Vital Signs - Winter 2018

Vital Signs

WINTER 2018 | VOLUME 32 | NUMBER ONE

Nurses lead From research to practice to philanthropy, UIC nurses step forward

IN THIS ISSUE Wisdom from alumni nurse executives Researcher tackles preterm birth IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC

Table of Contents

5 34 DEAN Terri E. Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN CHIEF EDITOR Liz Miller CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Liz Miller, Julie Mulzoff, Sam Hostettler, Jeffron Boynes, Steven George PHOTOGRAPHERS Mark Mershon, Diane Smutney, Chris Withers GRAPHIC ARTIST Joanne Chappell

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A VIEW FROM THE TOP Four alumni nurse leaders muse on innovations in the field, the importance of mentors, and advice for the next generation

LEADING ROLE Alumna M. Christine Schwartz takes action to ensure the best education for future UIC nurses

UIC NURSING IS AGLOW WITH IGNITE The college makes strides toward the $33 million part it will play in the university’s $750 million campaign

A M AT T E R O F T I M E With premature birthrates on the rise in the U.S., nurse researcher Barbara McFarlin wants to diagnose risk before it’s too late.

GRAPHIC DESIGNER Patrick Falso, Allegro Design Inc. UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING OFFICE OF ADVANCEMENT Steven George, Assistant Dean Liz Miller, Director, Marketing and Public Affairs Matthew Campion, Associate Director, Development Sara Almassian, Assistant Director, Alumni Engagement and Participation Gina Mancari, Advancement Coordinator Mark Mershon, Multimedia Associate Joanne Chappell, Digital Imaging Specialist

Departments 4 Message from the Dean 10 Student Spotlight: Faye Lewis

Vital Signs is published for the alumni, faculty, students and friends of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing. © 2018

23 College of Nursing News

Your comments are welcomed: University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing (MC 802) 845 S. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60612 Phone: 312-996-7800 Email: lhmiller@uic.edu Web: nursing.uic.edu Facebook: UIC.CON Twitter: @uicnursing Instagram: uicnursing

8 Updates from UIC Nursing Campuses 2 Beyond Chicago 38 Come Together: Events of the Past Year

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Message from the Dean During the UIC College of Nursing’s yearlong celebration of our 65th anniversary, culminating in October 2016, we touted the fact that we had been “educating nurse leaders for 65 years.” It was an accurate and proud statement that spoke to our decades-long reason for being: to advance nurses as distinct voices in leadership of healthcare practice, systems, policy and research.

This issue of Vital Signs stands in evidence of our assertion that we produce nurse leaders.

In “A View from the Top,” we present leaders in the form of four alumni who joined us as panelists for a presentation during our REUNION in September 2017. In a lecture hall crowded with attentive guests, they recounted how they charted personal paths to top leadership roles at broadly respected institutions, aided by their UIC Nursing degrees.

This issue also reintroduces alumna M. Christine Schwartz, whose leadership-level giving to improve facilities at our Chicago campus is rooted in her understanding that people who are drawn to nursing are natural leaders, eager to work in a field where consequential decision-making and meaningful interpersonal interactions are routine occurrences. Whether they ever work at a bedside, those who pursue nursing share a drive to improve upon current conditions. That’s leadership, and Ms. Schwartz seeks to ensure UIC Nursing students can learn to drive change in environments that inspire and support them.

Research leadership is exemplified by three-time alumna and current professor Barbara McFarlin. In more than three decades of working as a midwife, Dr. McFarlin formulated questions about why some women delivery babies preterm and what health professionals might do to prevent these occurrences, which put babies at increased risk for mortality or long-term health and developmental problems. Rather than wait for someone else to address these questions, she herself took the lead, embarking on a research career so productive that NIH has just awarded her more than $2 million in funding to take it to the next level.

And our college itself is acting as a leader in IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC. The College of Nursing intends to contribute $33 million to the campuswide IGNITE goal of $750 million. It’s our most ambitious fundraising goal in history, but I’m proud to say we’re already nearly halfway there, having raised $16.1 million, which is more than our college raised in the entirely of the last UIC capital campaign.

This is UIC Nursing. These are the nurses we prepare, the people we inspire, the knowledge we produce. And as alumni and supporters, all of you are UIC Nursing, too. Your affiliation with our college adds to the body of evidence of our excellence.

You give us the benefit of reputation-by-association, and that helps bring us yet more opportunities to produce nurse leaders for Illinois and far beyond.

For this, I thank you.

Terri E. Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN Professor and Dean

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A VIEW from the top

Four alumni nurse leaders muse on innovations in the field, the importance of mentors, and advice for the next generation There are people who hold jobs in leadership, and then there are leaders. Leaders respect their profession, their power and their people. They look forward. They offer a vision. They embrace change, promote diversity and expand circles. Leaders inspire people to follow.

This only begins to describe the four alumni nurse leaders who made up a lively panel—sharing their personal stories and their acquired wisdom—during the UIC College of Nursing REUNION on Sept. 9, 2017. Trish Anen, Susan Okuno-Jones, Jill Rogers and Brian Stahulak riveted even the most seasoned alumni in the audience.

If you missed it, not to worry. On these pages we offer a digest of the Q&A forum and the insights shared by these unmistakable nurse leaders.

Why did you become a nurse?

Susan Okuno-Jones: When I was in high school, I played the flute, and I did everything to prepare myself to pursue a career in music. I planned to study at the University of Illinois, but my father said, “Susan, I’m proud of you, but what are you going to do with music?” Around the same time, during my junior year in high school, my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer, and I found myself in the position of being her caretaker. When she was hospitalized, I sat at her bedside and watched. I saw what great, compassionate care looks like, and I was saw what not-so-great, not-socompassionate care looks like. At that point, I made up my mind.

Trish Anen: I knew I wanted to become a nurse in high school. I always liked the sciences, and I actually had an opportunity to work in healthcare: for a veterinarian!

I loved the medicine and assisting in surgery, and I loved working with families, but I wanted my patients to talk. So one day I just realized, “I want to be a nurse.”

Brian Stahulak: When I started college, I didn’t go into nursing at first. I was a business major, but after my first year, I decided that probably wasn’t the way I wanted to go. So that summer I spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to do with my career—what were some of the things that I thought I could be successful at. I don’t have any family members who are nurses.

I didn’t have any profound personal experience with nursing. But I knew that I wanted to do something with medicine, to work with people, to help support and help advocate for others that maybe couldn’t do that for themselves. So nursing seemed like the place I wanted to be.

Jill Rogers: My first job in high school was as an aide in a nursing home, and I loved that role. And everyone said I should go to nursing school.

But like Susan, I wanted to pursue a music career, so I did a bachelor of music degree in voice, and went on to get a master’s degree in vocal teaching. After graduating, I was directing a church choir and teaching some private lessons, and I realized, this is not a way for me to earn a living. So I ended up going back and pursuing an associate degree, because at that point, that was the most expeditious way of finishing my nursing degree.

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About these nurse leaders Trish Anen, RN, BSN ’78, MBA, NEA-BC

Principal and Leader of Advanced Practice Clinician Workforce Practice S U L L I VA N , C O T T E R A N D A S S O C I AT E S I N C .

Trish Anen has more than 30 years of combined clinical, executive and consulting experience. Her expertise is in advanced practitioner integration and optimization on the provider team, as well as development of the infrastructure necessary to support these roles. Prior to joining Sullivan Cotter, she served as vice president for advisory services for the Illinois Health and Hospital Association and she led Edward Hospital in Naperville, IL, to Magnet designation as their chief operating officer and chief nursing officer. Anen is a fellow of the Institute of Medicine of Chicago.

Jill Rogers, RN, PhD ’96

Vice President of Resident Care V I , A FA M I LY O F C O N T I N U I N G C A R E R E T I R E M E N T COMMUNITIES

Jill Rogers is responsible for overseeing all aspects of nursing care and health-related services for residents of Vi, a network of continuing care retirement communities across the U.S. Prior to joining Vi, Rogers served as Magnet program director at Northwestern Memorial Hospital; as associate chief nurse for the Loyola University Health System; and as assistant vice president for patient care services at Rush North Shore Medical Center. She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the American Organization of Nurse Executives and the Illinois Organization of Nurse Leaders.

What innovations are happening in nursing, and how can early- to mid-career nurses help lead the change?

Stahulak: Healthcare is changing at such a dramatic pace.

The way that we practice medicine and nursing today are very different than when I started 20 years ago. So the most important thing for young nurses is just to embrace change and innovation as a part of what we do on a continual basis.

I think that there are two ways that innovation is really affecting nursing. One is around how we deliver care in a different, value-based ways, while still improving quality.

I’m talking about things like telemedicine and using apps and wearable devices; we have to accept these things as part of how we’re going to deliver care.

As that emerges, nurses should be involved in figuring out how we develop the protocols and the training and the education for those technologies. How do we utilize them as part of our coordinated care efforts and discharge planning?

The other area where innovation is happening is patient satisfaction and patient engagement. Medicine has really become a consumer-driven industry, and we have to be thoughtful about the experiences we’re putting forward for those who choose us. At Lurie Children’s, we are looking at ways to enhance engagement. Again, we are leveraging IT solutions for that, so being comfortable with technology is going to be very important for the next generation of nurses.

One last thing I would add is that, whenever we’re implementing any type of innovations or strategies, it’s important, first, to do it in an evidenced-based way, and second, to make sure the experiences we have and results we get are documented, presented and published. Our job is to elevate practice and drive evidence-based practice, so we need to share innovations in order to move nursing practice forward.

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Anen: A change I’m seeing is that we were focused for a very long time on episodes of care. A patient would come, you’d take care of them, and they’d go home. Now, payers, the government, really everybody is suggesting that we need to work closely with patients and their families from cradle to grave. Our goal now is to make sure that people are as healthy as possible and stay out of hospitals.

We’ll always have a need for acute care, but we really need to focus much more on prevention and education and communication. We have so many different types of patients, so how do we best communicate? How do we engage? How do we make sure that they understand? And, as Brian said, how do we use technology as our support system, but still maintain that personal connection and relationship?

Some people see this and think, “Oh no! The whole world of healthcare’s changing!” But it’s a model that’s really very natural to nurses. The nursing model is holistic. It starts with the idea of prevention and education and, of course, critical care. As we go forward, there will be amazing opportunities for nurses as leaders in this change.

Okuno-Jones: As we talk about leading change, I’d like to offer something for us to think about. In some ways, in nursing, we are our own worst enemy. The physical therapy profession has decided the doctorate is going be their entry-level degree.

In nursing, we don’t even require a bachelor’s to enter the field.

Nurses are the largest and most trusted workforce; that means we have leverage, and we can do more to build ourselves up professionally.

Susan Okuno-Jones, RN, MS ’06, DNP ’10

Brian Stahulak, RN, BSN ’97, MBA, NEA-BC

A D V O C AT E G O O D S A M A R I TA N H O S P I TA L

A N N & R O B E RT H . L U R I E C H I L D R E N ’ S H O S P I TA L OF CHICAGO

Vice President and Chief Nurse Executive

Prior to joining Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital, Susan Okuno-Jones was the vice president of nursing practice and innovation for Advocate Health Care, where she led the development of a systemwide approach to nursing professional practice that included evidence-based practice and nursing research. She has held various leadership positions including Magnet program director and executive director of service lines.

Besides her graduate degrees and her APN license, Okuno-Jones holds ANCC certifications for nurse executive-advanced and nursing professional development.

How have you handled difficult leadership decisions?

Rogers: When I worked at Rush NorthShore in Skokie, the hospital was going through a number of financial exigencies, and we needed to close some programs, which meant losing nurses because we no longer had positions for them. The nurses were absolutely fabulous people that I knew really well. So we spent a lot of time planning how were we going to inform people. The unit manager and I met with each individual employee to talk with them about options that were available. I feel like we managed to do it in a very compassionate and sensitive way, but it was incredibly difficult.

We all have to make those hard decisions. But regardless of what the decision is, you can still choose the how. How are you going to handle it? You can’t pull away from that as a leader. You have to work really hard to find the best solution and to do it in a way that’s thoughtful and as kind as you can make it. You have to take care of your people.

Okuno-Jones: I’ve been with Advocate for over 30 years, but when I went to Good Samaritan as chief nurse [in June 2016], that was my first post at Good Sam. And I came in with a vision: I was going to save the world! But then I realized I had to purposefully step back. I didn’t want to redo or undo the great work that had been done. I had to work within Good Sam’s history to move the team along.

Then there came a day when the leadership team sat down to look at everybody’s scope, roles and responsibilities, and we found opportunities to elevate some staff, and also to shift others out. That was really difficult because I had worked with these folks and used their expertise in so many ways. When that happens, it’s so important for people to understand the reasons. Why are you doing this? They have to know there’s a clear vision. Transparency and compassion are essential. We’re going to have to deliver some degree of bad news to somebody every day. Like Jill said, it’s all about how we do that.

Chief Nursing Officer

Brian Stahulak is responsible for oversight of nursing and APRN services at Lurie Children’s and its satellite locations. He has driven continuous improvement at Lurie Children’s by enhancing nursing processes, cultivating leadership, enforcing continued education and certification, and increasing the role of nurses in clinical governance. He served as co-leader of the initiative that earned Lurie Children’s Magnet designation for nursing excellence for an unprecedented fourth time.

Before becoming CNO, he was senior director in ambulatory services and director of solid organ transplantation.

UIC NURSES LEAD in higher education It’s not uncommon for UIC Nursing alumni to go on to leadership posts in other nursing schools, many all the way to the dean’s desk. Here are a few currently holding that title.

• Karen Allen, PhD ’92, Dean, College of Nursing and Health Professions, Valparaiso University • Nanthaphan Chinlumprasert, PhD ’00, Dean, Faculty of Nursing Science, Assumption University, Bangkok • Mark Foreman, PhD ’92, John L. and Helen Kellogg Dean of Nursing, College of Nursing, Rush University • Julie Anne Hoff, PHD ’99, MS ’93, Dean, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi • Lisa Hopp, PhD ’92, MS ’88, Dean, College of Nursing, Purdue University Northwest • Caroline Mallory, MS ’93, BSN ’91, Dean, College of Health and Human Services, Indiana State University • Yajai Sitthimongkol, MS ‘92, PhD ’94, Dean, Faculty of Nursing, Mahidol University, Bangkok

“I always remember that I’m a nurse first, and everything else comes second.”

– Brian Stahulak

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How do you view the importance of mentors?

Anen: I feel so blessed to have had many mentors—people who saw something in me, believed in me and said, “I want you to do X.” And I’d think, “Really?” At my first couple of executive jobs, I kept a box under my desk, because I was sure someone would eventually come in and say, “You have no clue what you’re doing.” But each time someone trusted and believed in me. And when I had a question, they were there to help me. So whether it was the person who mentored me through my first code, or the person who said, “You need to get a graduate degree,” or the person who said, “You need to publish this”—those people taught me to take a chance to try to build something.

And it’s my job now to offer those opportunities to others—to help people find what’s best in themselves, because nursing is such a diverse field. I want to help people get onto the paths where they’re best able to make the biggest difference, and also still enjoy what they’re doing.

Rogers: I’ve had two great mentors. I’ve had Dr. Barbara Given at Michigan State University, who fueled my passion for working with people with dementia and got me very excited about the notion that I might eventually go back to school for my PhD. Here at UIC, I was so fortunate to have had Dr. Mark Foreman be my doctoral advisor and, really, my cheerleader.

It took me six years to finish my dissertation, and there were times that I doubted that I would ever do it, but he stuck with me, sending me messages to get me going again, and eventually I finished.

So, there are mentors along the way, always. Look for them, and you will find them. Sometimes they are formal mentors and advisors within your studies. Sometimes they are people you report to, and sometimes they are people who report to you.

How do you keep the passion for nursing in your career?

Stahulak: I have a few answers to this. The first is that I keep a link to frontline staff by staying available and visible to them. I want them to know I’m out there with them, understanding the challenges they’re facing, and that I can support them. It’s very inspirational when you work with frontline staff, and you ask them to be engaged in the process for making improvements.

Another thing that plays a part is mentoring.

People would ask me, I’m blessed to have had ‘Why aren’t you going some key mentors that have helped shape the way I into medicine?’ And I moved through my career.

I think it’s important for me would say, ‘Why aren’t to continue to do that for you an airline pilot?’” others.

– Susan Okuno-Jones And the last piece of staying passionate is to continue learning. So I’m back in school now to earn my DNP. At an institution like Lurie Children’s, where, I believe, we’re at the cutting edge of pediatric medicine, that means we’re always trying to do the next best thing. It feels great to be a part of that, and getting more education to do contribute helps keep me going.

UIC NURSES LEAD into the future Since the Illinois Nurses Foundation launched its annual list of “40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders” in 2015, 28 of 120 (23%) of those named have been UIC College of Nursing alumni. See all the names: go.uic.edu/Nursing40under40.

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Okuno-Jones: Before you can keep something going, it has to be there in the first place. So, like Brian said, remember why you became a nurse and what brought you to this calling in the first place, because it truly is a calling. And there’s a responsibility that comes with it, part of which is lifelong learning. As I’ve progressed throughout my career, I made a personal commitment to become certified in each new area of responsibility. I now hold three certifications because I think it’s important for me to have a level of competency and expertise in the area I am leading, but also, it’s my opportunity to be a role model for those who are behind me and next to me.

Another tactic that helps keep the spark alive is that I commit to rounding on my units with my staff every single week. I hear such great things from patients, and I’m always trying to scribble down all the names of Be a mentor. Nursing has the nurses and aides that [patients] want to had a history of eating our acknowledge. Then, young. Don’t do that; be a when I talk to staff, and they’re telling me nurse who pulls the new about a connection person in. If we do that, they made with a patient—not a diagnosis, we’ll all be stronger. but a meaningful – Jill Rogers connection—that is the highlight of my week.

The last thing I’ll say is, it’s wonderful to see the fruits of your labor. To imagine how something’s going to play out; to sometimes see it torn to shreds as you’re working with actual people and circumstances; to be OK with that; and then to see the excellent outcomes. That’s what I live for.

What advice do you have for future nurse leaders?

Okuno-Jones: First, you need to surround yourself with people who are not like you—people who will lift up your weaknesses and who, in turn, you have an opportunity to lift up. It’s not always comfortable; we tend to hire or promote someone because we “work well with them.” But do they have the strengths that will enhance the team?

Another thing is, get involved professionally. I didn’t not take advantage of chances to get involved earlier in my career.

I’m doing so now, and I wish I would have earlier, because the relationships, the friendships, the collegiality of this nursing community is unbelievable. It’s something I truly underestimated as a new nurse.

My third piece of advice is, be calculated risk-takers. It’s okay to fail. We all do. Every day, I drive home and think to myself, “If I had to live this day again, what would I do differently?”

However small it is, I try to take those instances and put them in my “save folder.” That’s how I’ve learned that it’s OK to say, “I don’t know” or “I made a mistake” or “I’m sorry it sounded like that; that’s not what I intended.” Be kind to yourself, but be that risk taker.

Leadership is about creating a vision, staying focused and keeping patients as your true north. Then surround yourself with great people and get the barriers out of their way.

– Trish Anen

Stahulak: Be fearless.It leads to making yourself comfortable with things that you find uncomfortable. For example, nurses need to have a voice at the table, but nurses are often uncomfortable with finance. They’re uncomfortable with marketing and fundraising or asking people for money. They’re uncomfortable with the government or regulatory aspects that need to change in order to improve the way that we deliver care. These are things that are important to our work. I was lucky to be exposed to them within the first few years of my career, and that helped me develop as a leader. It gave me credibility and validity at the table. When you’re making arguments for additional nurses or research support, you have to be able to say why those changes are important from a financial and a patient care perspective.

My other piece of advice is to remember that you’re a nurse first—to know why you’re doing what you’re doing. If you’re not perfectly clear on that, then all the other stuff won’t matter; people aren’t going to buy in to the direction you want to go.

Anen: I think, as nurses, we’re very curious, we’re very compassionate, we’re very interested by nature, and so we identify opportunities for improvement. But it’s not enough to

UIC NURSES LEAD in practice, policy and industry Besides the four outstanding alumni featured on these pages, we have incredible leaders in top positions affecting healthcare practice, including: • Toshiko Abe, PhD ’99, Member, House of Representatives, National Diet of Japan • Naeema Al-Gasseer, PhD ’90, MS ’87, Representative for Sudan, World Health Organization • Dale Beatty, DNP ’17, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Patient Care Services, Stanford Health Care, Palo Alto, CA • Ann Scott Blouin, PhD ’94, Executive Vice President, The Joint Commission, Oakbrook Terrace, IL • Julie Creamer, MS ’91, President, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago • Michael J. Patterson, MS ‘05, President and CEO, Mississippi Valley Health • Angelique Richard, PhD ’99, Chief Nursing Officer and Vice President for Clinical Nursing, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago • Debbie Simon, BSN ’76, Regional CEO, UnityPoint Health, Peoria, IL • Shiela T’lou, Director, UNAIDS in Eastern and Southern Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa; former Minister of Health of Botswana

bring up the problems; you need to be able and willing to work on them. And as you get involved in a committee or a taskforce or something, someone will see something in you and that door will start to open.

And the other part is, it’s all about relationships. You come into contact with faculty members, colleagues, patients, physicians, executives—which makes it seem like a huge community, but it’s actually a very small community. So build those relationships because, though you don’t when and how, they will come back around, and they are so precious.

Rogers: My advice is to be continually thinking, what can I learn here? Have the attitude of a lifelong learner in every situation and every new position and role. You have a ton to learn, and it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been doing it. In almost 30 years, I still learn new things every single day.

At the same time, be thinking, what can I give in my role?

Ask how you can contribute to making your organization, your colleagues, your mentee better than they currently are. All of you have special interests, skills and abilities. The idea is to leverage those to make a difference that improves nursing, makes our organizations better, and ultimately makes ourselves better.

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Student Spotlight

An act of “Faye-th” One student’s hopeful Facebook post inspires more than 100,000 people Does the name Faye Lewis ring a bell? Lewis was a viral sensation for a few weeks following her Sept. 6, 2017, Facebook post, which featured a photo of all the employee badges she had carried over the prior 12 years. It showed her journey from working as counter help, then manager of a KFC, through a stint in housekeeping, on to a progression of nursing roles: nursing assistant, LPN, RN. She captioned the picture, “Always remember where you come from! #imnobetterthanthenext.”

In less than a week, the post had been shared almost 90,000 times, at which point Yahoo! contacted Lewis to interview her for a story. And the sharing hasn’t stopped. At the time of this writing, the post has been shared almost 118,000 times.

Lewis’ next employee badge will say “nurse practitioner,” and she will be Dr. Lewis.

A student at the UIC College of Nursing-Springfield Campus, Lewis expects to graduate in spring of 2022 with a DNP; she’s specializing to become an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner.

She was drawn to nursing after working as a CNA on a cardiac unit. “I loved taking care of patients and helping assist in their recovery,” she says. “I want a career where I can empower people to take control of their health. I want to

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teach health promotion and disease prevention.”

Lewis, a mother of one who has lived in Springfield since the third grade, had only been in the DNP program for a couple of weeks when she posted the image and caption. It was during a moment familiar to many students starting a new program.

“I was having a rough two weeks of school,” she says. “I was reflecting on The image from Lewis’ viral Facebook post how much progress I’ve made. I needed to encourage myself.”

Lewis was shocked by the response to the post.

“I had posted this picture before and it didn’t go viral,” she says. “This time, I feel it was a time of year when students were going back to school and contemplating their journey ahead.

“Also, it was an uncertain time for our country and people needed hope. I think this post provided hope.”

LEADING ROLE

Alumna M. Christine Schwartz takes action to ensure the best education for future UIC nurses

laboratory, which she also funded, that opened in 2014.

Thanks to both Schwartz’ empathy and her generosity, future UIC nursing students will have the good fortune to learn in an expansive simulation environment. It will be “one of the largest and best-equipped simulation training centers among nursing Schwartz’ leadership colleges anywhere in the in giving has set UIC United States,” says Dean Terri Weaver.

Nursing on strong “I’m excited to be footing toward our part of an opportunity that, in my opinion, you $33 million goal find nowhere else in life,” within IGNITE: The says Schwartz. “Where Campaign for UIC. can you fail in a critical situation and come out on the other side, with no harm done? A sim lab provides students with an opportunity to touch, feel, respond, process and react in a situation that has the potential to save a life.”

M. Christine Schwartz

When she was choosing a college major, M. Christine Schwartz was attracted to nursing because of the many options within the field. She knew UIC’s College of Nursing had a great program and, having secured a need-based scholarship, finalized her decision.

During her OB-GYN clinical rotation, however, she found she was not fully prepared for the high-risk, real-life scenarios she faced.

“If I had been lucky enough to have a simulation lab experience as a student,” says Schwartz, “I would have been better prepared and confident in my ability that day.”

These days, sophisticated simulation experiences exist to prepare future clinicians in a variety of healthcare fields.

One version of simulation is to employ live actors, known as standardized patients, to play roles of people in need of healthcare. Another version involves high-fidelity manikins that can do everything from maintain a pulse to give birth.

Now Schwartz has made a $5 million donation to the college to expand on its experiential learning and simulation

All in

More than a year was spent designing the new 15,000-squarefoot teaching facility, to be built in the lower level of the college’s building on the Chicago campus. Technology will be put in place to ensure access by UIC Nursing’s other five campuses in Illinois: Rockford, Peoria, Quad Cities, Springfield and Urbana.

The lab, due to open in 2019, will include examination rooms that replicate real-world circumstances in a safe environment. The space will also include four standardized patient rooms, each with a faculty supervised control room to oversee nursing scenarios and simulate visits with the patient.

Other highlights include a home-care setting and a birthing center.

One of the features Schwartz is most excited about, in addition to the state-of-the-art technology, is a dedicated lounge for students.

“It is important for them to have their own space in which they can feel a sense of community and interact with their peers,” she says.

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M. Christine Schwartz, surrounded by the people who helped bring her vision to reality for the college’s benefit: (L-R) Catherine Vincent, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, UIC Nursing; Steven George, Assistant Dean for Advancement, UIC Nursing; Michael Amiridis; Terri Weaver; Schwartz; Tracy Ward, Schwartz’ daughter; Robert Barish; Jeff Nearhoof, Vice Chancellor for Advancement, UIC; Denise Rosen, Facilities Manager, UIC Nursing; Bill Bradford, Assistant Director of Capital Planning, UIC

A memorable day

Nearly 100 alumni, faculty, staff, colleagues and friends of UIC Nursing gathered on Sept. 9, 2017, to celebrate the groundbreaking of the simulation laboratory in the Chicago campus building’s lower level. The guest of honor was alumna and donor M. Christine Schwartz, whose $5 million gift has enabled the project.

“Chris has the passion for the best education for our students,” noted Dean Terri Weaver. “She had the vision for a space that will provide for students to learn, to connect, and to explore; and she has the commitment to the mission of our college and university.”

Robert Barish, UIC’s vice chancellor for health affairs, is a physician whose career in practice and academia has given him unique perspective on nursing and on simulated experiential learning to educate heath care professionals.

“Quality nursing is what ultimately makes the difference in successful outcomes for our patients,” said Barish. “That’s why this lab is crucially important: to ensure there are future generations of patient success stories.”

When all remarks concluded, nine of the people most involved in shaping the vision for the lab and facilitating the gift from Schwartz gathered around a topsoil-filled garden box for, appropriately enough, a simulated breaking of new ground. Afterward the whole crowd adjourned to the lobby for a champagne-and-cake reception.

To learn about naming opportunities within the simulation lab, please contact Steven George, Assistant Dean for Advancement, at steveg@uic.edu or 312-996-1736.

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The difference it makes

“Since the original simulation laboratory opened, it has been a game-changer in the hands-on training of our students,” Weaver says. “Now, the expanded lab will be almost 25 times larger.

That will increase its impact exponentially. We’ll be able to recruit and teach more students, and teach them using methods that put us ahead of the curve.

“As excited as I am for our students,” adds Weaver, “I’m equally excited for our faculty, because they’ll be preparing our graduates for actual healthcare challenges at a whole new level.”

The chance to empower faculty also motivated Schwartz.

“Until now, there have not been enough clinical opportunities or the right tools for faculty to expose students to all the possibilities of what they might encounter in practice,” she says.

UIC Chancellor Michael Amiridis agrees: “UIC has one of the top nursing schools in the nation, and in order for it to remain so, its technology and educational methods need to be continuously evolving. With Chris’ gift, our nursing students will have a competitive advantage when going into practice.”

The donation is one of the largest in the history of the college, and makes Schwartz the largest lifetime donor at the nursing school. It exemplifies her passion to better humankind.

The donation is also one of the largest ever at UIC. “I’m really excited about the lab because it’s going to make my education way more immersive,” says Annette Lopez, a UIC sophomore honors student who will begin the BSN program in fall 2018 and who will be among the first students to learn in the sim lab. “It makes me feel even luckier to be able to go to UIC.” “I hope this gift inspires more alumni to contribute to the schools that laid the foundation for their accomplishments,” Schwartz says. “People talk about ‘paying it forward,’ but we really need to act now.”

The UIC College of Nursing-Springfield Campus is also home to an innovative new simulation lab.

Check out p. 34 for details.

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING AND SIMULATION LABORATORY OPENING FALL 2019 13

UIC Nursing is aglow with IGNITE On Oct. 28, 2017, with great fanfare, UIC publicly launched IGNITE: The Campaign for UIC, a $750 million comprehensive fundraising initiative that will run through 2022. It was a spectacular evening on campus, celebrating all that UIC has become and visualizing the heights to which the university now aspires.

The College of Nursing was center stage at the launch event. Senior BSN student Celine Dalde was one of just a few UIC students selected to announce BSN senior Celine Dalde speaking at the three most significant gifts made by donors to IGNITE launch event the university since IGNITE began. One of those donors was M. Christine Schwartz, who has given $7.2 million to the College of Nursing for facility renovations. Her early gifts built or modernized the Chicago building’s lobby, several conference rooms and stairwells, and also created experiential learning spaces. In 2017 she added a $5 million gift to renovate the entirety of the college’s lower level into a state-of-the-art simulation lab (see p. 11).

“As part of IGNITE, the College of Nursing has set forth an ambitious goal to raise $33 million,” says Dean Terri Weaver. “I’m thrilled to say we’ve already secured over $16 million toward that goal, which is more than the total we raised by the end of our last campaign.”

Specific priorities for the college’s efforts are: to increase scholarships for students; to grow resources for faculty and research; and to provide capital for improved and expanded laboratories and facilities.

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UIC NURSING’S PROGRESS TO IGNITE GOAL

Supporting students

“Each and every gift impacts students, but none more directly than those made to scholarship funds,” says Steven George, assistant dean for advancement.

The college is committed to tripling the number of nursing students supported by philanthropic scholarships during IGNITE. “Last academic year, 55 students earned scholarships totaling $425,000,” says George. “Because of increased giving last year, the college awarded more than $550,000 in scholarships to 75 students this year. But with more than 1,300 students enrolled, we’re working hard to engage alumni and donors who can add to current scholarship funds and create new ones.”

A scholarship can make an enormous difference not only for students, but their families.

“Last year, I gave birth to my first child [with the help of] a midwife,” says Kairsten Thies, this year’s recipient of the Sabina Dambrauskas Midwifery Scholarship, who will graduate in May with her DNP. “The experience fueled my passion for the field, but at the same time, having a baby and starting my clinical rotations meant I couldn’t work full-time. Since this

had a drastic impact on our family’s finances, I appreciate the scholarship assistance now more than ever.”

“Financial assistance from training grants played a large part in helping me achieve my goal of becoming a nurse midwife, and it was a wonderful career and a wonderful professional community for me,” says Dambrauskas, MS ’76 MS, BSN ’68. “I continue to give in order to ensure the strength of this community of nurse midwives.”

A new endowed scholarship was realized this year thanks to an estate gift from Penelope Busch, MS ’98, and her husband, Willard. Their gift of more than $350,000 has created a scholarship in their memory to support students at the college’s Peoria Campus, from which Penelope graduated.

“Estate gifts are often fulfilling options for seasoned alumni,” says George. “Some donors establish and make gifts to an endowed scholarship during their lifetime, and then increase it via their estate plans.”

Last year, I gave birth to my first child [with the help of] a midwife.

The experience fueled my passion for the field, but at the same time, having a baby and starting my clinical rotations meant I couldn’t work full-time. Since this had a drastic impact on our family’s finances, I appreciate the scholarship assistance now more than ever.

—Kairsten Thies

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Increasing resources for faculty and research “We seek to triple the number of philanthropic funds that support our outstanding senior and junior faculty in the college,” says Weaver.

For years, the college has had three endowed faculty Karyn and Terrance Holm posts: the Harriet H. Werley Endowed Chair for Nursing Research, the Katherine M. Minnich Endowed Professor and the the Helen K. Grace Diversity Scholar. In addition to those, the Center for Narcolepsy, Sleep and Health Research was endowed in 1987.

Now, Dean Emerita Mi Ja Kim, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, has established an eponymous Endowed Research Award, which will provide three years of funding to a nurse researcher engaged in life-changing work.

“I chose to fund multiple years to encourage extensive projects and reward dedicated research careers,” says Kim.

I chose to fund multiple years to encourage extensive projects. I believe in the power of specifically nursing research to make a difference in the health of people.

—Dean Emerita Mi Ja Kim

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“I believe in the power of specifically nursing research to make a difference in the health of people.”

With her gift, Kim has established the college’s first endowed faculty research award.

“In choosing to make her gift in the form of an endowment,” says George, “Dr. Kim is providing sustainable funding for the college to attract and retain exceptional faculty.”

Former UIC Nursing faculty member Karyn Holm, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA, and her husband Terrance have established a Visiting Scholar Award in their name. It will support scholars wishing to conduct research in the college’s Midwest Nursing History Research Center.

Lynda Slimmer, PhD, MS ’72, BSN ’69, has founded the John and Lynda Slimmer Endowment for Teaching Excellence to assist faculty members in their pursuit to stay current in the continually evolving discipline of teaching.

“Faculty development activities allow faculty to acquire and implement the most recent evidence-based teaching strategies,” says Slimmer, herself a former UIC Nursing faculty member. “Teaching excellence is not a static state. It needs supportive resources to ensure its continual growth and development.”

Improving and expanding facilities

Students have been learning in the 650-sq-ft Schwartz Experiential Learning Laboratory since 2014

The foundational funds

While major donors like Schwartz, Dambrauskas, Busch, Kim, Holm and Slimmer help make significant strides toward UIC Nursing’s IGNITE goal, “there’s plenty of room for all our alumni and friends to participate in meaningful ways,” says Dean Terri Weaver.

Two of the college’s most popular funds are the Nursing Scholarship Fund and the Nursing Annual Fund.

“In either of these funds, gifts of varying amounts— from $10 to $10,000—add up to make a profound collective impact,” says Steven George, assistant dean for advancement.

The Annual Fund is a flexible, current-use fund that supports various critical needs in the college. Last year, donations to the Annual Fund augmented scholarships, funded student travel to professional conferences, and rewarded academic achievement.

Students Glorieuse Uwizye and Susan Gilroy won the Dean’s PhD Award, drawn from the Annual Fund.

“Tuition plus state contributions do not adequately fund the [college],” says Pat Lewis, PhD ’93, president of the college’s Alumni Board and former director of the Rockford Campus. “Huge contributions are not the only way to help. I believe that every graduate can contribute. If every one of them made small but consistent contributions over the length of their careers, the impact on the college would be enormous.”

Pat Lewis Students themselves are donating to IGNITE. On Giving Tuesday 2017, more than 100 students gave to the College of Nursing Scholarship Fund. UIC Nursing was the top-earning unit on campus that day.

“Chris Schwartz’ leadership giving has invigorated fundraising toward our priority related to capital resources,” says Weaver. “But even more meaningful is that it encourages others to become part of IGNITE.” Indeed, after Schwartz’ $5 million gift for the 15,000-sq-ft simulation lab was announced, the college’s chapter of the Student Nurses Association (SNA) elected to contribute $1,000 toward the lab.

“We were inspired by her gift and wanted to be part of such an exciting legacy,” says Dalde, who is president of SNA. “Also, it feels great when someone so openly commits to our success as nursing students, so the $1,000 donation was a way to say ‘thank you.’”

“Imagine if all of our 12,000-plus UIC Nursing alumni got into the healthy habit of giving each year during the IGNITE campaign. The resulting impact on our students would be enormous,” says Weaver. “Together, we can certainly surpass our IGNITE goal. The impact on current and future generations of faculty and students would be beyond measure.”

For more information on UIC Nursing’s IGNITE campaign and its progress, please contact Steven George, Assistant Dean for Advancement, at steveg@uic.edu or 312-996-1736.

Students got in on the fun and the fundraising on Giving Tuesday 2017

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A matter of time

With premature birthrates on the rise in the U.S., nurse researcher Barbara McFarlin is seeking a better way to diagnose risk and intervene before it’s too late.

In the 20th week of an uneventful pregnancy, Rachel Caputo and her husband Tim Carroll arrived at the hospital for a standard ultrasound, excited to learn the gender of their first baby. Thirty minutes later, Rachel was in Labor and Delivery, turned almost vertical on her head, experiencing imperceptible contractions with her baby’s amniotic sac bulging through her cervix. A note revealing the baby’s gender lay in an envelope on the table next to her, the last thing on her mind.

“They told me, very directly, ‘You’re in labor, and your baby is not viable,’” Caputo vividly recalls.

The healthcare team was able to stop her labor, but not for long. London James Carroll was born at “24 weeks and five hours,” Caputo reports, because when you need intervention to stop labor at 20 weeks, you stop counting your pregnancy in months or weeks and start counting hours.

London Carroll, born at 24 weeks, in the hands of her father

Weighing just 1 lb., 3 oz., London was so small that the delivery team was barely able to intubate her. Eventually, they got her to the neonatal intensive care unit.

“I don’t think any of us thought she was going to live,” says Caputo. She texted a friend in those first days, reporting London’s arrival and adding, “She’s surviving, for now.”

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Indeed, London survived quite a lot in the 119 days she was in the NICU. It would be a month before her parents could hold her.

She had heart surgery at two weeks and an eye injection at two months. One night around London’s two-month mark, her lung collapsed.

“She was so lifeless and gray.

Her oxygen was at three percent.

Tim Carroll and Rachel Caputo with London at six weeks They had to bag her,” says Caputo.

“I felt so helpless. I remember almost screaming at her isolette, ‘London, I need you to do this!’ We didn’t think we were coming back from that one.”

How did they get here? Caputo and Carroll expected an easy pregnancy. Herself a picture of health, Caputo exercised regularly, ate a healthy diet, and never smoked or drank alcohol. She and her husband were gainfully employed, with good health insurance. She followed doctors’ orders. Nothing in their past or present could have let them know they were at risk for this eventuality.

What Caputo and Carroll know now is that they are not alone. According to the March of Dimes, 380,000 babies are born prematurely in the U.S. each year. Premature infants, born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, are prone to suffering severe health problems for the rest of their lives, if they survive. These include severe bowel problems, neurological disorders like cerebral palsy, and respiratory problems including asthma and

pneumonia. It also means longer hospital stays, which cost upwards of $26 billion each year.

Those 380,000 babies inspire the research of UIC Nursing professor Barbara McFarlin.

“I just think there has to be a better way,” she says.

Not standing for status quo

McFarlin, PhD ’05, MS ’84, BSN ’74, CNM, RDMS, FACNM, FAAN, has dedicated her research career to finding that better way. In September 2017, her work got a big boost as principal investigator on a $2.8 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to develop techniques to accurately predict preterm birth.

Today, McFarlin is head of the Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, but before joining the UIC Nursing faculty full time in 2005, she worked as a nursemidwife for 35 years. She says there is currently no reliable indicator for determining preterm birth, except for previous premature pregnancy.

As for treatment once the risk of premature birth is identified, the current protocol is to prescribe progesterone, which costs $1,000 per dose.

“That exasperated me. We give the same expensive medicine at the same dose to everyone,” says McFarlin, “and for many people, progesterone doesn’t even work.”

She wanted to find a way to diagnose the risk earlier, before women had symptoms of premature labor.

“By recognizing which women are at risk, healthcare professionals could provide early interventions, personalized treatments and closely monitor these treatments to prevent preterm birth or to improve health outcomes,” McFarlin says.

Having reviewed thousands of ultrasound scans in her decades as a midwife, she felt certain that changes in cervical tissue held the key to early identification of risk. Prematurity had already been correlated with the attenuation of tissue in the cervix—an increase in water and a progressive disorganization of the collagen content. The reason for this, though, was not well understood because researchers were unable to study the tissue noninvasively in humans.

“For many years, clinicians treated the uterus and cervix as one organ with the same tissue,” says McFarlin, to emphasize how little is known about the cervix. “Only recently did we start to think about the different structures and function of the uterus and cervix. Uterine tissue is composed of smooth muscle, and cervical tissue is mainly connective tissue that needs to keep the fetus inside the uterus until it is mature, then the connective tissue remodels to allow passage of the baby.”

So McFarlin knew she needed to get a better look at the cervical tissue, and she needed a noninvasive way to do it.

Partner makes perfect

Studying cervical tissue noninvasively was going to require a technological solution. To tackle this, McFarlin thought she might benefit from an engineer’s perspective. So she approached William D. O’Brien Jr., now a Donald Biggar Willett Professor Emeritus in Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

O’Brien is a pioneer in the use of quantitative ultrasound

Barbara McFarlin is putting a $2.8 million NIH grant to good use.

(QUS), and he agreed to help McFarlin in her quest to examine cervical tissue changes.

“Good research happens when people with different skills work together to solve problems,” says McFarlin. “Like nurses, engineers are trained to look at a problem and find a solution.

So when we combined the biological knowledge and clinical skills of a nurse with the technical skills and analytical thinking of an engineer, we were able to find a better way to do things.”

O’Brien developed a QUS software that can be added to any ultrasound machine to investigate tissue structure.

McFarlin’s use of it in her 2005 dissertation research, studying collagen remodeling in pregnant rat cervices, was the first-ever use of QUS in pregnancy. (O’Brien is now using the same technology to study fatty liver tissue as an early indicator of obesity. “It is thrilling that our findings are so readily translatable,” says McFarlin.)

She took her early findings and expanded her study to include pregnant women, using the same noninvasive procedure she used in the animal model.

“At 17 to 20 weeks of pregnancy we were able to predict who was going to deliver preterm,” McFarlin said. “We found that before the length of the cervix shortens, the microscopic tissue structure has to change and the collagen remodels.”

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Painful data drives promising research After nearly a decade of decline, the U.S. rate of preterm birth increased to 9.8 percent in 2016, up from 9.6 percent in 2015. It was the second consecutive year of increase, according to data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

The findings, reported in the 2017 March of Dimes Report Card, also revealed startling racial disparities: Across the nation, compared to white women, AfricanAmerican women are 49 percent more likely to experience preterm birth, and American Indian/Alaska Native women are 18 percent more likely.

In the U.S, the more than 380,000 babies born before 37 weeks gestation each year are at greater risk of death before their first birthday. They’re also more likely to suffer lifelong disabilities and chronic health conditions including breathing problems, cerebral palsy, and intellectual and social delays.

“We can and we must do better,” said Barbara McFarlin, principal investigator for a fiveyear, $2.84 million grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Her aim is to confirm a method to noninvasively diagnose those at greatest risk and intervene before it’s too late.

McFarlin and her team are currently recruiting 800 participants for their study.

To inquire about participating, contact McFarlin at bmcfar1@uic.edu.

Barbara McFarlin’s research aims to predict and prevent premature birth.

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A study to change practice

With her newly funded study, McFarlin is out to mythbust. There are many assumptions about women who give birth prematurely, including an increased risk due to lack of prenatal care or low socioeconomic status. Caputo’s story alone provides evidence to the contrary.

McFarlin’s earlier studies were relatively small. In her work over the next five years, she hopes to increase dramatically the evidence about who really is more likely to experience preterm labor.

She emphasizes the importance of a diverse team, and hers now includes not only her longtime collaborator and co-principal investigator O’Brien, but also three UIC Nursing researchers: Mulubrhan Mogos, PhD, MSc, assistant professor and the team’s statistician; Patrick Thornton PhD ’16, CNM, visiting clinical assistant professor and fellow midwife; and sonographer Tara Peters. The team is rounded out with electrical engineer Aiguo Han, PhD, and Alpana Kaushiva, a doctoral student in public health.

O’Brien salutes McFarlin in leading the team. “By any measure, Barbara McFarlin is a very accomplished individual with a wide variety of service-orientated careers,” he says about her practice, teaching and research. “I credit her persistence [in efforts] to benefit others for this successful funding.”

Together the team will study a group of 800 women of various ethnicities and backgrounds—African-American, White, Asian and Hispanic women representing a range of income levels. The research participants will include 400 women with no incidence of premature birth (low risk), 200 who have had previous premature birth (high risk), and 200 who are showing changes in cervical length at 18 to 21 weeks.

During the study, each participant will undergo two ultrasound scans, one at 18 to 20 weeks and one at 24 weeks, both to closely observe changes in cervical tissue. The team will record all data and incidences of premature birth among participants.

In addition to conducting research using ultrasound, McFarlin will learn how the pregnant women respond to progesterone to prevent premature labor, which only reduces the incidences of prematurity by 40 percent. “We want to find out what occurs with the other women and why it does not work,” says McFarlin.

“This is a large study—one that can change clinical practice,” says McFarlin. “I want to be able to diagnose preterm risk early enough to do something about it. I hope we can use our findings to develop personalized treatments and expand the currently available interventions.”

The real impact

“I’m so happy researchers are working on this,” says Caputo enthusiastically, though their experience with London has convinced her and Carroll to forego more children themselves, despite having wanted at least three.

Caputo feels lucky, though. London, now 2 years old, is a happy, smiley toddler who loves to play, dance and watch cartoons. She has challenges, and she will for many years ahead. Her dramatically underdeveloped immune system demands semiisolation for the family, which isn’t easy, but they are grateful and joyful to have their baby girl at home with them every day.

“No parent should have to hear the words ‘your child is going to die’ before that child is even born,” says Caputo. “I don’t think that should ever happen.”

McFarlin couldn’t agree more.

London Carroll at a happy 2 years old

To learn details about Barbara McFarlin’s grant for this study, link to its NIH RePORT page via go.uic.edu/McFarlinRO1-2017.

Also looking out for moms UIC Nursing researchers aim to tackle postpartum heart failure Heart failure is a leading cause of maternal morbidity and death in the U.S., where the rate of pregnancyrelated deaths more than doubled between 1987 and 2011. But much about heart failure-related hospitalizations before, during and after delivery is unknown.

Now, researchers at the UIC College of Nursing have found that pregnant women are at the highest risk for heart failure within the six weeks after delivery, commonly referred to as the postpartum period.

“This finding lends support to using delivery-related hospitalization as a window of opportunity to identify high-risk women and to develop surveillance strategies before discharge,” explains the study’s lead author Mulubrhan Mogos, assistant professor. “Health education about expectations and their risk status during delivery-related hospitalization may empower women to seek immediate support from their social network and healthcare provider.”

The results of the study also suggest that heart failure is a significant clinical problem among relatively young reproductive-age women, especially among women with the presence of an additional disease or condition, such as hypertension, Mogos said.

The study found that, although less than 2 percent of all pregnancyrelated hospitalizations occur during the postpartum period, nearly 60 percent of pregnancy-related heart failure hospitalizations occurred during postpartum.

Mogos and his co-authors, including UIC Nursing professor Barbara McFarlin, PhD ‘05, MS ’84, BSN ’74, CNM, RDMS, FACNM, FAAN, and assistant professor

Kylea Liese, PhD, CNM, published their findings in January 2018 in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

The study’s findings highlight the need for close monitoring of high-risk women before discharge after childbirth and through postpartum. Typically, women are discharged from the hospital within two to three days after delivery and not evaluated by their healthcare providers again until the end of the first six weeks.

The study analyzed more than 50 million pregnancy-related hospitalizations in the U.S. from 2001 to 2011. From 2001 to 2006, there was a 7.1 percent increase each year in heart failure diagnoses among postpartum hospitalizations, followed by a steady rate through 2011.

However, heart failure rates prior to delivery increased by an average of 4.9 percent per year from 2001 to 2011, which the researchers wrote may be attributable, at least in part, to the presence of high-blood pressure, diabetes or other risk factors or conditions that women already had before becoming pregnant.

Across the pregnancy timing continuum—antepartum, delivery and postpartum periods—women with a heart failure diagnosis were more likely to be older; African-American; live in

the South; live in a lower household income area; and use tobacco, drugs and alcohol, according to the study.

Mogos and his co-authors wrote in the study, “There is a need for increased awareness and public health measures to address risk factors and promote prevention strategies” among historically disadvantaged groups. A woman’s knowledge and expectations about her risk status during deliveryrelated hospitalizations can have an impact on her ability to seek timely medical attention during the postpartum period.

Mulubrhan Mogos

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Join the UIC College of Nursing as we blaze a trail toward our most ambitious fundraising goal in history, all to support students, increase resources for faculty and improve facilities.

Small and large gifts to any of these funds move us closer to our $33 million goal.

UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP FUND UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING REGIONAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING ANNUAL FUND UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING SIMULATION LABORATORY

Give today at go.uic.edu/IgniteUICNursing.

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College of Nursing News Dick Durbin praises at Power of Nursing Leadership event

The 20th annual Power of Nursing Leadership event, held Nov. 10, 2017, at the Hilton Chicago, drew more than 400 attendees and was, as in every year past, a joyous celebration of nurse leaders in Illinois and the impact they have in shaping healthcare.

Very special guest speaker U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (above) dropped in to offer his congratulations and appreciation for the work nurses perform every day.

He recalled the care and comfort nurses gave to his own family throughout his daughter’s illness. (Christine Durbin died in 2008 of complications from a congenital heart condition.) He also spoke about policy issues he is supporting in concert with nurses, such as the Affordable Care Act and legislation to mitigate the opioid epidemic. Event guests gave him a standing ovation as he exited the stage.

The luncheon’s keynote speaker was Linda Burnes Bolton, DrPH, RN, FAAN, who is vice president for nursing, chief nursing officer, and director of nursing research at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. In her remarks, she entreated all nurses to be “circle callers” who continually invite diverse people to participate in creating a national “culture of health” that extends behind healthcare and into daily living.

The day also included recognizing a few outstanding individuals. Ann Scott Blouin, PhD ’94 (below), received the 2017 Joan L. Shaver Illinois Outstanding Nurse Leader Award. Blouin is currently executive vice president of The Joint Commission. The two 2017 SAGE Awards went to Cinthia La Porte, manager of pediatrics, pediatric critical care, and the Child Life Ronald McDonald’s Children’s Hospital at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, IL, and Rosanna Trahey, manager of clinical operations for the pediatric intensive care unit at Advocate Children’s Hospital in Oak Lawn, IL. The UIC College of Nursing has been hosting the Power of Nursing Leadership event every November since 1998; the next is Nov. 30, 2018.

Zenk selected for RWJF program Professor Shannon Zenk, PhD, MPH, MS ’99, RN, FAAN, has been named to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Clinical Scholars program, which is a leadership development opportunity for scholars to form interdisciplinary teams of clinicians to tackle complex health problems.

Zenk will conduct her project with UIC pharmacy professor Dima Qato, also named an RWJF Clinical Scholar.

Together, they will attempt to reduce the burden of pharmacy closures on access to essential medicines for residents living in pharmacy desert communities on Chicago’s West and South Sides.

Zenk and Qato will partner with local

pharmacies, community health centers, and community health liaisons to establish a “pharmacy referral service” where prescriptions are filled and then delivered to patients in need. If preferred, patients can also request transportation services to and from a local pharmacy.

In order to strengthen their capacity to influence policy and population health, the two UIC professors will also assemble an Access to Medicines Advisory/Advocacy Committee (AMAAC) that includes stakeholders from both the public and private sectors, including pharmacy retailers. In collaboration with local public health and policy officials and community residents, the AMAAC will advocate for legislative changes that prevent closures from occurring in at-risk communities.

“We [expect to] gain a better understanding of how specific policies and regulations of the city of Chicago influence decisions on the opening and closing of pharmacies across Chicago’s segregated communities,” says Zenk.

“Our goal is to promote greater transparency and accountability for the impact of such policies on barriers in accessing and adhering to prescription medications.”

A nationally respected researcher, Zenk was also named a Nursing Collegiate Professor in summer 2017.

It is one of the college’s highest faculty honors. She will be formally invested in a ceremony on April 5, 2018.

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Landmark NIH grant to study acupuncture for female genital pain Assistant professor Judith Schlaeger, PhD, MS ’88, BSN ’80, CNM, has received a $2 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study whether acupuncture can treat vulvodynia (pain in the vulva) and dyspareunia (painful intercourse), both chronic conditions that make sexual function and intercourse nearly impossible. Schlaeger is the first researcher to conduct an NIH-sponsored study to determine whether acupuncture is a viable treatment option.

In Schlaeger’s study, two groups of women with vulvodynia will each receive a different acupuncture protocol twice a week for five weeks. No needles will be placed in the genitalia, according to Schlaeger, who developed the protocols with renowned Japanese acupuncturist Nobuari Takakura.

Welcome, future UIC nurses!

The UIC College of Nursing welcomed 273 new BSN and graduate-entry MS students in fall 2017, many of whom attended the college’s fourth annual White Coat Ceremony on Aug. 26. Their entry into the nursing profession feels so much closer when these prelicensure students stand before their professors to be cloaked in white coats adorned with the college seal on the shoulder. A truly exciting and special welcome!

During their visit to China, the Chicago delegation was able to tour comprehensive community care centers, senior centers, dementia care centers, long-term care facilities, and medical and public health facilities.

“Our objective in Shanghai was to learn as much as we could about how they’re planning for and delivering services to their rapidly growing elderly population,” says Gruss, noting that roughly 17 percent of Shanghai’s population is over age 60.

When asked what she observed in Shanghai that she would like to see embraced in the U.S., she says, “China has a culture of ‘filial piety,’ They treat older adults with reverence.”

She also took note of older adult “playgrounds” in public parks to promote physical activity, and a deep commitment For 10 days in October 2017, an eightamong adults in their 50s and 60s to member interdisciplinary delegation of volunteer in service to their elders.

Chicago professionals with expertise in “China and the U.S. share many caring for the aging traveled to Shanghai challenges: historic reliance on as part of the annual Chicago Sister Cities institutionalization versus communityInternational (CSCI) Social Services based care, affordability of care, Exchange Program. For the first time adequacy of the caregiving workforce, ever, the group included a nurse: clinical and lots more,” says Gruss. “We’re all associate professor Valerie Gruss, PhD, trying to solve the same problems.”

APRN, CNP-BC Gruss will be a permanent Gruss (above right) is renowned as member of the CSCI Social Services an educator, researcher and clinician in Exchange Program. For her complete geriatrics. Since 2015, she has directed body of work, she received the UIC the interdisciplinary ENGAGE-IL College of Nursing’s Judith L. Storfjell initiative, which strives to help healthcare Distinguished Award for Scholarly providers, caregivers and older adults Practice in November 2017. themselves realize more patient- and

A Chicago nurse in Shanghai Schlaeger, who is a certified nurse midwife and licensed acupuncturist, previously concluded a smaller study using an almost identical approach, and found a significant reduction in vulvar pain and painful sexual intercourse, and an increase in overall sexual function.

A diagnosis of vulvodynia can be “life-shattering,” says Schlaeger.

“Women may view themselves as inadequate and feel shame, [which] is why many don’t want to discuss it, even with a healthcare provider.

“No one really knows how to treat it,” Schlaeger adds. “Our goal is to find a treatment that will ease a woman’s pain, and do so on a long-term basis.”

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family-centered geriatric care. ENGAGEIL is funded by a $2.5 million HRSA grant.

instructor and current DNP student Rebecca Singer, who accompanied the students. “Our students had to confront— and ultimately they overcame—any preconception that ‘we know better’ in the U.S. They saw differences as just that: differences.”

Students were impressed by much of what they experienced, especially the hospital’s holistic and family-involved approach to care. The first staffer a new Bel-Air patient meets is a social worker, to set the stage for care by addressing emotional and psychosocial needs. Also, admitted patients are required to have a family caregiver with them throughout Blair Jiang, Ericka Garduno, Rebecca Singer, Annie Shideler their stay, giving Bel-Air staff an and Alina Kraynak spend a day-off hiking Panchgani’s hills opportunity to educate the patient’s future care supervisors.

For two weeks in August 2017, four UIC “In the U.S., I think we sometimes Nursing students extended their education view a patient’s family as people to work in the hills of India. around,” Shideler says, “but here I saw Graduate-entry MS students Ericka how useful and important it can be to Garduno, Blair Jiang and Annie Shideler, Linda McCreary, PhD ’00, MS ’93, BSN involve family in care.” along with DNP student Alina Kraynak, ’73, RN, FAAN, recently received the Garduno appreciated the chance to traveled to Panchgani, a hill station prestigious HIV/AIDS Educator Award experience diseases she will not likely see some 150 miles southeast of Mumbai. from the Association of Nurses in AIDS in the U.S., such as TB. Jiang appreciated Care (ANAC). The award recognizes the Their destination was Bel-Air Hospital the daily pace at Bel-Air, which seemed and College of Nursing, where they outstanding impact of her HIV/AIDS slower but also more thoughtful. Kraynak embedded with their counterparts at the instruction and research on patients, felt prepared to better understand her nursing school. families, healthcare providers and the Indian patients here at home. general public.

The history between the UIC Long before being appointed College of Nursing and Bel-Air Hospital associate dean for global health in 2017, includes the contributions of faculty in McCreary’s career revealed an extensive the college’s Global Health Leadership global commitment to HIV/AIDS Office to developing the Bel-Air nursing. She helped to develop HIVCollege of Nursing back in 2004. In prevention interventions in Malawi and 2017, the college graduated its seventh Swaziland, and most notably, she helped baccalaureate class and its first master’s establish the Bel-Air College of Nursing level class. Notably, UIC Nursing faculty in Panchgani, India, in 2006 (see story at were also instrumental in helping to right). The college was founded to deliver Annie Shideler at work at Bel-Air develop the master’s degree curriculum specialized education for nurses to work specializing in HIV/AIDS care, which is at Bel-Air Hospital, one of the only Bel-Air Hospital is one of the only now the nationalized curriculum for any healthcare facilities in India focusing hospitals in India that specializes in the nursing school in India wishing to offer on HIV/AIDS. In 2011, McCreary also care of people with HIV, and their nurses this subspecialty. worked with colleagues to implement are uniquely trained for that work. The India’s first MS program in nursing with UIC College of Nursing has a unique a subspecialty in HIV/AIDS, since made and deep bond with Bel-Air thanks to the national curriculum for all Indian the inspiration and generous support of nursing schools. former faculty member Minu Patel and his Making the award even more wife Mehroo.

Gabriel Culbert, PhD ’12, BSN ’04, The nurses there took the UIC students RN, assistant professor, has received special was the fact that Sr. Lourdu Mary Nagothu, principal at the Bel-Air College on rounds and delivered lectures about an $830,000 NIH grant to assist HIVtheir work with HIV patients, as well as of Nursing and McCreary’s long-time positive prisoners in Indonesia. The tuberculosis patients, which continues to be four-year grant, awarded by the National partner in her work, received ANAC’s a challenging disease in India.

Excellence in Global HIV Nursing Institute on Drug Abuse, will fund “This was a cultural exchange in a Award. Both women were honored at the an ambitious medication intervention clinical setting,” emphasized UIC clinical program designed to improve adherence ANAC2017 conference in November.

McCreary receives educator award

Students get new perspectives in India

Improving health of prisoners with HIV

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to antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment among released prisoners in Indonesia.

The research will be conducted in two prisons in Jakarta.

Indonesia has the ninth largest prison population in the world. According to Culbert (below), drugs are easy to obtain in prison, and needles are often shared, making it very easy to contract HIV. At the same time, prison is a common place to begin treatment.

“Inmates are more likely to receive medications, counseling and patient education while imprisoned,” says Culbert. “But [after] getting released from prison … they no longer have the structure, discipline and support, and adherence to their HIV medicines suffers.”

ART helps people with HIV live longer, healthier lives, and it reduces the risk of disease transmission, which is critical in Indonesia where, according to UNAIDS, some 660,000 people are currently living with HIV. Culbert and his team will use the evidence-based intervention known as ATHENA (Adherence Through Home Education and Nursing Assessment) as a guide to develop a new ART program.

Released prisoners diagnosed with HIV will receive home visits from a nurse and community worker who can identify factors that patients can modify in order to successfully adhere to their ART treatments.

This project is a continuation of Culbert’s 2013 research supported by a Fulbright scholarship.

“Prison health is community health because 99 percent of the prison population will be released into the community,” says Culbert. “We have a unique opportunity to study a good public health model with released prisoners, and bring those lessons back to the U.S.” 26

Ferrans selected for endowed chair

Research for the unrepresented

Longtime professor Carol Estwing Ferrans, PhD ’85, MS ’82, RN, FAAN, has been selected as the new Harriet H. Werley Endowed Chair for Nursing Research in the UIC College of Nursing. She will be invested on April 5, 2018.

Ferrans (below) is internationally recognized for a research career that has garnered some $56 million in funding.

She is responsible for the Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index, a tool used to measure satisfaction in life, which has been translated into 21 languages and used worldwide.

She is also a noted scholar in health disparities, particularly the difference in cancer mortality rates between AfricanAmerican and Caucasian breast cancer patients. Working with community partners in Chicago, her work led to increased funding to address disparities and gave indispensable support to the Illinois Reducing Breast Cancer Disparities Act, signed into law in 2009.

Associate professor Wendy Bostwick, PhD, MPH, is co-primary investigator on a two-year $453,000 grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to study the daily stressors affecting racially diverse bisexual men, and their impact on identity and health-related experiences.

Ferrans has been recognized with awards from the Oncology of Nursing Society, the Midwest Nursing Research Society, and Sigma Theta Tau, which inducted her into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2014.

“Dr. Ferrans has achieved extraordinary productivity and has brought a great deal of honor to our college,” says Dean Terri Weaver. “She is exceptionally well qualified and most deserving of this chair.”

Increasing evidence underscores that, when compared to heterosexual and gay/ lesbian-identified individuals, bisexualidentified individuals experience higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders, use of tobacco and other substances, and suicidality. They also experience disparities related to healthcare access and use. Still, bisexual men are not represented in public health research except in studies of sexual risk behavior.

The new NIH-funded study, which Bostwick (above) leads with co-PI Brian Dodge of the Indiana University School of Public Health, will conduct qualitative interviews and collect electronic daily diary data from a sample of Latino, Black, White and other self-identified bisexual men living in the Chicago area.

The results will be used to increase knowledge of risk factors connected to these health disparities faced by racially diverse bisexual men, and significantly help improve the efficacy of future health promotion research and intervention efforts designed for this community.

Four UIC Nursing alumnae among new AAN fellows class Four distinguished alumnae, including two current faculty members, from the College of Nursing were inducted as fellows of the American Academy of Nursing in October 2017.

evidence-based practice within educational and practice environments.

Julee Waldrop, MS ’91, DNP, PNP, FAANP, is professor of nursing at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She has led the development of innovative practice and education models that support the full scope of nurse practitioner practice. She is co-author of Best Practices for Flipping the College Classroom (2016), and she is a past recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Practice Award from the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties.

FAAN; then-professor (now emerita) Tonda Hughes, PhD ’89, RN, FAAN; and professor Carol Estwing Ferrans, PhD ’85, MS ’82, RN, FAAN, were honored in 2016, 2015 and 2014, respectively.

In Memoriam

In the past year, the UIC Nursing community mourned the loss of Lorna Finnegan, PhD ’03, two deeply admired MS ’88, BSN ’80, RN, is and appreciated executive associate dean alumnae and faculty and associate professor in members: Barbara Berger, PhD ’95, RN, the UIC College of ACRN, and Cynthia “Cee” Barnes-Boyd, Nursing. She is also PhD ’90, MSN ’79, BSN ’75, RN, president-elect of the National FAAN. Organization of Nurse Practitioner Berger (above) was an esteemed Faculties. As a researcher, Finnegan has colleague in the college for more than integrated big-data analytics, strategic 20 years, throughout which she received academic-practice partnerships, creative numerous awards and honors for her pedagogies, and policy-changing excellence in teaching, mentoring and leadership strategies in order to improve leadership. At the time of her death high-quality, accessible and cost-effective on Dec. 14, 2016, she was director of primary care for vulnerable and undergraduate clinical programs and underserved populations. clinical assistant professor.

A respected researcher and educator, Beth Marks, PhD ’96, RN, Berger’s seminal paper on measuring is research associate stigma in people with HIV has been cited professor of disability and nearly 500 times. She was a champion human development at the for excellence in patient care, serving as a UIC College of Nursing Dean Terri UIC College of Applied dynamic leader in numerous professional Weaver (above, right, with STTI president Health Sciences. She leads organizations including the Association Cathy Catrambone) was one of a select HealthMatters™, a program that engages of Nurses in AIDS Care and the HIV/ group of scientists to be inducted into the community and academic partners to AIDS Nursing Certification Board.

Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse implement health-promoting policies and Berger was 64 years old.

Researcher Hall of Fame.

The ceremony practices for people with intellectual and Barnes-Boyd took place July 29, 2017, in Dublin developmental disabilities. Marks is (left) was a threeduring Sigma Theta Tau’s 28th immediate past president of the National time alumna of International Nursing Research Congress.

Organization of Nurses with Disabilities, the college.

At Weaver is one of the world’s where she helped remove barriers to the time of her nursing education and practice for people preeminent sleep researchers. Her death on June 28, landmark study, a randomized clinical with disabilities.

2017, she was director of the UIC’s trial known as the CPAP Apnea Trial Office of Community Engagement and North American Program (CATNAP), is Catherine Ryan, PhD ’03, Neighborhood Health Partnerships, and the largest efficacy study of continuous APRN, CCRN, FAHA, is director of school-based healthcare for clinical associate professor positive airway pressure (CPAP) the University of Illinois Mile Square ever conducted in mild to moderate in the UIC College of Health Center. She had also been a obstructive sleep apnea. It has changed Nursing. Her innovative the way the condition is treated in clinical clinical associate professor in the UIC research demonstrating College of Nursing. that symptoms in cardiovascular diseases practice and has provided justification In her role with UI Health Mile can be identified and examined in clusters for reimbursement for CPAP use by Square, Barnes-Boyd oversaw the Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable has been widely embraced by other opening of much-needed clinics in Care Act. researchers studying symptoms for a schools in the Auburn-Gresham, This is the fourth consecutive year variety of cardiovascular conditions. She Bronzeville, Near West Side and also created a joint appointment between that a UIC nursing professor has been Brighton Park neighborhoods. named to the Hall of Fame. Professor the College of Nursing and UIC’s Barnes-Boyd was also 64 years old.

Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAACVPR, hospital to help directly advance

Dean Terri Weaver humbled by honor

27

Updates from UIC College of Nursing Campuses Beyond Chicago

Peoria Campus Local veterans CareerSpark get all-star treatment introduces youth Nearly a dozen graduate students from UIC Nursing-Peoria to nursing participated in the Oct. 7, 2017, Goodwill Stand Down for Homeless Veterans event at Dozer Park in downtown Peoria.

Hosted annually by Goodwill Industries of Central Illinois, the 2017 event transformed the Peoria Chiefs’ baseball stadium into a village for some 200 veterans to enjoy a hot meal, clothing, educational seminars, basic medical services and much more.

UIC Nursing students staffed a lower-extremity assessment station in the stadium’s training room. They washed and lotioned the veterans’ feet, performed vascular and skin assessments, and conducted monofilament tests to assess loss of sensation that might indicate peripheral neuropathy. They sent each veteran off with new pair of socks.

This was the third year UIC Nursing-Peoria participated in the Goodwill Stand Down event, and plans are already underway to take part in the next one in October 2018. If you’re a UIC Nursing alumnus from any campus who would like to join the team, contact Scotti Nieukirk at nieukirk@uic.edu or 309-671-8464.

Collaborators at Goodwill Stand Down for Veterans included (l to r): DNP student Justin Leas; name unknown (non-UIC); AGMS student Sarah Overton, BS ’10; DNP students Amanda Miklavcic, Cindy Pettit and Kathleen Carlson; and clinical instructor Pam Garner, MS ’07.

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UIC NursingPeoria students partnered with the Saint Francis Medical Center College of Nursing and UnityPoint Health-Methodist to shine a spotlight on A moment at CareerSpark (l-r): Patricia A. Stockert, MS ’82, president of Saint Francis College of Nursing; Suzanne Brown, medical careers faculty at Saint Francis; Elaine Hardy; Saint Francis faculty during GP members Crystal Slaughter and Sister Rosalinda Drees; Cindy Pettit.

CareerSpark, an inaugural interactive career expo developed and sponsored by the Greater Peoria Economic Development Council and Junior Achievement of Central Illinois.

More than 3,500 eighth-grade students from five counties participated in CareerSpark, held at the Peoria Civic Center in October 2017.

Elaine Hardy, PhD ’11, RN, director of the UIC NursingPeoria Campus, was joined by DNP students Katie Hassan, Abigail Hardesty and Cindy Pettit. Together, they spoke with eighth-graders about the profession of nursing and showed them how to use a stethoscope and pulse oximeter, as well as how to monitor blood pressure. The kids were even able to conduct a simulated laparoscopic surgery. Guided by video images on a small screen, they “operated” on a training device simulating a human abdomen, maneuvering tools through small incisions, using tweezer-like graspers to pick up pieces of candy in the device’s interior cavity.

“We were honored to showcase the work and dedication of nursing professionals,” says Hardy. “We’re always happy to help young people find a pathway to consider nursing as a career.”

New alumni committee forges connections The 2016-17 academic year saw the launch of a new Alumni Committee for UIC Nursing-Peoria. Campus director Elaine Hardy collaborated with former interim campus director Joan Ruppman, MS ’83, to assemble a group of alumnae committed to connecting current and former Peoria nursing students.

“We recognize the value of connection, community and support and how integral they are to guiding future nursing leaders in our community,” says Hardy.

The group is planning events for the future, including networking breakfasts and social outings.

Current Alumni Committee members are: Deb Clark, MS ’84; Pam Garner, MS ’07; Lisa Nannie, MS ’96; Cindy Pettit, current DNP student; Jana Reed, MS ’02; and Genny Wessel, MS ’17, as well as Ruppman and Hardy. Ruppman also serves on the broader UIC College of Nursing Alumni Board.

If you’re a UIC Nursing-Peoria alumnus who is interested in joining the committee, contact Scotti Nieukirk at nieukirk@ uic.edu or 309-671-8464.

Graduates celebrated among friends UIC Nursing-Peoria proudly honored its 2017 graduating class at the Annual Honors Dinner and Blessing of the Hands Ceremony in April. The 10 outstanding graduates were invited to receive a traditional blessing to signify the dedication of their hands to service. The graduates included DNP students Hannah Corley, Samantha Martin and Bianca Ramiro, as well as MS students Jennifer Alexander, Rachel Broquard, Sarah Good, Mary Matulis, Angela Thoerner, Melissa Waybrant-Ennis (also a current DNP student) and Genny Wessel.

The evening also included presentations of several scholarships and awards. The Norma R. Kelly Peoria Nursing Scholarship was presented to continuing DNP students Stephanie Beckstrom, Kathleen Carlson, Justin Leas and Elizabeth Saunches, and The Kellogg Family Fund-Peoria Nursing Scholarship was presented to Alaine Noll Robinson, Cindy Pettit, Maria Puetz and Dana Yednock. In addition, all students— incoming, current and graduating—received scholarship funds from the Willard and Penelope Busch, MS ’98, Peoria Scholarship.

Lisa Nannie, MS ’96, APRN, who was on faculty of the college last year, was selected by students to receive the Golden Lamp Award for teaching excellence and dedication to student success. Sandy Hudgins-Brewer, MS ’89, was honored with the Kellogg Alumni Award for an outstanding nursing career.

Importantly, the evening focused attention on the vital role of preceptors by honoring two Peoria-based professionals with the 2017 Preceptor of the Year Award: Kathryn Endress, MS ’14, FNP at Heartland Health Services, and Dana Goff, DNP ’14, MS ’94, CNM, from the Couri Center for Gynecology and Integrative Women’s Health.

Alumni Committee members Jana Reed (left) and Deb Clark welcomed participants to the November CE event.

CE opportunities offered on campus Dozens of area nursing professionals, including alumni and students, participated in two continuing education offerings at UIC Nursing-Peoria last year. The first session, on medical cannabis, was held in March 2017 and was well attended by oncology nursing professionals. The second course took place in November and focused on hormone replacement therapies.

Both sessions were hosted on the Peoria campus and offered 2.5 CEU credits for participation.

The next CE course will be held Saturday, April 7, on the topic, “Changing the face of healthcare: APRN independent practice.” Visit go.uic.edu/PeoriaNursing for details.

It’s a tradition at the Peoria campus to ceremonially bless the hands of graduates before they head into their practice career.

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Updates from UIC College of Nursing Campuses Beyond Chicago

Quad Cities Campus DNP projects improve patient outcomes For two years, Amanda Brocksieck, DNP ’16, MS ’14, ACNP, and Robert Anderson, DNP ’17, ACNP, were colleagues at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in the medical ICU, as well as classmates Amanda Brocksieck and Robert Anderson at UIC Nursing-Quad Cities. In their practice, they recognized that low mobility among patients in the ICU who are on mechanical ventilation raised the risk of negative outcomes associated with prolonged bedrest.

The DNP projects inspired by this observation would win Brocksieck and Anderson invitations to present at the 2017 conference of the Midwest Nursing Research Society in Minneapolis and the National Evidence-Based Practice Conference in Iowa City, Iowa.

After an assessment, the two students identified two opportunities within acute care settings to enhance early mobility policies: (1) building interprofessional collaboration competencies within the intensive care team; and (2) changing the electronic health record to improve communications between healthcare disciplines.

Brocksieck focused on interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP) competencies among professionals working in the ICU. She developed educational sessions to enhance colleagues’ understanding of the teamwork essential to ICP. By implementing her program, she learned about factors that complicated teaching in an ICU, strategies to promote a positive education outcome, and administrative support needed for staff development initiatives.

Building on Brocksieck’s work in ICP competencies, Anderson developed an educational eMobility module to increase staff knowledge of the early mobility protocol. He also developed an EHR Communication Tool that helped nurses and physical therapists view each other’s assessment 30

data on a patient’s mobility status, allowing them to work more effectively together. Explanation of how and why to use the tool was reinforced through staff newsletters and visual reference guides at the bedside.

Outcomes indicated staff were receptive to the educational approach, and demonstrated increased knowledge of institutional early-mobility policies. Patient outcomes demonstrated decreased time to established mobility goals, decreases in mechanical ventilation and ICU stay time, a more independent discharge status recommendation, and acute care cost savings.

This is just one example of how UIC DNP students and clinical practice partners benefit each other.

In memoriam The UIC Nursing-Quad Cities community was saddened by the death of Lynn Kustes, BSN ’82, RN, who passed away on Sept.

19, 2017. She was 63 years old.

Kustes was a member of the inaugural RN-BSN completion class at the UIC Nursing-Quad Cities campus, and worked as a registered nurse for 41 years, retiring from Trinity Health Systems in 2015.

A primary organizer of UIC Nursing-Quad Cities alumni, Kustes was chair of the campus’s Nursing Alumni Board for more than 25 years. In 1998, she received the prestigious Constituent Leadership Award from the University of Illinois, and Kustes was recognized in April 2017 with the Quad Cities Director’s Legacy Award, honoring her 35 years of service to the campus (see “Graduates celebrated,” p. 31).

“Lynn was a force of nature. Her many years of service, and stewardship promoting nursing and UIC in the greater Quad Cities community is unmatched,” said Kathleen Sparbel, PhD, MS ’96, FNP-BC, director of the Quad Cities Campus.

“She will never be forgotten.”

Friends raise a glass together

Campus honors many at 2017 dinner

Before the holidays became too chaotic, alumni, students, faculty and staff from UIC Nursing-Quad Cities gathered for an evening of good wine and great conversation. “Wine Down,” the first social networking event of the school year, took place on Nov. 13, 2017, at Grape Life Wine Storage and Lounge in Davenport, IA. Friends gathered to sip, nosh and enjoy rejuvenating chair massages. If you missed it, keep an eye on nursing.uic.edu for details of another “Wine Down” next fall.

UIC Nursing-Quad Cities celebrated its 2017 graduates in April at Stoney Creek Hotel and Conference Center in Moline, IL. Students, alumni, faculty, family members and special guests gathered for an evening of recognition and tribute.

In 2017, 12 students graduated with their DNP or MS degrees: Robert Anderson, Amanda Brocksieck, Shawna Fury, Dana Gibson, Catherine Marty, Heather Morden, Teresa Schnitzer, Lori Shwarm, Brooke Smith and Rachel Riedesel.

One of the evening’s unforgettable highlights was a tribute to the 2016-17 Director’s Legacy Award recipient, Lynn Kustes.

Kustes graduated in 1982 but never really left the program.

For decades before her untimely passing, she was an energetic and vocal advocate for the program and a continual presence in support of faculty and students. (See “In Memorium,” p. 30)

Alumni pump new blood into conference Last year, a group of APRNs, all graduates of UIC NursingQuad Cities, brought big changes to the Annual Cardiovascular Interventions and Practice Guidelines Conference of the Midwest Cardiovascular Research Foundation. These dynamic women developed and presented a half-day conference, extending the traditionally one-day event at the Genesis Heart Institute in Davenport, Iowa, Sept 21-22, 2017.

Shawna Duske, MS ’05, ACNP, coordinated the new session, at which five of the six featured speakers were graduates of UIC Nursing-Quad Cities. Duske delivered a presentation on DAPT therapy guidelines post coronary intervention. The other four included Heather Dunn, MS ’09, ACNP, current PhD candidate, who presented on interpreting pulmonary diagnostics tests. Wendy Escontrias, MS ’01, BSN ’99, FNP-BC, presented on device therapy for heart failure and atrial fibrillation. Cynthia Burkholder, MS ’10, ACNP, presented on pulmonary embolism treatment and anticoagulation. Judy Deckert, MS ’97, FNP-BC, delivered a session on review of lipid guidelines and the role of PCSK9 inhibitors.

The Interventions and Practice Guidelines Conference is one of the region’s premiere events for educating physicians, APRNs, physician assistants, nurses and radiology technicians on a variety of cardiovascular care topics.

Alumnae (l-r) Heather Dunn, Wendy Escontrias, Cynthia Burkholder, Shawna Duske, Judy Deckert

Graduates (l-r) Shawna Fury, Brooke Smith, Lori Shwarm, Teresa Schnitzer, Heather Morden, Rachel Riedesel,Robert Anderson, Amanda Brocksieck, Catherine Marty, Dana Gibson

Flanking Lynn Kustes are (l-r) Kathleen Sparbel and Kustes’ nominators, Pamela Hill and Kathleen Hanson

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Updates from UIC College of Nursing Campuses Beyond Chicago

Rockford Campus From seeds in Rockford After more than 18 months of planning, structuring, grantwriting and forming collaborations of support—all overseen

by Kelly Rosenberger, DNP ’12, CNM, WHNP-BC, director of the college’s Rockford Campus—the UIC College of Nursing has officially launched a concentration in rural nursing services as an option for DNP students at any campus.

Kelly Rosenberger (far right) at “No Harm on the Farm” “This program with the first six RNURSING students (l-r): Chelsea HartBeth Todd, Lindsey Houle, Mayra Perez, Kirk Meyer, is a natural fit for our zell, Patricia Monaghan college,” says Dean Terri Weaver. “We’re committed to educating nurse leaders for all of Illinois, and 75 percent of the land area in Illinois is dedicated to agriculture and farming.”

UIC Nursing-Rockford welcomed the college’s first class of rural nursing students to the “RNURSING” program in August 2017. Classes began and, without delay, students were out in the field getting realworld experience in rural health. The group’s first outing was to Scheidairy Farms Inc. in Freeport, IL, in October. There, all six RNURSING students toured the farm, learned about common health risks of farm life and work, and observed “No Harm on the Farm,” a training for local first-responders featuring a simulated grain bin rescue and a tractor rollover rescue.

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RMED and RPHARM students from the Rockford campuses of UIC’s medicine and pharmacy colleges have warmly welcomed RNURSING students to the university’s rural health community. The Rockford campus is also home to the National Center for Rural Health Professions, which exists to recruit students and produce health professionals who will practice in Illinois’ rural areas.

“The healthcare needed to support rural communities is highly specialized,” says Rosenberger. “We’re proud nursing [has joined] UIC’s mission to formally educate healthcare professionals for these roles so they graduate prepared, not having to learn those skills exclusively on the job.”

An evening of celebration

Rockford Campus salutes McLaughlin

UIC NursingRockford’s 2017 graduates—14 in all—celebrated their hard work and accomplishments with faculty, preceptors, alumni and family at an April 2017 dinner held at Giovanni’s Restaurant and Convention Center in Rockford.

The evening featured keynote Susan Swart speaker Susan Swart, MS ’05, RN, CAE, executive director of ANA-Illinois, the Illinois Nurses Foundation, the Illinois Healthcare Action Coalition and the Illinois Society for Advanced Practice Nursing. Swart shared updates and insights regarding the new Illinois Nurse Practice Act, which was later signed into law on Sept. 20, 2017. It allows advanced practice registered nurses to practice without entering into a written collaborative agreement with a doctor, provided they first meet certain education and training standards.

To add to the jubilation, a number of awards were conferred.

Patricia Taylor Nordman, FNP-BC, and Raymond Garcia, MD, Medical Director at Rosecrance Harrison Campus were each honored with the Preceptor Award for their dedication to clinical education of UIC Nursing students in Rockford.

Nordman is currently a DNP student at the campus.

Noel Pycior, MS ’06, FNP-BC, received the Nightingale Award. As director of the Student Wellness Center at the Rockford Campus, she serves students of the colleges of Nursing, Medicine and Pharmacy. However, says Kelly Rosenberger, “Noel went above and beyond to mentor our FNP students last year. This award isn’t given every year—only when a nomination earns faculty consensus. Noel’s nomination was exceptionally easy for us to agree on.”

The Community Partner Award was given to Beloit Health System, which not only supported Rockford students with clinical placements, but also partnered with two DNP students as the site for them to implement their final, evidence-based practice projects.

Richard McLaughlin, RN, ACNP-BC, FAANP, tries to bring military precision, discipline and excellence to his approach with every student he educates and every patient he cares for. With his schedule, it has become his mantra.

McLaughlin has taught classes in the acute care nurse practitioner program at UIC NursingRockford since January 2007, all while working full-time as a hospitalist at the Monroe Clinic Hospital in Rockford and working to earn his DNP by spring 2019.

After 11 years, McLaughlin is now preparing to leave UIC Nursing at the end of the spring 2018 semester.

“Students in his classes and faculty on the Rockford campus are consistently challenged and motivated by Rich,” says Kelly Rosenberger. “What I admire most about Rich is that his face lights up just as brightly as his students’ faces each time [those] students achieve a new skill.”

“At UIC, I’ve admired the faculty’s professionalism and the superior level of knowledge they bestow upon their students,” says McLaughlin. “I’ll miss teaching collaboratively with the Chicago acute care faculty.”

McLaughlin began his nursing career in 1983 as a U.S. Army medic stationed in Grenada. After his service there, he returned to the U.S. and worked as an ICU staff nurse at Rockford Memorial Hospital (now Mercyhealth Hospital– Rockton Avenue) before earning his BSN at Northern Illinois University. He then completed the acute care nursing program and transitioned into a nurse practitioner role, also at Rockford Memorial Hospital.

Duty called again, and McLaughlin was deployed with his Army Reserve unit, 452 Combat Support Hospital, to Afghanistan. There he served on the cardiothoracic and neurosurgery teams from 2003 to 2005. Afterward, he returned to work in trauma care at Rockford Memorial Hospital for two years, then left to join the general surgery team at Monroe Clinic Hospital.

McLaughlin has presented numerous local and national procedural workshops for UIC, Rush University, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners national conference, and the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses national conference over the last decade.

“For the last decade, UIC Nursing in Rockford has benefited from our affiliation with such a respected nurse leader,” says Rosenberger. “We salute Rich’s service to us and wish him all the best.”

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Updates from UIC College of Nursing Campuses Beyond Chicago

Springfield Campus A banner year UIC Nursing-Springfield is enjoying a momentous year that began with a move into its first dedicated home on the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) campus, complete with a large and professionally appointed simulation laboratory.

The new lab, as well as new classrooms, offices and meeting spaces, were formally unveiled and celebrated at an open house on Nov. 2, 2017, hosted by Cynthia Reese, PhD, MS ’95, RN, CNE, director of the Springfield Campus.

Springfield-based Memorial Health System and the Memorial Medical Center Foundation helped furnish and equip the new simulation lab by donating items to create a most realistic environment, everything from manikins, beds and crash carts to detail pieces, like exam stools, IV poles and trash cans.

“Simulation has emerged as a key pedagogy for nursing education,” said Dean Terri Weaver in her remarks at the event.

“Now, with thanks to our partners at Memorial, we have a complete simulation experience that will truly transport our students into real-seeming scenarios where they can hone their ability to think and act even when the stakes are most considerable.”

The College of Nursing, Memorial Health System and UIS have been in partnership since the establishment of a UIC Nursing program in Springfield was only an idea. In their remarks at the open house, Reese and Weaver each recognized UIS Chancellor Susan Koch; Memorial Health System president/ CEO Ed Curtis and senior vice president/chief nursing officer Marsha Prater; and Memorial Medical Center Foundation executive director Elena Kezelis.

UIC Nursing-Springfield’s big year will end with the graduation of 12 students comprising its first class of BSN students. Three of the graduates, Oluwaseun Akorede, Katie Grider and Thomas McClure, have already accepted positions at Memorial Health System upon graduation, providing more evidence of the strong partnership between UIC Nursing and Springfield’s largest healthcare provider.

Katie Grider 34

“I am excited to expand my career in a wonderful organization that is Magnet status,” says Grider. “I currently work on 7C as a patient care tech and, every day, I see Memorial’s excellence in patient care and team work. And the leadership skills UIC has encouraged me to develop will help me take on any challenges along the way.”

Terri Weaver (center) unveiled a plaque that now hangs on the sim lab wall, recognizing the contributions from Memorial Health System and Memorial Medical Center Foundation; (l-r) Susan Koch, Cindy Reese, Weaver, Marsha Prater and Elena Kezelis

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Updates from UIC College of Nursing Campuses Beyond Chicago

Urbana Campus Urbana’s newest nurses are pinned and proud UIC Nursing-Urbana proudly celebrated 59 new graduates of the BSN program at the annual pinning ceremony on April 30, 2017. Students, family, friends and faculty enjoyed an evening of dining and fellowship at the I Hotel and Conference Center in Champaign, IL. “People will see this pin and know that you graduated from one of the nation’s top nursing colleges,” Dean Terri Weaver told the graduates. “In Among the graduates to be pinned was medical communities around Abigail Weilbacher, BSN ’17, one of three students elected by her peers to speak at the nation and the world, the the ceremony.

UIC College of Nursing is recognized with distinction. This pin tells people that you’re going places, in large part because of where you started.”

The special evening also honored clinical instructor Jean Mills, MS ’11, MSN ’07 (right), as the College of Nursing’s recipient of the 2017 Silver Circle Award for Teaching Excellence, an award that is especially significant because the recipient is selected by the graduating class.

“I have the best of both worlds,” said Mills, who was on hand at to help pin graduates at the ceremony. “When I am in clinical rotations I have contact with students and patients. I love interacting with both of them.”

Mills joins the list of distinguished UIC Nursing faculty members who have won the award since 1966, including Krista Jones, DNP ’11, MS ’09, MSN ’07, APHN, RN, director of the UIC Nursing-Urbana campus, who received the award in 2011 and 2014.

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Peds on St. Paddy’s Day Students from the Urbana Campus’s chapter of the Student Nurses Association brought the mirth and colorful festivity of St. Patrick’s Day to children on the pediatric floor at Carle Hospital in 2017. Brigid Skovik and Cesar Hernandez, current and immediate past SNA chapter presidents, respectively, initiated the event with the help of fellow students. They collaborated closely with child life specialists at Carle Hospital to decorate the ward and create a very celebratory day for patients and staff.

Tales from Rwanda enlighten at inaugural alumni event Dozens of alumni and friends, along with 45 senior undergraduate students, gathered on March 31, 2017, for UIC Nursing-Urbana’s first-ever networking reception for alumni and students. The evening event was generously sponsored

by Chris Whippo, MS ’88, BSN ’73, RN, retired instructor and admissions counselor at the Urbana Campus.

While attendees mingled, senior BSN students were on hand to present posters on their research projects. Later, Jeff Williams, MSN, RN-BC, FAACM, teaching associate at UIC Nursing-Urbana, riveted guests with his personal story of a year spent at Central Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda.

Beginning in August Jeff Williams 2012, Williams and his team worked with hospital faculty to redesign Central Hospital’s emergency room space, triage flow and treatment curriculum using evidence-based research and the well-known South African Triage Scale. At the start of the project, said Williams, the ER had five beds with 100 patients waiting to be seen, and an unresponsive person could wait for two hours without assessment. After his team’s redesign, patient wait times were reduced to 15 minutes.

“I went to Rwanda to help expand their capacity to educate nurses, and to initiate the development of emergency nursing strategies,” said Williams, who is now working toward a PhD in nursing at UIC. “But the experience ended up being lifechanging for me as well. Learning how individuals make the most of limited resources, cope with desperate circumstances, and remain committed to caring for others was truly inspiring.”

With each new networking event in Urbana there will be more inspiring stories from Urbana nursing alumni, students and faculty, as well as wonderful opportunities for folks to get to know one another. The next event took place on March 9, 2018, and featured Janet Thorlton, PhD ’10, MS ’04, RN, CNE, clinical associate professor at the Urbana Campus.

She spoke on the topic, “Data mining for adverse drug events,” specifically consumer use of performance-enhancing substances in self-managing fatigue, and related implications for health policy.

Among the many students presenting research were (l-r): Macy Droege, Emily Parsons, Maryia Herasimenka, Mohammed Mithun, Brigitte Young, Rebecca Mikel and Ka Yee Chan

The students in attendance, with the professor they selected for the Silver Circle Award, Jean Mills (center)

Williams with colleagues during his year in Rwanda

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The College of Nursing hosted several large scale events in the past year that brought alumni, students and donors together for fun and fellowship.

COME TOGETHER Alumni and Student Reception

March 15, 2017 Revolution Brewing, Chicago

Some 70 alumni, students and faculty mingled at Revolution Brewing in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood at the college’s annual spring social. Guests enjoyed noshing and networking as well as touring the brewery and celebrating those alumni who graduated in years ending in 2 and 7 (a tradition that has since moved to the allalumni REUNION in the fall).

For more details and photos from all these events, visit go.uic.edu/ PastNursingEvents.

Upcoming UIC Nursing Events UIC Nursing-Peoria

Honors Dinner and Blessing of the Hands April 10, 2017 • 5 to 8 p.m.

Holiday Inn & Suites Grand Prairie Peoria, IL Mary Murphy, MS ’17, and friend

UIC Nursing-Quad Cities Spring Celebration Dinner April 26, 2017 • 5 to 9 p.m.

Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center Moline, IL

REUNION 2018 (l-r) Students Celine Dalde and Noelle Gancero with Alumni Board president Pat Lewis, PhD ’93, and Holli Devon, PhD ’02, MS ’82, board member and professor

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Oct. 13, 2018 • 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Chicago Campus DNP students Colleen Larkin, BSN ’14, Catherine Dziedzic and Molly Geaman, BSN ’08

Learn more at go.uic.edu/ NursingReceptions

Donor & Scholar Recognition Luncheon

April 23, 2017 Chicago Campus UIC Nursing scholarship donors and the students who benefit from their gifts had the opportunity to meet at the college’s inaugural Donor & Scholar Recognition Luncheon. The event was attended by more than 100 people, including almost all of the 55 students who received scholarship awards totaling more than $400,000 in the 2016–17 academic year.

Terri Weaver and Laurel Owen Dean Terri Weaver gave remarks before introducing undergraduate student Thomas McClure, a recipient of the Memorial Health System Scholarship, whose financial assistance allowed him to relocate to attend the Springfield Campus more than a year before his wife could join him.

Kathleen Kobler, PhD ’17, MS ’08, a student who was preparing to finish her doctorate with the help of multiple scholarships, spoke about how that assistance let her complete her degree without too much hardship on her husband and six children.

Laurel Owen, ’80 BSN, who has endowed the Owen Graduate Nursing Scholarship in tribute to her parents, told the guests, “I hope other nurses might consider their own families’ legacy scholarships.”

In closing, Weaver noted, “Equally important as the financial support is the moral support our students feel when they understand there are people in the world who share their personal wealth with others they don’t even know. That’s so powerful.”

Thomas McClure

Kathleen Kobler hugging faculty advisor Catherine Vincent, associate dean for academic affairs

Mehroo and Minu Patel with students scholars Bingqian Zhu, Marizthel Loyola and Noor Bader

Donor Denise Rosen with Julie Johnson, recipient of the Rosen Award

REUNION

Sept. 9, 2017 Chicago Campus

Steven George, assistant dean for advancement; Jill Rogers, PhD ’96; Terri Weaver; Trish Anen, BSN ’78; Susan Okuno-Jones, DNP ’10, MS ’06; Brian Stahulak, BSN ’97

Nearly 100 alumni, students, faculty, staff and friends of UIC Nursing gathered for the college’s 2017 REUNION, an event to gather alumni of every UIC Nursing campus.

Phyllis Pelt, MS ’95, BSN ’67 The full-day program kicked off with a panel discussion moderated by Noor Bader, BSN ’17, and Celine Dalde, BSN ’18, and featuring four inspirational alumni nurse leaders (see p. 5).

During lunch, with the help of outgoing Alumni Board chair Karla Nacion, PhD ’88, MS ’87, CNM, Dean Terri Weaver conferred certificates on alumni of years ending in 2 and 7.

They then distributed gold and silver medallions to those from the classes of 1967 and 1992, respectively, to commemorate their 50th and 25th anniversary years.

The day concluded with an official groundbreaking for the recently announced simulation laboratory, funded by a $5 million gift from alumna M. Christine Schwartz (see p. 11). A toast to Schwartz and all alumni during a cake-and-champagne reception closed the day in style.

The “reuniters” assembled!

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Save the date

The University of Illinois at Chicago 845 S Damen Ave, MC 802 Chicago, IL 60612

Fall All-Alumni REUNION

October 13, 2018 • 9am-3pm • Chicago Campus Morning panel with alumni nurse leaders Afternoon learning opportunity

Conferral of 2018 Alumni Awards and celebration of 40 years of Distinguished Alumni Award recipients

Medallions for 25-year and 50-year alumni, and special recognitions for graduates of all years ending in 3 or 8