Pulse 2007

Pulse Summer 2007

A message from the dean “East Carolina University Chancellor Steve Ballard has announced leadership changes designed to strengthen the university’s research and fund-raising capabilities and to more aggressively realize several opportunities for growth.”

These are the words School of Nursing faculty and staff heard Nov. 14. Despite my close involvement with these changes, I still read these words with surprise. Dr. Phyllis Horns served as dean of our school for 16 years, earning distinction as the most senior dean at ECU. With honor and a deep respect for Dr. Horns’ leadership, I accepted the assignment of acting dean of the School of Nursing.

I am grateful to the school’s family for supporting these changes and working with unwavering commitment to our students. You can read more about the leadership changes on pages 8-9.

Leadership changes have not hampered our progress and growth. This year, we expanded our Dr. Sylvia Brown

program options to include an adult nurse practitioner concentration at the master’s level as well as post-master’s certification in our clinical nurse specialist and adult nurse practitioner concentrations.

We also received approval to offer our doctoral curriculum as a BSN-to-Ph.D. option beginning this fall. Our programs are evolving as we continue to search for innovative ways to increase the number of nurses practicing at all levels in our profession.

At the baccalaureate level, we will increase our class size to 130 per semester, admitting twice each year. The strength of our pre-licensure undergraduate program was affirmed in 2006 with a 99 percent pass rate on the National Council Licensure Examination for registered nurses. Nursing deans will agree with me in saying how positively this statistic reflects on our faculty and the experience they are providing in setting high goals for our students to ensure their readiness to enter the nursing profession.

In this issue of Pulse are articles about our use of simulation technology balanced with stories of our commitment to serving our communities. While many faculty members are integrating the patient simulators in our eight concept integration labs into their courses, others are taking students to remote neighborhoods in Craven County to deliver community health care. Dr. Martha Engelke and her colleagues are studying chronic illnesses in school-age children through a Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust grant. We strive to remain at the forefront of emerging technology; however, we hold tightly to the principle of teaching our students the compassionate art of nursing.

This year has been one not only of change, but also of growth. With each change we learn and develop fresh relationships, creating synergies with new people and agencies. These synergies foster the bridges and pathways we will take to achieve our goals. Fortunately, we have strong bonds with our friends and alumni all over the world. Your wisdom, support and experiences are invaluable to us as we strive to provide well-prepared nurses to our workforce through teaching, research and service. Please stay in touch and visit us often!

Acting Dean Sylvia T. Brown, Ed.D., R.N., CNE

1 Pulse Summer 2007

Table of contents 2 Bamboo bridge Dr. Martha Libster integrates nursing practice and healing traditions 5 Chronic challenge School nurses document care 6 In service Students spearhead projects for those in need 8 Call to lead Alumnae and eastern North Carolina natives Dr. Phyllis Horns and Dr. Sylvia Brown take on new roles 10 Theater of the mind Innovative program explores medical issues, concepts and values 12 On-the-ground decision-maker Gale Adcock is SAS’ top health care executive and the 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award winner 14 Data on the spot License issued for midwife pocket PC software 16 Techno-savvy teaching Simulation education pole-vaults past static mannequins

Tamara Congdon, a nursing lab instructor, programs an instructional scenario in an observation room of a simulation lab.

19 I am an ECU nurse 22 Class notes 26 Community events highlight Beta Nu’s year 29 Pirate for life Mark Alexander becomes the school’s first full-time development officer 30 ECU welcomes 12 new faculty

On the cover: Nursing student Dan Hines of Goldsboro positions the dressing around a tracheotomy tube on a mannequin, one of the high-tech teaching tools used in simulation education in the ECU School of Nursing.

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Bamboo bridge Integrating nursing and nature

By Crystal Baity Martha Libster’s life has been surrounded by plants since she was knee-high to a weed.

“My grandfather taught me early on. He would throw me plants from the ocean in Maine and tell me to eat them,” said Libster, who grew up in New England. “My father says I always talked to plants.”

Her upbringing included organic farming. She was influenced by her mother’s Celtic roots and understanding of plants. Her father’s ancestors were medical missionaries to

China. “I came to nursing with this background,” she said. “I have this East-West connection.”

Libster is internationally known for her work integrating nursing practice and healing traditions, particularly the use of botanical therapies. She is a health care historian, nurse psychotherapist and herbal diplomat, and serves on the advisory board of the American Botanical Council. The American Association for the History of Nursing gave her book, Herbal Diplomats, the 2005 Lavinia Dock Award for exemplary

DeEtte Congleton Reel, a former lab technician, takes a break from her hectic schedule as a labor and delivery nurse at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville.

historical writing and research.

She joined the East Carolina University School of Nursing faculty as an associate professor last fall.

This spring, the school hosted the first international meeting of the Bamboo Bridge project, designed to promote a greater understanding and collaboration of traditional healing and nursing.

The project was launched under Libster’s guidance.

Other partners are Assumption University of Thailand Nursing Science, the University

Above, A favorite fig tree envelopes Dr. Martha Libster in her backyard.

At left center, Libster and her dog, Sheeva.

Martha M. Libster, PhD, RN, CNS 2004 PhD Humanities/health care history. . . Oxford Brookes University Oxford, England 1999 MS Psychiatric Nursing. . . . . . . . . . . . . University of Colorado Denver 1987 BS Nursing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mount St. Mary’s College Los Angeles 1981 BS Dance Education and Therapy . . . . New York University New York Upcoming: Libster expects to publish a book in 2008 on Sister Matilda Coskery (1799-1870). During her life, Coskery was the head nurse of a mental hospital that she and other Sisters of Charity opened in the early 19th century. Coskery wrote an “advice book” for nurses that will be published as part of the book.

of Minnesota’s School of Nursing, the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Nursing’s Global Health Leadership Office and Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing.

The project promotes global partnership between nurses and traditional community healers.

“Everybody has a plant story,” Libster said.

Eighty percent of the world’s population continues to use traditional methods of healing, according to the World Health Organization. The WHO defines traditional medicine or healing, such as herbal remedies,

hydrotherapies and spiritual ritual, as methods routinely used before the arrival of modern medicine. Also called western or biomedicine, modern medicine is the dominant system of health care in most industrialized nations. Bamboo, a strong and flexible plant, serves as the metaphoric bridge in crossing cultures, bringing awareness to the possibilities for integrating knowledge of healing traditions and emerging technologies.

Libster is a practitioner and teacher of American, European and Chinese herbalism. She says her science is historical inquiry.

She has worked extensively with

health professionals and the public as director of a research center, director and counselor for two national telemedicine services and director of a medical library.

While in Montana, she grew acres of medicinal plants used by her patients.

“I have a personal hypothesis: when people make their own medicine, they heal differently,” Libster said.

Dr. Marlaine Smith, the Helen K. Persson Eminent Scholar and associate dean for the College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University, was teaching a graduate theory class at the University of Colorado when she

met Libster about a decade ago.

“Martha was a brilliant student and one of the best I’ve ever had,” Smith said At the end of class, students were asked to synthesize a theory application. “Martha did a beautiful representation of nursing through dance,” Smith said.

Libster also was a teaching assistant for Smith. “She has so much to offer nursing,” Smith said. “I’ve watched her grow and develop. She is a very dear friend and colleague who will contribute to nursing in a very creative way.”

Libster has never followed the crowd, and finds continued on page 28

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Chronic challenge School nurses document care

Dr. Martha Engelke

By Crystal Baity A trip to the school cafeteria can be deadly for a child with a severe airborne food allergy.

Fortunately for a Dare County first-grader, school nurse Jennifer Scott and the child’s parents, principal, teachers and cafeteria staff worked together to find a solution. A severe peanut allergy prevented the child from eating in the lunchroom. Instead, the student had to eat in the classroom. Scott thought they could do better this year.

“Just going to the cafeteria is such a big social part of the day,” said Scott (BSN ’02) a Dare County Health Department nurse. They reserved a table away from the crowd, where special care is taken to keep it free from contaminants. Friends, who know the importance of not bringing peanuts in the safety zone, are invited to the table.

The formerly quiet, shy child

has blossomed and, instead of always brown-bagging, goes through the lunch line some days. “The student is now much more outgoing and bubbly and feels much more a part of school but is still safe,” Scott said.

The story illustrates the important role school nurses play in the life of children, especially those with chronic illness.

To document care of those students, a case management pilot project has been launched in five eastern North Carolina counties led by an East Carolina University School of Nursing faculty member.

ECU received a $193,124 grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust to develop the program in 2006. Martha Keehner Engelke, associate dean for research and scholarship in the School of Nursing, and Martha Guttu (MSN ’04), eastern region school nurse consultant with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, are collaborating with school nurses in Dare, Pamlico, Perquimans, Pitt and Washington counties in using information technology including handheld computers in retrieving information and documenting care. Engelke is the principal investigator.

There are 103 students enrolled in the project. The most common diagnoses are asthma (46 percent) and diabetes (32 percent) followed by seizures, sickle cell disease and severe allergies.

Children with frequent absences or difficulty in academic performance related to illness are the focus of the project. School nurses work with the child, family, teachers and primary care providers to implement a plan. Officials are evaluating the impact of intervention on student health and schoolwork. The project will continue through 2008.

“We are able to pull resources to keep that child in the classroom,” said Michelle Warren (BSN ’90, MAEd ’03), a former school nurse in Hertford County who is the project coordinator.

She works one-on-one with lead nurses and school nurses on collecting and entering data.

Warren and Jeremy Morris, instructional technology consultant, collaborated to develop a Web site for school nurses with resources such as lists of medications that contain aspirin, asthma peak flow charts and carbohydrate counts for diabetics.

“Our main goal is to help nurses document the evaluation piece of what they do,” Warren said. For instance, if screening reveals a need for glasses, is the child’s learning improved? “It’s pulling that last step in there.”

The project has attracted statewide attention, and Engelke has been asked to present a paper at the Sigma Theta Tau International Research Conference in Vienna because chronic illness of schoolage children is a global issue, she said. ■

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In service Students spearhead projects for those in need

At top, a sign marks the nurse’s office in the Religious Community Services soup kitchen and shelter in New Bern. At right, community health nursing instructor Monica Parker, left, checks the foot of a women in the shelter who recently fell as senior nursing students Diane Bevill and Betsy Baggett observe.

By Crystal Baity The home environment is one of the many things East Carolina University community health nursing instructor Monica Parker asks her students to consider with patient care.

For some, home is a homeless shelter, car or abandoned building.

“I tell them, remember when you’re working in a hospital, where are you discharging your patient? Always think about that,” Parker said.

Former students and Parker helped start two free health clinics in New Bern: the MERCI Clinic and a nursemanaged clinic at the Religious Community Services soup kitchen and shelter. MERCI Clinic began 11 years ago after students did a needs assessment and collected data on how many uninsured people went to the emergency room for care, laying the foundation for community involvement and future grants.

MERCI (an acronym for Matthew chapter, ECU nursing, Religious, Community and Individual) provides a higher level of care than the shelter, where basic care and referrals are done.

The RCS clinic started in 1993.

“We see a lot of hypertension, diabetes and obesity,” said Parker

who, with her students, sees about 20 patients two mornings each week at RCS and approximately 25 patients a day each week at MERCI. Other providers and nurses volunteer as well.

“It’s pulling the pieces of community nursing together, giving back to the agency, and students collaborating with the professionals they will be working with soon,” said Dr. Dorothy Rentschler, associate professor and associate dean of the undergraduate program.

At RCS, one room tucked in between the kitchen and store does double duty with thrift shop donations. Students check blood pressure or blood glucose and make assessments or referrals. Most supplies are donated.

Frizzelle Powell, 36, stopped in for a blood pressure check on a sunny February day. He said he has been clean and sober for almost a year. He lived in the 11-bed men’s section of the shelter for awhile. “This place gave me a chance for hope again.

Now I’ve got a home, I’ve got a church family and I’m singing in the church choir. There was a desire to stop doing the old things I used to do,” Powell said.

Parker checks on a woman in the shelter who was recently

discharged from the hospital after a bad fall. Because she has no motorized transportation, the injury has her sidelined. After looking over her foot, Parker asks if she’s found a more permanent home. Not yet, she answered.

The woman has since found a permanent home, thanks to help by several people including ECU faculty and students.

The clinics started as student community service projects under Parker’s guidance. Each semester, students choose projects that will positively impact the community, which helps fulfill ECU’s mission “to serve.”

This year, seniors Diane Bevill, Kristin Kleber and Vanessa Moffett tackled chlamydia, a sexually-transmitted disease and major health concern among African-Americans in North Carolina. Moffett noticed the number of AfricanAmericans receiving treatment at the health department compared to other races.

“The numbers are very striking. Our group wanted the community to be aware of the issue and make an effort to make a difference,” Moffett said.

Since 2001, the rate for reported chlamydia cases in blacks in North Carolina has consistently increased, from 810.3 to 1,066.2 per 100,000.

Craven County reported 600 chlamydia cases in 2006.

Bevill, Kleber and Moffett have been working with the health department in passing out educational material and condoms, which prevent the spread of the disease. The students bagged more than 10,000 condoms and designed a brochure and poster for distribution at local African-American

barber shops, hair salons and churches. So far, 14 churches in Craven County have agreed to participate and help with distribution, Bevill said. Service projects usually end after one semester, but some go longer, like the chlamydia project, Parker said.

In deciding on a project, faculty and students look at the community’s leading health indicators.

Betsy Baggett and Sarah Neubauer have spent the past semester working with the health department and second-graders in the Craven County Schools on preventing childhood obesity.

The ECU nurses worked with students on staying healthy using the traditional food pyramid, making good choices, proper portions and exercise.

Childhood obesity has become the most common chronic disease among children today.

Because of the epidemic, kids have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Obesityrelated diseases are on the rise, especially diabetes. In North Carolina, overweight children between the ages of 5 and 10 have at least one cardiovascular risk factor, such as high cholesterol or high blood pressure. Joint pain, heat rash and poor selfesteem are other concerns. The ECU nurses focused on early education, prevention strategies and collaboration to help begin to reverse the trend.

After spending a semester with Parker, New Bern natives Baggett and Bevill say they could see themselves working in community health one day. Many new nurses start their careers in hospitals, but several ECU graduates are working in county health departments and other

At top, student-designed tabletop fliers provide information on MERCI Clinic. Center, client Frizzelle Powell has his blood pressure checked.

Bottom, volunteer Doris Jefferson stops in for a quick blood pressure check before going back to work in the thrift store.

health agencies, Parker said.

“I like the flexibility. You see such a wide variety of people, you’re not with just one specific patient population,” Baggett said.

“I like helping people who can’t afford insurance and guiding people in the right direction as far as resources go,” said Bevill, who is now working at Craven Regional Medical Center.

Erika Christy-Kellee Green, reflecting on the undergraduate experience in her convocation address, said: “Community health nursing reminded us of why we want to be nurses.” ■

Call to

Dr. Phyllis Horns, RN, DSN, FAAN

Alumnae and eastern North Carolina natives Dr. Phyllis

By Crystal Baity Calendar explosion.

That’s how Dr. Phyllis Horns (BSN ’69) succinctly describes what it means to serve as interim vice chancellor of the East Carolina University Division of Health Sciences and interim dean of the Brody School of Medicine.

Horns, dean of the School of Nursing since 1990 and longest-serving dean at ECU, was tapped for the dual role in November when Chancellor Steve Ballard announced leadership changes. This is the second time in six years Horns has been interim vice chancellor, having served June 2001 until August 2002.

Stepping up as acting dean of the School of Nursing is another long-time faculty member, Dr. Sylvia Brown (BSN ’75, MSN ’78), who remains associate dean for graduate programs.

It is an open-ended assignment for both eastern North Carolina natives and ECU nursing alumnae, who will serve as long as needed.

“I’m honored to have been

asked to do it, and I’m very grateful for the chancellor’s confidence in me to do this assignment,” Horns said.

Ballard lauded her experience, knowledge, leadership and insight in announcing her appointment.

The health sciences division is the umbrella for the Brody School of Medicine, the School of Allied Health Sciences, the School of Nursing, Laupus Library and a planned School of Dentistry. There are more than 2,700 students and more than 1,900 faculty and staff.

“Health sciences is a very big and significant part of this university,” Horns said.

Brown, a 29-year member of the faculty, was a natural choice as acting dean for the school of nursing, Horns said.

“She has moved into this leadership role, and I’m sure she would say ‘calendar explosion,’ too, with great skill and so much grace,” Horns said. “She is such a professional; she is so knowledgeable and committed to ECU. She knows the region.

We both grew up in eastern North Carolina and we both

lead

Horns and Dr. Sylvia Brown take on new roles

have a very strong and lengthy history of understanding the eastern region of the state.”

Brown, 53, grew up in Beulaville and married another native, Dr. William Brown, a Greenville obstetrician and gynecologist who graduated in 1981 in the first medical school class at ECU. She and her husband have two daughters, Laura, 23, of Charlotte, and Jessica, 26, of Greensboro.

Laura earned a bachelor’s of science in business management at N.C. State University. Jessica received a bachelor’s of science in accounting at NCSU and a master’s of science in accounting at ECU. Horns, 61, is a native of Sims and married to Fred Horns, who is a sales executive with Prudential. They have three children: Justin, a recent high school graduate; John, a senior at ECU; and Jennifer, a nurse in Baltimore.

Horns has been a great mentor, Brown said.

“I’ve always admired her leadership, and I’m in awe that she is able to handle all she’s handling and able to do such a great job. She isn’t

afraid to make difficult decisions,” Brown said.

The change brings new focus.

For Horns, improving Brody School of Medicine finances and obtaining indigent care and dental school funding from the legislature, increasing research funding among current faculty, maintaining and recruiting new school of medicine faculty in specialty areas such as surgical oncology and pediatric surgery as well as possibly increasing the size of the medical school class are areas of concern.

For Brown, increasing student enrollment and the number of nurse educators through masters’ and doctoral programs, developing nurse leaders, continuing the growth of their successful distance education program and providing the best technical skills training available – all while maintaining ECU’s reputation as a close-knit, caring community.

“I’m now looking at the school from a broad perspective,” Brown said. “Time management is my biggest challenge. You could do it 24/7.” ■

Dr. Sylvia Brown, EdD, RN, CNE

Theater of the mind

Innovative program explores medical issues, concepts and values

“The beauty of reader’s theater is the audience has to imagine what’s going on.”

– Dr. Todd Savitt, ECU professor of medical humanities

By Crystal Baity Everyone hushed.

Seven first-semester nursing students, dressed in blue jeans and white shirts, had taken the stage in the lecture room.

Intent in chairs with scripts, the students assumed their characters without interaction.

The narrator broke the stillness. The story follows two women who have just given birth. Recovering in a semi-private hospital room, a black married woman named Coreen instinctively recognizes something is wrong with her premature baby. The other

mom, Bea, inexperienced, single and white, doesn’t know what to do. Her milk hasn’t come in and she wants to nurse her baby. The audience listens to their interaction and personal struggles, and their treatment by nurses, doctors and others.

The spring Reader’s Theater production of “Milk,” based on a short story by Eileen Pollack on her experience as a Boston social worker, explored ethics, bias and diversity in a health care setting.

The purpose of the program is to foster a closer relationship between health care profes-

sionals and the people they serve. Sponsored by the ECU Brody School of Medicine Department of Medical Humanities and led by Dr. Todd Savitt, performances are short plays or adaptations of short stories that focus on timely medical issues.

“The beauty of reader’s theater is the audience has to imagine what’s going on,” said Savitt, who introduced it 19 years ago at the medical school before expanding to nursing several years ago. “It’s like listening to a story on the radio, or as someone called it, ‘theater

11 Pulse Summer 2007

At left, Dr. Todd Savitt of the Brody School of Medicine leads students in discussion following the spring reader’s theater production. Top right, seven first-semester nursing students volunteered to read the production before an audience of classmates, faculty and friends. Center right, the cast and audience discuss the diversity issues and stereotypes. Bottom right, Dr. Dorothy Rentschler, associate professor and associate dean of the undergraduate program, shares a lighter moment with cast member Michael Cox.

“Milk” Cast of Characters Bea – Christa Anastasio

of the mind.’ ” Dr. Sylvia Brown, acting dean of the School of Nursing, said reader’s theater is an innovative educational strategy that provides opportunities for discussion on social class, poverty, ethnicity, obesity, elder abuse and many other topics.

It helps students think about issues before experiencing them in a real clinical setting.

“It’s bringing alive concepts and values you can’t read in a textbook,” said Dr. Dorothy Rentschler, associate professor and associate dean of the undergraduate program.

Following the March 8 production, Savitt moderated a discussion between the cast and audience. Racial and class issues and stereotypes were discussed.

One student in the audience commented on the nurse, played by Maria De Jesus Ochoa. “There is a hardness that can develop through the years that we see in some clinicians,” the student said. “In the story, the nurse was extremely hardened and let her opinions affect her work.”

Savitt, who is a member of a diversity group in the medical school, said, “We all have bias

and prejudices, and it’s startling to confront them.”

One audience member said Coreen’s husband, Nate, played by Curtis Hodges, was demeaning when he told his wife they could have another baby to replace the one who had just died.

Student Fredy Lopez said the play reminded him of what he can do to improve the lives of others. “I won’t change the whole world, but the people around me,” he said.

Preliminary discussions are underway for a possible co-production by nursing and

Coreen – Hope New Interviewer – Kristin Blell Narrator – Courtney Addis Nate – Curtis Hodges Nurse – Maria Ochoa Physician – Michael Cox

medical students, Rentschler said. A joint readers’ theater production would complement interdisciplinary education among health sciences students, she said. ■

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Gale

SAS’ top health care

Adcock executive is the ECU School of Nursing’s 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award winner

By Crystal Baity Gale Adcock embodies the SAS “the power to know” trademark and ECU’s motto, “to serve.”

As director of corporate health services for SAS, Adcock oversees a $4.2 million budget and a staff of 59 that includes 10 family nurse practitioners and four physicians. She still sees patients one morning a week in the large, on-site health care center, the second such facility she helped plan and open on the software company’s corporate campus in Cary.

“I don’t want to forget what I’m making decisions about,” said Adcock (BSN ’78), who is

a family nurse practitioner and the East Carolina University School of Nursing’s 2006 Distinguished Alumni Award winner. “It’s an on-the-ground kind of job.”

In her 15 years with SAS, clinic space has grown from 1,000 square feet to a 35,000square-foot, free-standing center with two on-site primary care practices and 150 patient visits each day. The headquarters has 4,200 employees, and Adcock has been seeing some of her patients 15 years or more.

“The ability to be an integral part of their lives is very satisfying because of that

relationship,” Adcock said.

“You meet people where they are. People talk with me and trust me. It’s really quite an honor.”

Her love of public health was nurtured at ECU by faculty member Alta Andrews, now associate dean for community partnerships and practice.

Adcock worked at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in Greenville while completing her bachelor’s degree at ECU, having already earned a nursing diploma from Virginia Baptist Hospital’s School of Nursing in Lynchburg, Va. “Even when Gale was a

“I think if you want to make a difference,

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On-the-ground decision-maker

student, she had something special about her,” Andrews said. “The caring that was evident for patients and families was very obvious. And she was exceptionally bright. She didn’t just stop and ask questions; she went looking for answers.

I do remember that even then she was a strong advocate and would make the health care system more workable for patients’ needs. She is a born leader who truly cares about others. Students like Gale are the reason I’m still in nursing after so many years.”

Adcock worked at the Wake County Health Department

and North Carolina State University’s Student Health Service. She earned her family nurse practitioner certificate and master’s degree in nursing in 1987 from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Later, she worked as a selfemployed, contractual family nurse practitioner, which led her to SAS. Adcock is an adjunct associate professor of nursing at UNC and a consulting associate faculty member of nursing at Duke University.

She is a member of Sigma Theta Tau, the international honor society of nursing, is a past president of the North Carolina Nurses Association and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, the American Nurses Association, the American College of Nurse Practitioners and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. She’s on the education committee for the North Carolina Chamber, treasurer for NC PAC, a political action committee for nurse practitioners, and is active in Wake County Democratic Women and Lillian’s List, a group dedicated to electing prochoice female legislators.

NCNA provided the intro-

duction to longtime friends and mentors, Hazel Browning Moore of Fountain and Judy Seamon of Morehead City.

Moore (BSN ’72) was a staff member at NCNA when she met Adcock, who was then a volunteer in the organization.

“She’s one of the sharpest nurses I know when it comes to clinical or policy issues. If I have a question about anything, Gale Adcock is the first person I think to call,” Moore said. “She puts all the pieces together.”

Moore and Seamon have watched Adcock grow professionally beyond her clinical role to political activist and leader among her peers. “She is well thought of at the local and state level, and across the country,” said Moore, who served as executive director of NCNA, taught obstetric nursing at ECU from 1973 until 1980 and now works as a continuing education specialist for UNC-Chapel Hill’s Institute for Public Health.

Seamon met Adcock in the early 1980s, when Seamon was president-elect of the NCNA board. An early political activist and former part-time lobbyist, Seamon has long fought to get nurses at the tables where health

policy is made. She also is a founding member of the N.C. Center for Nursing.

“Gale told me, ‘I’m going to follow the example you’ve set,’” Seamon said. “I said, ‘Thank you very much, but you’ll do it better.’”

Seamon, past president of NCNA and current N.C. Center for Nursing board member, said she believes in grooming future leaders.

Adcock is a natural.

“Gale is one of the brightest, most outstanding nurse leaders in our state and probably the nation,” said Seamon, who now works part-time as a school nurse at the Newport Developmental Center.

Adcock’s mother saw the early signs of nurse leadership in her daughter, who took care of neighborhood cats and ran a “cat hospital” on their back porch in her hometown of Martinsville, Va. “I think if you want to make a difference, nursing is one of the best careers to be in,” said Adcock, 53, who is married to Kevin Adcock, a compensation analyst in human resources at UNC. They live in Cary with their two boys, Alex, 12, and Jay, 14. ■

nursing is one of the best careers to be in.”

14 Pulse Summer 2007

Data on the License issued for midwife pocket PC software The rapid growth of technology in education has made possible new and powerful tools for instructors and students, and nursing education is no exception.

Now an innovative software application, Midwife Pocket PC, has placed a distinctive East Carolina University stamp on

L to R: Yanhao Zhu (SON lead programmer, Patricia Payne (MSN, CNM, project coordinator, former SON clinical assistant professor), Karl Faser (manager, SON IT Services), Janice Taleff (CNM, MSN, SON clinical instructor).

the state of the art in student midwife pedagogy. Even better, in December ECU licensed Midwife Pocket PC to Four-D Software Inc. of Elkton, Tenn., marking the latest successful technology transfer of an ECU invention to the

commercial market.

Developed by a School of Nursing team with funding by a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Midwife application was coded to operate in Windows and tested at the School of Nursing on Dell’s handheld Axim pocket computer. The application allows student midwives undergoing clinical training to track patient and experiential data easily and efficiently for later download to a computer network. Logging such data traditionally has required student midwives to take written notes, which then had to be transcribed manually to spreadsheets — an inefficient process which often led to poor record-keeping of patients’ outcomes and of student midwives’ pedagogical experiences. Midwife Pocket PC streamlines data collection by allowing students to record their experiences in real time, on customized forms, with a stylus on a pocket-sized

device. Four-D Software, a small company in rural southern Tennessee, plans to develop the Pocket PC program further by offering modules to expand the tool’s utility beyond the student midwife market.

There are currently more than 6,000 nurse midwives in clinical practice in the U.S., and commercial development of Midwife Pocket PC is expected to bring the tool considerable notice within the midwifery profession.

School of Nursing team members who participated in the development of Midwife Pocket PC were Patricia Payne, RN, BSN, CNM, MPH, project coordinator and former clinical assistant professor; Janice Taleff, BA, RN, BNS, CNM, MSN, clinical assistant professor; Karl Faser, IT services manager; and Yanhao Zhu, lead programmer.

Last June, Payne was recognized in part for her contribution to the project with a $5,000 Bayada Award for Technological Innovation in Nursing Education and Practice sponsored by the Bayada Corp. through Drexel University. ■ Reprinted with permission from Exploration & Discovery, December 2006, ECU Division of Research and Graduate Studies

spot

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Techno-savvy teaching Simulation education pole-vaults past static mannequins

Dr. Laura Gantt, executive director of learning technologies and labs in the School of Nursing, stands by one of several simulator patients used in nursing education.

At right, from left to right, nursing students Elizabeth O’Neal, Marquita Harris and Mary Boone diagnose and care for a simulation baby.

By Crystal Baity For kids of the ’70s and ’80s, the sharpest soul, funk or rock could be heard on high-fidelity stereo. Translated to nursing, fidelity means the degree to which a mannequin mimics a real patient.

Nursing is one of the high-tech leaders in simulation education, pole-vaulting past dummies inhabiting CPR training rooms or driver safety videos.

“People don’t understand that we’ve been doing simulation for years, just with a lesser degree of fidelity, particularly if you come from an emergency or trauma background,” said Dr. Laura Gantt, executive director of learning technologies and labs in the East Carolina University School of Nursing. “It’s old news in the air industry and the military. Obviously, we’ve been doing a type of simulation, but we’ve upped the reality factor.”

Mannequins have heartbeats and pulses, body temperature, lung function, reproductive organs and give birth. In an ECU lab, instructors program scenarios and set parameters using laptop computers in a nearby observation room. Faculty can manipulate responses and reactions by the patient and monitor students’ skills.

“If the nurse at the bedside forgets to introduce herself (or himself), the patient says ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know who you are.’

It’s a cue to the student,” said Tamara Congdon, a nursing lab instructor. “What the student

sees out there is what a nurse would see in a real-life scenario.”

Students may work with the patient unassisted, building confidence and decision-making while sometimes making and correcting mistakes before working on a real person. “It can lead them through critical thinking skills for a reallife scenario in a safe place,” Congdon said.

There are eight labs in the Health Sciences Building, compared to one lab in the Rivers Building, the former home of the nursing school. The labs are set up identically to what a student would encounter in a hospital, from surgery to a regular patient room.

Nurse anesthesia graduate students use two of the eight labs almost exclusively.

Along with four simulation adults, two simulation babies and a birthing mannequin, the school maintains many other static mannequins and models. A separate medical simulation and patient safety laboratory run by ECU’s emergency medicine department and Pitt County Memorial Hospital also has a high-fidelity mannequin named Stan, one of the most advanced in simulation education. Costs can range from $10,000 for a mediumfidelity simulator up to $150,000 for high-fidelity versions, Gantt said.

Nearly 500 undergraduate nursing students are in lab each

semester. Midwifery students use simulated and standardized patients. Other programs continue to integrate simulation labs into their curriculum, Gantt said.

Rising seniors Laurie Smith of Tarboro, Tina Vandiford of Greenville and Kendra Todd of Yadkinville recently changed a dressing on “Edna Ecko,” one of the simulators. As the students worked, they talked with “Ms. Edna” about what they would be doing and as they removed and wrapped her wound with fresh gauze. Clinical instructor Beth Bryant set up the exercise and observed the students from the next room.

“It gives you a more reallife scenario to get you better prepared if you haven’t experienced it,” Vandiford said.

“It’s also kind of nervewracking too, at first, being observed when you’re not used to it,” Smith said.

Hiring a director of the simulation labs coincided with the move to west campus last summer. Gantt, a 28year nursing veteran, worked three years as administrator of emergency and transport services at PCMH. Before that, she worked at WakeMed and in hospitals in Arizona and as a flight nurse in New Mexico. Her emergency room background complements her current role since simulation often is used in emergency medicine certification. Gantt is assisted by Congdon, who

18 Pulse Summer 2007

previously managed the PCMH neonatal intensive care unit, and Rita Coggins (’77 BSN), who still works at Nash General Hospital in Rocky Mount. Her background is in telemetry, cardiac rehabilitation and critical care. The trio supports the lab, develops simulation scenarios, oversees graduate assistants, manages inventory and troubleshoots. They are assisted by information technology team member Yolanda Pritchard (’00 BS) who also does simulation programming, production and videotaping. Pritchard helps Gantt prepare multimedia presentations on lab operations.

Some simulator scenarios come pre-programmed while others have to be developed from scratch. Instructors must try to anticipate everything a student will do or say in order to program appropriate vocals into the mannequin. There is a delay in the patient talking to the student, similar to the delay some digital cameras have taking a photograph.

“We’re still at the point the students say ‘if this were a real patient.’ We’re trying to get past the old static mannequin days.

But you can only get things so real,” Gantt said. “It’s incredibly labor intensive. Before the student comes, you have to develop the scenario. To come in and administer medication to a patient sounds simple. But it’s not.”

As students progress to upper level courses, more complex patient situations are presented.

“We’re upping the ante for students as they’ve had more exposure,” Gantt said.

Dr. Janis Childs, keynote speaker at the 16th annual Collaborative Nursing Research Day held March 2, spoke about simulation. “You can

incorporate so many levels of uncertainty in these situations and that’s what’s great. You can change the breathing. You can change a blood pressure. You can have someone deliver a lab report, or have a family member say, ‘He never looks like that.’”

This year’s research day theme was simulation. It needs to mimic reality, be process-based, feel authentic and include a realistic environment, said Childs, associate professor of nursing and director of the Learning

Resource and Simulation Center at the University of South Maine College of Nursing and Health Professions.

“Active learning is a prominent part of simulation education,” Childs said. “We are building the student’s confidence and comfort level. It is part of experiential learning.”

Childs noted it is important for students and instructors to de-brief and reflect on the simulation exercise once it’s completed.

“One of my theories is that everybody should be (a patient) in the hospital before they become a nurse or doctor, preferably with a bedpan stuck to them for an hour,” Childs said.

Several ECU nursing research projects, highlighted with posters at this year’s conference, involve simulation. They include evaluation and data compilation, sensory additions such as adding smell to wound care, measuring critical thinking, teaching patient safety and evaluating

19 Pulse Summer 2007

I am an ECU nurse Number students applied for undergraduate admissions (2006-07) 574 Number students admitted to undergraduate program (2006-07) 238 Number students applied for graduate admissions (2006-07) 273 Number students admitted to graduate program (2006-07) 96 Students are from: NC Counties: Alamance, Alexander, Anson, Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen,

Brunswick, Buncombe, Burke, Cabarrus, Camden, Carteret, Catawba, Chatham, Cherokee, Chowan, Cleveland, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Davidson, Davie, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe, Forsyth, Franklin, Gaston, Gates, Granville, Greene, Guilford, Halifax, Harnett, Henderson, Hertford, Hoke, Iredell, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Macon, Madison, Martin, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Richmond, Robeson, Rockingham, Rowan, Rutherford, Sampson, Scotland, Stanley, Stokes, Surry, Union, Vance, Wake, Warren, Washington, Watauga, Wayne, Wilkes, Wilson, Yadkin Other states: Alabama, Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi,

New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia Enrollment increase since 2005-2006 school year: Undergrad 14% Graduate 23%

Number of female students in undergraduate program 470

student competency.

Another issue in simulation education is access. Nationally, there is a push to establish simulation centers to educate large groups, Gantt said.

“Not all students have access by any amount of the imagination,” she said. “Other nursing institutions are very interested in coming here. People are getting money to buy them but that doesn’t teach you to use them. The way you use the technology causes a lot of philosophical questions.

There are serious discussions about how to best integrate simulation to the curriculum and make it the best educational experience for students.”

ECU nurse faculty members are interested in collaborating on such projects as interdisciplinary team training and research with students in the Brody School of Medicine, Pitt Community College and others.

“Eventually simulation will be much more a way of life than it is now,” Gantt said. ■

Number of male students in undergraduate program 60 Number of female students in graduate program 290 Number of male students in graduate program 31

Other degrees held by graduate students in the alternate entry MSN option: MAEd, BS in Biology, BS in Criminal Justice, MS Rehabilitation and Counseling, BS Recreation and Leisure Studies, BS Occupational Therapy, MA Urban Planning Average GPA admitted into undergraduate program 3.45 Average GPA admitted into graduate program 3.41

Your support makes a Giving levels and naming opportunities in the School of Nursing

Name that room Giving levels and naming opportunities in the School of Allied Health Sciences

difference

The new home of the School of Nursing provides student-centered instruction, research, service and clinical activities in an interdisciplinary environment.

Gifts to the school will ensure that state-of-the-art facilities are available to keep pace with the growing number of applicants and the increasing demand for nursing professionals.

More new nurses graduate from East Carolina University than any other institution in North Carolina.

As we face the realities of the nursing shortage, it is critical to educate those who will be the next generation of nurses, nurse educators and leaders in the profession.

Classrooms, laboratories, lecture halls, conference rooms, offices, work rooms and reception areas are available for sponsorship. Other opportunities for giving include scholarships and endowed faculty chair positions.

For additional information or to make a donation, contact Mark Alexander, ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation Inc., 525 Moye Blvd., Greenville, N.C. 27834, or call 252-744-2238 or toll free at 888-816-2238, or e-mail medfoundation@ecu.edu. â–

22

Class Notes

Pulse Summer 2007

1971 Frances Keeney Krom is now fully retired after 25 years of nursing, including 21 years active service with the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. She earned her master’s degree from Emory University with a specialty in neonatal/perinatal nursing.

1976 Lynda Dixon has accepted a position with Wake County Human Services Public Health Center as a nursing supervisor and maternal child health liaison with WakeMed.

1977 Madge Gay Dews Thompson moved from Georgia to Fort Hamilton, N.Y., in June 2006.

Her husband, Col. Stevan Thompson, is doing a surgical fellowship at a hospital in Manhattan. Madge Gay is a clinical coordinator for the Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command. She was the managing editor of the Special Operations Forces Medical Handbook. A second edition is underway, and Madge Gay is the managing editor for that publication. She and her husband have two children, Kenneth (22) and Joanna (18).

Dianne M. Marshburn received her doctorate from the ECU School of Nursing in May. Her dissertation was, “Clinical Competence, Satisfaction, Intent to Stay in New Nurses.” She works at Pitt County Memorial Hospital as the administrator for nursing research.

1979 Beth Kimball Mahar is the U.S. Embassy nurse in Canberra, Australia. She was also just promoted to colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

during the Iraq war. She recently returned home and is now serving as the assistant chief nurse of the 3274th U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Bragg and holds the rank of lieutenant colonel. She also resumed her practice of health law at Patterson, Dilthey, Clay, Bryson and Anderson in Raleigh as a senior associate attorney.

appointed assistant professor of nursing at UNC-Pembroke.

She is married to James Rupard.

They have two children, Will (6) and Sarah Elizabeth (1).

Sherry Tate married Art in October 2005 and has a daughter, Jennifer Dickey, and two stepsons, Travis and Ryan.

She works in the operating room at Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, Md. 1984 Annette G. Greer (MSN ’95) Rhonda Duke Shearon is a received her doctorate from the school nurse in Franklin County ECU School of Nursing in May. serving two elementary schools.

Her dissertation was, “LearnerCentered Characteristics of 1986 Nurse Educators Who Use Donna W. Roberson received her Contemporary Pedagogy.” doctorate from the UNC-Chapel Annette works at ECU as an Hill School of Nursing in May. assistant clinical professor in Her dissertation was, “Factors the Office of Interdisciplinary Influencing Anti-Retroviral Health Sciences Education.

Therapy Adherence in HIVPositive Female Inmates.” Donna 1994 teaches at the ECU School of Nicole Robertson Obas is the Nursing as a clinical instructor. manager of clinical services at NSA-Department of Defense.

1987 She earned a master’s degree Linda Dunnum Hofler received in nursing administration, her doctorate from the ECU and she is pursuing a postSchool of Nursing in May. Her master’s adult nurse practitioner dissertation was, “A Case Study certificate at George Washington of the Relationship Between University. She was married the North Carolina Center for in October 2005.

Nursing and Nursing Workforce 1995 in the State of North Carolina Cynthia Powell Keel graduated Through the Lens of Planned from Duke University’s Change.” Linda works at Pitt pediatric acute/chronic care County Memorial Hospital as nurse practitioner program vice president of quality. in December 2004. She is 1989 employed as a pediatric critical William and Penny Heath care nurse practitioner in the pediatric intensive care unit at Hill announce the birth of Pitt County Memorial Hospital. a son, Brent.

She is married to Hank Keel Barbara Jean “Jeannie” Moore (BSBA ’98), and they have has been a nurse manager at two children.

WakeMed in Raleigh since Linda Martinea Morreale 2000. She is married to David is a certified case manager for Moore (ECU ’89). They have Armstrong & Associates. three children, Conner (9), Carson (4) and Kendall (2).

1991

Michelle McEwen Rupard 1982 received her master’s degree Helen Diane Meelheim served from Duke University. She as a family nurse practitioner and is an independent legal nurse acting chief nurse at Darmstadt consultant and has worked as Health Clinic, a military hospital a labor/delivery nurse for 15 in Germany, on deployment years. In January 2006, she was

1997

Amy Burton Denton works every other weekend in the operating room at WakeMed in Raleigh. She has been married for eight years and has three daughters, Emma (5), Brooke (3) and Abigail (2).

Margaret Gerber Maher married

Michael Maher on March 31, 2006, in Philadelphia. Marge works as an intensive care nurse at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Her husband is also a nurse.

1998 Catherine McCoy Nyce married Ray Nyce in 2002.

They moved near Philadelphia and they have two children.

Alexander was born in 2003 and Julie was born in 2006.

Catherine stopped working as intravenous therapy home health nurse for Option Care of Philadelphia in 2006 to be a stay-at-home mom.

Kathryn Smith Bailey is working as nurse practitioner for trauma surgery in Savannah, Ga. She earned her family nurse practitioner credentials at Duke University in 2002.

She is married to Marc Bailey, a cardiothoracic surgeon in Savannah.

Danee Paullin-Kaplan received a post-master’s certificate as a pediatric nurse practitioner in 2002 from State University of New York-Stonybrook. Danee, husband Rick, and daughter, Ryann, moved to Michigan in 2002 and celebrated the birth of their son, Chase, in 2005. Danee is currently working for the St. Joseph’s Community Health Department providing family planning services.

1999 Jennifer (Jeny) Conrad Rendon works part-time as a phone triage nurse at The West Clinic, an oncology practice in Memphis, Tenn. She has three children and another child due in November.

2000 Denise S. Harper is an assistant nurse manager of the vascular access program at Pitt County Memorial Hospital.

Stephanie Wattenbarger Judy works for the Division of Public Health in Delaware assisting with emergency preparedness for the state. She and her husband welcomed their first child, Lilly

Class Notes

23 Pulse Summer 2007

Grace, on Oct. 5, 2006.

Laura Holcomb Wilkerson received her master’s degree in May 2006 from UNC-Chapel Hill. She is a board certified pediatric nurse practitioner. She and her husband welcomed a son, Hunter James Wilkerson, on July 19, 2006.

married Melissa Barbour on June 10, 2006.

Holly Hall is working in the medical intensive care unit at WakeMed in Raleigh and graduated from ECU’s family nurse practitioner master’s program this summer.

Courtney Casey Hinnant was married in November. She has also moved from a staff 2001 nurse position in the cardiac Cynthia Berdeau-Gardner intensive care unit at Pitt County recently received her clinical Memorial Hospital to a staff nurse educator certification in development assistant position in 2006. She is married with one cardiac medicine. child, Sydney Madison, born Renee Green Nosbisch worked Dec. 24, 2003. at Sacred Heart Hospital in Eau Scott Carpenter re-enlisted with Claire, Wis., until her marriage the U.S. Air Force. In April, to Kyle Nosbisch on April 22, he was commissioned to first 2006. Since then, Renee has lieutenant and will be serving worked at Black River Memorial as an emergency room nurse at Hospital, a 25-bed critical access Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Scott hospital in Black River Falls, got married in April.

Wis., where Kyle is a deputy sheriff. The couple eagerly Jessica Edwards Griffin has awaited the arrival of their first worked as a staff nurse at Pitt County Memorial Hospital since baby this summer. graduation from ECU. For the 2003 past four years, she has worked Audrey Russell Novchich and in the newborn nursery/convaher husband moved to England, lescent newborn nursery and where she is finishing the is currently an RNIII. She has Overseas Nursing Programme obtained her basic life support and currently interviewing for a instructor certification from the job within the United Kingdom.

American Heart Association.

Chrystie Tarkenton Stowe is Rachel Edelson Hutchins working at Bertie Memorial has two children, Elijah Jeremiah Hospital in Windsor. She and her husband moved to Jamesville and Lilith Rose. She moved in March and bought a house, to Washington, D.C., in barn and land.

November 2006.

Rebecca Dale Vinson moved Angel Gaskill Lupton has to Miami last year and works worked at Craven Regional as the team leader of the Medical Center since graduinpatient rehabilitation unit at ation. She was married in April 2003 and has one son, Cameron Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach. Her son, Jimmy Louis, born Dec. 31, 2005.

Graham, plays basketball for the Randi Scharver Rollinson University of Miami. married Phil l. Rollinson on Megan Sheriff Chriscoe worked April 29, 2006 in Nags Head. in the emergency department at Grady Memorial Hospital in 2002 Atlanta after graduation then Albert Anderson is working in completed travel assignments the trauma intensive care unit at in Charleston, S.C., and San Pitt County Memorial Hospital Diego. She is married to Josh, weekend nights. He is pursuing lives near Asheville and works his master’s of business adminin the emergency department at istration degree in health care Mission Hospital. She reports management at ECU. He “life is good!”

2004 Erin Bishop works on acute care pediatrics at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System. She is also currently in graduate school for her MSN with a concentration in leadership and administration.

Garrett Brooks works as a labor and delivery staff nurse at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem.

Timothy Jones has a set of 1-year-old twins, a boy and a girl.

2005 Caleb Depp works as an emergency nurse in a level one trauma center in Phoenix.

Lori Sholders Farmer was selected for a highly competitive genome research program for faculty. She works at UNCPembroke as an advanced practice nurse in genetics and as an assistant professor with the department of nursing.

Amanda Burdick Marshburn was married last September.

She and her husband are building a house near their hometown of Richlands.

Nicole Walsh McKnight will soon complete her obligation to the scholarship program that helped her fund the last portion of her education. She is preparing to enter the exciting world of applications and interviews. She is a new aunt of an 11-pound, 1 ounce beautiful baby boy.

Shandel Cooper Panneton recently returned to the military.

She entered the Army as a second lieutenant. She graduated from officer basic school in San Antonio and is stationed at Tripler Army Medical Center near sunny Honolulu. She is working on a medical oncology floor. Her goal is to attend the Army’s critical course and have the opportunity to be a critical care nurse in the Army.

Emily Ammons Perry married Jason Perry (BSN ’05) on April 15, 2006, in Asheville. They have also recently bought a new house in Winterville and work at Pitt County

Memorial Hospital.

Erin Brothers Smith was married on Nov. 12, 2005, and built a house last summer in Winterville. She worked in the emergency department at Pitt County Memorial Hospital until March 2006, then transferred to the operating room at PCMH. She started her MSN this fall at ECU. Michelle Walston works at Pitt County Memorial Hospital as a staff nurse in labor and delivery. She will be attending school in the Philippines in 2008 for midwifery.

Danny White works in the neonatal intensive care unit at Pitt County Memorial Hospital and was married in July.

Natalie Spence Wynn has a 6-month-old daughter and loves her job as a telemetry nurse.

2006 Briana Fallow has a new job at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte in orthopedics.

Courtney D. Mikola works on the nephrology floor at New Hanover Regional Hospital in Wilmington.

Marquita Singleton works at Pitt County Memorial Hospital in the obstetrics department.

Elizabeth Smith got married May 5.

2007 Melonie Norman of Yadkinville received the Robert H. Wright Alumni Leadership Award, the most prestigious award presented to undergraduate students during spring commencement. The award, presented by the ECU Alumni Association, recognizes academic achievement, leadership qualities and service to those who will make a positive difference in their profession and community. The award is named for the first president of East Carolina Teachers Training School, the forerunner of ECU. Norman also was one of two seniors selected in 2006 as a nursing leadership intern by the East Carolina Center for Nursing Leadership. ■

24 Pulse Summer 2007

188 N.C. Nurse Scholars students receive

Merit Awards

A total of 188 students at East Carolina University are recipients of the 2006-2007 North Carolina Nurse Scholars Award.

Upon graduation, recipients of this competitive meritbased program commit to working for at least one year, per each year funded, as a registered nurse in North Carolina.

The program was created to address the shortage of nurses practicing in North

Carolina and approved by the N.C. General Assembly in 1989. The first recipients were funded for the 1990-91 academic year.

Award recipients are chosen on the basis of academics, leadership potential and desire to practice nursing in North Carolina.

Awards range from $3,000 to $5,000 a year for undergraduate students and from $3,000 to $6,000 a year for graduate students.

Master’s nurse scholars

Undergraduate nurse scholars

Pamela Alligood, Kelly Allis, Freda Babson, Angela Boyd, Vicki Brkic, Kelly BuieGodfrey, Regina Burgin, Amy Campbell, Diana Dillard, Cheryl Dobson, Stephanie Fisher, Casi Gilmer, Christy Hall, Amanda Holland, Rebecca Huneycutt, Wanda Karapanos, Christy Lock, Robert Landon, Tracy Paterson, Patricia Pfeiffer, Heather Singleton, Mary Turner, Leah Vaughan, Sharon Ware

Candice Alford, Justin Andrews, Megan Autry, Jenna Barnes, Kristy Barnes, Brandy Barnette, Ashton Beard, Brystol Benner, Ashley Bennett, Karen Benton, Kristen Bissette, Jessica Bland, Mary Boone, Elizabeth Bost, Kathryn Boswell, Anna Boulware, Brigette Bowman, Karen Braddy, Courtney Bradford, Laura Bradsher, Margo Braxton, Melanie Briggs, Karri Britton,

Mounce, Felicia Randolph and Tonique Tabron

Memorial Scholarship, Wendy Chavez, Kimberly Crickmore and Phoebe Pollitt

ECU honors

62

withstudents scholarships The School of Nursing held its annual scholarship awards program on Jan. 26. A total of 62 students were presented scholarships. Below is a listing of each scholarship and the recipients: Graduate scholarships Gertrude E. Skelly Charitable Foundation Scholarship, Ivy Bagley, Mistee Caldwell, Cynthia Chandler, Amy Clayton, Cheryl Dobson, Amy Farmer, Vernetta Farrell, Crystal Leggett, Kristen McKelvie, Amanda

School of Nursing Alumni Association Scholarship, Michelle Davis

Health Sciences Golf Classic Scholarship, Jolene Spencer

E.G. Barlow Scholarship, Laura Edwards

Hospice of Tarheel Scholarship, Laura Carmon

Berbecker Foundation Health Sciences Endowment, Alisha Anderson

Jefferson Pilot-Catherine & Max Ray Joyner Scholarship, Gillian Jones and Christopher Sutton

Norma Miller Daffin Neonatal Parent/Child Nursing Scholarship, Andrea Harrell Eunice Mann Garner Memorial Scholarship, Malinda Langley, April Matthias and William Pearson, II Mabel Cooper Hayden

Perry-Oyler Endowment, Julie Blackman Roccapriore-Tschetter Fellowship, Amanda Sawyer School of Nursing General Scholarship Fund, Rosa Myers and Hettie Peele

25 Pulse Summer 2007

Kaitlin Brown, Liza Brunner, Jimina Bullock, Leslie Bullock, Sonya Callaway, Ashley Cameron, Lauren Campbell, Kayla Carr, Hanna Carroll, Matthew Carter, Randi Caruso, Crystal Cary, Brittany Casstevens, Brittney Chichester, Jennifer Cleaton, Julie Collins, Amy Connor, Mallory Conway, Daniel Corbin, Brittany Creasy, Melissa Dame, Kelly Davenport, Dena Davis, Morgan Davis, Erin Decker, Sara DeHoog, Margaret Derrickson, Mary Doster, Sonyal Dove, Rachel Drye, Lindzie Durham, Emily Edwards, Christopher Elkins, Kelly Emery, Brenna Evans,

Rachel Falgout, Jessica Farmer, Jordan Flint, Ashley Floyd, Kerri Flynn, Caroline Forbes, Suzanne GablerSchmid, Brittany Gibbs, Sara Girmus, Elizabeth Godwin, India Green, Erika Green, Nicole Griffin, Marquita Hall, Elizabeth Harrell, Morgan Harris, Alexandria Harrison, Megan Henning, Darus Henson, Rachel High, Jacob Hines, Samantha Hollen, Mandy Houck, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Jacobs, Tarnesha James, Jacqueline Jernigan, Corrie Johnson, Brook Jones, Courtney Kazleman, Emily Keenan, Bejal Kikani, Bryan King, Kristen Kinney, Kari Lange, Teresa Lanier, Charles

Laughlin, Diana Leary, Ryan Lewis, Crystal Locklear, Sara Lumston, Lindsay Martin, Gregory Maruzzella, Sara McClure, Jessica McCullen, Lauren Mercer, Meredith Miller, Ashley Miller, Kelly Morris, Tina Morrison, Lindsay Morton, Kristin Mullins, Sara Neubauer, Benjamin Newton, Melonie Norman, Ginger Norris, Bethany Norris, Elizabeth O’Neal, Jessica Parker, Sara Peaden, Sharon Peterson, Ashley Pollard, Mitzi Polochak, Rebecca Pritchett, Leah Quinn, Stephanie Rayl, Barbara Renchen, Traci Rich, Mary Rogerson, Victoria Runyon, Melony Sanders, Laura Sasser, Lindsey Sauls,

Patricia Ann Yow Memorial Scholarship, Gloria Baker

Memorial Scholarship, Joan Taylor

and Lindsay Martin

Undergraduate scholarships

Sherry Hawkins Memorial Scholarship, Kristi Reguin-Hartman

American Legion Post #39 Nursing Scholarship, India Green Ruth Glass Bunting Memorial Scholarship, Sheree’ Cain-Jones Demaree/McGinnis Memorial Scholarship, Kendra Balcom Eunice Mann Garner Memorial Scholarship, Amber Fishel Gravely Foundation Scholarship, Hannah Carroll Dotty Bennett Harrell Scholarship, Ellen Ashley Dickens Mabel Cooper Hayden

J.A.’s Uniform Shop Nursing Scholarship, Kaitlin Thomas

University Book Exchange Scholarship, Benjamin Newton Vickie C. & Steven E. Whitehurst Scholarship, Dawn Espinoza

Patricia Perry Womble Charlotte M. Martin Memorial Memorial Scholarship, Beta Nu Scholarship, Anthony Stacy Lynn White-Smith Huang and Bejal Kikani Gertrude E. Skelly Perry-Oyler Endowment Fund, Charitable Foundation Scholarship, Hanna Capps, Ijeroma Anen Bryan Chalk, Hope Freeman, Hal & Eldean Pierce William Trent Gass, Beta Nu Scholarship, Marquita Hall, Brook Jones, Suzanne Gabler-Schmid Mitzi Kukahiko, Heather Mise, School of Nursing General Jarrod Quinlivan, Ashleigh Scholarship Fund, Lauren Strickland, Heather Ward and Bennett, Lilica Mirela Daughtry April Wright ■

Shannon Shaw, Jennifer Shojaei-Arani, Adam Sisk, Catherine Sizemore, Kaleigh Slade, Ashley Smetanka, Kristina Smith, Rachel Smith, Tiffany Snody, Erin Spivey, Roslyn Stewart, Kaitlin Stock, Danielle Street, Ashleigh Strickland, Leslie Carol Sugg, Amanda Summers, Stacie Terry, Kaitlin Thomas, Jessica Thompson, Georgia Thornton, Lindsey Tingle, Quirah Valk, Jennifer Wachsmann, Stephanie Walls, Megan Warchol, Heather Ward, Amy Watts, Eleanor White, Jenna Whitehurst, Esther Willcox, Allison Winslow, Kelsey Yancey, Amanda Zepeda. ■

26 Pulse Summer 2007

Community events

highlight Beta Nu's year

Karen Krupa, RN, MS, MPH President, Beta Nu Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International

We had our first Clothesline Art Show and Sale coupled with our Beta Nu Silent Auction last October. Dr. Lou Everett, Beta Nu member and president of the Greenville Brushstrokes, coordinated this event. We raised more than $1,200 for nursing scholarships. Sigma Theta Tau International President Carol Picard gave an inspiring and artistic presentation. Our second annual Clothesline Art Show and Sale is scheduled for Oct. 18. Dr. Sandra Walsh will be our guest speaker.

We inducted 73 new members during fall semester.

Dr. Annette Peery, immediate past-president of Beta Nu, was our induction speaker.

Congratulations to all of our new members.

President-Elect Gina Woody organized our community

Beta Nu Chapter inducts

73

new members

Undergraduate students

Kristen Bissette Jimina Bullock Allison Carter Jennifer Cleaton Sarah Daughtrey Kelly Davenport

project for this year: a Girl Scout patch for Pitt County Brownies and Girl Scouts. We had more than 110 Brownies and Girl Scouts in the Health Sciences Building to explore nursing and earn a patch. The afternoon was fun and exciting for the girls, and we had wonderful participation from our membership and additional nursing students who volunteered their time.

The ECU theatre arts department lent us vintage costumes, students and faculty made up skits about nursing history, and Girl Scouts interviewed practicing nurses and learned some first aid by going to the simulation labs. It was a very well-planned and executed event that has received much acclaim in the area. We appreciate everyone’s efforts in making this such a great event. ■

Erin Decker Noura Hamze Sara Harmon Taylor Honeycutt Sara De Hoog Suzanne Gabler-Schmid Anthony Huang Aaron Jackson Meredith Jenny Courtney Kazleman Bejal Kikani Celeste Kirby

At top, more than 100 Girl Scouts from eastern North Carolina enjoyed “Scout Out Nursing” Day on March 31 where girls learned about nursing as a career and earned a patch. Above and far right, the first Clothesline Art Show and Sale and Beta Nu Auction was held Oct. 26 raising more than $1,200 for nursing scholarships. Right, ECU nursing students wore vintage costumes and performed skits about nursing history during “Scout Out Nursing” Day.

Kari Lange Denise Lozoya Kathleen Magrogan Mary Maultsby Sarah Neubauer Melonie Norman Jarrod Quinlivan Aimee Sweeting Katie Tyson Amy Umstead Megan Warchol Jancie Webb

Graduate students

Batrice Aycock Gloria Baker Melinda Bissette Daniel Brock Kelly Buie-Godfrey Laura Carmon Barbara Clayson Jean Conlin Lori Daniels Diana Dillard Margaret Dudley

Alison Eldridge Christie Ellis Amy Farmer Courtney Finkbeiner Kelly Fitzgerald Ellen Goldberg Denise Harper Malinda Harrington Freda Kerr Patricia Lockamy Scott MacLean JoAnne McClave

Ken Onori Gemekia Parker Cheryl Rogers Billie Rose Doris Rose Amanda Sawyer Margaret Tigchelaar Mary Ann Turner Edmond White RN/BSN students

Mary Campbell

Janet Culbertson Laurie Engstrom Virginia Tripp Jennifer Sugg Charlene Herrera Joseph Parrish Nurse leaders

Carol Garris-Hamill Brian Weil Alexis Welch Pamela Wells â–

28 Pulse Summer 2007

Bamboo bridge

■

continued from page 4­­

different ways of asking questions. “She has a curious mind and is certainly a scholar,” Smith said.

Libster has been published in the American Journal of Nursing, Nursing History Review, Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, Integrative Nursing and the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine.

She is the author of three books and a CD-ROM, and is writing a fourth book for which she received funding from the Vincentian Heritage Foundation and an ECU Research and Creative Activity grant.

When Libster, her husband, Harold, and dog, Sheeva, moved to Pitt County from Indiana where Libster taught nursing and history at Purdue University, they settled on a Queen Anne-style home in Farmville.

They learned the previous owners of the 100-year-old Fields-Thorne House grew organically – a true fit. Her

garden includes a favorite fig tree, jasmine, camellias, rosemary, roses, papaw trees, sunflowers, tomatoes, vegetables and herbs such as rosemary, self-heal, lady’s mantle and dandelions. Libster shares the traditional use for each on a backyard tour: rose waters for headaches; rose oil for baby’s skin as they transition to the world; and dandelion greens for the liver in spring.

Bottled rose waters and oils, drying plants, and homemade balms and tinctures can be found in her kitchen – a compounding lab of sorts. An antique apothecary chest that belonged to Libster’s grandmother can be found in her home office.

“We’re learning some new plants here,” said Libster, who is interested in working with tobacco farmers on possible alternative uses and crops.

Bamboo project researchers acknowledge that nurses are often educated in urban areas closely aligned with medical centers focused on modern medicine.

However, nurses have historically worked in rural communities that support traditional medicine.

Elderberry syrup, made from cooked and pressed berries, has been shown in clinical trials to shorten the days people suffer from influenza. Garlic, a potent antioxidant, has been used for hundreds of years as a traditional home remedy. An 88-year-old friend of Libster puts a big clove in her cheek after she has been exposed to someone with a cold.

Even the root of sweet-smelling kudzu, a prolific vine in North Carolina, is being researched for medicinal uses. For 15 years, Libster has given kudzu pudding to patients with intestinal problems.

In a presentation to the ECU medical history group earlier this year, Libster discussed 19th century health care reform and botanical therapies, which was the focus of her doctoral thesis.

“Americans were really interested in self care with plant remedies and freedom of choice,” she said.

There were many popular domestic advice books and most families had their own recipes for self care. People were concerned about safety and efficacy of all treatments so they

turned to expert caregivers such as nurses and midwives who practiced autonomously in their communities, Libster said. Her research shows that Shaker nurses ran community infirmaries and documented their care in logs that contained numerous references to botanical poultices, teas, tinctures, tonics and floral waters.

“The Shakers didn’t believe that roses were ornamental plants.

All plants had a purpose. Rose water was made by the nurses to use in alleviating headaches,” Libster said, adding Shaker nurses made clinical choices about which poultice to use on their patients’ wounds based on their ongoing assessment.

“I always tell my nursing students evidence-based practice existed way back then,” Libster said.

Through their communityhealing roles, nurses often serve as “cultural diplomats” as they consider conventional recommendations and evidence-based decisions in health care, according to the Bamboo Bridge Web site.

For more information, visit www.

BambooBridge.org. ■

At left, a variety of seed packets await dirt. Center, dried plants enjoy a windowsill perch. Above, an antique apothecary chest belonged to Martha Libster’s grandmother.

29 Pulse Summer 2007

Pirate

for life

Mark Alexander becomes the school’s first full-time development officer

By Crystal Baity If you talk to Mark Alexander a mere 60 seconds or less, you’ll know he’s a Pirate.

Purple pulses through Alexander’s veins. His family, lifelong Pirate supporters, has been in Pitt County for more than 150 years.

“My family is deeply rooted in eastern North Carolina. I love the area and I love the school,” Alexander said. “My links to our community and my investment in ECU will give me the foundation on which to build a successful fundraising program in the School of Nursing.”

Alexander is the chief fundraiser for the School of Nursing in the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation Inc., becoming the first dedicated solely to the school in January. Previously, one person served as development officer for nursing and the School of Allied Health Sciences.

“The addition of a development officer dedicated 100 percent to the School of Nursing will allow us to undertake progressive and creative fundraising projects, which will increase our scholarship fund and maintain our edge in state-of-the-art delivery of nursing education,” said Dr. Sylvia Brown, acting dean.

The square footage of the

school more than doubled when it moved into the new Health Sciences Building last year. Space was desperately needed to add classrooms and labs as faculty continue to increase the number of nurse graduates to alleviate shortages in the industry. Fundraising is an integral part of operations.

“We now have the ability to pursue corporate funding, which is essential in the hightech generation of higher education where the cost of equipment and software for nursing education are extraordinarily high,” Brown said.

Naming opportunities abound from classrooms, lecture halls and labs to the entire school (see page 20).

“The School of Nursing is in the very unique position to place our mark on nursing education on the national front,” Alexander said. “We have one of the nicest facilities on the East Coast, a faculty with an impressive number of doctorate degrees from many different universities, and extraordinarily high academic standards for our students. It is time for the school to tap all of our resources to create a development program that emphasizes corporate as well as individual contributions.”

Born in Greenville, Alexander’s family moved to

Washington when he was 6.

“I grew up there, and I grew up an ECU fan,” he said, remembering attending games with his dad, Dennis, city executive with BB&T in Greenville.

“We are pleased to have Mark Alexander join our fundraising team that works hard to support all the schools and the library within the Division of Health Sciences of ECU,” said Carole Novick, president of the foundation and associate vice chancellor of health sciences development and alumni affairs. “With his help, and thanks to the support of our alumni and other donors, we are poised to have our best fundraising year ever.”

Alexander graduated with a bachelor’s of science degree in economics from ECU and formerly worked in sales with Xerox. A Pirate Club member, he is a charter member of the young graduates committee and co-chaired the Alumni Association Golf Tournament last year.

His wife, Kendra Keech Alexander, is a Meredith College graduate. The high school sweethearts were married in July 2006. Kendra is in sales with Pirate Radio 1250, a local AM radio station owned and operated by ECU graduates.

“Our love of ECU kept us in Greenville,” he said. ■

Mark Alexander

30

ECU welcomes

12 new faculty

Pulse Summer 2007

Laura Gantt, RN, BSN, MSN, Ph.D., has joined the faculty as a clinical professor and executive director of learning technologies and labs. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Duke University, a master’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. She comes to ECU from Pitt County Memorial Hospital, where she was administrator of emergency and transport services.

Barbara Kellam, RN, BSN, MSN, Ph.D., has joined the faculty as an assistant professor.

She has a bachelor’s of fine arts and bachelor’s of nursing degrees from the University of Georgia, a master’s of science and advanced registered nurse practitioner degree from the University of South Florida and a doctorate in nursing from the Medical College of Georgia.

Before coming to ECU, she was an instructor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

Bruce Leonard, RN, BSN, MSN, Ph.D., FNP, is an assistant professor at the School of Nursing. He has a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Oregon, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the Oregon Health Sciences University, a master’s degree in nursing and certification as a family nurse practitioner from Seattle (Wash.)

University and a doctorate in nursing from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston. Before coming to ECU, he was an assistant professor at UTMB-Galveston.

Jane Miles, RN, BSN, MSN, CNAA, has joined the faculty as a clinical instructor. Miles has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Marquette University in Wisconsin and a master’s degree in nursing specializing in home health care administration from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. She has worked for several home health care organizations, most recently as a consultant for Beacon Health in Mequon, Wis.

Krista Horne, RN, BSN, MSN, has joined the faculty as a clinical instructor. She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a part-time staff nurse at Duplin General Hospital in Kenansville. Before joining ECU, she was a clinical instructor and staff nurse at University of North Carolina Hospitals in Chapel Hill.

Kim Larson, RN, BSN, MPH, Ph.D., has joined the faculty as an assistant professor. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minn., a master’s of public health degree and a doctorate in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to ECU, she was dean and associate professor of nursing at Barton College in Wilson.

Martha Libster, RN, BSN, MSN, CNS, Ph.D., has joined the faculty as an associate professor of nursing. She has a bachelor’s degree in dance education and therapy from New York University, a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Mount St. Mary’s College in Los Angeles, a master’s degree in psychiatric mental health nursing from the University of Colorado and a doctorate in humanities and health care history from Oxford Brookes University in England. She previously taught at Purdue University.

Constance Mullinix, RN, BSN, MPH, MBA, Ph.D., has joined the School of Nursing as an associate professor. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing, a certificate as a family nurse practitioner and a master’s of public health degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; a master’s of business administration degree from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania; and a doctorate in nursing administration from the University of Pennsylvania. She previously ran her own health policy consulting firm.

31 Pulse Summer 2007

Melissa Ott, RN, BSN, MSN, FNP, has joined the faculty as a clinical assistant professor.

She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing with a specialty in family practice from the University of New Hampshire. She previously was a clinical assistant professor at UNH and worked as a family nurse practitioner.

Kathleen Lynch Simpson, RN, BSN, MSN, has joined the faculty as a clinical assistant professor. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a master’s degree in nursing administration from the University of South Carolina. An Army veteran, Simpson was chief of nursing administration at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., before coming to ECU.

Joy Shepard, RN, BSN, MSN, CNE, has joined the School of Nursing as a clinical instructor.

She has a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from ECU. Before joining the faculty, she worked as a staff nurse at Washington County Hospital in Plymouth and taught at Beaufort Community College.

Carol E. Winters-Moorhead, RN, BSN, MSN, Ph.D., has joined the School of Nursing as a professor. She has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy and religion from Greensboro College and a bachelor’s and master’s degree in nursing from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

She has a doctorate in higher education from the University of Pittsburgh. Before coming to Greenville, Winters-Moorhead was professor and dean of the nursing school at Hawaii Pacific University in Kaneohe, Hawaii.

School loses longtime faculty member Cynthia “Eldean” Pierce, a longtime School of Nursing faculty member and tireless supporter of alumni programs at the school, died Jan. 15. She was 59.

A native of Johnston County who grew up in the Rosewood community of Wayne County, Pierce received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from ECU along with a family nurse practitioner certificate. She also had a nursing diploma from the Watts Hospital School of Nursing in Durham.

Before entering nursing education in 1974, she worked as a staff nurse at Pitt County Memorial Hospital and remained a member of the hospital’s supplemental nursing pool. She retired from ECU in August 2004. Her husband, Hal, received honorary alumnus status for his tireless work on behalf of the School of Nursing and its alumni program. ECU’s Beta Nu Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, which Pierce strongly supported, created a scholarship in 2004 to honor the couple.

During her career at ECU, Pierce taught in the adult health nursing department. She received the ECU Alumni Association Teaching Excellence Award for the 1991-1992 academic year. Pierce was named nurse educator of the year by North Carolina Nurses Association in 1994 and an outstanding mentor by Beta Nu Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau. Pierce is survived by her husband, two sisters, a brother and others.

Scholarship contributions can be made in her name to the ECU Medical & Health Sciences Foundation, 525 Moye Blvd., Greenville, NC 27834. Designate “Hal and Eldean Pierce Scholarship Fund” in the memo line of your check. ■

32

News Briefs

Pulse Summer 2007

in February 2006 when she received the Leadership in Nursing Research Award.

Cancer patients see decreased pain and anxiety with reflexology In a two-year study, a researcher saw significant decreases in pain and anxiety in cancer patients whose partners used reflexology or manual pressure applied to specific points on their feet.

The findings of Dr. Nancy L. Stephenson, associate professor in the school of nursing and principle investigator, were published in the January issue of Oncology Nursing Forum. Co-investigators include her colleagues in the nursing school, Dr. Melvin Swanson and Dr. Martha Engelke, as well as Dr. JoAnn Dalton at Emory University and Dr. Frances J. Keefe at Duke University. The study was funded for $279,000 by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Stephenson, a certified reflexologist, has applied for additional federal funding to continue her research into the effects of partner-delivered foot reflexology. While this is the fourth pilot study that Stephenson has conducted, more research is needed to determine the duration of pain relief and whether repeated reflexology treatment would provide additional benefits, she said.

Reflexology is a complementary and alternative medicine therapy in which manual pressure is applied to specific points on

Nurse anesthesia, nurse-midwifery programs receive 10-year accreditations

Former research assistant Lucinda McMillan, left, observes as Nancy Stephenson, a faculty member in the East Carolina University School of Nursing, shows the finer points of reflexology, a method that reduces anxiety and pain for cancer patients.

the hand or feet thought to correspond with specific organs or parts of the body.

Collaborative research winners Laura Gantt and Daphne Brewington were named winners of the Collaborative Research Award during the 16th annual Collaborative Nursing Research Day held March 2 at the East Carolina University School of Nursing.

The $1,000 award supports a research project between a nurse faculty member and a Pitt County Memorial Hospital clinician and is sponsored by the ECU School of Nursing and University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina.

Gantt is assistant professor and executive director of learning technologies and labs in the ECU School of Nursing. Brewington is an education specialist at PCMH and a doctoral nursing student

at ECU. The title of their project was “Simulation: An Evaluative Approach to Teaching and Learning.”

The event was sponsored by the School of Nursing, UHS, Beta Nu chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International and the Eastern Area Health Education Center.

Alligood elected to Southern Nursing Research Society governing board Dr. Martha Raile Alligood, professor and director of the doctoral program in nursing, has been elected to the governing board of the Southern Nursing Research Society.

Alligood is serving a two-year term as a member-at-large on the eight-member governing body through February 2009.

She was honored by the society

ECU’s nurse anesthesia and nurse-midwifery programs have received 10-year accreditations by the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Education Programs and the Division of Accreditation of the American College of NurseMidwives, respectively.

The programs will be reviewed for continued accreditation again in 2016.

The nurse anesthesia program, one of six in the state, admits 12 students each January. Led by professor and director Dr. Maura S. McAuliffe, the program is supported through a partnership with University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina and Pitt Anesthesia Associates.

Jacqueline Hutcherson, certified nurse-midwife and former director of the nurse-midwifery graduate concentration, and other faculty were commended for innovation in distance delivery and commitment to underserved rural populations.

ECU’s nurse-midwifery option is the only one in North Carolina. ■

Pulse is published annually by the East Carolina University School of Nursing for alumni, faculty, staff and friends of the school. Send your story ideas or comments to the Editor, Office of News and Information, Division of Health Sciences, Lakeside Annex #3, 600 Moye Boulevard, Greenville, N.C. 27834, 252-7443764, or e-mail baityc@ecu.edu.

Alumni

Pulse Summer 2007

on the Web

Acting Dean: Sylvia T. Brown, EdD, RN, CNE Editor: Crystal Baity Editorial Assistants: Natalie Blackwelder Doug Boyd Editorial Board: Helen Brinson Sylvia Brown Laurie Evans Karen Krupa Therese Lawler Carole Novick Dorothy Rentschler Judy Williams Art Director: Lisa Kuehnle Photographer: Cliff Hollis Contributing Photographers: Forrest Croce Jenni Farrow of The Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C. Roger Winstead Writers: Crystal Baity Doug Boyd East Carolina University is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not discriminate against applicants, students or employees based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation or disability.

U.P. 07-314 Printed on recycled paper 6,750 copies of this public document were printed at a cost of $7,095.36 or $1.05 per copy.

The School of Nursing has created a place for you on its Web site that makes it easier for classmates to keep in touch and stay informed.

www.nursing.ecu.edu

Log on to and click on “SON Alumni” under the “SON Resources.”

Information on alumni and program news, awards, upcoming events, faculty/staff updates and a faculty spotlight will be listed. Alumni can update their own information under the “Update Information” link. This link also has a place for you to drop us a note with information that you would like to share (new job, new marriage, professional certifications, awards, etc.) The School of Nursing wants to stay in touch with you!

Give us your news!

If you have suggestions or comments, please e-mail Laurie Evans at evansl@ecu.edu.

Nurse graduate Anthony Huang of New London created a giant poster of his head so his family could find him among approximately 3,900 graduates at ECU’s spring commencement held May 5 in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

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