KU Nursing magazine.

nursing FALL 2017

THE KU COMMUNITY COLLEGE NURSING PARTNERSHIP An innovative collaboration is allowing nursing students across Kansas to earn their associates and BSN degrees at the same time

EDITOR Donna Peck KU SCHOOL OF NURSING ADVISOR Ellen Bietz

MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN

DESIGN Michael S. Welch CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kristi Birch Donna Peck Greg Peters PHOTOGRAPHY Selena Jabara Elissa Monroe COVER ILLUSTRATION Heidi Younger THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS SCHOOL OF NURSING LEADERSHIP Sally Maliski, Ph.D., RN, FAAN Dean Pamela Barnes, Ph.D., MBA Associate Dean, Student Affairs Marjorie J. Bott, Ph.D., RN Associate Dean, Research Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN Associate Dean, Innovative Partnerships & Practice Cynthia Teel, Ph.D., RN, FAAN Assciate Dean, Academic Affairs

I G N I T E P OT E N T I A L

Dear colleagues and friends, As dean of the University of Kansas School of Nursing, I am proud to present this first issue of KU Nursing magazine. It is our hope that this publication will provide you with an inside look at just a few of the many exciting things going on at our institution.

One of the biggest challenges facing our profession is meeting the ever-growing need for BSNs, APRNs, and nurse researchers with expertise in emerging areas such as data science and genetics and genomics. If we are to meet the Institute of Medicine’s goal of having 80 percent of nurses prepared at the BSN level, we need to develop more than just the traditional pathways to a BSN degree.

There is no better way to transform students into leaders than a KU School of Nursing education. Your gift for student support opens doors, fuels ambition and transforms lives. www.kuendowment.org/your-gift KU Nursing magazine is published by the University of Kansas School of Nursing, 3901 Rainbow Blvd., Kansas City, Kansas, 66160. To view KU Nursing online, go to nursing.kumc.edu.

In the cover story of this magazine, you will read about how the KU School of Nursing is meeting that challenge through the development, implementation and expansion of our innovative KU Community College Partnership Program.

The content and images in KU Nursing are copyrighted and no part may be reproduced without prior permission.

In this issue, you will also learn more about how the KU School of Nursing has been the

driving force behind the use of simulation training and interprofessional education at the University of Kansas Medical Center. We explore the history of our nurse-managed safety net clinic, which is providing quality care to hundreds of low-income and under-insured residents in Kansas City. And we profile one of our most promising new faculty members, who has taken a very non-traditional path to academic nursing.

The KU School of Nursing is in the midst of an exhilarating time of growth and innovation.

I am humbled and proud to be working with a world-class faculty and staff that embodies respect and caring for everyone we serve.

Sally Maliski, Ph.D., RN, FAAN Dean, University of Kansas School of Nursing FALL 2017

3

nursing

_________________________________________

FEATURES

10 ___________________________________________

THE KU COMMUNITY COLLEGE NURSING PARTNERSHIP ___________________________________________ An innovative collaboration is helping more students in Kansas earn their BSNs.

08

_________________________________________

THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED _________________________________________

THE SCHOOL

Heather Nelson-Brantley took a non-traditional path to her career as a nursing faculty member.

14

_________________________________________

A CONVERSTATION WITH SALLY MALISKI _________________________________________

The dean of the KU School of Nursing opens up about her vision for the school.

16

_________________________________________

ORIGINAL SIM _________________________________________

The KU School of Nursing is leading the way in promoting simulation and interprofessional education at KU Medical Center.

20 KU NURSING

DEPTS

03 Message from the Dean

05 Around the School

_________________________________________

GROWING TO MEET COMMUNITY NEEDS _________________________________________

The Silver City Health Center is providing quality care to the Argentine Neighborhood in Kansas City.

4

___________

22 By the Numbers

KU School of Nursing welcomes students to a new campus in Salina, Kansas

In an effort to attract and educate professional nurses in rural parts of Kansas, the KU School of Nursing has partnered with Salina Regional Health Center to open a new campus location in Salina.

The campus is offering students a Bachelor of Science in Nursing, which is a program that accepts students who have already completed the first two years of their undergraduate education at any regionally accredited college or university.

ulum for the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program is identical to the program in Kansas City and is being delivered via distance education from Kansas City and on-site faculty in Salina. Plans call for class sizes to expand to 18 students in 2019 and 24 students in 2020. By year five of the program, the campus will have reached its maximum capacity of 48 students.

In making the announcement on May 16, 2017, then-KU Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little, Ph.D., said the KU School of Nursing location in Salina would enable the university to fulfill its mission to educate additional health care providers to better meet the needs of Kansans, particularly in underserved parts of the state.

Lisa Larson, RN, MSN, Clinical Assistant Professor, was appointed the assistant dean of the KU School of Nursing–Salina campus.

Larson has lived and worked in the Salina area since 2002. During that time, she worked as a school nurse from 2002-2012, and as BSN faculty at a local university from 2012-2015. She served most recently as a staff nurse/unit scheduler for Lindsborg Community Hospital. Larson has also worked as a staff nurse at a Salina Regional Health Center-affiliated critical access hospital, in addition to working with other rural community hospitals.

Nursing shortages exist throughout Kansas, and immediate job opportunities are available within the Salina region for nurses who already have earned their baccalaureate degrees.

KU Medical Center opens an innovative new Health Education Building

The School of Nursing–Salina campus is sharing existing facilities with the University of Kansas School of Medicine. The school enrolled a class of 12 nursing students in the fall of 2017. The curric-

The University of Kansas Medical Center officially opened its new $82 million Health Education Building in July 2017. The 171,000-square-foot building will facilitate the education of a FALL 2017

5

Peterman named as an American Academy of Nursing Fellow

greater number of physicians, nurses and allied health care professionals and address critical health care worker shortages in Kansas. Of the state’s 105 counties, 90 counties are classified as medically underserved.

The building now serves as the primary teaching facility for the KU Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions and includes significant simulation labs and flexible, state-of-the-art learning space to support interprofessional education and other new models of teaching.

Each of the building’s five stories has a different educational focus. The ground floor includes a large 500-person classroom that can be divided in half by a skywall. From above, the roof of the classroom is designed to look like the Flint Hills, with a layer of soil and native vegetation surrounding three raised skylights. The ground floor features a lobby, restaurant and connecting bridge, and the second floor features homerooms for students. The third and fourth floors have 20 simulation rooms where doctors and nurses treat standardized patients who present various ailments; six surgery suites; a pharmacy; a waiting room; and viewing spaces for faculty to oversee and supervise training sessions.

For future nurses, occupational therapists and physical therapists, the fifth floor also has a replica of an apartment with all of the furnishings to practice in-home care situations.

KU School of Nursing earns Center of Excellence in Nursing Education designation The KU School of Nursing has earned the National League of Nursing (NLN) designation as a Center of Excellence for 20172022. Schools of nursing apply for Center of Excellence status based on demonstrated and sustained excellence in faculty development, nursing education research, or student learning and professional development. The prestigious NLN designation is a voluntary process that involves preparation of material by the organization itself and peer review. The KU School of Nursing is one of only 15 schools or organizations to have achieved NLN Center of Excellence designation in 2017 and one of only 62 total to have attained Center of Excellence status. The KU School of Nursing has received continuing designation as a Center of Excellence in Creating Environments That Enhance Student Learning and Professional Development. It received its first such designation in 2013.

6

KU NURSING

KU School of Nursing ranked among the Top 50 Best Value Nursing Ph.D. Programs KU School of Nursing is ranked #32 in the Top 50 Best Value Nursing Ph.D. Programs of 2017 by Value Colleges. The Value Colleges rankings are designed to inform students of the real costs and benefits of a college education and direct them to the colleges and universities that will provide the most advantageous balance of price, marketability and return on investment. The organization analyzes data from the U.S. News & World Report rankings, Payscale.com and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System to determine the rankings. The nursing Ph.D. program at KU is one of the oldest in the country and is the only nursing Ph.D. program offering in the state of Kansas. KU’s nursing Ph.D. degree has been offered online since 2006, when many schools were just launching their doctorate programs.

Four KU doctoral students named Jonas Scholars Four doctoral-level students in the KU School of Nursing joined the ranks in the newly minted class of Jonas Scholars in 2016, helping the Jonas Center surpass its goal of training 1,000 nurse faculty and clinical leaders before the year 2020. The new Jonas Scholars include Doctor of Nursing Practice student Shu Wen Cheng, RN, BSN; and Ph.D. students Heather Lewis, MSN, RN; Marian Savage, MSN, RN; and Christine Sommers, MN, RN. The Jonas Center for Nursing and Veterans Healthcare was founded in 2006 by Barbara and Donald Jonas with the goal of improving health care through advancing nursing scholarship, leadership and education. The Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholarship Program aims to address a dire shortage of nursing faculty nationwide. The scholars are chosen through a competitive reveiw process.

Estate gift provides funds for nursing scholarship Part of a $100,000 estate gift from the late alumna Marynell Dyatt Reece will provide funds for the Nelle T. Dyatt Nursing Scholarship, which is named in honor of Reece’s mother. Reece’s support for the School of Nursing grew from her mother’s career as a nurse. Nelle Taylor Dyatt was part of KU’s inaugural graduating class of nurses in 1909. There were four students in that first class.

Reece studied journalism at KU, graduating in 1942. She was one of the first women to serve on the KU Endowment Board of Trustees and served as a life trustee in until her death in July 2016.

Tammy Peterman, MS, RN, FAAN, Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Nursing Officer at The University of Kansas Health System, was named a member of the 2016 class of American Academy of Nursing Fellows. Peterman is one of approximately 2,400 nurses in the Academy out of nearly 4 million nurses nationwide to receive this honor, and she was the only nurse from Kansas honored in the 2016 class. Peterman has been with The University of Kansas Hospital and The University of Kansas Health System since her graduation from the KU School of Nursing in 1981 and has risen up through the hospital’s ranks, having started as a staff nurse. Peterman was named chief nursing officer in 2001. She accepted executive vice president and chief operating officer responsibilities at The University of Kansas Health System in May 2007.

KU School of Nursing student presents research at Society of Pediatric Nurses conference Esteban Marquez, a senior bachelor’s of science nursing student, participated in the Children’s Mercy Hospital Externship program.

As part of the externship, students were required to prepare an abstract for the Society of Pediatric Nurses (SPN) annual conference.

Marquez’ evidence-based project looked at the use of Flolan to treat primary pulmonary hypertension. The abstract was accepted by the SPN and Esteban presented his poster at their conference in April 2017 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Children’s Mercy is planning to implement his research as a brochure to further educate medical staff and families on the use of Flolan.

KU rises to No. 19 in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of online nursing master’s degree programs The KU School of Nursing’s online master’s degree program took a major leap into the top 20 in the latest Best Online Graduate Programs rankings released by U. S. News & World Report. KU’s program jumped from 31st nationally a year ago to No. 19 in this year’s overall rankings, and it is No. 13 among the nation’s public universities. KU received the highest ranking of any school in the metropolitan area and the state of Kansas. The KU School of Nursing began offering online graduate coursework in the late 1990s.

Currently, coursework for the KU master’s degree program is offered entirely online and completion requires between 37 to 39 credit hours.

Elaine Domian receives Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award Elaine Domian, Ph.D. APRN, BC-FNP, Clinical Associate Professor of Nursing, was among six University of Kansas faculty members who received distinguished teaching awards at the KU Teaching Summit. The award recognizes the teaching contributions made to the university by a member of the faculty over a period

of twenty years or more. Domian was nominated by a committee of faculty and students for her outstanding contribution to the university and her students through excellence in classroom teaching.

Peltzer to receives Phyllis Keeney Lawrence teaching award KU School of Nursing Assistant Professor Jill Peltzer, Ph.D., APRN-CNS, was selected to receive the 2016 Phyllis Keeney Lawrence Teaching Award. Peltzer, who joined the KU School of Nursing faculty in 2009, teaches several classes, including theory development and theory application in nursing science. Peltzer is the 18th recipient of the award, which recognizes a faculty member who demonstrates a superior record of teaching performance, makes significant contribution to curriculum development, and utilizes innovative approaches in teaching. The family of Phyllis Keeney Lawrence, a 1990 graduate of the KU School of Nursing, established the award following her death. Her parents recalled their daughter saying, “Nurses will only be as good as the teachers from whom they learn.”

Clinical instructor develops tool to help nurses deal with workplace bullying In the course of her research, KU School of Nursing Clinical Instructor Jerrihyln McGee, DNP, RN, had observed the impact bullying can have on hospital nursing staff, so she has researched and developed a management tool that could help nurses and nurse leaders better deal with the problem. As part of her research, McGee surveyed nurses at a local hospital to find out what they know about workplace bullying and used her findings as a guide to develop the new management tool called the I-CPR “badge buddy.”

McGee said the tool provides nurses with ways to identify (I), control (C), prevent (P) and report (R) workplace bullying. McGee’s poster presentation of the research, “Managing Workplace Bullying: A Baseline Assessment of Nurses’ Knowledge,” won the first place School of Nursing Taunton Medal at a student research forum at KU Medical Center.

Nelda Godfrey and Cynthia Teel accept new associate dean roles with the School of Nursing The KU School of Nursing has named Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice, a new position that will identfy and facilitate partnership development and create sustainable program growth for the School of Nursing. In her new role, Godfrey will also oversee faculty practice and the shared curriculum partnership program. The KU School of Nursing also appointed Cynthia Teel, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, which will bring the school’s undergraduate and graduate academic affairs operations under one umbrella. The goal is that this combined leadership role will enhance opportunities for graduate and undergraduate faculty to work, learn and research collaboratively, potentially resulting in innovative teaching and learning strategies, new programs and educational research.

FALL 2017

7

Heather Nelson-Brantley took a non-traditional path to her career as a member of the KU School of Nursing faculty.

W

hen University of Kansas School of Nursing Clinical Instructor Heather Nelson-Brantley, Ph.D., RN, CCRN-K, finished reading Frans Johansson’s book The Medici Effect earlier this year, she knew it would help guide the rest of her career. The best-selling book details how the most effective innovations often arise when there are teams of people from different disciplines, cultures, and educational backgrounds working together. Nelson-Brantley said the book reinforced her belief that interprofessional teams are critical for highly efficient, caring, and effective health care delivery and made the case that innovation can come from individual people who have that kind of diversity within them.

“This was an idea I had never even considered before, but it instantly resonated with me, because I am that individual,” said Nelson-Brantley. “It helped me embrace the varied path I’ve traveled.”

Nelson-Brantley’s nursing career journey began not with her first nursing class at KU, but stretches way back to a previous career, and in a way, to her very roots.

A Kansas native, Nelson-Brantley grew up surrounded by business leaders. Her stepfather owned a radiator repair shop, and her paternal grandfather founded a manufacturing company specializing in advertising products.

After graduating from Kansas State University with a degree in psychology and a minor in business, she went to work at her grandfather’s company, starting in accounting. Nelson-Brantley later becoming the company’s North Pacific regional sales director, where she headed a department of 25 graphic design artists. In this position, she enjoyed leading a diverse team and fostering a healthy work environment where the employees could do their best work.

But after several years, Nelson-Brantley found herself thinking about making a career change. Married and the mother of two young sons, she was feeling the urge to do something more meaningful with her life. She thought a lot about the kind of person she hoped her boys would see as they became adults, and she knew she wanted to serve a greater purpose.

When she received an annual holiday letter from her cousin, who described leaving a career in journalism to go to nursing school at the University of Kansas Medical Center, “a lightbulb went off,” Nelson-Brantley remembered.

“I went upstairs and told my spouse that I finally knew what I wanted to be,” Nelson-Brantley said. “I realized I had been missing the psychological aspect of caring for other people.”

Her cousin recommended that she begin by taking a certified nurse’s aide course, so she took an evening course at Johnson County Community College, which allowed her to work with patients with Alzheimer’s and dementia at the Good Samaritan Center. Nelson-Brantley was hooked.

“I fell in love with a lady who was at least 100 years old,” she said. “I was sitting there with her crying at the thought of never seeing her again on my last day. And she was a KU grad, too.”

In 2009, Nelson-Brantley entered the BSN program at that elderly patient’s alma mater. She excelled in the program, maintaining a 4.0 grade point average and earning clinical awards while also serving in a number of student leadership roles.

In 2011, her senior year, she was a finalist for the March of Dimes Nurse of the Year award in the Rising Star category. Also that year, after writing an article for the National Student Nurses’ Association magazine, Imprint, she was the first KU School of Nursing undergraduate invited to speak at the group’s annual conference.

Meanwhile, Rita Clifford, Ph.D., RN, then Associate Dean for Student Affairs at the KU School of Nursing, was encouraging Nelson-Brantley to pursue a doctorate in nursing and a career in academia.

“I was always impressed with her ideas, her dedication to the projects and her intelligent, measured approach,” said Clifford. “She was curious and sought data to support her positions. These are all characteristics of a researcher.”

After graduation, Nelson-Brantley started working as a staff RN in the medical intensive care unit at The University of Kansas Hospital and taking some pre-requisites for the Ph.D. program. Then Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice at the KU School of Nursing, suggested teaching in the affiliate faculty program, which would let her trade one nursing shift a week to teach a clinical group. Nelson-Brantley remembered that what she had loved most about her old career was helping people learn how to do the work, and decided to try it. And that was it.

“I was driving to the medical center one morning knowing I was going to teach, and I was so excited,” she remembered. “It was the coolest thing ever.”

________________ “I realized I had been missing the psychological aspect of caring for other people.” ________________

She also was beginning to discover that her business background was combining with her love of clinical care to fuel a deep interest in health systems leadership and nursing workforce issues. In 2011, the Institute of Medicine published The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, a report calling on nurses to take a leadership role in an expanding, changing the health care system.

“It said that nurses were perfectly positioned to lead the change in health care,” Nelson-Brantley said. “But how do we teach nurses to do this work? That’s how I got interested in the idea of leading change.”

That idea became the focus of her dissertation. Nelson-Brantley did a concept analysis and identified five key attributes: individual and collective leadership, operational support, fostering relationships, organizational learning and balance.

She wanted to find a specific health care organizational change to study for her

dissertation. She searched for hospitals that had achieved Magnet status, a prestigious designation signifying excellence in nursing, reasoning that these hospitals had likely led their own internal change to improve their care. Nelson-Brantley decided on Waverly Health Center, a 25-bed hospital in rural Iowa, the only critical access hospital ever to receive Magnet status.

“I have always been influenced by complexity science and general systems theory, which states that a system is more than the sum of its parts,” she said. “This hospital was the perfect opportunity for me to be able to study a system in its entirety.”

Nelson-Brantley found that the key attributes identified through her concept analysis were present in this hospital’s journey to Magnet and concluded that that there may be underlying effective principles for leading change that transcend hospital size or health care setting. Her dissertation earned several awards, including the Roma Lee Taunton Research Medal. Her work is actually a continuation of the research into nursing workforce issues begun by Taunton, points out Marjorie Bott, Ph.D., RN, Nelson-Brantley’s dissertation advisor.

“Heather is one of the top students I have ever advised and mentored,” Bott said.

“She looks at the whole system and takes the time to capture the entire story.”

Last year, Nelson-Brantley received the 2016 Early Career Achievement Award in Nursing from the KU Medical Center Alumni Association, which honors a deserving graduate who has made an outstanding contribution to the field. She continues to draw from her previous career, most recently the graphic arts aspect: she is learning about the use of data visualization techniques to promote healthy behaviors for people with low levels of health literacy.

But she says that perhaps her greatest achievement has been teaching and mentoring more than 400 nursing students.

Last year, when KU nursing student Sima Agayeva nominated Nelson-Brantley for a DAISY Faculty Award, she wrote: “She has many projects going at once, but never when approaching her for help have I felt as if she couldn’t make time for me.”

Nelson Brantley was honored to receive the award.

“I love caring for people,” she said.

“The only thing better is helping other people who want to do the same thing.”

▪

FALL 2017

9

The KU Community College Nursing Partnership

An innovative collaboration is allowing nursing students across Kansas to earn their associates and BSN degrees at the same time.

L

ong before they were co-workers, or classmates, or academic pioneers blazing a new trail together toward their degrees in nursing, Nichole Armintrout and Makayla Dunn were just friends.

During the past two decades, the women have been classmates in elementary, middle and high school in the Turner School District in Kansas City, Kansas. They remained by each other’s side while attending nursing school at Kansas City Kansas Community College. When the opportunity presented itself in 2015 to become part a first-of-its-kind academic endeavor that allowed community college students to earn their Associate’s Degree in Nursing (ADN) and Bachelor of Science (BSN) degrees simultaneously, Armintrout and Dunn made sure they had each other’s backs once again.

The University of Kansas Community College Nursing Partnership program was born out of an industry demand to have more nurses on the job who have BSN degrees. Armed with data showing better patient outcomes and faced with the aging out of baby boomer generation nurses, the nursing profession set a goal of having 80 percent of its nurses BSN-trained by 2020.

So when the chance arose to be part of this new wave of nurses entering the workforce, Armintrout and Dunn leaned on each other a little more and became the first graduates of the KU’s partnership program. In May 2016, they not only took part in the Kansas City Kansas Community College nursing graduation, they also were part of the KU School of Nursing Student Recognition Ceremony and most importantly, together they walked down

Campanile Hill on the Lawrence campus as part of the University of Kansas commencement.

“While walking down the Hill, I was taken aback, realizing how much I had accomplished,” Armintrout said. “Graduating with a degree from KU was something I never could have imagined doing. It’s such an honor to be part of an amazing tradition.”

“Nichole’s aunt told me that she would have crawled to the ceremony if she had to. She wasn’t going to miss her graduation,” said Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice, a driving force behind the program at KU. Since May 2016, the partnership program has continued to grow. Four other Kansas City Kansas Community College students have completed the program, and four other schools in the state with accredited nursing programs have joined the affiliation, including Butler Community College, Hutchinson Community College, Johnson County Community College and Neosho County Community College.

A GROWING NEED FOR NURSES Health care industry research strongly suggests that patient mortality is significantly improved when a nurse with a BSN cares for the patients. As a result, a 2010 report from the Institute of Medicine recommended that by 2020, 80 percent of nurses should hold at least a bachelor’s degree in nursing. Because of the 80/20 recommendation, many hospitals and health care providers require, or soon will require, nurses to have a BSN. FALL 2017 11

The looming nursing gap is further exacerbated by a one-two punch of a large group of nurses retiring in the next few years, combined with the aging of the general population, which will require more well-trained health professionals than ever before to take care of people who are living longer.

This is where KU and its community college partners hope to play a key role not only within the state, but also by helping other states adopt similar programs, which should help more nurses with BSNs reach the job market. Thus far, all four graduates of the program who have sat for the national licensure test have passed and have been hired by The University of Kansas Health System to work at The University of Kansas Hospital.

“The partnership program will increase the number of BSN nurses being produced, and thereby the pool of qualified nurses available to be hired should increase as well,” said Godfrey.

THE HISTORY OF THE KU-NURSING PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM

The origins of the KU Community College Partnership Program can be traced to earlier this decade. In 2013, KU School of Nursing officials met with leaders from community colleges in the state with accredited nursing programs to discuss a combined curriculum.

In 2014, KU and the community colleges received approval of the pre-licensure partnership model from the Kansas Board of Nursing and the Kansas Board of Regents, paving the way for the program to take flight.

In order to be admitted into the KU partnership program, students must meet specific criteria. First, they must have completed the required prerequisite coursework for admittance into the KU School of Nursing. Next they must be accepted into the nursing program at their community college. Finally, they must successfully apply to KU School of Nursing.

The bachelor’s degree coursework at KU is done online using Blackboard and other online technologies.

Students in the program pay for the credit hours and fees through whichever school is offering the course. As KU students, the BSN candidates are eligible for nearly all the same benefits enjoyed by students who take their classes on campus, including walking with their class at graduation in Lawrence.

“The partnership makes the transition much smoother for the student, while building relationships and capacity between the university and community college nursing efforts,” said Godfrey.

“Ultimately, students can move easily through the pathway and achieve both degrees. Simply said, it’s a better, more efficient pipeline for educating nurses.”

“The most challenging part of the program was time management,” Armintrout said. “I had to write out monthly calendars with all my due dates, and then I would write out weekly lists of what I needed to do. It was the only way I could stay focused.”

Kansas City Kansas Community College was selected as the pilot school to test the program. Not only is the school located

12 KU NURSING

closest to the KU Medical Center campus, but as Anita Krondak, former director of the RN program at Kansas City Kansas Community College explained, her school had just completed its new curriculum and had received its Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing accreditation for a full eight years, and the school’s leaders were looking for programs to share. The college reported more than 25 percent of its nursing class in the fall of 2016 had signed on to be part of the KU Community College Nursing Partnership program.

“This program in nursing education will benefit not only our students and the community, but it will potentially affect nursing education in general,” Krondak said.

For many, the creation of the program allows them to fulfill a lifelong goal without having to leave their home communities.

Makayla Dunn

Nichole Armintrout

“Nursing has always been my dream,” said Nicole Smith, who was in the second wave of partnership program graduates from Kansas City Kansas Community College, and who was also been hired by The University of Kansas Health System after she graduated. “I never thought I would actually accomplish this dream, let alone get a degree from KU.”

“When I was little, my dad had a bad accident and ended up at KU Hospital,” said Raquel Roethler, a December 2016 graduate of the program who started work in February 2017 on the surgical ICU unit at KU Hospital. “I fell in love with the hospital and the profession. I love helping people.”

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse,” Dunn said. “I love being able to make a connection with my patients. Doctors help patients, but nurses give hands-on care to the patient and are able to make a connection with them.”

PROGRAM TAKING FLIGHT In August 2016, Butler Community College, Hutchinson

Community College, Johnson County Community College and Neosho County Community College joined the fold, and by the spring 2017 semester, four of the five schools affiliated with the partnership program reported having at least one student enrolled, with the fifth having students enrolled in fall 2017.

Beverly Roush, who oversees the partnership program in Chanute for Neosho County Community College, said the benefits to the area community colleges are multifold.

First, she said, it allows students a chance to earn their bachelor’s degrees without leaving their home communities. That lets students remain in their existing jobs, and they can continue to rely on other support networks. Students also save money by taking their general education classes through their community college, where they often get more individualized attention.

Nicole Smith

Raquel Roethler

“I believe this will make the nursing workforce education level higher in southeast Kansas,” said Roush. “We had three students interested last fall, but that number has jumped to between 17 and 20 for next fall.”

“I believe one of the major benefits is that it allows the non-traditional student, who has a family and work responsibilities along with their school responsibilities, the opportunity to pursue further education while staying near their home,” added Pam Covault, director of nursing at Neosho County Community College, who oversees the program at the school’s Ottawa branch.

“I believe it could potentially bring in more traditional students because it makes earning a BSN degree from KU a bit more affordable and allows them to stay closer to home.”

NEXT STEPS

At the KU School of Nursing, organizers are doubling down on their efforts to get more community colleges on board. With positive results in hand, Godfrey said they are reaching out to

meet with the directors and leaders of all the schools in Kansas with accredited nursing programs to gauge if they would like to join KU’s partnership program.

Nationally, the nursing industry has been keeping a watchful eye on the outcome of KU’s program, and so far the early success of the first students in the program have provided a viable proof of concept that organizers hope to grow to a much larger scale. As things continue to progress, Godfey said they would like to bring the partnership model program to the attention of the nearly 2,000 associate degree nursing programs and universities throughout the country.

“The ‘Kansas Model’ has brought the University of Kansas to the forefront of the story supporting academic progression in nursing,” Godfrey said. “Approximately, 60 percent of RNs in the United States have associate’s degrees, so a lot of effort will be needed to increase the number of BSN-prepared nurses caring for the people of our country.”

Employers and practice partners in the health care industry across the country have reached out to KU to see whether the model could be packaged so it can be used elsewhere to meet industry demand for more and better-qualified nurses.

“I’ve been at a number of nursing education conferences and had people specifically ask me about our community college partnership when they see I’m from Kansas,” said Covault. “The partnership program is definitely being recognized nationally.”

JUST GETTING STARTED

Although their graduations were in the spring of 2016, that certainly wasn’t the end of the road for the first graduates of the program, Armintrout and Dunn. After receiving their degrees from Kansas City Kansas Community College and the University of Kansas, Armintrout and Dunn passed their national certification exams and are both working at The University of Kansas Health System as nurses on the pre-post operation unit at The University of Kansas Hospital.

Both women admit that getting two nursing degrees simultaneously was a challenge – but one they don’t regret.

“When we were in school, we definitely went through hard times and good times,” Armintrout said. “We’ve always been there to push each other to go outside our comfort zones and do our best. I think that’s why we are where we are today.”

“With everything we’ve been through, I’m glad I had someone who was going through the same thing,” Dunn said. “Nichole is the only person that I could talk to about my career and how I got here without having that ‘deer in the headlights’ look. We both support each other.”

Thanks to the opportunities offered through the KU Community College Nursing Partnership program, it looks like these two longtime friends will continue to share their experiences as they work side by side as professional nurses.

▪

FALL 2017 13

KU NURSING What does the opening of KU Medical Center’s new Health Education Building this academic year mean for the School of Nursing?

MALISKI It will provide a tremendous opportunity for more interprofessional collaboration with nursing, medical and health professions students on our campus. Interdisciplinary education is a passion of mine, and KU Medical Center’s commitment to that was one of the primary reasons I came here.

KU NURSING You were recently appointed to serve as associate director for health equity for The University of Kansas Cancer Center. What are your responsibilities there?

The Dean for the KU School of Nursing opens up about her vision for the school

S

ally Maliski, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, became dean of the University of Kansas School of Nursing on Jan. 1, 2016. Before coming to KU, Maliski served as an associate dean for academic and student affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Nursing. Prior to her role as associate dean at UCLA, Maliski was an associate professor in the UCLA School of Nursing and an assistant researcher for the UCLA Department of Urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine. Maliski also worked as an educator and researcher for the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro School of Nursing, and Columbia Memorial Hospital School of Nursing in Hudson, New York.

We recently sat down and talked to Maliski about her hectic first year as dean of the KU School of Nursing, her mission for the school, her hopes and dreams for the school’s future, and what she does for fun.

KU NURSING If you had to use one word to describe your first year as dean of the KU School of Nursing, what would it be?

MALISKI Mind-boggling. And I mean mind-boggling in the most positive way.

I knew the KU School of Nursing had a great reputation, but I have been overwhelmed at how talented and creative our faculty, staff and students are. I love the way they work together and how open they are to exploring new ways of thinking about our profession.

KU NURSING What do you think is your biggest accomplishment so far as dean?

MALISKI I think seeing the KU Community College Nursing Partnership program continue to grow and thrive. The idea that we could help more nursing students earn their BSN online while studying for their associate’s degree at their local community college was developed by our faculty long before I came onboard. We’re all so motivated to keep the partnership thriving and growing, because expanding the number of nursing students in Kansas who can earn a BSN is going to help improve the quality of health care for all Kansans.

KU NURSING How much time do you get to spend interacting with School of Nursing students?

MALISKI Not as much as I would like to, and it’s certainly something I am working on as I continue to settle into the job. One barrier to more student interaction is that more and more of our students are enrolled in our online programs, so we don’t have as many opportunities to see them in person. But our students and faculty know that my door is always open if they have any concerns or questions.

MALISKI It’s a new position at the Cancer Center, and we’re in the process of defining that role. My primary task is going to be increasing awareness among diverse and underserved populations on the advantages of enrolling in cancer clinical trials. For example, we are working with the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Greater Kansas City on an educational series that counters misconceptions that many people have about participating in clinical trials.

KU NURSING You have a significant body of research in the area of symptom management in low-income populations, particularly with men who have prostate cancer. Have you had much time to devote to your research since coming to Kansas?

MALISKI It took a bit of time, but I was finally able to get my RO1 grant from the National Institutes of Health moved to KU and have hired an experienced research manager. We’ve assembled an amazing interdisciplinary team from all three of our schools, so I will be able to continue my work on how Latino men with prostate cancer can stay healthy and strong while undergoing androgen deprivation therapy.

KU NURSING What goals would you like the School of Nursing to achieve over the next five years or so?

MALISKI We would like to continue to expand the KU Community College Nursing Partnership program and begin mar-

keting the idea to other schools of nursing around the country. To facilitate this and other initiatives, Nelda Godfrey, our new Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice, will be identifying and facilitating partnership development and helping to create sustainable program growth for the School of Nursing.

KU NURSING What has been the biggest difference between living in California and living in Kansas?

MALISKI Well, I definitely have a much shorter commute! I just love Kansas. I am

enjoying the four seasons again, and the warmth and depth of the people here is so refreshing.

KU NURSING What do you like to do in your off time?

MALISKI My husband and I enjoy going to KU basketball games to root for the Jayhawks and Kansas City Chiefs games.

We’re also remodeling our house, so I’ve been spending a lot of time mulling over paint colors and fabric swatches. And, of course, we love spending time with our kids and grandchildren.

▪

FALL 2017 15

ORIGINAL SIM

The KU School of Nursing has led the way in promoting simulation and interprofessional education at KU Medical Center

I

n the world of health care education, simulation and collaboration often go hand in hand, like form and function do in the world of architecture.

Recent trends in health education suggest that multidisciplinary teams of health care professionals – whether they are doctors, nurses, physical therapists, audiologists or dietitians – gain a better understanding of each other’s abilities when they train side by side. With the rapidly expanding trend of interprofessional education (IPE), collaboration and simulation are utilized with the ultimate goal of achieving better patient outcomes.

At the University of Kansas Medical Center, the use of handson simulation for education has been around for years, growing from simple medical situations to complex collaborative scenarios featuring multidisciplinary teams, employing high-fidelity teaching mannequins. Today’s simulations offer scenarios ranging from complete operating rooms to birthing suites where students from all health care disciplines can work together in controlled environments before facing the actual pressure and perils of treating real human patients.

Throughout the evolution of simulation and collaboration at KU Medical Center, students and faculty from the University of Kansas School of Nursing have proven to be innovators and early adopters in improving the way medical professionals are trained, whether it’s through simulation, collaboration or a combination.

The pivitol role the KU Schol of Nursing plays in interprofessional health care education at KU Medical Center is expected to expand as students from the KU Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions join forces in the new state-of-the-art Health Education Building. The building opened in August 2017, just in time for the 2017-2018 academic year.

“Because of the cutting-edge facilities in the Health Education Building, along with the will and skill of faculty who believe in collaborative and experiential learning, doctors, nurses and health professionals will learn – from the very start of their training – to trust and rely on each other in health care situations,” said Nelda Godfrey, Ph.D., RN, ACNS-BC, FAAN, Associate Dean for Innovative Partnerships and Practice at the School of Nursing.

THE BEGINNING OF SIMULATION EDUCATION

In the early days of the KU School of Nursing, students used their fellow classmates to practice procedures such as placing IVs in a patient’s arm, drawing blood or inserting a naso-gastric tube.

As far back as the 1960s, the School of Nursing began using medical mannequins to train students in clinical procedures, although those early models were very primitive compared to today’s automated high-fidelity simulation mannequins that can move, talk and respond to treatments.

Eventually, the school created a skills lab to train students.

That facility became more state-of-the-art when the Clinical Skills Learning Lab was incorporated into the School of Nursing’s new building that opened in 2001. It was at about this same time that faculty and students started using more interactive mannequins, such as the life-size patient simulator known as SimMan, and things have progressed from there.

“We were using the SimMan mannequin to play a man named Mr. Robinson in a simulation involving a post-operative patient,” recalled Kathy Fletcher, Ph.D., RN, a long-time faculty member.

“We had been to a workshop on how to put a simulation together and were inspired by that workshop to do our own simulation, so that’s how our Mr. Robinson simulation got started.

“Not long after we started doing the Robinson simulation, we did a study to see if simulation training reduced the anxiety of our students. Because of those results, we still use the same post-operative simulation called ‘Mr. Robinson’ to this day.”

The current Clinical Skills Learning Lab was designed so students could practice a variety of technical nursing skills within the framework of a specific clinical environment. The lab features 10 acute care beds and a birthing bay complete with a high-fidelity birthing manikin, so students can train for everything from critical care to child birth.

All 114 students in each Bachelor of Science in Nursing class at the School of Nursing take part in 10 sets of simulations during their two years at KU Medical Center. The simulations, which are built around the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) competencies, are compatible with the school’s curriculum to FALL 2017 17

help students make the connection between what they learn in the classroom and what they practice in the clinic.

SIMULATION NURTURES COLLABORATION Simulation training has evolved over time, and learning by doing has grown increasingly popular among many of the health care disciplines educated at KU Medical Center. One of the natural offshoots of simulation training seems to be the growth of the interprofessional approach to health care education.

The KU School of Nursing was an early entrant into the world of collaboration, and an argument can be made that the Clinical Skills Learning Lab is one of the incubators that has helped IPE grow at KU Medical Center. The Clinical Skills Learning Lab was originally designed with interprofessional education in mind. The lab was built with an apartment setup, so physical and occupational therapy students would have a place to learn how to work with patients in a home setting.

Since its opening in the early 2000s, the lab has served as the setting for a variety of multidisciplinary training exercises, including pediatric simulations involving nursing students working with their peers from the KU Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy (located on main KU campus in Lawrence). Other IPE simulations have involved students from the Departments of Respiratory Care Education and the Department of Dietetics and Nutrition.

Between 2010 and 2015, the KU School of Nursing was heavily involved in the interprofessional Geriatrics Champions Program on campus, including two tracks of the nurse practitioner program that has incorporated it as a requirement. During the program’s five-year run, 200 students from the Schools of Health Professions, Nursing, Pharmacy and Social Welfare participated in this Health Resources and Services Administration-funded program led by Shelley Bhattacharya, DO, MPH, who practices at the Landon Center on Aging at KU Medical Center.

In 2013, the connection between IPE and the KU School of Nursing became more tangible when Heather Nelson-Brantley, Ph.D., RN, CCRN-K, and Delois Laverentz, MN, RN, CCRN-K, created an interprofessional education event that connected students from the KU School of Nursing with the schools of health professions, medicine and pharmacy at KU as part of a course they were teaching, emphasizing teamwork and collaboration. It was through this collaboration that Laverentz became aware of an IPE group that was forming on campus, and she joined the Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation Curriculum Committee where she has helped develop a campus-wide multi-level program for IPE training.

18 KU NURSING

The capstone of KU Medical Center’s IPE program came in March 2017 when more than 450 students from the three schools on the medical center campus, plus students from the KU School of Pharmacy and the KU School of Medicine campuses in Wichita and Salina, worked together during a two-week span on a high-fidelity simulation in the Zamierowski Institute for Experiential Learning (ZIEL), a combined initiative between KU Medical Center and The University of Kansas Health System.

A ZIEL FOR SIMULATION

The Zamierowski Institute for Experiential Learning became the most sophisticated iteration of simulation education when it opened on the KU Medical Center campus in 2015. The KU School of Nursing played a key role in moving the state-of-theart medical training facility from concept to reality. When retired physician and philanthropist David Zamierowski decided to bring his simulation education expertise and funding to KU Medical

Center, he found members of the KU School of Nursing faculty to be among the most avid supporters of his concept for a multidisciplinary training center that would serve both the university and The University of Kansas Health System.

“To my delight, I found people who been working in this field at KU for years, and I found a very receptive group at the KU School of Nursing,” Zamierowski said. “I discovered that I didn’t need to really start anything. We only needed to gather like-minded people and work toward a vision combining interprofessional education, world-class simulation and experiential education. I am thrilled by the leadership role shown by the School of Nursing.”

“The School of Nursing offered its simulation space from

the very beginning to help support the early efforts of expanding simulation with both hospital educators and university simulation pilots,” said Kristy Johnston, Program Director for the Center for Interprofessional Education and Simulation. “They offered their expertise, their space, and in some cases, their educators to help them grow.”

IPE BAKED IN KU Medical Center’s Health Education Building, which opened in Augeust 2017, provides countless new IPE opportunities. The 171,000-square-foot is now the primary teaching facility for the KU Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions and includes significant simulation space and flexible, state-ofthe-art learning space to support interprofessional education and other new models of teaching.

The project was funded with $26 million from the state of Kansas, $21 million from KU Medical Center and the remainder with private gifts raised through KU Endowment, including a $25 million lead gift from the Hall Family Foundation.

Because of the new opportunities provided by the Health Education Building, faculty members from medicine and nursing have incorporated IPE into their curriculums for the fall, ensuring that the two disciplines will learn from each other. By working together on the design of the building, faculty from the schools learned a great deal about how to put together a new experiential learning curriculum that ensures the educational standards for both professions are met.

During the 2017-2018 academic year, incoming nursing and medical students will have the opportunity to practice skills together during interprofessional simulations created through a collaboration of Shelley Bhattacharya, Pam Shaw, M.D., and ZIEL director Emily Diederich, M.D., from the KU School of Medicine and Breah Chambers, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, Associate Director for Procedural Training, from the KU School of Nursing.

“By embedding the simulations in both the medicine and nursing curricula, we have overcome one of the biggest obstacles to creating consistent, standardized, interprofessional education for our students,” Chambers said.

All 211 incoming medical students alongside the 114 newly arriving nursing students are scheduled to take part in training exercises as many as five times during the upcoming academic year. By training together in the ZIEL Simulation Hospital on the fourth floor of Health Education Building, students can provide better patient care by learning from each other and seeing mistakes not as failures but as teachable moments.

“As it turns out, a great number of the procedural skills, communication techniques and overall knowledge of patient conditions are common to both nursing and medical students,” Godfrey said, “So why not teach these skills to both groups at the same time and reinforce interprofessional collaboration and learning in a safe supervised environment?”

Never satisfied to rest on its laurels, the KU School of Nursing is continually searching for ways to improve simulaton training for its students, whether it’s creating new scenarios in its own clinical skills lab, participating in interprofessional opportunities at ZIEL or taking advantage of the dazzling new opportunities in the new Health Education Building.

▪

TRAVELING TO ISRAEL TO LEARN THE LATEST IN SIMULATION EDUCATION

Vicki Hicks, RN, MS, APRN, Clinical Associate Professor at the KU School of Nursing, was part of an interprofessional team from the University of Kansas and Johnson County Community College that traveled to Tel Aviv in the 2016 to learn about medical simulations at the world-renowned Israel Center for Medical Simulation.

The center is considered a global leader in simulation-based medical education and patient safety training.

Since its inception in 2001, Israel Center for Medical Simulation has trained more than 180,000 health care professionals.

During their time in Israel, Hicks and her 10-member group focused on learning about how the center’s staff uses simulation for assessment purposes, how simulation can be integrated into a clinical curriculum, and how it can be used by health care providers to improve the quality of patient care.

“The group of us that traveled to Israel gained so much valuable experience from the team at the center,” Hicks said.

“We learned a lot about group work with a focus on the roles the different members of the interprofessional teams play.”

The group spent three days working alongside the Israel Center for Medical Simulation staff learning not only about the importance of simulation, but the teamwork and attention to detail that is required to maximize the learning potential of simulation in training and high-stakes patient assessments.

They were also able to train in a pediatric intensive care unit, which has a dedicated situation simulation room next to all the patient rooms.

The traveling group included representatives from the KU Schools of Health Professions, Medicine and Nursing, all of whom have been involved with advanced simulation training at KU Medical Center. Representatives from the Zamierowski Institute for Experiential Learning (ZIEL) at KU Medical Center, and nursing educators from Johnson County Community College also joined the group.

“They don’t just dabble in simulation,” said Carla Sabus, PT, Ph.D., who was on the trip and has since become Director of Curriculum and Professional Development for ZIEL. “They really recognize that simulation is a resource-intensive approach that requires that it be done with the highest attention to quality outcomes.”

▪

FALL 2017 19

Carol Buller (right), examines Chak Gurung, a refugee from Nepal, at the Silver City Clinic.

GROWING TO MEET THE NEEDS OF ITS COMMUNITY The Silver City Health Center is providing quality care and health education to low-income residents in the Argentine neighborhood.

O

ver the last 10 years, Silver City Health Clinic has become a fixture on the health and wellness landscape of Wyandotte and Johnson counties in northeast Kansas. A medical safety-net clinic run by faculty from the University of Kansas School of Nursing, Silver City Health Clinic provides quality health care to area residents, many of whom lack insurance or have limited or no access to quality medical treatment.

“Our goal is to be a patient-centered home for many of the residents in our community,” said clinic director JoAnn Peterson, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC. Established in 2006, Silver City Health Center is located in the heart of the diverse Argentine neighborhood in the heart of

20 KU NURSING

Kansas City, Kansas. In an average year, Silver City’s health care professionals see between 1,200 and 1,400 patients during about 4,000 office visits. At the clinic, patients receive comprehensive primary care, health education, pharmacy assistance and community outreach. Silver City is an affiliate of KU HealthPartners Inc., a a clinical enterprise operated by the KU School of Nursing and the KU School of Health Professions. KU HealthPartners also operates nutrition and hearing and speech clinics.

Silver City serves as a primary practice care facility for the KU School of Nursing. For patients, this means a wide variety services delivered by highly skilled and specialized nurse practitioners, as well as other health care professionals.

All of the KU faculty who work at Silver City are preceptors for graduate nursing students. Some faculty also serve as preceptors for students in the KU Schools of Medicine and Pharmacy. For students, volunteering at Silver City Health Clinic can provide valuable clinical experience with a diverse clientele.

In the past year, the clinic has expanded its geriatric and nurse-midwife services as well as added medical services to care for refugees who are resettling in Northeast Kansas. By expanding its services to better meet the needs of its patrons, Silver City now offers services catering to clients all throughout the lifetime spectrum, from prenatal care to those dealing with end-oflife issues.

EXPANDING CARE FOR THE ELDERLY In the spring of 2016, Carol Buller, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, GNP-C, decided to become a part of the geriatric practice caring for the elderly served by Silver City Health Clinic, so she said goodbye to the practice she’d been involved with for 18 years and began seeing patients at Silver City on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

For Buller, a change in venue has also meant a change in her approach to clinical care. Many of her patients come to her speaking little or no English, so the veteran nurse has had to expand and refine her skill set to meet the needs of her clientele.

Many times, the adjustments don’t just involve language accommodations.

“At least half my clients do not speak English, so I am learning how to quickly develop a rapport, using interpreters more efficiently and devising ways to provide educational information that is culturally appropriate and proper for the literacy level of the patient,” Buller said.

Buller’s plans for the future of her geriatric practice include expansion of Medicare preventive wellness visits, chronic care management, transitional care for patients following hospitalizations, and home visits for patients who cannot leave their residences. She would also like to expand acute visits for patients with urgent conditions and patients who are suffering from serious illnesses.

Most of Buller’s Silver City patients are in their 60s and 70s, many of whom are suffering from chronic conditions that

can affect healthy aging and longevity.

Regardless of their age, Buller’s goal is to help her patients maintain the highest quality of life possible.

“I like to focus not only on the management of chronic conditions but also on helping patients maintain a functional level that contributes to their quality of life,” said Buller.

CALL THE MIDWIFE The KU Nurse-Midwifery Clinic officially opened its doors as part of Silver City in October 2016.

“We saw an opportunity to expand the nursing services at Silver City Health Center and a way to broaden the offerings for midwifery care in our area,” said Cara

“Our goal is to be a patientcentered home for many in our community.”

SUPPORTING REFUGEE WELLNESS An important new service provided

by Silver City is the Refugee Primary Care Clinic. Patricia Fitzgibbons, M.D., a Clinical Assistant Professor in the KU School of Medicine’s Department of Family Medicine, and the clinic staff have treated patients from dierse group of countries such as Iran, Iraq, Syria, Congo, Burma, Malaysia, Somalia and Afghanistan.

The Refugee Primary Care Clinic treats patients of all ages, including providing pre- and post-natal care for expectant mothers. Peterson and Buller devote about eight hours of practice time each week at Silver City to provide comprehensive health care screenings.

Bachelor of Science in Nursing students who are taking population health coursework have been involved in several activities at Silver City Health Center, including assisting with the refugee resettlement medical checks, making home visits with elderly patients, and supporting family nurse practitioners “Silver City allows our nursing students to experience medical care among people of a variety of ages, nationalities and backgrounds, which helps them be better prepared for whatever type of health care setting they might encounter in their professional lives,” Peterson said. “This hands-on training gives them insights into better patient-centered care.”

Busenhart, Ph.D., CNM, APRN, director of KU’s nurse-midwifery program. Busenhart is leading the effort at Silver City along with Barbara Parker, MS, CNM, FNP, a Clinical Associate Professor in the KU School of Nursing.

An important goal for the Nurse-Midwifery Clinic is to provide low-cost prenatal care to underserved populations in Wyandotte County. Busenhart said many undocumented women have difficulty accessing traditional prenatal care.

Parker and Busenhart, working alongside nurse-midwifery students from KU, provide women with primary health services that include well-woman exams, minor gynecologic treatments, family planning services, and tests for sexually transmitted diseases and infections.

“Certified nurse-midwives are prepared to care not only for women in pregnancy, but for women’s health throughout their lifetimes,” said Parker. “We expected to see a mix of women for all types of health concerns, and that is what we have been seeing thus far.”

The nurse-midwives at Silver City care for mothers before and after they give birth, and the women’s babies are delivered by obstetrics residents at The University of Kansas Hospital.

“We have maternal fetal medicine specialists we consult with as well,” said Parker. “That gives us a great opportunity to provide seamless care.

▪

FALL 2017 21

UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER

BY THE NUMBERS KU School of Nursing graduates WHERE ARE THEY TODAY? _______________________

7,994 GRADUATES WORKING IN ALL 50 STATES

Currently, University of Kansas School of Nursing graduates have chosen to serve their calling in a vast array of communities, hospitals, clinics and centers throughout all 50 states. More than 4,400 gradutes have chosen to stay in Kansas to continue their rewarding journey in the nursing profession.

ALUMNI REUNION WEEKEND October 6-7, 2017 Highlighting classes ending in 2 and 7, but all classes are welcome.

NORWAY BANGLADESH

__________

13 COUNTRIES WHERE KU NURSING GRADUATES ARE WORKING

Graduates have traveled all over the globe – making a difference in 13 different countries.

22 KU NURSING

CANADA

PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA JAPAN

JORDAN

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TAIWAN BAHAMAS

PUERTO RICO

ZAMBIA

MALAYSIA

AUSTRALIA

Reconnect with your classmates, celebrate the annual Alumni Awards and join us for campus tours.

More information is available at www.kumc.edu/alumni/reunion

3901 Rainbow Blvd., Mailstop 4043 Kansas City, KS 66160

nursing.kumc.edu