Adding a nurse’s voice to this research has immense value.” + 1. Tejada, B. M. (2014). Antibiotic use and misuse during pregnancy and delivery: Benefits and risks. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 11, 7993-8009.
WATCH 'GUT REACTIONS' MAGAZINE.NURSING.VIRGINIA.EDU
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STUDENT IN FOC US
Home FINDING
BY LOUISA BAKER ILLUSTR ATIONS BY ALE X ANGELICH
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o Lance Hardcastle and Ceileigh Holsteen (both BSN ’20), the School of Nursing is much more than an academic institution; it’s a second home—a place not just for learning, but for community and character building. Recipients of the prestigious Jefferson Scholarship—offered annually to just three dozen students selected from a pool of more than 2,000 applicants—the duo brings a powerful combination of merit and mettle to the School. What the School has offered them, however, is just as noteworthy.
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“I’ve become a better person since coming here.” Lance Hardcastle (BSN ’20)
For Holsteen, who’s wanted to work in healthcare ever since her younger brother was a patient at a pediatric hospital, it was love at first sight. On her first tour of UVA, she discovered her guide had an externship in Holsteen’s hometown of Fort Worth, Texas—a coincidence that instantly made UVA feel closer to home. It wasn’t until a personal tragedy in her first year, however, that she felt the School’s full embrace.
“After the death of one my best friends from home, professor Christine Connelly let me sit in her office and cry, and even drove me directly from our final exam to the airport so I could make it to the funeral on time,” Holsteen recalls. “In one of the hardest moments of my life, she showed me that the School really is a family.” For Hardcastle, a native of Chatham, Va., whose academic ambition is enabling him to graduate in just three years, the journey’s been personal. “UVA changed my outlook,” he says. “I notice myself applying things
JEFFERSON SCHOLARS
2,000+ 35–40
applicants per year Jefferson Scholar recipients, annually
I’ve learned in class to my day-to-day life. Nursing school has made me more compassionate and empathetic, and the open, accepting environment here has made me interested in different people and cultures. I’ve become a better person since coming here.” Holsteen and Hardcastle bring their own gifts, too. Theresa Carroll, Hardcastle’s mentor and the School’s senior assistant dean for academic and student services, shares one such example: “Because Lance cares about sustainability, he wondered what it would take to get a water bottle refill station
$280k $150k
scholarship amount for non-Virginians over four years scholarship amount for Virginians over four years
“Nursing school has taught me that being kind knows no racial or cultural boundaries.” Ceileigh Holsteen (BSN ’20)
in McLeod Hall. So he put together a petition, and a couple hundred nursing students signed it, and thanks to his initiative, we have a new refill station ready for use this fall.” Beyond their undergraduate education, both Holsteen and Hardcastle plan to become nurse practitioners, but in the meantime, they’re eager to
gain a broader understanding of the healthcare system. Hardcastle hopes to work as a travel nurse in the United States or abroad—likely in Europe or South America—and Holsteen plans to explore a newfound interest in U.S. healthcare policy. And both say they’ll carve out career paths marked by kindness and inclusivity. “Nursing school has taught me that being kind knows no racial or cultural boundaries,” says Holsteen. “I hope to leave each person I meet happier than when I met them.” +
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NURSING ALUMNI AS SOCIATION
From the President
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n my home state of Connecticut, one can order a special license plate that exclaims, “Celebrate Nursing!” featuring Florence Nightingale’s lamp, a rising heart, and the words “Nurses Care.” When you purchase one of these plates, you help support the mission of the Connecticut Nurses' Foundation to fund scholarships that assist in building the nursing workforce of the future. Of course, I’ve placed my order!
LINNE A DAVIS
One of our themes for the Nursing Alumni Association this coming year will be similarly celebratory. Too often, we nurses are too busy caring for our patients, our families, and the communities we’re a part of to take a moment to reflect and celebrate what we do. This year is also a chance for us to celebrate and reflect on the amazing legacy of our beloved dean, Dorrie Fontaine. Please be sure to look for your forthcoming invitation to regional events honoring her—we look forward to seeing you there.
Finally, we were excited to honor three outstanding faculty members and three extraordinary alumni over dinner before our annual fall meeting last month. As always, we welcome your input for nominees for future alumni award winners—We know you are out there and we want to celebrate you. I look forward to celebrating with you in the year ahead! Sincerely,
Christa Hartch (BSN ’97) President, School of Nursing Alumni Association Greenwich, Connecticut P.S. We’d love for you to become involved with our Nursing Alumni Association. Would you consider joining one of our committees? Contact us: nursing-alumni@virginia.edu
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Honoring the Last Class of Diploma Graduates
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s 1968 was the final year in which the School graduated a diploma class, nearly 20 years after enrolling its first BSN students in 1950, last June’s Reunions weekend also marked the 50th anniversary of that class at a lively celebration in the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry. Forty-five alumni and their guests attended the reception that included diploma nurses from all across the country. Attendees heard remarks from Dean Dorrie Fontaine and Barbara Brodie, founding director of the Center and a professor emerita, and enjoyed an evening of reminiscing and reconnecting with classmates and friends. Many noted that the event was very special to them and helped them feel more connected to their UVA Nursing community. + Make sure you’re on the invitation list for upcoming alumni events! Send us your current contact info and email address: nursing-alumni@virginia.edu.
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2018 Faculty Award Winners
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very year, the Nursing Alumni Association recognizes three faculty members for their contributions to the School and the nursing profession. We are proud to honor the 2018 recipients:
Recognizing Extraordinary Alumni
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ach year, the School of Nursing Alumni Association honors individual alumni for their contributions and service to the nursing profession. Wish to nominate an outstanding graduate for next year’s awards? Nominations for the 2019 awards may be made by email, phone, or online: nursing-alumni@virginia.edu (434) 924-0138 nursing.virginia.edu/alumni/stay-engaged
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD Honoring outstanding contributions to the nursing profession Mattia Gilmartin (PhD ’99) Executive director, Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing
N DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR AWARD Emily Drake, PhD, RN, CNL, FAAN (BSN ’85, MSN ’93) Professor of Nursing Clinical Nurse Leader Program Coordinator
EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARD Maureen Metzger, PhD, RN Assistant Professor of Nursing
FACULTY LEADERSHIP AWARD Elizabeth Epstein, PhD, RN, FAAN Associate Professor of Nursing Chair, Acute & Specialty Care Department
amed NICHE’s executive director in 2016, Mattia Gilmartin has more than two decades of firsthand experience as a clinician, researcher, and teacher, and joined New York University’s College of Nursing as a senior research scientist in 2011. Established a quarter century ago, NICHE provides principles and tools to stimulate change in clinical practice to ensure that patients 65 and older receive sensitive and exemplary care. Based at NYU’s Meyers College of Nursing, NICHE partners with more than 500 hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout North America and, under Gilmartin’s leadership, has become the leading nurse-driven program helping hospitals and healthcare organizations improve the care of older adults. Gilmartin’s ability to bridge the worlds of research and practice has fortified her ability to design and teach leadership and organizational development programs for nursing and general management audiences. Before joining the NYU faculty, Gilmartin managed an interdisciplinary research group at INSEAD, a leading French business school, and designed and implemented a threesemester specialty track for Hunter-Bellevue School of Nursing’s Clinical Nurse Leader master’s program. In addition to earning a PhD in nursing from UVA, Gilmartin earned a bachelors and master’s degree in nursing, as well as an MBA, from the University of San Francisco. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge University’s Judge School of Management and, in 2000, received the Raven Award for outstanding achievement and service to UVA. Chair for the Academy of Management’s Health Care Management Division, and a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine and the National Academies of Practice, Gilmartin was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2018.
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ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Honoring alumni who have shown superior achievement in a field other than nursing Dawn M. Jones (BSN ’89) Attorney, the Firm of Dawn M. Jones, LLC
A DECADE AWARD Recognizing a recent graduate’s outstanding nursing career Catherine O’Malley (BSN ’11) Program director, New Graduate Residency and Nursing Retention University of Maryland Medical Center
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hen Cassie O’Malley began a career as an oncology nurse at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) after graduating from UVA, it wasn’t long before she was tapped to be nurse manager for the Greenebaum Comprehensive Cancer Center Stoler Pavilion’s Outpatient Oncology unit, at the helm of 80 employees. That’s no surprise to O’Malley’s nominators, who recall the passion and drive of the Daisy Award recipient who’s recently been named program director of UMMC’s New Graduate Residency and Nursing Retention initiative. According to nominators Page Dunbar (BSN ’11, MSN ’17) and Katelyn Overstreet Rybicki (BSN ’11, MSN ’16, DNP ‘17), “not only is Cassie an exceptional student in the classroom, she is clearly a compassionate and skilled clinician in the healthcare setting.” Dunbar and Rybicki both recall O’Malley “coming back from her practicum experience in the Emily Couric Cancer Center during her fourth year and describing how oncology nursing was her passion, so it was no surprise to see her flourish in this specialty area.” O’Malley earned an MSN from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, where she is currently pursuing a Doctor of Nursing Practice and doing work focused on the retention and resilience of new graduate nurses through the creation of retention workgroups and mentorship programs. For her final capstone project, O’Malley is implementing an Oncology Evaluation and Treatment Center pilot program within the Cancer Center, focusing on urgent symptom care management to reduce emergency department use and readmission geared for oncology patients at UMMC.
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fter graduating from UVA, Dawn Jones spent 14 years as a critical care nurse across a variety of urban ICU settings before starting a second career in law. Formerly a senior attorney at King & Spalding, and associate general counsel for Atlantabased Grady Health System, Jones established her own firm in 2014 to combine her love of nursing, medicine, and science with the practice of law. Today, Jones works on behalf of clients and families who’ve suffered injuries due to malpractice, slips, trips, and falls, car accidents, trucking collisions, nursing home negligence, wrongful death, and other tort-related matters. “The most important lesson the UVA School of Nursing taught me is to care—whatever the context,” says Jones. “Nursing is part of who I am, not just what I did, and it’s been pivotal to the legal work I’ve done and continue to do.” Active in local and state bar and nonprofit activities, Jones is a sought-after speaker on expert witnesses, product liability, nursing and physician malpractice, and professionalism to audiences throughout Georgia. Repeatedly lauded for her service and dedication to the legal profession and to the community at large, Jones received the 2015 Thomas R. Burnside Excellence in Bar Leadership Award from the Georgia State Bar, the 2012 Attorney A. T. Walden Legacy Award from the Gate City Bar Association Judicial Section, the 2012 Leadership Award from the Atlanta Bar Association, the 2010 Barbara A. Harris Award for Service to the Community from the Georgia Association of Black Women Attorneys, the 2010 R. Pruden Herndon Service Award from the Gate City Bar Association, and the 2010 Seth D. Kirschenbaum Diversity Award from the Multi-Bar Leadership Council, among others. Jones—who earned a BSN from UVA in 1989—earned a law degree from Georgia State University College of Law and an MSN from Georgetown University, where she was a student of Dean Fontaine’s. She has served on the School’s Advisory Board since 2016. +
REUNIONS 2019
1959 1964 1969 1974 1979 1984 1989 1994 1999 For information on nursing alumni events, contact the School of Nursing’s Alumni and Development Office: (434) 924-0138 To register for your reunion weekend, contact the UVA Alumni Association: (434) 243-9000, or visit: virginiareunions.com
35th, 40th, 45th, 50th, 55th, and 65th Reunion Classes and the Thomas Jefferson Society Classes of 1984, 1979, 1974, 1969, 1964, and 1959 Celebrating Reunions May 30 – June 2, 2019 Nursing Building Tours Friday, May 31 2:30–4 p.m. McKim Hall, McLeod Hall, Claude Moore Nursing Education Building Meet in the McLeod Hall lobby at 2:30. Faculty and students will lead tours. 50-Year Reunion and Thomas Jefferson Society Luncheon Saturday, June 1 Noon–1:30 p.m. Newcomb Hall Ballroom Nursing Alumni Reception Saturday, June 1 4–6 p.m. Pavilion IX Garden, West Lawn
5th, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th, and 30th Reunion Classes Classes of 2014, 2009, 2004, 1999, 1994, and 1989 Celebrating Reunions June 7–9, 2019 School of Nursing Open House Friday, June 7 2–3:30 p.m. McLeod Hall, Claude Moore Nursing Education Building Meet in the McLeod Hall lobby for a self-guided tour of McLeod Hall and the Claude Moore Education Building. Stop by the Clinical Simulation Learning Center and the Resilience Rooms to talk with students and faculty. Nursing Alumni Picnic Lunch Saturday, June 8 Noon–1:30 p.m. Pavilion IX Garden, West Lawn
Do you have photographs, letters, or other memorabilia from your time as a UVA School of Nursing student, or from the early days of your nursing career? Consider donating these items to the Eleanor Crowder Bjoring Center for Nursing Historical Inquiry to add to your reunion experience and to help preserve nursing history. Contact us: nurs-hxc@virginia.edu or (434) 924-0083.
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CL AS S NOTES AND NE WS
Mixed Class Years
Emilia Braun (BSN ’12), Judy Sutton Hammond (BSN ’76), and Julie Grishaw (BSN ’07, MSN ’10) were UVA Health System’s 2018 Nursing Excellence Award recipients while Dawn Bourne (BSN ’04, MSN ’10, DNP ’16) and Amy Gilchrist (BSN ’15) received the School’s Outstanding Student Preceptor Awards for 2018.
1
1970s
The National Center for Health Care Leadership awarded Nancy Howell Agee (BSN ’79) its Gail L. Warden Leadership Excellence Award for 2018, noting that Nancy “finds ways to inspire, encourage and persuade, be curious and celebrate the strengths of others.” Nancy, a key architect at the Virginia Tech Carillion School of Medicine, is chair of the American Hospital Association.
2
1990s
Sheldon Barr (BSN ’93, MSN ’98) was named chief operating officer for HCA Virginia’s Chippenham Hospital. Previously COO at Portsmouth Regional Hospital in New Hampshire, Sheldon also earned an MBA from Western Governor’s University and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt in Healthcare from Villanova.
2000s
Jolie W. Crowder (MSN ’00), currently pursuing a PhD in nursing at UVA, received the Tamkin Scholar Award at the University of South Carolina Symposium on Elder Abuse, held in Pasadena, CA, in March, 2018. Sara Wassel (BSN ’09, MSN ’14) and Harrison Covall—married on February 25, 2018, in Washington, D.C.—welcomed son Maxwell Willis Covall July 19, 2018. The couple currently resides in Old Greenwich, CT. 1
3
5
4
Rhonda Barton-Joe Wade (BSN ’09)—a clinical educator for GE Healthcare— married Russel Wade May 19, 2018, in Richmond, VA. The couple resides in Washington, D.C. 2
2010s
On May 13, 2018, Darcy Alimenti (BSN ’14), Claire Hunn (BSN ’14), Alexandra Hunt (BSN ’13), Michelle Maiers (BSN ’13) and Abigael (Abby) Whitaker (BSN ’14) each graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with master’s degrees 28
in nursing. Says Claire: “We will forever love UVA, but it has been wonderful to continue to be friends and classmates during grad school!” 3 Rachel Holland Wetherill (BSN ’13) gave birth to son Jacob on May 25, 2018. Rachel—who worked as an elementary school nurse in the Hampton City Public Schools before going on maternity leave— lives with husband Jarrod in Yorktown, VA. 4 Page Dunbar (BSN ’11, MSN ’17)—a nurse practitioner with UVA Medical Center’s Enhanced Recovery After Surgery and the Acute Pain Service—and Arjun Muthusubramanian (MD ’15, MPH ’15) married in Richmond, VA, on April 7, 2018. The couple resides in Charlottesville. 5
Abigail Harries (BSN ’14) began work as a critical care fellow at Intermountain Healthcare, the only state-of-the-art post-graduate training program for nurse practitioners and physician assistants in the Western U.S., becoming the first nurse practitioner to hold this prestigious position. Muriel Hollandsworth (BSN ’15, MSN ’21) received one of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association’s Board of Directors scholarships for 2018, one of just 30 students chosen from around the country. UVA Health System nurse Susan Murphy (BSN ’14) received the Daisy Award in January 2018, after being nominated by a patient who lauded her “positive attitude and encouraging words.” “Without
her,” the patient wrote, “I would have been completely lost on this journey.” Victoria Tucker (BSN ’12, PhD ’19) received the Barbara Brodie Scholars Endowment Award for her work, “Moving Lines: Black Nurses’ Experiences during Desegregation, 1950–1980,” as well as an American Association for the History of Nursing H-31 Pre-doctoral Research Grant for the work. CORRECTION: In the spring 2018 issue of Virginia Nursing Legacy, we misattributed a photo of UVA Medical Center clinician Ashley (Browne) Wade (BSN ’15), who was honored at the VNA Gala last fall for exceptional patient care and safety. We regret the error. +
In Memoriam 1940s
Frances M. Harryman (DIPLO ’44) Charlottesville, VA MARCH 29, 2018 Alison D. Crews (DIPLO ’45) Great Falls, VA JANUARY 27, 2018 Maxine K. Leveque (DIPLO ’47) Mechanicsville, VA MARCH 2, 2018 Shirley Lawrence Love (DIPLO ’47) Lynchburg, VA MAY 15, 2018 Ada S. Northrop (DIPLO ’47) Watertown, NY JULY 1, 2018 Frances L. Robison (DIPLO ’47) Indian Harbour Beach, FL FEBRUARY 20, 2018 Jean H. Brown (DIPLO ’48) Springfield, VA APRIL 21, 2018 Joann M. Lowdon (DIPLO ’48) Roanoke, VA MAY 22, 2018 Kathleen V. Marshall (DIPLO ’48) Roanoke, VA FEBRUARY 8, 2018 Dorothy R. Ringer (DIPLO ’48) Ewing, NJ DECEMBER 16, 2016
Kathryn Short Carr (DIPLO ’49) Charlotte, NC MARCH 11, 2018
Dorothea Myers (BSN ’60) Roanoke, VA MAY 9, 2018
Betsy Pharr Kuehn (DIPLO ’49) Cary, NC MAY 1, 2018
1970s
1950s
Alice Andrews Bilbo (BSN ’71) Clarksville, VA MAY 24, 2018
Ethelene N. Schelling (DIPLO ’51) Seattle, WA MAY 31, 2018
Mary Hahl Bracke (BSN ’76) Plainsboro, NJ NOVEMBER 10, 2017
Lee C. McLawhon (DIPLO ’52) Independence, VA JANUARY 16, 2018
Elizabeth A. Hollingsworth (BSN ’77) Middletown, VA MAY, 31, 2018
Mrs. Shirley M. Herring (NUR ’56) Kinston, NC JUNE 6, 2018
Carolyn Watson Winn (BSN ’78) Atlanta, GA JUNE 17, 2018
Joyce Longanacre Stokes (DIPLO ’57) Moneta, VA MARCH 30, 2018
1980s
1960s
Martha Thomas Morton (BSN ’63) Wall Township, NJ MARCH 3, 2018 Dana Slusher Anfin (BSN ’67) Lexington, VA MARCH 19, 2018 Barbara McMahon (BSN ’69, DIPLO ’65) Napa, CA APRIL 1, 2018
Shirley Perry (BSN ’88) Centreville, VA June 30, 2018
1990s
Myra J. Swan (MSN ’93, BSN ’91) Charlottesville, VA APRIL 4, 2018 Felice Marie Frederick (BSN ’95) Arlington, VA MARCH 6, 2018 Manuel V. Calayo (BSN ’99) Virginia Beach, VA MAY 27, 2018 + 29
ALUMNI PROFILE
A Nurse’s Place
Bethany Sarosiek (CNL ’12)
BY JE S SIC A EUS TACE
T
here’s a photo in Bethany Sarosiek’s office that recalls a lesson from her nursing school days. Titled “If I think I can,” it pictures a harsh, rocky cliff, barren of vegetation save a single tree, its leaves lush and green. For Sarosiek, the visual metaphor is a reminder that even when things feel most impossible, there’s hope to be had. “My preceptor’s lessons live on each time I glance up,” says Sarosiek. “’One day at a time. Small simple steps. You, too, will bloom.’” It’s an ethos that has served Sarosiek well in her role as program lead in the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) program at UVA Medical Center, hired in 2014 in the hospital’s first nursing position requiring a Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) degree. Initially drawn to the field of medicine—even taking the MCATs at one point—Sarosiek says the CNL program proved the perfect fit. Today, with teams of surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, pharmacists, and informaticists, Sarosiek creates evidence-based standardized care pathways around surgery to augment patients’ comfort, optimize their physiological function, and speed up their recovery time while also reducing patient and family stress. The job requires a high level of comfort interacting with a range of interprofessional colleagues, a keen understanding of each clinician’s role, as well as a painstaking approach to detail—work, she says, she was well-prepared for during her nursing education. And ERAS’ data-driven approach to patient recovery is working, already yielding dramatic reductions in patients’ length of stay, opioid use, postoperative complications, and significant cost-savings. To Sarosiek, there’s no better person for the job than a nurse. Nurses “see the bigger picture in creating and standardizing patient care,” she explains. “A nurse identifies and pulls all of those pieces together, then brings all disciplines to the table for the discussion.” Being a nurse gives Sarosiek credibility and clout, too. “You can’t just talk the talk,” she says. “You have to walk the walk, too.” Sarosiek’s CNL stride has also gotten her acclaim. One of just 11 recipients of the 2018 Leonard Sandridge Outstanding Contribution Award, having been nominated by her team—both “humbling and overwhelming,” she says—it’s her proudest career moment to date. Still, she saves the biggest kudos for her team. “I think it speaks to the dedication of my ERAS colleagues,” says Sarosiek, “and what we can accomplish together when we work toward a single goal.” + 30
“You can’t just talk the talk. You have to walk the walk, too.”
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IN THEIR OWN WORD S
In Praise of Preceptors
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nne Norwood, a pediatric nurse practitioner at Lynchburg, Va.’s Johnson Health Center (seen here with six-month-old patient Naomi Hernandez)—a primary care clinic for vulnerable populations of children and adults serving 20,000 patients across four counties—has practiced for 27 years, 23 of which she’s mentored nursing students—her way, she says, of paying it forward.
/'priˌsɛptər/ (noun) An expereinced clinician who supervises nursing students in a clinical setting giving them practical patient experience.
Are there special things students always learn from you?
Whether I deserve it or not, I get credit for a lot of wisdom that’s spread out there. It’s not so much the terms, or the advice, as it is focus areas. Students know You’re a busy nurse in a bustling clinic. pediatric development backwards and Why precept? forwards, up and down, when they finish I enjoy it, and it’s a good thing to do— their 15 weeks with me. The difference and it’s our professional responsibility. between what somebody does at six Nurses are focused broadly on months and nine months is important. education, whether it’s patients, My dad was a dentist, so also I parents, or other professionals—and stress oral care. When that first tooth for me, that always struck a chord. comes in, we say, “OK, now you’ve got a Precepting continues the wave! tooth and you’ve got to keep it clean.” No bottles in bed. Many people don’t [Precepting] really makes begin brushing until kids have a full set of a difference, and by the teeth—that's too late. way, somebody did it for I also stress realistic history-taking you. It’s giving back; and charting, which it’s our responsibility. is valuable in the real world. If the kid’s in here for a cold, we What are your students like? don’t necessarily need to ask if their eczema is flaring up. Same with the I love teaching NP students. They’re physical exam: You’ve got to find that pretty self-motivated; they come balance between accuracy and ready to learn and perform so well completeness but also efficiency. that it makes my job easy, and makes Then there are the tricks of the teaching a pleasure. trade: how to hold the otoscope on squirming kids; How to examine a baby when they’re in mom’s lap—three-
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quarters of exams are done that way; how to evaluate the child as you’re talking with the mom even before you lay a hand on them; how to group questions so they’re logically connected. And many times, we make our best guess. You’re often not going to see 100 percent of an eardrum—you’ll likely see 50 percent. Is that enough to make a call? Usually it is. Trust yourself. And remember to talk to the person who can talk to you, whether it’s a five-year-old or a teenager. “Tell me what’s going on,” rather than, “Are you anxious?” will usually get you more of a response. Don’t lead the witness. Has precepting changed your nursing? It's kept me on my toes. Students are often up on the very latest research, and while I keep up-to-date, there’s always a lot of information coming in, so I learn from them as well. Sometimes, my students talk in a way with a parent that I might not have considered, and I see that it works. In practice, you can get in a rut, saying the same thing, teaching the same thing—but with someone else there, you're a learner, too. + Are you an advanced practice nurse curious about precepting? Contact Christine Kennedy, associate dean for academic programs: cmk4k@virginia.edu
VIRGINIA MOMENT S
DEAR DIARY
NOTES FROM THE WWI FRONT
F ROM THE ELE ANOR CROWDER BJORING CENTER FOR NURSING HIS TORIC AL INQUIRY, AND HISTORY OF PROFESSIONAL NURSING IN THE UNITED STATES: TOWARD A CULTURE OF HE ALTH (2017, SPRINGER).
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t was July, 1918, when 23-year-old Albemarle County, Va., native Camilla Louise Wills (1894–1994, DIPLO ’17)— “Katie” to those who knew her—boarded the USS Cartago and sailed to France to be an American Red Cross Nurse at Base Hospital No. 41 in Saint Denis, just north of Paris. Though she was well-educated and prepared—at UVA, Camp Dix, NJ, and Ellis Island, NY—the work was intense, and often overwhelming. A day after Wills’ arrival, more than 100 casualties flooded the “hospital,” a medical compound fashioned in and around the École de la Légion d'Honneur, an 18th century school. Arriving men needed medical attention, hot food, dressing changes, and baths. Many bore wounds that needed regular cleaning and irrigation, and shrieked in pain through the night. Sleeping when she could, Wills worked feverishly that fall, tending patients during the height of the 1918 influenza epidemic that ravaged Europe and the United States alike. “There are so many awfully sick boys that we don’t have any hours off duty during the day and work overtime at night,” Wills wrote in her diary, where she faithfully documented her patient load, work schedule, and the chilly French weather. “I am in the dressing room at present so of course see all the wounds, a gruesome sight.” Wills cared for hundreds of wounded soldiers between August, 1918, and January, 1919, an experience that, after WWI’s end, compelled her return to school and pursuit of a career in teaching and public health. Had she had a stronger foundation in biology prior to her service, Wills realized, she could have better alleviated many soldiers’ needless suffering. Teaching health education, physiology, and biology for the remainder of her career, Wills retired to Charlottesville in the early 1960s, the place she had always considered home. +
Wills’ diary, among hundreds of other artifacts, are currently on display at the Harrison-Small Gallery, at the UVA Library, as part of UVA Health System exhibit “200 Years of Learning, Research, and Care” through January, 2019.
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OCTOBER
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BSN open house MSN & DNP graduate information session 13 Homecomings: Nursing alumni reception and brunch (Pavilion IX) 16 Nursing History Forum: “Historical Research and the 1918 Influenza Pandemic,” with Arlene Keeling 16 RN to BSN information session: Blue Ridge Community College 17 Self-defense workshop, with Crystal Toll 19 Continuing Education: Wisdom & Well-Being Speaker Series, with Nicole Defenbaugh 19 Inauguration: President Ryan 20 BSN open house 20 Continuing Education: Movement Disorders Symposium 23 CCI Lecture Series: “What Makes an Organization Compassionate?” with Lili Powell 24–26 Continuing Education: State-of-the-Art Generalist Medicine, the 45th Annual Edward W. Hook Jr., MD, conference 26–28 UVA Family Weekend
NOVEMBER 1–4 Virginia Film Festival screening of América, with post-film panel co-sponsored by the Haney Interprofessional Conference, CCI, UVA Schools of Nursing and Medicine, Hospice of the Piedmont, and Sentara Martha Jefferson 5 Office for Nursing Research seminar: “Building the Science of Compassion: Engagement and Opportunities in Palliative Care Research,” with Jeri Miller, NINR 9 Graduate information session: National Student Nurses Association 36th Annual MidYear Career Planning Conference
MIND THE GAP 10
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7–10 Train-the-Trainer Faculty Development Program conference, Center for ASPIRE 12 Zula Mae Baber Bice Lecture: “After When Breath Becomes Air,” with Lucy Kalanithi, MD 13 CCI Event: Creative Arts Workshop 14 Beta Kappa Research Series: “Assessing Type 2 Workplace Violence in Home Health Care,” with Ha Do Byon 21–25 Thanksgiving recess
DECEMBER 7 Fall courses end 10–18 Exams
JANUARY 2019 2–12 J-Term 14 Spring semester begins
FEBRUARY TBD
Alumni Council winter meeting
MARCH 9
Alumni Reception at the Virginia Council for Nurse Practitioners Annual Conference in Roanoke, VA 9–17 Spring Break
Zula Mae Baber Bice Lecture: “Standing at the Edge: Finding Freedom Where Fear and Courage Meet,” with Roshi Joan Halifax, in celebration of CCI’s 10th anniversary 14–16 Agnes Dillon Randolph International Nursing History and 21st Southern Association for the History of Medicine and Science Conferences
APRIL 2
Nursing History Forum: “Caring for the Huddled Masses: Nursing on Ellis Island,” with Michelle Hehman 5–7 Black Alumni Weekend 9 Giving to Hoos Day 16 Melton D. and Muriel Haney Interprofessional Conference on Compassionate Care at the End of Life TBD Catherine Strader McGehee Memorial Lecture, with Amy Black, COO, Sentara Martha Jefferson Hospital
MAY 6–12 National Nurses Week 10 End of spring semester exams 18 School of Nursing Pinning and Hooding ceremonies 19 Final Exercises/School of Nursing ceremonies
JUNE 5/30– Reunions: Thomas Jefferson Society 6/2 and Classes of 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, and 1984 7–9 Reunions: Classes of 1989, 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and 2014
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