Caring Notes - UIW School of Nursing Magazine

Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions

Caring Notes Vol. 1 Issue 1 • December 2013

Inside This Issue 3

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Athletic Training: Pioneering Innovation Nursing Students Participate in City-Wide

Dear Friends,

Disaster Drill

Welcome to the first issue of the Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing & Health Professions Caring Notes publication. Caring Notes is designed to provide an update on happenings within the school, our faculty, our students, and our alumni. I anticipate that with your assistance the information will expand over time and promote a feeling of connection across distance and over the years for the entire Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing & Health Professions family.

Undergraduate Completion Program Graduates Largest Class 6

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Transcultural Summer in Romania UIW Students Participate in a Conference in Vancouver

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Dean’s Message: What’s New in Nursing

Socrative in the Classroom Nuclear Medicine in my Daily Life

While this particular issue focuses on activities over the past 6-9 months, I would like to provide a quick update of changes over the past year or so. It has been my privilege to serve as the Dean of the IFM School of Nursing & Health Professions and the Director of the School of Nursing since June 1, 2013. Kathi Light (Dean since 1996) assumed the position of Provost on that date as well. Faculty and students returned to the enlarged and renovated Sr. Charles Marie Frank Building in January 2011. The addition of the third floor with the updated simulation rooms and equipment has been a great addition for nursing, athletic training/rehabilitative science, and nuclear medicine science students and faculty alike. Plus, it provided the opportunity to have the entire faculty, except Human Performance, come together in one building. Human Performance faculty remains in the UIW Wellness Center located just east of the Sr. Charles Marie Frank Building.

Caring Notes :: December 2013

“The new concentration includes a focus on interprofessional education and interventions for patients with multiple chronic health conditions.”

In keeping with our mission to prepare health care leaders, the School of Nursing & Health Professions is playing a pivotal role in the development of Interprofessional Health Education at UIW. Dr. Mary Elaine Jones and Dr. Ramona Parker have been coordinating the development of an interprofessional collaborative practice model in partnership with CommuniCare in East San Antonio.

The post-master’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program was started in August 2011 for currently credentialed advanced practice nurses. Two students graduated in December 2012 and 4 more will graduate in December 2013. A new BSN to DNP option to prepare family nurse practitioners will be starting in January 2014. Dr. Roberta Lavin is leading this initiative with Dr. Holly Cassells, Graduate Chair, and Dr. Laura Munoz, DNP Coordinator. The new concentration includes a focus on interprofessional education and interventions for patients with multiple chronic health conditions.

to address graduate employability, and for growth within the health professions. We have supported these goals by: moving to annual admissions for Nuclear Science majors, adding a Rehabilitative Science major, adding the Bachelor of Science in Athletic Training degree from an athletic training major; adding a direct admit option for academically qualified pre-licensure nursing students; and adding a requirement that kinesiology majors complete one of three tracks for graduation (certification with minor in education, non-certification with minor required, or personal trainer track).

Enjoy the publication and celebrate with us the accomplishments of “our” school.

Mary M. Hoke, PhD, PHCNS- BC, RN-BC,ANEF

The ongoing UIW goals are to increase student access,

A very heartfelt goodbye to Drs. Spana, McNeill & Jones from the SNHP faculty and staff. You will be missed as mentors, colleagues, leaders and most of all as friends.

Merry Christmas to you and your families.

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Caring Notes :: December 2013

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Athletic Training: Pioneering Innovation

By Reid Fisher, Assistant Success Coordinator, and Shandra Esparza, Clinical Coordinator

All students working on the same computer platform enhance the collaborative capacity of the group.

Students use iPads to follow lecture using 3-Dimensional anatomical renderings. Above picture: Viviana Mireles, Alexandra Martinez, Celia Negrete, Daniela Rodriguez and Erika Delgado. Below picture: Jamie Rodriguez.

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echnology and innovation are

forefront in educating the next athletic trainers and rehabilitation professionals. Faculty are engaging students through a variety of new technologies and providing fun learning opportunities. Different educational mediums are meeting students how they learn, by hands on application or via interactive 3D renderings.

In conjunction with the CIRCLe simulation center, emergency management simulations directed

by Dr. Shandra Esparza and Dr. Reid Fisher engage students in high-risk, low-frequency injury

scenarios. Simulation as a tool provides a safe means of practicing skills and decisionmaking that are debriefed afterwards in a constructive conversation format. The course instructors have plans to progress these learning scenarios into pathology and pharmacology coursework in conjunction with the UIW nursing undergraduates in promotion of interprofessional education opportunities.

Another great addition to the classroom was a recent grant presented to Dr. Fisher by the UIW technology department, which placed 25 iPads into the hands of functional anatomy students.

These students now have 3D

modeling of the human body as a primary learning tool. The iPads further offer real-time polling of course content within a lecture and places a powerful movement analysis tool into their hands. All students working on the same computer platform enhance the collaborative capacity of the group. With iPad applications available as resources for evaluation skills, therapeutic exercise and electronic record management, engaging students with new technologies not only meets the needs of multiple learning styles, but also teaches how to function as a professional in our quickly changing medical profession.

(continued)

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Caring Notes :: December 2013

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Faculty engages hands-on learning in addition to the iPads. Each student routinely builds the muscular system onto skeletons using modeling clay. The exercise reinforces the origin/insertion, size, direction, and action of muscles in a fun way.

Ultimately, the athletic training and rehabilitation faculty seek to apply best-practices in learning and instruction to help their students excel in their future professions.

Learning tools are drawn from the newest technologies (iPad integration), borrowed from the research and application of other medical fields (nursing simulation), and developed from more simple hands-on means. All of the faculty are working to reach each learner in the way they learn best.

Athletic training students, Emily Jones and Amanda Watkins, practice emergency care skills through simulation at UIW field.

Students Evelyn Baron, Briana Moore and Briana Mireles build the muscular system on skeletons in their functional anatomy class.

Nursing Students Participate in City-Wide Disaster Drill

By Jully Nadeau Director of the Traditional BSN Program

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ore than 50 University of the

Incarnate Word (UIW) undergraduate nursing students and five nursing faculty members joined more than 400 other students in the city-wide disaster drill on September 19 at the old Kelly Air Force Base (Port San Antonio). The purpose of the exercise was to test the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) designed to

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move patients requiring hospitalization for disaster-related injuries to other areas of the country. Five UIW students were selected to go to Port San Antonio to be loaded and off loaded on a C-120 to simulate the NDMS transportation accountability.

“Students were able to experience what it would be like to be both a patient and a nurse dealing with a disaster. They saw the teamwork required to successfully care for people in a rapidly changing environment.” Robert Sackett, faculty member at UIW, said.

Students in Dr. Fisher’s therapeutic exercise course adventured out to learn from Jose Morales, ATC who works his healthcare craft at the Toyota manufacturing plant.

By touring the facility students were better able to understand the process by which ergonomics assessments can influence injury management and prevention.

The disaster drill simulation also recreated the aftermath of a strong tornado that wounded many San Antonians who were transferred to local hospitals for triage and care. “Hopefully, this experience will make the students a more compassionate nurse who understands the need for cooperation.” Participation in the disaster drill helped students meet UIW BSN program outcome number 11 where they had to describe the nurse’s role and participation in emergency

Caring Notes :: December 2013

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preparedness and disaster response with an awareness of environmental factors and the risks they pose to self, colleagues, and patients (individuals, families, communities, groups, and populations). “Many said they better understood the reason for the exercise and how educational it was,” Joyce Howard, faculty member at UIW, said.

UIW Students at the city-wide Disaster Drill in San Antonio, Texas.

Left to Right: Chantel De Leon, Michelle Reyes, Gabriela Morales, & Julia Khoury.

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he undergraduate degree

completion program (RN-BSN) continues to stand strong in the midst of the growing number of degree completion programs being established in this region.

In 2010 the Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) report prompted the nursing profession to initiate processes to advance education based on the recommendation in the report to have 80% of the profession educated at the Bachelor’s Degree level by the year 2020. The University of the Incarnate Word, Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions (IFMSCHP) has over the years recruited nurses with Associate Degrees and Diplomas in nursing for its RN-BSN program. The program continues to meet the needs of the nursing community in offering the baccalaureate degree to this category of nurses.

Attesting to this success, in December 2013, twenty nurses will proudly march the stage in the traditional graduation ceremony.

Given the national drive to

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advance the educational level of the nursing profession, registered nurses in the South Texas region are making that choice to return to school choosing IFMSNHP to get their BSN - accomplished through aggressive recruitment and efforts to retain them after enrollment.

Graduates consistently laud the program for the caring, encouraging and supportive environment provided to them by the faculty and staff while matriculating thus adding to their abilities to successfully complete the program.

The curriculum is an integrated and sequenced course of study offered online in eight week sessions. It is flexible and designed for the working adult. The program offers reduced tuition, no required fees, and provides free textbooks.

Students are admitted into a nursing cohort twice per year – January and August and students may take prerequisite requirements at any time. For more information, interested registered nurses can contact the program advisor, Dr. Sarah Williams, at 210-829-6092.

Undergraduate Completion Program Graduates Largest Class

By Sarah Williams Director of RN-BSN & RN-MSN Program

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Transcultural Summer in Romania

By Betzany Perez, Nurse Cadet Class 2015

Betzany Perez, left, with classmate during class time in the academy of Brasov, Romania in June 2013.

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enri Coanda Air Force

Academy in Brasov, Romania is where I spent half of my summer immersing myself in Eastern European culture as a part of the Reserve Officer Training Corps culture program.

My team was composed of our senior Officer Captain Omali, our civilian English teacher Mrs. Maura Nicholson, affectionately know to us as “Mama Nick,” and nine United States Army Cadets. I was excited to hear our mission would be an educational mission at the academy and in the famous region of Transylvania. We would be working with one particular class there at the academy, also composed of ten Romanian air defense students. Our mission was to conduct English teaching classes, lead by Mrs. Nicholson, and to immerse the Romanian Air Force students in American culture just as they immersed us in theirs.

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Each American Cadet was given specific subjects to teach the Romanian students every week.

Topics for the classes included anything from how to properly conduct a military briefing in the United States Army to how our judicial system works. Along with our classes, we spent much of our recreational time with a large portion of the students at the academy.

thirds of the country in our three free weekends. The company of the Romanian students allowed us to deeply soak in the experience.

They gave us advice on what to order, what we should go see and if the price we were paying for things was really worth our money.

Our weekend trips included a trip to the eastern side of Romania to Constanta, a city right by the Black Sea.

On our first day at the academy, we were invited to play soccer with the Romanians after supper.

Needless to say, the Romanian students took the victory of each game in soccer from that day on.

Just as they had invited us to play their most popular sport, we decided to invite our Romanian friends to play our version of “football.” The confusion on each Romanians face as we explained the rules is something I will never forget. Through the confusion, we were still able to get a few games going and a lot of laughter.

On the western side of the country we visited the beautiful Brancoveanu Monastery in Sambata de Sus, Bran Castle, also known as Dracula’s castle in Bran, an international movie festival in Sibui, and the home of Romanian royalty, the Peles Castle, nestled in the Carpathian Mountains south of Brasov.

“We covered two thirds of the country in our three free weekends.”

During the weekdays when we did not have class, my fellow American Cadets and I would go tour around Brasov. Brasov is a beautiful old rustic European city that I had envisioned in my mind and more.

One particular team favorite was the “Biserica Neagra” which translated means “Black Church.”

The six hundred year old church was in the heart of the city. Other than the beauty of the church, it housed a grand organ. I had never heard an organ piano live in my life. Romania gave me my first hour-long organ concert inside the “Biserica Neagra” and it is something I will never forget.

During the weekends, we were fortunate enough to have most the Romanian students come along for our adventures. We covered two

This month long experience is something I will never forget. The relationships we made with the Romanian students felt like a smaller piece of the overall relationship America has with Romania. I hope to be fortunate enough to see or even work along side our fellow Romanian counterparts somewhere along my own military career.

Cadet Betzany Perez visiting landmarks in different cities of Romania during her June stay in 2013.

Caring Notes :: December 2013

UIW Students Participate in a Conference in Vancouver

By Norma Green Director of the Nuclear Medicine Program Left to Right: Jessica Smith, Val Cayas, Christian Bres, Justin Smolka and Bernadette Grajeda enjoying the Suspension Bridge in Vancouver during their time at the conference.

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ight senior class students of the Nuclear Medicine Program at the

University of the Incarnate Word, raised enough money to attend, along with the program director and the clinical coordinator, the annual Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) conferences held in Vancouver in June 2013.

The students collected proceeds from their garage sales, CE conferences, t-shirt and bake sales to cover the cost. “It is a huge undertaking to raise enough money for the entire class to attend, but one they happily do since the locations of the conferences are away from home,” Norma Green, Director of the Nuclear Medicine Program at UIW and NMED Student Association Faculty Sponsor, said.

Faculty and students had a chance to learn about new changes in the field of nuclear medicine and network with other faculty and students in programs from all across the United States, Canada and Australia. Faculty learned about changes with accreditation requirements and ways other NMED programs tackle various issues with students such as social media, best practices of faculty to engage students in class, and incorporating other radiology modalities and classroom technology in our nuclear medicine programs.

The eight students who attended had the opportunity to experience traveling into another country, bond as a class and participate in a jeopardy review with their peers from other programs. “This exam was the focus of the endeavor, and tempered our mirth with an in-depth review of what’s to come,” Brandon Lowry Cowsert, student in senior class at UIW, said. The mock registry exam helped them prepare for their national certification exam after graduation. “The exam itself went very well and was a big confidence booster for when we take our actual registry exam,” Bernadette Grajeda, student senior class at UIW, said. “The time we got to spend together as a class was fun and we have grown closer since.”

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Caring Notes :: December 2013

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Socrative: New Technology to Engage and Assess Classroom Thinking Â

By Norma Green Director of Nuclear Medicine Program

Nuclear Medicine in my Daily Life

By Samantha Buentello, Nuclear Medicine, Class Dec. 2013 Being a part of the Nuclear Medicine program at the University of the Incarnate Word has shown me to incorporate the 5 missions of the university: Faith, Service, Innovation, Truth and Education in my daily life.

Nuclear Medicine is known to be "fuzzy medicine, unclear medicine" and many other code names, but to me, it's treating my patients with care and empathy while imaging the human body. I have faith that I can help play an important role in their diagnosis along with treatment options with the use of technology.

While doing our patient care rotation at the main Methodist

Let’s face it, the time of pen and paper is a thing of the past.

Students are rarely unaccompanied by cell phones, tablets or various other technology devices. The need for technology in my classroom was not a suggestion but rather very apparent. So, I decided to use the Socrative web-based application, accessible through all devices.

Socrative is very easy to use! It allows for anybody to use its application, from the technology

Hospital during the summer, we were able to serve our community by helping out the nurses and staff.

Time management skills along with teamwork came in handy and were used to get our work diligently done. Learned skills were incorporated and one of my favorite skills learned was starting intravenous therapies, commonly known as IVs. The Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions offered the resources and supplies to practice starting IVs successfully. The multi-venous IV training arms were a great help in identifying veins, and understanding the concepts as well as procedure.

After completing patient care, our following clinical sites were quite mind blowing. The rotations we participated in included: PET, Phlebotomy, Nuclear Cardiology, Nuclear Pharmacy and General Nuclear Medicine. Innovation, truth and education all became an essential part of our learning. I enjoyed learning how to scan and

fanatics to those discovering a CD-ROM is not just a coffee holder.

When you initially use the application, all quizzes will be saved for future use and available each time you log in. Moreover, if you decide to share quizzes with other faculty, you are given an ID number for each quiz to share.

Student responses are visually represented in bar graphs on the screen for multiple choice, true/false and short answer questions.

It gives faculty the opportunity to take a snapshot of student thinking and material presented. So whether you've pre-ordered your next iPhone or finally turned on your computer, technology is a right click away.

process with different cameras and softwares. I was able to learn how to use all of the different nuclear medicine instruments hands on.

Each site has had memorable learning experiences, and it has helped me build a successful resume. I feel more than qualified and ready to graduate and work out in the field!

The University of the Incarnate Word 4301 Broadway, CPO 300, San Antonio, Texas 78209-3174 (210) 829-6029

http://www.uiw.edu/snhp

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Caring Notes :: December 2013