2.4 

VNA Lobby Days this year brought dozens of nurses to Richmond to advocate for a variety of health issues. Included among them was BSN student Natasha Coleman, a Governor's Fellow from summer 2019 and a former intern for the Richmond City Health District, who was invited to speak about nursing in this, the Year of the Nurse and Midwife.

"Advocacy means publicly supporting what is right," Coleman told the crowd. "We all see the challenges that our patients are going through, and it extends past the walls of the hospital. We must approach our work from both a clinical and policy perspective, so we can better advocate and better care for our patients."

"So, while I am still very new to this profession and have yet to take the NCLEX to become a "real nurse" let us take this proclamation as a reminder of how much a difference each of us makes every day in the lives of Virginians. Thank you to all who came to celebrate and reflect on the impact that nurses and midwives have and will continue to make."

1.25 

Nurse practitioner and DNP student Susan Stuart recently received the 2019 MS Breakthroughs Award (Stuart, right, is pictured with Chartese Berry, National MS Society president of the Greater DC/Maryland chapter)– Healthcare Professional Champion for the novel DNP education program she's developed (that is the focus of her capstone work) for newly diagnosed MS patients.

Stuart, director of nursing for the Multiple Sclerosis Patient-Centered Specialty Practice at Georgetown University Hospital's Department of Neurology, graduates from UVA this spring (PHOTO: Danielle Price).

1.5 

DNP graduate and current president of the Virginia Council of Nurse Pracititoners HoChong Gilles was informed that she'll receive the Excellence in Advocacy Award from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners at their national conference this coming June.

Gilles, far right, is seen here with fellow VCNP leader and DNP graduate Cindy Fagan (second from left).

1.27 

Pediatric oncology nurse and associate prof Jessica Keim-Malpass earned a $133K National Science Foundation grant to study the clinical and economic effects of supply shortages of vincristine, a common pediatric cancer drug that is increasingly difficult to get.

Keim-Malpass and co-investigator Jenn Lobo, an assistant prof. of biomedical informatics at UVA, are analyzing the shortage to determine the actual impact in real time. Their study will "fill an important scientific gap in developing understanding of how decisions regarding shortages [of vincristine] are made in real time."

More on Keim-Malpass's work in the spring 2020 print edition of Virginia Nursing Legacy.

1.8 

The School received its largest gift ever - some $20 million - from philanthropists Joanne and Bill Conway. The new funding will support and develop two key undergraduate program pathways, double the clinical simulation learning center space from 9,500 square feet to 18,000 square feet, and offer scholarship support to students in the RN to BSN and transfer programs.

It will also enable two new sites to open for the hybrid RN to BSN, where classes will be held once a month: in addition to Charlottesville, the RN to BSN will expand into Richmond and Northern Virginia, too.

12.2 

Clinical instructor and alumnus Curtis Stowers celebrated a trifecta of awards in late November: In addition to receiving a 2nd place poster award at the AACN's Baccalaureate Education Conference in Florida, he was also accepted to the Nurse TIM conference in February 2020, and was named "Clinical Nurse Specialist of the Year" by the March of Dimes.

11.22 

Dean Pamela Cipriano - who spoke about nursing leadership and her own journey - addressed a standing-room-only crowd of students as part of the annual lecture for the Student Nurses Association of Virginia.

11.20 

The School's Men Advancing Nursing Club (that's MAN Club for short) hosted dozens of local 3rd and 4th graders to offer a little glimpse of what life in nursing school is really like.

MAN Club president Jayden Williams and his fellow volunteers showed kids some basic nursing science in the Sim Lab, including how to help a patient out of bed, and how blood pressure and eye exams are taken. The kids were both bouyant and entranced.

11.16 

Nearly five dozen high schoolers from across Virginia attended the Diversity in Nursing for a Better Community event - "Dare to Dream" - Saturday for a glimpse into UVA's nursing program and nursing school more generally.

Led by DNBC students, high schoolers attended tours, took part in an anatomy lab led by prof. Christine Connelly and sim lab activities led by prof. Ryne Ackard, experienced a guided meditation in the resilience room, and heard from Theresa Carroll, assistant dean of students, whose advice hit home: when you apply, be yourself.

Hats off to the DNBC planners - especially president Kiki Hudgens (BSN `20) who organized and executed a memorable event.

11.9 

Thanks to the fall 2019 T3 Conference - led by faculty from the Center for Interprofessional Collaborations (CIPC) - the six participating teams are even better collaborators.

Cohorts came from far and wide for the 3-day conference, from Texas Center for Health, University of Alabama Birmingham, University of Florida Jacksonville, Texas Christian University, Codman Square Health Center, and South Boston Health Center - and IPE faculty and staff - Beth Quatrara, Julie Haizlip, John Owen, Tina Brashers, and Bee-Ca Lin - pulled it all together.

Next T3 conference: April 2020.

11.30 

CIPC team takes part in Collaborating Across Borders conference

Center for Interprofessional Collaborations' (formerly the Center for ASPIRE) faculty took part in a late-October conference in Indianapolis focused on collaborations and interprofessional learning, including profs. Elgin Cleckley, Bethany Coyne, and Beth Quatrara ("Empathic design thinking").

Other presenters included Kathryn Mutter, John Owen, Julie Haizlip, Justin Mutter, Ken White, Tim Short, Elizabeth Patterson, and PhD graduate Genevieve Beaird.

10.28 

Nursing professor Sharon Veith, who oversees the Westhaven and Crescent Halls' nursing clinic, and BSN student Tyler Gaedecke, BSN `20, were appointed to UVA Health's new billing and collection practices advisory council, a 16-member group that will help inform policies and procedures guiding bill collection that are in the best interest of patients.

10.26 

Associate dean Ken White (CERTI `13) became president-elect of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN) through 2021. He assumes the AAN presidency from 2021-2023.

10.24 

Nursing professor Clareen Wiencek was inducted as a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing with Tim Cunningham, former director of the Compassionate Care Initiative, bringing to 46 the number of national academies fellows and to 33 the number of UVA-affiliated FAANs on faculty.

10.8 

More than 80 nurses from across the Commonwealth -- including 55 from UVA Health -- gathered for a daylong End-of-Life Nursing Education Consotrium (ELNEC) focused on compassionate end of life care practices for clinicians across the spectrum. The panel -- which featured UVA experts on topics from ethics, bereavement, pain management, and the final hours -- was organized by the School of Nursing Continuing Education programs.

10.2 

LPN graduates of UVA Nursing affiliate program at Jackson P. Burley High School gathered to hear from two of their own: UVA alumnae Evelyn Gardner (LPN `61) and Clariece Coles Harris (LPN '59), who spoke to a packed audience at Pinn Hall Auditorium.

Part of the Medical Center Hour program series, which gathers nursing and medical students, along with clinicians and community members, the nurses shared their personal stories with the audience and fellow panelist and nurse historian Tori Tucker (BSN `12), a PhD student whose dissertation is gathering oral histories from black nurses during segregation and integration.

9.27 

The Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the NAACP bestowed the School the Virginia Banks Carrington Humanitarian Award for its “Hidden Nurses” program at its annual Freedom Fund Banquet.

9.20 

UVA nurse historians stole the show at the annual 36th annual American Association for the History of Nursing (AAHN) where Bjoring Center for Nursing Historial Inquiry Director Barbra Mann Wall delivered the keynote address and faculty Elizabeth Hundt (PhD `18), Bethany Cieslowski (BSN `94, DNP `19), and Sara Craig also presented. Students Ren Capucao (CNL `19), Gabriela Paniagua-Stolz (MSN `18, DNP `19), Kerry Ross (BSN `19), and Tori Tucker (BSN `12) also made presentations, as did alumna Rebecca Coffin (PhD `16).

AAHN president Arlene Keeling (BSN `74, MSN `87, PhD `92) presided over the gathering at which fellow professor emerita Mary Gibson (BSN `75, MSN `86) also spoke. Benefactor Eleanor Crowder Bjoring and AAN Living legend Barbara Brodie, professor emerita, were also on hand.

9.13 

The Society of Critical Care Medicine awarded associate professor Beth Eptein (BSN `94, PhD `07) the 2020 Grenvik Family Award for Ethics, a prize that recognizes an SCCM member's efforts to address significant ethical problems in critical care and promotes humanistic values.

Epstein--a UVA faculty member since 2004--teaches ethics and pharmacology and was part of the team lauded in 2016 by the ANCC Magnet designation team for developing a moral distress intervention for nurses and physicians. She also developed and studied the impact of a high-tech decvice connecting parents with their infants and caregivers in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a technology that has since been adopted at UVA, and beyond.

8.8 

Assistant professor Sharon Veith earned a $20,000 iTHRIV grant to, with colleagues at Postpartum Support Virginia, augment screening, education, and support for Charlottesville women experiencing perinatal depression and anxiety.

7.15 

Associate professor Jessica Keim-Malpass was named a Costs of Care Fellow, the first nurse ever to assume such a role (PHOTO: Jenn Fariello).

6.14 

Assistant professor Emma Mitchell earned, with Center for Global Health Director Rebecca Dillingham, MD, a $100,000 grant from UVA’s Global Infectious Diseases Institute to expand HPV self-testing, test the feasibility of long-distance tele-colposcopy exams, thermo-coagulation, and develop an app to improve patient follow-up and navigation. Their work is based in Nicaragua, which has the highest rate of mortality from cervical cancer in Central America.

5.30 

Rising fourth-year nursing student Natasha Coleman was named one of six UVA scholars to participate in Virginia’s policy process as a Governor’s Fellow.