Vital Signs 2023

Hidden history

Shining a light on Chicago’s Black nurses

Out of prison

Nurses provide health care pathway

Leaving a legacy

Giving back through planned giving

FALL 2023

Juggling It All

Nursing student athletes balance rigors of school and sports.

Pamela Pearson, DNP ’18, CNM, FACNM Nurse-Midwife, UI Health Director, Nurse-Midwifery/Women’s Health NP Programs, UIC College of Nursing

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Volume 38

FALL 2023

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

15 Part of the Chicago Story Black nursing history in Chicago lives on in a traveling exhibit and website created by UIC Nursing researchers.

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18 Juggling It All UIC Nursing’s student athletes are keeping a lot of balls in the air. Spend a day (or three) in Makena Shaw’s cleats.

22 Smoothing the Transition A partnership with two Chicago Adult Transition Centers means men leaving the prison system have a path to health care.

JOSHUA CLARK

12 High Honors The college bestowed its annual top alumni awards and a special posthumous award.

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Dean’s Message

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Notepad College of Nursing news

26 Expert Viewpoint Why Food is Medicine programs could be a game-changer 27 Student Spotlight Celebrating a first in the PhD program 28 Impact Leaving a legacy through planned giving 33 Focus on Education Sim lab gets high-fidelity upgrades 34 Research Round-Up Highlights from UIC nurse scientists

Artwork inspired by students (p. 9)

37 Around the State Updates from Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford, Springfield and Urbana 41 Looking Back When a future president came to the Power of Nursing Leadership event

Upgrades to the Francis Birthing Suite (p. 33) DEAN Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF CHIEF EDITOR Liz Miller

On the cover: UIC Nursing senior Makena Shaw balances the rigors of the nursing curriculum with Division I athletics as a Flames soccer player. Read more on p. 18.

Photo courtesy of UIC Athletics.

MANAGING EDITOR & WRITER Deborah Ziff Soriano CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Liz Miller, Rob Mitchum, Emily Stone GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jennie Ramazinski Miller CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Regina Chavez, Joshua Clark, Jon Reyes, Diane Smutny

UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Vital Signs is published for the alumni, faculty, staff, students and friends of the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing. © 2023

Lauren Diegel-Vacek, DNP, FNP-BC, CNE, FAANP, Executive Associate Dean

Your comments are welcomed: University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing (MC 802) 845 S. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60612

Liz Miller, Director, Marketing and Public Affairs Deborah Ziff Soriano, Assistant Director of Communications and Public Affairs Jennie Ramazinski Miller, Graphic Designer Jennifer Samples, Digital Content Strategist

Phone: 312.413.2337 Email: lhmiller@uic.edu Web: nursing.uic.edu Facebook: @uic.con Twitter: @uicnursing Instagram: @uicnursing LinkedIn: @UIC-College-of-Nursing

DEAN’S MESSAGE

In my role as dean, I know that many of our students, especially those in the BSN and MS/graduate-entry programs, spend a lot of time at our college. When they’re not attending lectures and classes, they’re practicing skills in one of our campus sim labs, studying with friends, or meeting with advisors and clubs.

It’s my philosophy that students are more successful when they feel engaged with the college community and feel like they belong. For these students, we want the college to feel like a home away from home.

Dean Collins, left, Makena Shaw and Leah Senese pose in front of the UIC Flames pitch.

We’ve made efforts to do this by giving students multiple gathering and study spaces. We recently renovated a classroom on the Chicago campus’s first floor to make it a student lounge, complete with a piece of art, “Foam In, Foam Out,” that was designed and created with student input by professional artist Lori Larusso (read more on p. 9). We’ve also continued to build up the Center for Academic Excellence and Cultural Engagement, which opened in 2022 on the fourth floor of the Chicago campus. The CAECE offers study space, meeting space, academic coaching and mentorship, and culturally-informed programming. That’s not to mention other study and hang-out spaces that we’ve strategically added, thanks in large part to donations from M. Christine Schwartz, such as the Schwartz Lab student lounge, the Chicago lobby and nooks in the Schwartz Lab corridor.

On the Urbana campus, we host monthly student engagement sessions, such as board games in the lobby in September, “trick or treat” at faculty and staff offices in October, and an apple cider and popcorn bar in November. On the Springfield campus, we’re offering a peer mentoring program for bachelor’s degree students, “Wellness Wednesdays” with yoga and mindfulness activities, and a “De-stress Before the Test” event with relaxing activities before final exams, including yoga and artistic projects.

Knowing that our nursing students lead full, multifaceted lives, I also make an effort to share in student life outside of school. One of my highlights this year was attending a UIC Flames women’s soccer game. Seniors Makena Shaw (current player) and Leah Senese (former player) are model examples of students who are balancing soccer balls and sutures, almost simultaneously (read more on p. 18).

In addition to stories of our stellar students, please enjoy these pages filled with tales of alumni achievement, faculty research and practice, and generous gifts made to the college that drive our work forward.

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Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF Professor and Dean UIC College of Nursing

#Instaworthy Katie Vanderzwan [front right] and Lynn Ortiz [left] had all eyes — and phones — trained on them during a “Nurse for a Day” simulation experience for high school students in March.

Vanderzwan, DNP ’17, MS ’06, APRN-BC, CHSE, director of the Schwartz Lab and Clinical Learning Resource Center, received a grant from the Illinois Board of Higher Education to bring 27 high school students from George Westinghouse College Prep and Noble Street College Prep to spend the day at the Schwartz Lab. The immersive event, led by both Vanderzwan and Ortiz, who is the simulation lab

DMS PHOTOGRAPHY / DIANE SMUTNY

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coordinator, was intended to expose underrepresented youth to nursing and health care careers.

The new program was such a hit that 10 more groups have followed, including several camp groups over the summer. The event was replicated on the Springfield campus, where a “Nurse for a Day” event this fall drew 300 students.

“We know that students from underrepresented backgrounds, particularly African American and Latinx students, face barriers to entering health care fields,” said Vanderzwan. “With this event, we hope to get students excited about the potential to enter the nursing field — help them visualize what it

“With this event, we hope to get students excited about the potential to enter the nursing field.”

–KATIE VANDERZWAN

would be like to be in our program, and let them know the supports that are available as students.”

As part of the experience, the high school students talked to current UIC Nursing students and experienced “low-fidelity” simulations, involving wound care and respiratory skills, and “high-fidelity” simulations, including a realistic simulated birth in the Francis Birthing Suite with the SimMom and SimBaby.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 3

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Unforgettable college tour Instead of the typical small group tour around campus, Nikola Gigovski, BSN ’23, got to give a tour of UIC Nursing to thousands of prospective students.

Gigovski was featured in an episode of “The College Tour,” a high-energy, 30-minute tour of UIC through the eyes of 11 students in disciplines ranging from communications to business to computer science.

The episode has been watched more than 12,000 times on YouTube and aired on Amazon Prime in October.

Gigovski, who grew up in Crystal Lake and Schaumburg, Illinois, is a first-generation college student who wanted to share his experience at UIC in the hopes of making it easier for future students. In his segment of the episode, he touts the quality of clinical experiences available at UIC Nursing “in the heart of a major metropolitan area.”

“My time here at UIC has been unforgettable, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he said in the episode.

WATC H the full College Tour episode.

APPLAUSE! Nurse-midwifery program director Pamela Pearson, DNP ’18, CNM, FACNM, was honored as the 2023 Maternal Health Honoree at the National Black Nurses Day Celebration.

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Five alumni were named to the Illinois Nurses Foundation’s 40 under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders Award: Dana Campbell, BSN ’15; Amanda Connoyer, DNP ’22; Kelly Perez, DNP ’20, MS ’15; Roshni Shah, BSN ’18; and Eleanor Rivera, PhD ’18, who is also an assistant professor at UIC Nursing.

At the 2023 Midwest Nursing Research Society conference, assistant professor Hongjin Li, PhD, received the New Investigator Award from the Symptom Science Research & Implementation Interest Group (RIIG), and clinical assistant professor Katie Vanderzwan, DNP ’17, MS ’06, APRN-BC, CHSE, received the Early Career Investigator Award from the Nursing Education RIIG.

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U.S. NEWS & WORLD REPORT 2024 RANKINGS

First Holm prof named Karen Flynn, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was selected as the first Terrance & Karyn Holm Endowed Professor.

No.

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RN-to-BSN completion program No.

16 BSN program No.

14 MS program No.

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Flynn will also serve as director of the Midwest Nursing History Research Center, which is housed at UIC Nursing, starting in 2024.

The Terrance & Karyn Holm Endowed Professorship was made possible by a $1 million gift from Karyn Holm, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA, who spent 12 years on faculty at UIC Nursing, in memory of her late husband Terrance. The professorship is intended for a faculty member who represents excellence in nursing history research. Holm’s gift also created the Karyn Holm Unrestricted Research Center Program Fund to support the college’s Midwest Nursing History Research Center.

Flynn’s past work has focused on nursing and health care history in the context of Black feminist and diaspora studies. Her award-winning book, “Moving Beyond Borders: Black Canadian and Caribbean Women in the African Canadian Diaspora,” delves into the experiences of 35 post-WWII era nurses who were born in Canada or immigrated there from the Caribbean.

“Dr. Flynn knows that nurses universally continue to care for individuals, families and communities in health and in illness, in peace and in war. It is my hope that giving voice to nursing’s accomplishments ensures that its rightful place in the history of health care is documented.”

–KARYN HOLM

She is also co-leading the Mapping Care project — featuring a traveling exhibit and website — with UIC Nursing associate professor Gwyneth Franck, PhD, RN, MPH, on the contribution of Black nurses in Chicago (see p. 15).

DNP program

#UICPROUD Clinical assistant professor Rebecca Vortman, DNP ’17, RN, CNOR, NEA-BC, launched The Stitch, a digital community for new perioperative nurses and supporters. See it at aorn.org/the-stitch.

Professor Pamela Martyn-Nemeth, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, was selected as a fellow of the Preventative Cardiovascular Nurses Association.

Adjunct clinical instructor, Christine Wetzel, DNP, MS, RNC-NIC, was a contributing author to “NICU Nursing Stories: A Day in the Life of a NICU Nurse,” which was published in October 2023.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 5

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“The very worst things … are done out of an unwillingness to recognize our shared humanity: homophobia, sexism, racism, religious bigotry, xenophobia — they all arise out of a disconnect that causes us to turn others into mere constructs.”

–ANNA QUINDLEN

Keynote speaker and renowned writer Anna Quindlen

Powerful message at Power of Nursing Leadership event More than 550 people attended the 26th annual Power of Nursing Leadership event, hosted by the UIC College of Nursing on Nov. 3 at the historic Hilton Chicago on Michigan Avenue.

The event was headlined by bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Anna Quindlen, whose keynote address, “Being Human: The Challenge for Health Care,” focused on the importance of making a human connection when caring for patients.

“The very worst things … are done out of an unwillingness to recognize our shared humanity: homophobia, sexism, racism, religious bigotry, xenophobia — they all arise out of a disconnect that causes us to turn others into mere constructs,” Quindlen said.

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon also spoke about his gratitude for nurses.

Beena Peters, DNP ’17, MS ’94, FACHE, FABC, Cook County Health System chief nursing executive, received the Joan L. Shaver Outstanding Illinois Nurse Leader Award, which is awarded to an individual who is highly influential in shaping quality health care in Illinois.

The SAGE Awards, which recognize mentorship, and two new honors were awarded in 2023: the Early Career Leader Award and the Advancing Health Equity Award.

G O TO pnl.uic.edu to see the full list of awardees and photos from the day.

APPLAUSE! Jehad O. Halabi, PhD ’96, was selected by Sigma’s Europe Region as one of “100 nurses over the last 100 years” who have made notable contributions to the profession.

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Leah Burt, PhD ’20, MS ’10, ANP-BC, is the 2023 recipient of the Emerging Leader (Rising Star) Award from the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

Assistant professors Kirby Adlam, PhD ’21, MS ’10, CNM, and Kylea Liese, PhD, CNM, were inducted as fellows of the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Shamatree Shakya, PhD, was hired as a postdoctoral scholar under the Bridge to Faculty program.

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FAAN-tastic

Geraldine Gorman, PhD, RN, the Kathleen M. Irwin Endowed Clinical Chair in Outstanding Nursing Practice, and Krista Jones, DNP ’11, MS ’07, RN, PHNA-BC, clinical associate professor and director of the Urbana campus, were inducted into the American Academy of Nursing 2023 Class of Fellows.

In addition, six alumni were inducted, including: • Dale Beatty, DNP ’17, RN, NEA-BC, chief nurse executive and vice president at Stanford Health Care • Yolanda Coleman, PhD ’12, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, chief nursing officer, Weiss Memorial Hospital and Oak Point University College of Nursing. Coleman is also current president of the UIC Nursing Alumni Board.

• Melinda Earle, BSN ’89, DNP, RN, NEA-BC, FACHE, FAONL, director of the DNP program in Transformative Leadership: Systems at Rush University College of Nursing

• Susan Grinslade, PhD ’05, RN, PHCNS-BC, associate director of the Community Health Equity Research Institute and clinical professor of nursing, University at Buffalo • Gay Landstrom, PhD, MS ’88, RN, NEA-BC, FAONL, FACHE, senior vice president and chief nursing officer, Trinity Health • Ruth Lucas, PhD ’11, MS ’08, RNC, CLS, associate professor, University of Connecticut School of Nursing

Yolanda Coleman, left, and Dale Beatty, pose at UIC Nursing's reception during the American Academy of Nursing's annual meeting in October.

“ I’m grateful to the UIC [College of Nursing] for a top-tier education and professional colleagues ... UIC has over 100 nursing leaders across the world in the American Academy of Nursing, out of 3,000 nurses in the Academy.”

–YOLANDA COLEMAN

“ When I enrolled in the DNP program, I thought I was checking a box on a professional activity that I wanted to achieve. I truly had no idea how the DNP program would expand and reshape my professional career and thinking moving forward.”

–DALE BEATTY

#UICPROUD Gloria Barrera, MSN, RN, PEL-CSN, co-director of the RN-to-BSN degree program, was recognized as the Nurse Influencer of the Year by ANA-Illinois, the first school nurse to receive the award. She was also elected secretary of the ANA-Illinois Board of Directors.

UIC Nursing faculty and staff received the following 2023 awards.

Melissa Carlucci, DNP, MS ’10, FAANP: the Judith Lloyd Storfjell Distinguished Practice Award; Charisse Franklin, MPH: the Julie & Mark Zerwic Diversity Award; Ulf Bronas, PhD, ATC, FSVM, FAHA: the Distinguished Researcher Award; and Lauren Diegel-Vacek, DNP ’10, MS ’02, FNP-BC, CNE, FAANP: the Distinguished Mentor of Faculty Award.

Janna Stephens, PhD, RN, was appointed head of the Department of Population Health Nursing Science.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 7

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Ana Belaval, host of the Around Town segment on WGN Morning News in Chicago, got to deliver her first on-air SimBaby when she spent a morning at the M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Laboratory in May in honor of National Nurses Week.

“I do understand how this is so special for people who help bring the baby into the world,” she told viewers, after experiencing a simulated birth with the high-fidelity SimMom and baby in the Francis Family Birthing Suite during the live broadcast. “That was pretty magical.”

WGN cut to Belaval throughout the morning as she took viewers into the Schwartz Lab’s skills lab, high-fidelity simulation rooms and home health suite.

Oh, baby!

WGN Around Town visits the Schwartz Lab

“Boy, people underestimate nurses.”

–ANA BELAVAL

Belaval said the visit was to “honor the unsung heroes of the medical field because, boy, people underestimate nurses.”

Katie Vanderzwan, Diego Bonilla and Lynn Ortiz look on as Ana Belaval delivers a SimBaby on live TV.

APPLAUSE! Clinical associate professor Gwyneth Franck, PhD, RN, MPH, received UIC’s 2023 Piergiorgio L.E. Uslenghi Emerging Global Engagement Faculty Leader Award.

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Maripat King, DNP ’16, RN, ACNP, was selected as the first full-time student success coordinator for the Chicago campus.

Clinical associate professor Catherine Yonkaitis, DNP ’17, RN, NCSN, PHNA-BC, was named editor of NASN School Nurse.

Dean Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, received the L. Kent Smith Award of Excellence from the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation.

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Scholarships bring a new focus for DNP programs A $2.6 million grant will allow the UIC College of Nursing to address a shortage of women’s health nurse practitioners and nurse-midwives and to provide them with more training in mental health care and substance use disorders.

underrepresented backgrounds, with a goal of diversifying the workforce. Nearly $500,000 has been allocated to about 20 students in those programs this year, with each scholarship worth about $20,000.

The four-year grant from the Human Resources and Service Administration is part of the Advanced Nursing Education Workforce program, called ANEW.

The other 30% will go to support faculty administering the grant — Patrick Thornton, PhD ’16, CNM; Kirby Adlam, PhD ’21, MS ’10; and Kelly Rosenberger, DNP ’12, CNM, WHNP-BC, FAANP — in their efforts to bolster the curriculum to provide more classroom and clinical opportunities for treating mental health and substance use disorders.

The bulk of the grant — 70% — will go to scholarships for students in the nurse-midwifery and women’s health nurse practitioner programs, particularly those who come from

ART OF NURSING Louisville, Kentuckybased artist Lori Larusso created, “Foam In, Foam Out,” to colorfully adorn a wall of the first-floor student lounge of the Chicago campus.

“I was so excited [about the grant], because it is targeted at people like myself, who really want to make a difference in this field ... addressing disparities and getting more people of color and people from diverse backgrounds into these positions.”

Larusso based her work on listening sessions with students, incorporating symbolic elements that form the backdrop of their experiences at UIC Nursing.

“It’s a privilege to witness the union of art and nursing, two disciplines that draw from the wellsprings of human emotion and compassion,” said Rosalba Hernandez, PhD, associate dean for equity and inclusion, who initiated the project because she wanted to create a sense of belonging for students.

LEARN MORE about the project

—SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENT AND DNP STUDENT COURTNEY REEVES, MS ’16, RN

#UICPROUD An agreement was reached with the College of Lake County to create a dual-admissions pathway from CLC’s associate degree in nursing (ADN) program to UIC’s RN to BSN degree-completion program.

Associate professor Wendy Bostwick, PhD, MPH, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Guttmacher Institute, a sexual and reproductive health research and policy organization.

Assistant professors Sarah Abboud, PhD, RN, Natasha Crooks, PhD, RN, and clinical assistant professor Rebecca Singer, DNP ’18, RN, were all selected for the OpEd Project’s Public Voices Fellowship.

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37 years and counting The UIC College of Nursing was re-designated as the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/ World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre for International Nursing Development in Primary Health Care, a recognition of the college’s expertise and contributions toward the WHO’s mission. The designation will be in place for four years, until 2027.

“Our re-designation marks 37 years of excellence since [the college] earned its first designation in 1986.”

Dean Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, and clinical associate professor Susan Walsh, DNP ’14, MS ’00, BSN ’80, CPNP-PC, will serve as co-directors.

In 1986, UIC Nursing became the first U.S. institution to be designated a WHO Collaborating Centre in Nursing/Midwifery and has successfully maintained the designation over the last 37 years.

–ROHAN JEREMIAH, ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GLOBAL HEALTH

The re-designation puts the UIC College of Nursing in rare company; it is one of only nine nursing colleges or schools in the U.S. to be part of the Global Network of WHO Collaborating Centers for Nursing and Midwifery, a community of 44 nursing and midwifery institutions spanning six regions of the world.

Care in the Caribbean Bahamas

On Nov. 1 and 2, chief nursing officers, senior public health officials and academic nurse-leaders from 18 Caribbean countries — as well as representatives from 10 Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization Collaborating Centres from the U.S. and Brazil — assembled at UIC Nursing to discuss how to address gaps in the availability, capacity, competence and quality of the nursing workforce throughout the Caribbean region. UIC Nursing hosted as part of its role as a PAHO/WHO Collaborating Centre. Susan Walsh moderated several sessions.

Turks & Caicos Islands

British Virgin Islands Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda St. Kitts & Nevis Jamaica

Haiti

Montserrat

Dominica Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent & the Grenadines Trinidad & Tobago Belize

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Guyana

Suriname

Barbados Grenada

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Mixing it up on “The Bake Off” THE GREAT AMERICAN BAKING SHOW

What do nursing and baking have in common?

Turns out, a lot, according to UIC Nursing master’s student and 2023 Great American Baking Show contestant Sarah Chang.

Chang was one of nine amateur bakers selected to compete in the U.S. spin-off of the beloved “Great British Baking Show.” Featuring U.S. cast members, the show took place under the iconic white tent in England with judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith. The series, hosted by actors Ellie Kemper and Zach Cherry, streamed exclusively on the Roku Channel.

V.S.: How did you manage filming and being a student?

V.S.: What made you apply for the show?

S.C.: My first week of classes was the last week of filming. I was absent for that, but I only missed two lectures. I was catching up on assignments on the flight home.

S.C.: I didn’t really get into baking until I started watching the “Great British Baking Show.”

It was really cool to see normal, non-professionals making all these really incredible things, and it inspired me to want to do it.

V.S.: What brought you to UIC Nursing?

S.C.: I’ve had a very winding road to where I am now ... I became really convinced nursing was my next move as a way for me to fulfill my interest and passion for caring for people on an individual, clinical level.

But also, the power nurses have as a collective is really inspiring.

V.S.: What were some of the most surprising things about being on the show versus watching it on TV? S.C.: One of the surprising things for me, certainly at the beginning, was how much it was like what you see on TV. There may be speculation: Is it really a tent in the middle of a field? Yes, it’s a tent in the middle of

Sarah Chang

a field … You’re dealing with all the elements, which is definitely a new experience and really tested a lot of us and how we were able to adapt to those situations.

V.S.: What, if any, are some skills that cross over between nursing and baking?

S.C.: You’re utilizing a lot of knowledge that you’ve learned and engrained in your brain over the course of training and practice, but you’re adapting it to the situation, and responding to different outcomes, some expected, and some unexpected. I think that’s absolutely something you find in nursing.

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High Honors In 2023, the UIC College of Nursing conferred the 45th annual Distinguished Alumni Award, honored the sixth class of Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award winners, and bestowed a special posthumous award.

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

Yoko Shimpuku PhD ’10, CNM, RN

Vice president of international public relations and professor, Hiroshima University When Yoko Shimpuku landed in Chicago in 2005, she didn’t have a job or a nursing license, and she didn’t yet speak English fluently.

She had left behind a highly regarded career as nurse-midwife in Tokyo to pursue a graduate degree in the U.S. The risk proved worthwhile when she graduated with a PhD from UIC Nursing — an achievement that launched her career, allowing her to bring pregnancy, childbirth and midwifery education to both sub-Saharan Africa and Japan.

During Shimpuku’s first few years as a midwife in Japan, she noticed that new research findings were not being well implemented in clinical practice. She wanted to learn how to improve the research-to-practice pathway by going to graduate school.

“Graduate school in nursing in Japan was still in the very early stages,” she says. “If you really wanted to learn how to do state-of-the-art research, the best option was going to the U.S.”

©️SCIENCE WINDOW

After arriving at UIC Nursing, Shimpuku met then-faculty member Crystal Patil, PhD, who offered her an opportunity to join a research trip to Tanzania.

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This led to Shimpuku’s dissertation, which focused on understanding Tanzanian mothers’ childbirth experiences in resource-poor settings. Shimpuku thought it was important to be able to interview women in their native tongue, so she took it upon herself to learn yet another new language — this time, Swahili.

She went on to collaborate with Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Tanzania to start the first midwifery master’s program there in 2014. She has continued her work there, developing two apps to help midwives and pregnant women navigate prenatal care in the last two years.

As a professor of global health nursing at Hiroshima University, Shimpuku teaches master’s and PhD students from around the world, helping them learn to conduct research in low- or middle-income countries.

Shimpuku is also a member of the Young Academy of Japan, made up of influential scientists under age 45 under the umbrella of the Science Council of Japan “I think UIC taught me leadership,” she says. “Even in the U.S., only 1% of the population gets PhDs. A PhD is very special. If you get a PhD, you need to be a leader. You need to contribute back to society and improve it. That kind of notion was my foundation to do all this work.”

OUTSTANDING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Holli DeVon

Leslie H. Nicoll

Audrienne H. Moseley Endowed Chair in Community Research at UCLA Nursing

Editor-in-chief of CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing; coordinator and per diem nurse at the Portland Community Free Clinic

PhD ’02, MS ’82, RN, FAHA, FAAN

When Holli DeVon started looking at differences in heart disease symptom presentation between men and women 25 years ago, there was very little research on the topic. Most studies on the subject focused on men, widely believed to be more afflicted by heart disease.

“When I started on my dissertation, I did a systematic review, and there were 12 papers worldwide at the time that were looking at sex differences and symptoms for what we now call acute coronary syndrome — heart attack and angina,” DeVon says. “Now, I would say there’s probably hundreds and hundreds of papers, but it was early in the field.”

DeVon’s work on the topic over the last two decades has led to improvements in early recognition of cardiovascular disease in women. She’s helped identify sweating and unusual fatigue as key symptoms in women and has found that

women are at higher risk for delays in treatment when experiencing a heart attack.

DeVon was a UIC Nursing professor from 2012 to 2019 and head of the Biobehavioral Nursing Science department for two of those years. She was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award to Rwanda in 2018 to study cardiovascular disease in patients with HIV, and she was inducted into the Sigma Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2020.

“We’ve made great strides,” DeVon says. “When I started my dissertation, there were about 1.4 million Americans per year having heart attacks or repeat heart attacks. Now it’s down to 650,000 — more than cut in half in 25 years. That is a tribute to advances in medicine and advances in science, better treatments, more awareness — especially about women and their risk — and better advocacy. It’s good news.”

PhD, MS ’80, RN, MBA, FAAN

Leslie Nicoll is a quadruple threat. She is a nursing journal editor-in-chief, Portland Community Free Clinic nurse and coordinator, consulting business owner, and is widely recognized as the driving force behind the International Academy of Nursing Editors.

The International Academy of Nurse Editors (INANE) represents editors, publishers, authors and peer reviewers of more than 250 vetted nursing journals. The unconventional organization — given its oxymoronic nickname by founders with a sense of humor — eschews bylaws or officers.

Nicoll has been the lead planner for the annual conference for several years, established the Nursing Journal Hall of Fame, chairs a mentoring program, and has made outreach efforts to include editors and scholars from underrepresented parts of the world.

She also works as a coordinator and per diem nurse for the Portland Community Free Clinic, which provides care to uninsured adults in southern Maine through a volunteer network. Through her creative problem-solving, Nicoll has come up with funding sources and community alliances when its future was unclear.

“She serves without regard to the compensation she receives for her crucial formal role as the coordinator of the clinic,” wrote her award nominator, Peggy Chinn. “Dr. Nicoll assures that any individual who comes through the doors of the clinic receives the best possible care in a context that respects that person’s human dignity.”

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OUTSTANDING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

IN SPECIAL RECOGNITION

Karen Sikorski

Lucy Marion

Clinical nurse specialist

Former dean of Augusta University College of Nursing

MS, BSN ’68, APRN

Karen Sikorski was working as a clinical nurse specialist at Rockford Memorial Hospital in the 1970s when the hospital began introducing patient-controlled analgesia.

Sikorski, who was charged with managing the hospital’s roll-out, created a team, including pharmacists, technicians and nurses to provide additional education and training.

With an anesthesiologist, she co-created a new “pain service” at the hospital and was invited to attend a national seminar with nurses from across the country involved in patient-controlled analgesia.

Shortly after, the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) created a network for nurses working in the new specialty, and Sikorski became the second president.

She took on leadership positions at ASPMN and

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regional organizations, planning conferences, leading trainings and writing standards for pain management.

“I had opportunities that I never, ever dreamt of as a young person,” Sikorski says. “I have always felt nursing was my gift and mission.”

Sikorski is retired from full-time nursing but serves as board president of Serenity Hospice and Home and continues to be involved with ASPMN and Northern Illinois Pain Resource Nurse Consortium. She’s also involved in a nurse honor corps, attending the funerals of nurses to honor them, and volunteers to cuddle NICU babies.

“UIC taught us to be leaders,” she says. “They encouraged that leadership role. To be a professional, you needed to be part of the profession and you needed to help that profession.”

PhD ’90, RN, FAAN, FAANP Lucy Marion, a pioneer in the Doctor of Nursing Practice movement, received a posthumous award in honor of her distinguished career in nursing education and practice from the UIC College of Nursing at the all-alumni REUNION on Sept. 23.

Marion, who had cancer, died on April 13 at the age of 76.

Marion was a professor and department head at UIC Nursing before serving as dean at Augusta University College of Nursing in Georgia for 15 years.

She retired in 2020.

Seeing a “rapidly changing health care environment” that called for more complex care, Marion started advocating in the early 2000s for the DNP to replace a master’s degree as the terminal degree for advanced practice nurses.

Then, there were only a few DNP programs in existence.

Now, there are more than 400 DNP programs with multiple specialties.

“At the time, the DNP was a disruptive innovation, and only time would tell if it was truly the future or just a fringe movement,” wrote Lorna Finnegan, PhD ’03, MS ’88, BSN ’80, RN, FNP, FAAN, dean of the Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing at Loyola University Chicago, in a nominating letter.

“Although it has taken far too long, 23 years later, we are all aware that the DNP was, and is, the future.”

Finnegan added: “Dr. Marion has indeed left a legacy — a permanent imprint on the nursing profession and beyond.”

PART OF THE Karen Flynn, PhD, and Gwyneth Franck, PhD, RN, MPH, want people to learn about the history of Black nurses in Chicago — not just in February, during Black History Month, but all year long.

A traveling exhibit and website, Mapping Care: Black Nurses in Chicago, sets out to do just that.

“[Black nursing history] is not a niche or special history. It’s part of our whole story.

It’s part of the Chicago story.”

GWYNETH FRANCK, PHD, RN, MPH

STORY The history of Black nurses in Chicago is both full of struggle and full of triumph.

Struggle, because time after time, Black nurses found that doors were closed to them. Triumph, because despite those obstacles, they repeatedly found ways to either open them or create new doors.

Take Emma A. Reynolds, an aspiring nurse in the late 1800s who was rejected from every nursing school in Chicago because of the color of her skin. She inspired a collective to found the Provident Hospital & Training School on May 4, 1891, at 29th and Dearborn streets.

Reynolds was among the school’s first graduating class, and for many decades, Provident was the only nursing school in the city to admit Black students.

Reynolds’ story — along with countless others — is now accessible to the public thanks to the Mapping Care project co-led by Gwyneth Franck, PhD, RN, MPH, UIC College of Nursing associate professor, and Karen Flynn, PhD, who will become the Terrance & Karyn Holm Endowed Professor and director of the Midwest Nursing History Research Center in 2024.

“The history of Black nurses in the U.S. overall, it really is an example of hidden history,” Flynn says. “I think that this project gives us an opportunity to really amplify their voices.”

The project, which features both a traveling exhibit and interactive website, was funded with a grant from the Chicago-based Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation and the University of Illinois System’s Presidential Initiative.

1891

First location of Provident Hospital and Training School is established at 29th & Dearborn streets in Chicago.

For decades, it will be the only nursing program in Chicago that accepts Black students.

Provident holds its first graduation for four of its inaugural students, including Emma A. Reynolds, who helped found the school after being denied admission to every nursing school in Chicago.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 15

“[Black nursing history] is not a niche or special history,” says Franck, “It’s part of our whole story. It’s part of the Chicago story.”

The project team collected oral histories from more than 20 pioneering Black nurses, which are available in full on the website. For individuals interested in researching Black nursing history, the web portal also includes a map of archives throughout the city of Chicago with collections relevant to Black nurses.

“You get a glimpse into how some of the nurses had to navigate the structural racism that was embedded in the various systems that they encountered in Chicago ... the way nurses and their families responded to these inequalities,” Flynn says.

It’s an incredible responsibility, and I don’t take it lightly, ever.

I obviously represent nurses at every level of the organization and of every shape and size and color, but I take my role very seriously as a woman of color and what that means, because I know what that meant to me.”

It’s a privilege to work with people and see people in their worst state possible. … Just being present. There’s a lot of power in being a nurse.”

The project team also included JoJo Galvan Mora, Midwest Nursing History Research Center archivist; Stephanie Smith, UIC history doctoral student; and Kennedy Forbes, a UIC undergraduate student.

Franck will also be converting content from Mapping Care into a library of lesson plans for students — middle school through graduate nursing education — thanks to a grant from the National Archives. The new project is called Teaching Care: Building a history curricular library of Chicago’s Black nurses.

1920

Chicago’s Black Visiting Nurses: As increasing numbers of Black Americans move to Chicago after WWI, Black nurses find work in public health and provide crucial health care services in the community.

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ORAL HISTORY EXCERPT FROM ANGELIQUE RICHARD, PHD ’99, RN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF NURSING OFFICER AT RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

1943

Ohio congresswoman Frances Payne Bolton authors the 1943 Bolton Act, creating the Cadet Nurse Corps. The law helps many Black nurses get their training and is one of the first major steps towards integrating the nursing profession.

JANICE PHILLIPS, PHD ‘93, RN, CENP, FAAN, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR OF THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC HEALTH

1951

Clara Rice (second from left) becomes the first Black nursing student on record to graduate from Michael Reese Hospital School of Nursing on Chicago’s South Side.

AN ‘AMAZING’ JOURNEY Janice Phillips was around 11 years old when she was sent to live in foster care, an experience that she now describes as “horrific, but yet empowering.”

Her foster parents were abusive, physically and mentally, and school became a sanctuary. Her state-appointed social worker, Anna Mae Earles, was her “saving grace,” ensuring that she went to college, and even putting up some of her own money so Phillips could open a bank account.

In one of Mapping Care’s compelling oral histories, Phillips recounts her journey from dropping out of school in seventh grade, to earning her nursing degree at North Park University and her PhD at UIC Nursing.

In June, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker appointed Phillips assistant director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, with an emphasis on eliminating health disparities and inequities.

Phillips was the first Black nurse to receive an American Cancer Society professorship in oncology nursing. She traveled the world (Barbados, Taipei, Taiwan, Norway, Brazil) as a UIC faculty member, presenting her research on breast cancer, and served as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow in the U.S. Senate.

“I can’t even believe all the things that have happened,” Phillips says. “It’s amazing.”

1952

Marcus Walker, the first Black male registered nurse in Illinois and possibly the country, graduates from Alexian Brothers Hospital School of Nursing and begins a position at Michael Reese Hospital on Chicago’s South Side.

1971

A group of Black nurses founds the National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) to “unite black nurses to influence health care services for black people and to promote the inclusion of blacks in nursing education and nursing leadership positions.”

If [I] were to go in a room to give service and they see that [I’m] Black, they'll say, ʻNever mind, I don't need anything.’

But yet you had your light on because you needed something, but you didn’t like who was about to give it to you.”

ORAL HISTORY EXCERPT FROM PHYLLIS PELT, MS ’95, BSN ’67, FOUNDING DIRECTOR OF THE UIC NURSING ONLINE SCHOOL NURSE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM

SEE MORE

COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU Since March, the Mapping Care physical exhibit has been on the move. Locations have included: the Englewood and Main branches of Mile Square Health Center; the George C. Hall and Martin Luther King Jr. branches of Chicago Public Library; Crane Medical Prep and Englewood STEM High Schools; Lawndale Christian Health Center, Homan Square; and UIC’s Library of the Health Sciences.

2005

Phyllis Pelt wins the first National School Nurse Educator award for her career of service. Pelt helped to create an innovative virtual school nursing certification program at UIC, geared toward training working nurses to become leaders for public health in their school districts.

READ MORE Scan the QR code to visit the interactive Mapping Care website.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 17

For UIC Nursing’s student athletes, the days begin before dawn at practice and end by scrubbing out of a hospital room.

Sweats and scrubs are swapped back and forth throughout the day. Weekends are spent traveling to and from games and meets. Schedules are bent to squeeze in game film and nursing skills. It’s all for the love of sport and nursing practice.

As a stand-out soccer player at her high school in Fontana, California, Makena Shaw was looking for two things in a college: Somewhere she could play soccer and study nursing.

Easier said than done.

“One of the hardest things is finding a soccer program that will accept you as a nursing major,” Shaw says.

She recalls talking to coaches during the recruiting process who gave her a “hard no” once she told them she wanted to study nursing. They worried that unforgiving clinical requirements would cause her to miss practices and games.

STEVE WOLTMANN

That changed when she talked to UIC soccer head coach David Nikolic. Shaw credits Nikolic and UIC Nursing faculty

G N I L G G U J it l al

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“They [coaches] understood the time commitment of the nursing program and how intense it is. If I tell them I have an exam, or a 13-hour clinical, they work around my schedule.”

3 days in the life of Makena Shaw

–ASHLEE WELTYK

and how intense it is. If I tell them I have an exam, or a 13-hour clinical, they work around my schedule.”

members, such as BSN program director Amy Johnson, PhD ’18, RN, and student success coordinator Maripat King, DNP ’16, RN, ACNP, with their flexibility and helping her manage her soccer and nursing schedules.

Both Weltyk and Shaw say the key is time management. Weltyk says her schedule is so tightly packed that it can feel “robotic” at times. If she’s allotted herself time to study or complete a project, she can’t procrastinate, or she’ll lose out on precious sleep. She needs to be up by 5:15 a.m. for her morning swim practices.

“Here at UIC, they were willing to work with me,” Shaw says. “I wouldn’t say it’s easy to do, but I have the right people and resources at UIC to do it all.”

Shaw is one of six bachelor’s degree students on the Chicago campus who are juggling the rigors of nursing and NCAA Division I athletics. That includes her teammate, Leah Senese, who played until her eligibility expired in fall 2023 and is now completing her senior year in nursing.

Wednesday 5:45 A.M.: Wake up. Hit snooze until 5:47 a.m. Put on scrubs and prepare my clinical bag with all my needed materials and paperwork.

6 A.M.: Eat overnight oats that I prepared the night before and pack my lunch and water into clinical bag.

“If I slack off and don’t get it done, then I’m going to end up staying up late,” she says.

“Even if I stay up until 11 p.m. or midnight, that means I’m only going to get five or six hours of sleep.”

6:15 A.M.: Take the UIC Night Ride to Jesse Brown Veterans Hospital; check in and go to my unit on the second floor.

Shaw says she lets her professors know about her soccer schedule far enough in advance so she can make adjustments, such as finding a clinical site closer to her practice field, if necessary. Her coaches are also willing to let her make up practices or watch film later if she needs to miss scheduled events with the team.

The others are two women’s cross country and track athletes — Daniela Martinez and Rose Campbell-Watt — and two swimmers — Ashlee Weltyk and Jessica Sanders.

“One of the biggest reasons I committed to UIC was that the coaches were so understanding compared to other coaches I was talking to,” says Weltyk, who is from Oxford, Michigan. “They understood the time commitment of the nursing program

6:30-7 A.M.: Change into OR scrubs, put on hair net, shoe covers and mask and attend nursing huddle.

For Shaw, who grew up hearing stories about nursing from her aunt and grandmother — both nurses — one thing was non-negotiable: becoming a nurse.

UIC ATHLETICS

Jessica Sanders

UIC ATHLETICS

Rose Campbell-Watt

Ashlee Weltyk

UIC ATHLETICS

UIC ATHLETICS

Daniela Martinez

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 19

8-11 A.M.: Prepare the operating room and the patient. Help set up the OR table and gather supplies (gloves, gowns, tools, gauze or stitches).

Help secure the patient to the table and verify the patient information.

11:15 A.M.-12 P.M.: Prepare a second patient by putting in a new IV, applying oxygen and putting on SCDs and EKG in the pre-op room.

12:30 P.M.: Quick lunch before the second case.

12:45-2:30 P.M.: Start the second patient’s case.

2:30 P.M.: Prepare the room and patient for the third case.

3 P.M.: Get mandatory flu vaccine before catching the bus to head home.

3:15 P.M.: Walk home from the bus stop to my apartment.

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8:45 P.M.: Shower.

9-9:45 P.M.: Make a quick meal before bed, check my email and prepare my soccer bag for tomorrow.

10 P.M.: Bedtime.

3:30-4:30 P.M.: Complete a homework assignment, upload my flu vaccine to my nursing school files and complete a Title IX training for athletics. Meet with an athletic director regarding an NIL [name, image and likeness] deal.

Thursday Game Day 5:45 P.M.: Watch film in the locker room on the upcoming opponent.

6-7:15 P.M.: Go to the field and practice for the game.

4:30 P.M.: Power nap.

7:15-8 P.M.: Watch more film on our team from the past game.

5:15 P.M.: Grab a protein bar, pack my soccer bag and leave my apartment for soccer practice.

8:15-8:30 P.M.: Change and head home from practice.

5:30 P.M.: Get to the locker room and change into practice clothes.

8 A.M.: Wake up.

9 A.M.: Cook eggs and avocado toast for game-day breakfast.

10 A.M: Complete a group assignment: I am this week’s team leader so I need to set up a team meeting, make sure the assignment is complete and submit it before my game.

11 A.M.-1 P.M.: Do laundry and clean my apartment.

8-9:30 P.M.: Team dinner.

1-2 P.M.: Complete a quick clinical assignment before heading out to lunch.

10 P.M.: Help clean up dinner and walk home.

10:15 P.M.: Eat a snack and shower.

2-2:30 P.M.: Pick up lunch from the locker room.

11 P.M.: Prepare my school bag with my computer, iPad and needed paperwork for the classes I have in the morning.

2:45-3:45 P.M.: Eat lunch.

Relax and review soccer film and team tactics for the game.

11:15 P.M.: Bedtime.

3:50 P.M: Back to the locker room.

Friday

4-4:30 P.M.: Change for my game and do pre-game hype with my teammates.

5:30-6 A.M.: Wake up, brush my teeth, put in contacts and grab my soccer and school bags.

4:30 P.M.: Pre-game meetings.

6 A.M.: Leave my apartment, grabbing a quick piece of toast and applesauce to get to the locker room by 6:15 a.m.

5-8 P.M.: Game at UIC Flames Field.

8:25 A.M.: Run to the locker room from the fields. Change into scrubs, put my soccer clothes in the laundry and grab my school bag.

8:35 A.M.: Catch the bus to head to west campus for class.

3 P.M.: Make some food and relax.

3:30-7 P.M.: Study and complete some assignments that are due Sunday because we have a soccer game on Sunday; Call my classmate and teammate Leah Senese to do some active recall on the exam we have coming up on Monday.

7:30-8:30 P.M.: Make dinner.

6:15-6:30 A.M.: Change into practice clothes, grab weightlifting shoes, cleats, roller and gear for training.

6:30-7:15 A.M.: Begin rolling out our muscles and hear announcements from the coaches; warm up and start a 45-minute weightlift workout.

UIC ATHLETICS

7:20-8:20 A.M: Grab gear and head out to the soccer fields to start soccer practice.

8:45-10 P.M.: Watch a show called, “What We Do in the Shadows,” with my roommate.

10:15 P.M.: Get ready for bed and go to sleep.

9-11 A.M.: First class: 304 professional nursing course.

11-11:20 A.M.: Lunch break.

11:30 A.M.-1:30 P.M.: Second class: 341 peds nursing.

2-2:15 P.M.: Catch the bus to head home.

2:30 P.M.: Get home and shower (finally!).

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 21

Smoothing

THE TRANSITION A partnership between UIC Nursing and Safer Foundation’s Adult Transition Centers (ATC) means that men transitioning out of the Illinois prison system no longer need to rely on the emergency room for routine medical care.

T

oday, Nurse Amy is in.

She will have a steady stream of visitors to her office, a retrofitted storage room with an exam table in this 110-year-old former YMCA building. The door — overhung with a small sign that reads, “Nurse” — is open.

For the last three years, Amy Johnson, PhD ’18, RN, a clinical assistant professor at UIC Nursing, has provided new resident health intakes and follow-up for every man who arrives at two Safer Foundation Adult Transition Centers in Chicago. That adds up to hundreds of men. Some arrive at her office after having been imprisoned for a year or less, while others have been incarcerated for 25 years or more.

“When Amy first came on board, it was almost like a godsend,” says Bobby Moore, center supervisor for the North Lawndale Adult Transition Center. “It’s just been the best thing ever.”

PHOTOS BY JOSHUA CLARK

Johnson spends one day a week here at Crossroads Adult Transition Center (ATC) in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. It’s home to about 170 men who are nearing the end of their prison sentences and are transitioning back to community life.

Johnson also spends one day each week on site at the North Lawndale ATC a few blocks away, home to about 150 men.

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UIC Nursing clinical assistant professor Kelly Vaez, DNP ’16, MS ’06, FNP, joined Johnson about a year-and-a-half College of Nursing

Clinical assistant professors Amy Johnson, left, and Kelly Vaez talk in the hallway outside of the nurse’s office of the Crossroads Adult Transition Center in North Lawndale.

ago under a grant to provide medication assisted treatment (MAT), which helps reduce a person’s dependence on opioids and alcohol. She spends half a day at each transitional center every week.

BUILDING TRUST Andre Martin, the Crossroads program manager, says previously there was no medical staff on site, which meant every time a resident had a medical need — even if it was for something as minor as a prescription refill — staff would take them to the emergency room.

“When you think about the headache of having to go through all that — for the [residents] and for the staff — that has definitely been curbed,” he says.

Johnson adds that the partnership fulfills a major mission of UIC Nursing: providing care to vulnerable populations and critical educational opportunities for students.

When compared to the general population, men and women with a history of incarceration are in worse physical and mental health: 44% more likely to have a mental health disorder, and more likely to have high blood pressure, asthma, cancer and infectious diseases, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Healthy People 2030 report.

“This is a forgotten population,” Johnson says. “We’re trying to minimize gaps in their health care and stem a bigger problem of overusing the ER.” Johnson says that many of the men here have inadequate health literacy. This may be the case if they’ve been incarcerated for many years or were imprisoned when they were teenagers. Some have less than a 12th-grade education. They may not know how to refill a medication or even how to make a health care appointment. Worse, they may have had negative experiences with health care in the past and don’t trust the system, Johnson says.

In a setting where authority and formality are emphasized, and other staff members at the transition centers use formal “Mr.” and “Ms.” titles, Johnson and Vaez choose to be known by their first names to create an atmosphere of comfort.

“Building that trust on site has really helped [residents] continue with their appointments [after they are fully released and] in the community,” Johnson says. “This ‘in-house’ connection to community providers bridges that trust gap.”

PARTNERSHIP BEGINNINGS Johnson previously worked at the Winnebago County Jail and the DeKalb County Jail. When she joined the UIC Nursing faculty in 2018, she started bringing traditional BSN undergraduate students in the community health course to the transition centers

2020 CROSSROADS ATC

BY THE NUMBERS NURSE VISITS:

1,114 NEW RESIDENT HEALTH INTAKES:

642

GROUP EDUCATION SESSIONS:

181

2021 NORTH LAWNDALE ATC BY THE NUMBERS NURSE VISITS:

406

NEW RESIDENT HEALTH INTAKES:

378

GROUP EDUCATION SESSIONS:

86

Top: Johnson listens to the lungs of Andrew, one of the residents of the Crossroads ATC. Middle: Vaez looks in the ear of a resident who complained of ear pain. Bottom: Johnson talks to Tyrice about his blood pressure.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 23

“We know health matters when they leave. If their pain isn’t controlled, if they don’t understand these diseases, if they can’t afford their medications, if they haven’t been taught, or mentored, or assisted while they’re in this center, then guess what? They go back out there, and say, ‘heroin took away my pain,’ or, ‘I’m going to go back to whatever [street drug.]’ There are a lot of benefits of working with them here.”

—AMY JOHNSON

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periodically to provide health care education and blood pressure screenings.

Her role expanded as Johnson and leaders at Safer Foundation recognized an opportunity for a partnership. Under a Human Resources and Services Administration grant, Johnson developed the current wellness clinics that center an RN as leader in the residents’ health care management. Johnson also created a telehealth connection with nurse practitioners and other specialists at UI Health’s Mile Square Health Center to address the residents’ needs when they fall outside the RN’s scope of practice.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, this pathway was especially helpful.

“I can remember during COVID, when we were doing teleconferencing, everyone else was shutting down and struggling, and we had a level of continuity that just didn’t exist in a lot of places,” Moore says.

AVOIDING TEMPTATION At the transition centers, residents are gradually given more independence during their stays. During the first 30 days, they aren’t allowed to leave by themselves. But as they stay longer, they can get passes to go to work, stores, medical appointments, or even to visit family.

On a Wednesday in October, one of the visitors to the nurses’ office is Andrew, stopping by to request a prescription refill. [UIC Nursing is not using the residents’ last names to protect their identities.]

Andrew, who wears a sweatshirt and khaki pants, was released from Jacksonville Correctional Center after serving about two years. He works doing maintenance for Safer Foundation buildings and is helping to build a food pantry.

“This is way better than being in prison,” says Andrew.

After Vaez promises to call in his refill, Andrew explains that she’s helped him get on suboxone, a medication that helps to reduce a patient’s dependence on opioids.

“Here in the world again, back from being behind bars, there’s a lot of temptation,” says Andrew. “Being on the medicine, it helps with the cravings. When I first got here, there was probably stuff I would’ve gotten into that I shouldn’t have.”

After Andrew’s visit, Tyrice stops by for a blood pressure check. Vaez provides education on keeping blood pressure in a healthy range — including lifestyle modifications and medications — and suggests that he come back again so she can get another reading and see if the number remains consistent.

INTEGRATING EDUCATION The partnership also provides valuable educational opportunities. DNP student Cindy Cruz, RN, works with Johnson and Vaez to provide care and creates a bulletin board display each month that features health education topics. A trivia contest and raffle prize gives the men incentive to read and learn the material.

Pre-licensure students also present health topics to groups of residents as part of their community health course, which provides them valuable exposure to a population that they may encounter, or choose to seek out, when they begin practicing.

“I’ll be here next Wednesday,” she says. “Stop by.”

Top: Johnson, left, and Vaez prepare to clean out a resident’s ears after he complained of ear pain. Middle: Johnson checks a resident’s blood pressure. Bottom: Johnson reviews a prescription with Tocarra Pettus, who is chief of security at Crossroads ATC. VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 25

EXPERT VIEWPOINT

Food is Medicine

Assistant professor Saria Lofton, PhD, MS ’05, RN, believes Food is Medicine programs are the key to better health, especially for those communities that face higher rates of food insecurity — a burden borne more often by people of color.

In early September, when I wrapped up a program called, “Food is Medicine: Healing Together,” the atmosphere was celebratory.

Twenty Black women with hypertension in Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood had spent the previous 12 weeks meeting weekly, taking cooking classes and nutrition seminars, and receiving fresh produce and supplies to take home.

Although results are still pending, some of the women reported they had lowered their blood pressure, decreased their weight, and, most importantly, learned how to bring healthier habits back to their families.

Saria Lofton

That program was small, just a pilot, but my goal is to offer Food is Medicine programs like this one across the city.

Food is Medicine programs fit into my core belief — borne out by research — that a healthy diet can reduce the risk of cancer and chronic illness. They can make a difference when we help to create access to healthy foods in communities that have had chronically low access to fresh produce.

This column was compiled from interviews with Lofton and excerpts from her commentary in the Chicago Sun-Times, “Food is Medicine Programs Can Improve Health, Reduce Food Insecurity,” co-written with Barbara Peterson.

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Programs feature the provision of nutrient-dense foods in the form of groceries, produce boxes or meals, often within the context of a health care system. These programs can radically transform the health of those who are at risk for, or have, chronic illnesses.

Unfortunately, due to grocery store closures on the West and South sides, and a growing racial wealth gap, families of color in Chicago often are at the biggest risk for food insecurity and diet-related chronic disease.

In our pilot program, we partnered with food justice organization Good Food is Good Medicine to offer cooking classes, Forty Acres Fresh Market and Star Farms for local produce delivery, and UI Health Mile Square Health Center-South Shore. Partnerships like these allow us to support local growers, put money into our own communities, and reduce shipping distances, which can be more costly and result in less nutrient-dense produce.

I’ve been working with Illinois Public Health Institute to expand these programs by lobbying for an expanded Medicaid waiver in Illinois, which would give more low-income patients the opportunity to access these programs. The change would include new food and nutrition benefits like fresh produce from local vendors, medically tailored and home-delivered meals, and nutrition education.

This may sound costly, but upfront costs are far outweighed by long-term savings.

One study found that a national, medically tailored meals program — fully prepared meals designed by health professionals — for people with diet-related illnesses could avert 1.6 million hospitalizations and create net cost savings of $13.6 billion annually for insurers.

We have more work to do to improve food access in our communities, especially in Chicago, but as I continue to develop Food is Medicine programs, I’m encouraged that change is achievable.

Lofton’s Food is Medicine program was featured in multiple TV news segments, including on WGN and NBC Chicago.

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Blazing a trail

Harrell Jordan is the first Black man to earn a PhD at UIC Nursing. He hopes his achievement makes it easier for others to follow suit.

“We have the worst health outcomes and the lowest life expectancy,” says Jordan. “I’m trying to figure out exactly what can be done to mitigate these issues that we know exist, but haven’t been able to pinpoint a solution for.”

Harrell Jordan, PhD ’23, RN, is used to being the “only.”

As a student at UIC Nursing, Jordan won the UIC Nursing Marguerite A. Dixon Scholarship Award twice, which is given to African American students with stellar academic performance.

In his graduate-entry master’s program for nursing at DePaul University, he was the only Black man in his class of 65 students.

As a nurse in the emergency room, patients would routinely mistake him for a security guard or a nursing assistant.

So when Jordan learned he was the first Black man to earn a PhD from the UIC College of Nursing, it was not an unusual position for him to be in.

“For me, truly, the reason that I’m doing this [program], it’s not for self-gain,” he says. “It’s because I know that in order for more Black men to do what I’m doing, they need to see it’s possible.”

Attaining a PhD in nursing as a Black man puts Jordan among the extreme minority. According to the National Center for Science and Engineering statistics, there were only eight Black men who received PhDs in nursing science in 2022 out of 623 awarded in total that year (the most recent for which data is available).

Without Black men receiving PhDs in nursing, there are very few to go on to become faculty and conduct research in nursing. Harrell notes that he’s only had a handful of Black male teachers since elementary school to serve as role models, something he’d like to change for future students.

“For me, truly, the reason that I’m doing this [program], it’s not for self-gain,” he says. “It’s because I know that in order for more Black men to do what I’m doing, they need to see it’s possible.”

He has also been awarded the UIC-wide Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, which is given to students who show high academic achievement and a commitment to community service. Jordan volunteers with the Sickle Cell Disease Association of Illinois, raising money in memory of his aunt who died from the disease.

He says one of the keys to his perseverance through adversity is his relationship with God. He credits his wife, Martinique Jordan, who is also a nurse, with being a support for him through the PhD program.

“Pioneering is tough,” Jordan says. “I’m definitely honored to be able to share a piece of my journey.”

During his doctoral studies, Jordan worked full time as associate dean of faculty at Chamberlain University, where he seeks out Black male students to mentor.

“I’m all about shaping the minds of upcoming African American men to go beyond any limits they may place on themselves,” he says.

‘WORST HEALTH OUTCOMES’ As a PhD student at UIC Nursing, Jordan’s dissertation is focused on the role that masculinity plays in how African American men utilize health care. About 43% of African American men use the emergency room to meet their health care needs, Jordan says, which he saw firsthand as an ER nurse at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Illinois.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 27

IMPACT

Leaving a legacy How do you give back to your alma mater while also navigating competing financial priorities? Here are three supporters who used planned giving to contribute to UIC Nursing’s mission without sacrificing retirement savings and other obligations.

REGINA CHAVEZ

“I’m not doing it for any praise.

[Giving back] just feels to me like the right thing to do.”

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–HARLOW SIRES College of Nursing

Harlow Sires, BSN ’84, left, and his husband, Larry Herron, pose in front of their home in the foothills of Tucson, Arizona, which is part of the estate they’re leaving to UIC Nursing.

IMPACT

‘THE RIGHT THING TO DO’ Harlow Sires, BSN ’84, says his experience at the UIC College of Nursing changed his life.

So when he and his husband, Larry Herron, were considering beneficiaries for their estate — they don’t have children — they decided to name UIC Nursing the recipient of half of what they will leave behind (the other half will go to Herron’s alma mater). The estate includes Sires and Herron’s picturesque home in the foothills of Tucson.

“I valued so much my education that I got at the University of Illinois,” Sires says. “It changed my life so much that I wanted to give back.”

Sires grew up in Superior, Wisconsin. His father was a railway billing clerk and his mother a dressmaker. After high school, Sires took a job as an orderly in a nursing home and discovered his passion, deciding to become a licensed practical nurse (LPN).

“It sounds really weird,” he says. “I was making $1.65 an hour as an orderly. I don’t think I had any benefits, but I didn’t want to go home when the shift was over. It was always my favorite job.”

When Sires relocated to Chicago, he applied to bachelor’s degree programs, including UIC. “[One university I applied to] didn’t want to take a chance on me, but the University of Illinois [Chicago] did,” he says.

After graduating, he took a surgical ICU nursing job at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center (now Rush University Medical Center).

“Transitioning from medical nursing to the high-intensity surgical ICU was a major challenge, and I was much better prepared for the changes from my education at University of Illinois Chicago,” he says.

Sires met Herron after graduating from UIC Nursing, and the two moved to Boston, where Herron had been recruited for a fundraising job. Sires got his master’s degree and shifted into informatics nursing, working as a clinical applications manager at Brockton Hospital and then a patient services clinical systems analyst at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.

Next, they moved to Seattle when Herron was hired by a biotech research company. Sires worked as a nursing informatics analyst and ultimately as a nurse residency coordinator at Overlake Medical Center in Bellevue, Washington. He helped new nurses adjust to the role of staff nurse and introduced a computerized orientation system.

G I F T BY W I L L : In this type of gift, a donor includes a bequest provision in their will or revocable trust. At the time of their death, the UIC College of Nursing, via the University of Illinois Foundation, receives the bequest they specified.

When it came time to retire, Sires and Herron selected Tucson for its desert climate.

Looking back on his accomplishments throughout his nursing career, Sires says he wanted to give back to the college that helped make it possible.

“I’m not looking for a whole lot of recognition,” he says.

“I’m not doing it for any praise. It just feels to me like the right thing to do.”

‘WITHIN SIGHT’ Janet Deatrick, PhD ’82, RN, FAAN, never thought she’d be the type of person who would donate money to create a named award at a college — until that’s exactly what she did.

Deatrick spent her career focused on family nursing research — specifically, on improving the lives of long-term survivors of childhood cancer. Aside from a stint as a department head, she never aspired to academic leadership and found fulfillment in mentoring students and working with families.

She considered philanthropic giving to be the domain of college deans, administrators and the very wealthy, not “normal” people like herself.

“I didn’t see myself with those ladies and gentlemen,” she says. “[In my mind,] they’re up there [on another level]. They give money, but that’s not me. Then I figured out, ‘Well, actually, that is me, and I want to give it to people like me.’”

“I don’t have a history of philanthropy, and I feel that my gifts are very humble compared to what other people may give. But what I’m hoping this shows people is that [being a donor] is within sight.”

–JANET DEATRICK

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IMPACT

GIFT OF LIFE I N S U R A N C E : In this type of gift, a donor assigns all the rights in their insurance policy to the University of Illinois Foundation, designating UIF/UIC College of Nursing as irrevocable beneficiary.

The donor then receives an income tax deduction.

Deatrick’s annual gift of $2,500 funds the UIC Nursing Janet A. Deatrick Assistant Professor Award to support research by junior faculty members.

She’s also stipulated in her will that a lump sum (paid for with insurance funds) will go toward continuing the gift in perpetuity.

Deatrick says she was inspired to make a gift while serving on the UIC Nursing External Advisory Board, a group of community and business leaders who advise college leaders on strategic planning. In that role, she observed the generosity of other donors and reflected on her own experience at UIC Nursing.

“I really felt like the tools that I gained through my education and experiences at UIC changed my life,” she says. “It opened up a whole new opportunity for me to develop myself and my nursing, as I tried to work to improve the health of families. That’s really been my lifelong goal.”

She chose to focus her gift on helping early-stage faculty because she recognized how even “little pots of money” can be especially beneficial at that point in someone’s career, allowing them to hire a research assistant or purchase a much-needed piece of equipment.

Since the first Deatrick Award was given out in 2013, there have been one to two recipients each year.

“I don’t have a history of philanthropy,” she says. “And I feel that my gifts are very humble compared to what other people may give. But what I’m hoping this shows people is that [being a donor] is within sight.”

“Supporting students who have a desire to teach seemed like the perfect way to ensure a pipeline of talent to care for the generations to come.”

–JEAN STOUT

LASTING BEYOND A LIFETIME Jean Stout was not a nurse herself, but she was a nursing cheerleader and champion.

Before Stout died in December 2022, the retired medical office administrator established six charitable gift annuities at the University of Illinois Foundation to establish the Jean C. Stout Nursing Scholarship to support UIC Nursing students in the PhD program.

Stout made it a tradition to establish a CGA fund each December.

Stout, who spent her career working in surgical practice and was a longtime hospice volunteer, saw the important role nurses play in caring for our population, particularly those nurses who are well prepared through education.

“Nurses are our angels on earth,” said Stout in an interview with University of Illinois Foundation before her death. “They are the ones who care for us, so it only seemed right to do something that might give a little bit back to them.”

Stout recognized the need for more nursing faculty.

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away more than 90,000 qualified applicants from nursing programs in 2021, due to insufficient number of faculty, among other reasons. She chose to target her scholarship to PhD students knowing they would go on to become educators.

“You must have the faculty to teach future nurses and address the nationwide nursing shortage,” she said in the UI Foundation interview. “Supporting students who have a desire to teach seemed like the perfect way to ensure a pipeline of talent to care for the generations to come.”

She said it made her feel good to know the gifts would “last beyond my lifetime.”

W H AT I S A C H A R I TA B L E G I F T A N N U I T Y? This vehicle allows an individual to transfer cash or property to the UIC College of Nursing via the University of Illinois Foundation.

UIF then guarantees lifetime payments — for up to two annuitants — beginning immediately or on a future date of the donor's choosing. At the end of their lives, UIC Nursing receives the remainder of the gift.

For more information on planned giving, please contact Jill Corr, Assistant Dean for Advancement, at jillcorr@uic.edu or 312-996-1736.

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College of Nursing

IMPACT

Scholarship to honor COVID-19 frontlines nurse When Joan Duda, MS ’84, BSN ’78, was asked to come out of retirement to help train emergency department nurses at St. Anthony Hospital in 2019, she accepted because of her passion for trauma education.

For more than 30 years, she had been a critical care and trauma nurse specialist for Cook County Hospital, one of the busiest trauma units in the country, and had led a popular annual trauma nurse certification course.

About a year after she started working at St. Anthony, the COVID-19 pandemic began to spread across the U.S. The first COVID case in Chicago was confirmed in January 2020. Hospitals were short staffed, and Duda, who had been hired as an educator, was asked to put her trauma skills to use in St. Anthony’s emergency department.

She heeded the call, but even with layers of personal protective equipment, the 63-year-old contracted COVID-19 from a patient. She died only a few weeks later on May 27.

Now, her husband, Kevin Kissane, and twin sister, Jane Duda, BSN ’78, have endowed a scholarship at UIC Nursing in her memory.

“[UIC Nursing] helped give Joan her career — as well as mine. I knew she would feel grateful.”

–JANE DUDA

“I knew in my heart that she would want this given to [the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing],” Jane Duda says. “[UIC Nursing] helped give Joan her career — as well as mine. I knew she would feel grateful.”

KNOWN FOR TRAUMA NURSE COURSE In school, Jane Duda recalls the sisters’ chemistry teacher telling them that, because they both had an aptitude for science, they should consider nursing. The twins chose UIC, called the “Circle” campus at that time, where their older siblings had gone.

Both went on to have decades-long careers in nursing, getting advanced degrees. After three years on a medical floor at Rush Hospital, Joan Duda took a job at Cook County Hospital, working closely with Cook County

Top: Joan Duda was a trauma nurse specialist at Cook County Hospital.

Right: Joan Duda, right, works in the trauma resuscitation bay at Cook County Hospital.

Trauma Unit pioneer John Barrett. She returned to UIC Nursing to get her master’s degree to work as a clinical nurse specialist.

Jane Duda, who was a nurse anesthetist, also eventually took a job at Cook County Hospital, where staff members sometimes confused them and jokingly gave them the nickname, “Twin.”

Kissane, who is also a nurse, says after he and Joan Duda began dating in 2006, he was quickly recruited to assist his future wife in the trauma nurse specialist course that she coordinated each fall. It was a requirement for working in a trauma unit, and she would lecture and organize trainings with trauma surgeons and other specialists for nurses around the Chicago area.

A DAISY Award recipient, Joan Duda combined her love of trauma education and world travel. She lectured in Germany, St. Petersburg, Russia, Ireland and Ecuador.

OUTPOURING OF GRIEF When Joan Duda was hospitalized with COVID-19, Kissane recalls that more than 60 people joined a prayer marathon for her over Zoom.

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IMPACT

A gift of a gift For Lee Eichhorn’s 70th birthday, her husband, Bill, wanted to get her something “memorable and impactful.”

“I was thinking about it for months in advance,” he says. “Lee has been so passionate about midwifery and helping women, it suddenly dawned on me that a scholarship at UIC was a terrific idea.”

Eichhorn’s gift — both to his wife and the College of Nursing — created the Lee Shulman Eichhorn Endowed Midwifery Scholarship Fund for students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice nurse-midwifery program who are from an underrepresented group and display financial need.

“I think Joan would like to know that her name would live on in nursing.”

– KEVIN KISSANE

“That was the beginning of the realization about how much she would be missed,” he says.

After she died, St. Anthony Hospital dedicated a garden to Joan Duda and held a memorial in her honor.

Memorials were also held at the Irish American Heritage Center and in Rush Hospital’s Healing Garden.

“When she passed, the outpouring of professional grieving touched me,” Kissane says.

NAME LIVES ON Jane Duda says she and her sister had to pay for their education at UIC Nursing on their own, and she hopes the scholarship now bearing her sister’s name will help future nurses get educated and go on to have successful nursing careers, just like the Duda sisters.

Lee Eichhorn, MS ’85, BSN ’81, who worked as a midwife at West Suburban Women’s Health before retiring in 2014, called it “the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

“I want to support future midwives,” says Lee Eichhorn. “Hopefully this will help people who want to get into midwifery. I feel strongly that midwifery is the key to better care for underserved populations, and really, for all populations.”

Their youngest daughter, Catherine Eichhorn, MS ’17, also graduated from UIC Nursing. Catherine Eichhorn is now a NICU nurse at Northwestern’s Prentice Women’s Hospital.

“I hope that the scholarship helps those dreaming of becoming midwives, and that they go on to positively impact the lives of others,” Catherine Eichhorn says.

The continuing connection to UIC Nursing through Catherine made the gift feel even more fitting, Bill Eichhorn says.

“I hope this can help encourage others who are looking to commemorate a milestone in a family,” he says. “[Consider] how much more impactful this is than a thing that you buy and forget about. This lives on. Lee’s memory will be there through the gift.”

The Eichhorns: Bill and Lee with their daughter, Catherine

Kissane adds that he hopes scholarship beneficiaries, “pay it forward by contributing to society as professional nurses themselves.”

“I’m a nurse myself, and I appreciate nurses and nursing,” Kissane says.

“I think it’s underappreciated in our culture. I think Joan would like to know that her name would live on in nursing.”

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College of Nursing

Eichhorn’s gift — both to his wife and the College of Nursing — created the Lee Shulman Eichhorn Endowed Midwifery Scholarship Fund.

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

Keeping it real

A gift from Nita and Phil Francis will help ensure UIC Nursing remains on the cutting-edge of simulation technology.

“There are newer manikins with higher levels of realism and diversity to meet the needs of our students,” says Vanderzwan.

“By replacing these, we can provide a more immersive simulation experience.”

The gift will allow the college to purchase manikins with a range of skin tones, creating a more diverse manikin pool. Plans also include upgrading computer software used to run simulations, and adding task trainers, which simulate a wide variety of fetal presentations and will aid the midwifery faculty.

Clinical assistant professor Patrick Thornton, PhD ’16, CNM, demonstrates using a task trainer. The Francis’ gift will help the college purchase items such as these for educational use.

In the world of high-fidelity simulation, 10 years old is, well, practically ancient.

That’s the age of UIC Nursing’s “Sim Junior” manikin, which is used to teach students about pediatric care in the Nita & Phil Francis Birthing Suite, situated in the state-of-the-art Schwartz Simulation Lab on the Chicago campus. Although the Francis Suite and Schwartz Lab are only four years old, some of the equipment pre-dates the new facilities.

In addition to the outdated pediatric manikin, the lab needs newer and more diverse simulation equipment to stay abreast of current trends and increases in the volume of students who can use the lab, says Katie Vanderzwan, DNP ’17, MS ’06, APRN-BC, CHSE, director of the Schwartz Lab and Clinical Learning Resource Center.

Thankfully, a generous donation from Nita and Phil Francis will allow UIC Nursing to purchase much-needed upgrades over the next three years. That includes new Sim Junior and SimMom manikins.

These high-fidelity manikins — which can simulate breath sounds, heart tones, pulses and more — can cost between about $30,000 and $85,000 each, depending on the model.

Vanderzwan says the Francis Suite is one of the college’s highest traffic simulation suites. It’s not just used by midwifery students but is versatile enough to be used in an array of simulations for pre-licensure students as well.

“If we have more of these manikins, we can run more sims simultaneously and fully utilize our lab to its maximum potential,” Vanderzwan says.

“We believe it is important to support upgrades to the Francis suite because everything, living and robotic, wears down with use. The UIC Nursing faculty and students deserve the most up-to-date and well-functioning teaching tools. We want UIC Nursing to continue to produce leaders in nursing skill, innovation and care.”

—NITA FRANCIS

NEW ADDITIONS

Obstetrical trainers: Made with highly realistic, flesh-like material, they can simulate shoulder dystocia, spontaneous vaginal delivery and breech birth.

New Mom: Will allow students to practice more advanced obstetrical maneuvers and emergencies, such as postpartum hemorrhage and the ability to mechanically intubate the patient.

New Pediatric Manikin: Will have updated features, such as better skin quality, more realistic anatomy and facial expressions.

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JENNY FONTAINE/UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

A rude awakening UIC College of Nursing clinical assistant professor Carolyn Dickens, PhD ’17, ACNP, FAANP, received a grant to address incivility against nurses in hospital settings, a growing issue that has led to nurse burnout and staffing shortages.

Carolyn Dickens

Almost a third of nurses in the U.S. are considering leaving the profession after the COVID-19 pandemic left them overwhelmed and fatigued, according to a survey of more than 18,000 nurses conducted by AMN Healthcare Services Inc. The grant was awarded by the Community Health Advocacy program, a partnership between Peoria, Illinois-based OSF HealthCare and UIC that works to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities.

The grant-funded project, called BRIDGeS (Building Resourceful Interactions Despite Grief and Stress), will allow the team to create storyboards that can be turned into short, animated videos to help improve patient and family interactions with nurses in hospitals. The goal is for this pilot research to lead to larger funding to create solutions at the health care systems level.

“When nurses experience incivility, it can have serious consequences. We need to find research-based solutions.”

“Workplace incivility is detrimental not only to the well-being of the nurses but also to patient care and outcomes,” says Dickens, who is also UIC Nursing’s interim associate dean for faculty practice and community partnerships. “When nurses experience incivility, it can have serious consequences. We need to find research-based solutions.”

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College of Nursing

From left to right: Ardith Doorenbos (UIC Nursing), Stefan Green (Rush), Mark Lockwood (UIC Nursing), Lisa Tussing-Humphreys (UIC) and Beatriz Peñalver Bernabé (UIC).

Trusting the gut Associate professor Mark Lockwood, PhD, RN, is leading an interdisciplinary team on a five-year, $3 million National Institutes of Health grant to study the relationship between the gut microbiome and pain and other distressing symptoms experienced by some kidney transplant recipients.

“The goal of a kidney transplantation is to get people back to work, back to participating in activities in their community and spending quality time with their families,” explained Lockwood. “But there are a significant number of transplant recipients who continue to have symptoms like pain, fatigue, trouble sleeping, depression and anxiety that can negatively affect their quality of life.”

For the new study, the team will enroll 120 kidney recipients who will submit samples to assess their gut microbiome before the surgery and monthly for six months post-surgery. Participants also will complete surveys to determine the severity of symptoms, level of stress and how their kidney disease impacts their quality of life. The research team will do a detailed dietary assessment before surgery and at three and six months post-surgery, as nutrition is well known to affect the gut microbiome.

The goal is to better understand the mechanisms that cause symptoms that affect a person’s quality of life.

The gut microbiome is a particularly promising line of study because previous research has shown that it is very responsive to changes in diet, physical activity and stress, Lockwood explained.

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

Taking steps to asthma control

Sharp and collaborator Sharmilee Nyenhuis, a former UIC researcher who now is associate professor of pediatrics and medicine at the University of Chicago, have launched a trial with funding from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to test a walking intervention in women with poorly controlled asthma.

The intervention uses a combination of mobile health technology, group education sessions and individualized goal-setting to encourage more daily walking.

Lisa Sharp

“We’re really trying to keep walking in the forefront of women’s minds in between group sessions and help them to set manageable goals.”

The common image of asthma control is the inhaler, providing a spray of medicine whenever a person feels short of breath or can’t stop coughing. But a new trial co-led by professor Lisa Sharp, PhD, associate dean for research, will assess whether a daily walking program can help Black women with asthma better control their symptoms before they start.

“We’re really trying to keep walking in the forefront of women’s minds in between group sessions and help them to set manageable goals,” Sharp said.

Tackling trauma Assistant professor Kylea Liese, PhD, CNM, and former professor Crystal Patil, PhD, received a grant to bring an innovative therapy program to members of a northern California tribe as a way to address trauma and reduce health disparities among the Yurok people.

The grant from the Hillman Foundation will allow the researchers to pilot the nurse-driven program, YurokNet Wellness, using Narrative Exposure Therapy, a tool that has been found to successfully address trauma in other populations.

Liese’s connection to the Yurok people — the largest surviving federally recognized tribe in California — is through her aunt, Abby Abinanti. Abinanti, known as Judge Abby, has been featured in Hillary and Chelsea Clinton’s

Each study participant in the treatment group receives asthma education, a Fitbit to measure their steps and text messages to help set step goals and provide motivation.

Through a platform called iCardia — developed at UIC

by Spyros Kitsiou, associate professor of biomedical and health information sciences — research assistants can monitor participants’ daily activity and customize the text messages they send.

After the study, the researchers will measure changes in lung function and self-reported asthma control in participants given the full intervention compared to women given only asthma education through text messages. They also will measure how well walking habits and asthma control persist six months after the intervention ends and will collect data on environmental and societal barriers to increasing physical activity.

Apple TV series, “Gutsy,” for her efforts to improve wellness through the Yurok Wellness Court, an innovative justice system that uses traditional justice strategies.

“We wrote the grant together to adapt an evidence-based trauma intervention for their community’s context and to demonstrate whether the intervention is feasible, acceptable and effective,” Liese says.

Liese calls the tribe’s health disparities “mind-boggling,” citing higher rates of opiate use, death by opiates, having children taken away, domestic violence, suicide, other mental health conditions, and stress-related medical conditions like heart disease.

Kylea Liese

“What we’re hoping is that this will be a way to train people in the community to assist each other to respond in a way that is not self-destructive,” Judge Abby says.

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RESEARCH ROUND-UP

RESEARCH RESULTS BREAST CANCER RESILIENCE

On pins and needles Could acupuncture alleviate chest pain caused by stable angina?

Researchers at UIC Nursing have received a $3 million National Institutes of Health grant to try to find out. Stable angina is defined as predictable chest pain during exertion or when under mental or emotional stress, and it is a condition that affects millions of Americans.

Judith Schlaeger

Holli DeVon

The two-site study will be led by associate professor Judith Schlaeger, PhD, MS ’88, BSN ’80, CNM, LAc, FACNM, FAAN, and professor emerita Holli DeVon, PhD ’02, MS ’82, RN, FAHA, FAAN, who is also the Audrienne Endowed Chair in Research at UCLA. Joan Briller, MD, cardiologist and professor of clinical medicine in the College of Medicine at UIC, is co-investigator and content expert.

A large body of research has shown that acupuncture can help mitigate many types of chronic pain. But little is known about its effect on ischemic pain, which is caused when the heart isn’t getting enough oxygen, as is the case with stable angina.

In a previous pilot study, the team found that acupuncture reduced pain and improved quality of life for participants.

“Having chronic pain, no matter what the cause is, is debilitating and exhausting,” says DeVon, who will be recruiting patients at UCLA in addition to those recruited by Briller and Schlaeger at UIC. “I’m excited to be offering an alternative to patients who have not gotten complete pain relief from medication.”

Schlaeger points out that there is a huge disparity among those who have access to acupuncture in this country, both because acupuncturists tend to practice in wealthier neighborhoods and because the treatment can be costly. Study participants will largely come from medically underrepresented groups who will have access to acupuncture for the first time, as was the case in the pilot study.

“Participants in the pilot were really delighted to be offered an intervention that they’ve heard about but had been beyond their reach,” Schlaeger says.

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College of Nursing

Breast cancer patients who had more resilience were able to maintain a higher quality of life, according to a paper published in Seminars in Oncology Nursing by lead author Li-Ting Longcoy, a UIC post-doctoral fellow, and co-author Ardith Doorenbos, PhD, RN, FAAN, UIC Nursing’s Harriet H. Werley Endowed Chair for Nursing Research.

The researchers sent surveys to 400 breast cancer survivors in Taiwan, 91 of whom completed the survey.

The survey included questions on quality of life, symptom distress and resilience. They found that women who reported being more resilient, which is a skill individuals can cultivate, were more likely to have experienced less severe symptoms and have a better quality of life.

HIV PARTNER NOTIFICATION A program that notifies the partners of incarcerated men who test positive for HIV was found effective in jails and prisons in Jakarta, Indonesia, according to a paper published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society by lead author Gabriel Culbert, PhD ’12, BSN ’04, RN, associate professor.

Participation in the program, called Impart, led to a sixfold increase in notification of inmates’ drug and sex partners. Half of those notified also received HIV testing, and one-third of those tested were diagnosed as HIV-positive for the first time.

DIAGNOSTIC TOOL Clinical assistant professor Leah Burt, PhD ’20, MS ’10, ANP-BC, created a first-of-its kind tool to help improve diagnostic competency within the context of health care simulation.

Published in the March-April issue of the Journal of Professional Nursing, the results of a pilot study of her tool indicated that the tool measured diagnostic competency “in a moderately consistent way between users.”

HEART DISEASE AND HOPELESSNESS Individuals with ischemic heart disease are at a higher risk for hopelessness — a negative outlook and sense of helplessness towards the future — if they also have other diseases or health conditions, known as comorbidities, according to a paper published online in the journal Heart & Lung.

Professor Susan Dunn, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA, was senior author on the paper. Holli DeVon, PhD ’02, MS ’82, RN, FAHA, FAAN, UIC Nursing professor emerita and Audrienne H. Moseley Chair in Community Research at UCLA School of Nursing, was lead author.

UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE

SPRINGFIELD

A Capitol idea Students and faculty from UIC Nursing gather on the steps of the Illinois Capitol during Student Nurses Political Action Day.

Students from the UIC College of Nursing — primarily the Springfield campus — joined hundreds of nursing students to rally at the Illinois State Capitol on April 18, for the 25th annual Student Nurse Political Action Day. The event, organized by the American Nurses AssociationIllinois, gave students from more than 20 nursing schools an opportunity to learn about how they can advocate for themselves, their patients and their profession through political engagement.

EdD, MS ’05, RN, executive director of ANA-Illinois, at the Bank of Springfield Center.

After learning about nursing and health care-related legislation in the 103rd General Assembly, students marched to the Capitol steps, holding aloft signs that read “Future Nurse” and “Coming to a Hospital Near You.” Swart said during the day: “I want students to come away with a sense of empowerment, knowing they will be the drivers of change in our profession.”

The day began with remarks by UIC Nursing associate dean for academic affairs Elizabeth Aquino, PhD ’13, who is also current president of ANA-Illinois, and alumna Susan Swart,

SPRINGFIELD AND URBANA

Sign up!

People traveling around Springfield and Urbana-Champaign might see a little more of UIC Nursing around town. In the past year, the Urbana campus has installed prominent, illuminating building signage overlooking its Wright Street entrance, as well as eye-catching window clings facing both Green and Wright Streets. The Springfield campus has invested in billboards on busy Veterans Parkway and Monroe Street. The latter also erected new signage around the building it occupies on the University of Illinois Springfield campus.

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UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE ROCKFORD

$3 million to support rural teens

An early schematic of the mobile health unit interior layout.

The UIC College of Nursing secured a $3.1 million grant from the federal Health Resources and Services Administration to run a mobile health unit for underserved teens in Illinois.

The unit will operate for four years in disadvantaged areas in the center of the state, providing clinical services such as reproductive health care visits, contraceptive management and screening for sexually transmitted infections to patients aged 14 and older. The unit will also provide point-of-care tests for pregnancy and STIs, offering same-day results and timely treatments.

Kelly Rosenberger, DNP ’12, CNM, WHNP-BC, FAANP, is principal investigator for the program, called ENRICH. She was inspired to develop ENRICH after seeing the critical need for these services among vulnerable high school students in rural parts of Illinois.

In addition to providing needed services to teens, the program will also provide clinical training for Doctor of Nursing Practice students in the family nurse practitioner, pediatric primary care nurse practitioner, women’s health nurse practitioner and nurse midwifery programs.

Rosenberger sees it as a win-win, saying, “Nursing students will benefit from valuable hands-on experiences that will greatly improve access and quality of care for underserved rural high-school teens.”

The grant will also help underwrite revisions to the current rural nursing concentration, turning it into a standalone certificate program.

ROCKFORD

Shift change In August, Laura Monahan, DNP ’16, MS ’12, RN, OSF, MBA, was named interim director of UIC Nursing’s Rockford campus, replacing Kelly Rosenberger, who had served as director since 2013.

Laura Monahan

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Monahan previously served as assistant professor and interim department

chair at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in the College of Nursing and Health Sciences, and before that, was chair of the nursing program at Rockford University.

Prior to becoming a nurse in her 40s, Monahan, who has an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg

School of Management, worked as an executive at Commonwealth Edison.

She says she enjoys “helping shape the futures of the next generation in nursing, mentoring others and expanding their horizons.”

UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE ROCKFORD

Past and present honored

Top: Rockford grads from four years were honored at the dinner. Bottom Left: Laura Monahan (left) congratulates Kelly Rosenberger, who is accepting flowers, on Rosenberger’s decade of service as campus director. Bottom Right: Preceptor Renee Keeney, CNM, represented Crusader Community Health to accept the 2023 Community Partner Award from Rosenberger.

The UIC College of Nursing–Rockford Campus hosted its Student & Alumni Awards Dinner on Sept. 19 for the first time since 2019. Attendees celebrated 34 graduates from the classes of 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023; preceptors and community partners were also recognized.

Dean Eileen Collins opened the evening’s festivities, saying, “For 32 years, our Rockford campus has been ... helping us make a difference in the lives and health of people statewide.”

The keynote address was delivered by Laura Monahan, interim director of the Rockford campus, who surprised attendees with the story of her eclectic career — including years as a welder — that ultimately led her to pursue nursing.

In addition to honoring graduates and partners of the college, former campus director Kelly Rosenberger, who stepped down from the directorship earlier in 2023, received the Legacy Award for her many contributions.

In her decade of leadership, Rosenberger launched UIC Nursing’s rural nursing concentration and secured two multimillion grants. The first, called INSPIRE, helped to recruit, support and train diverse students across all six UIC Nursing campuses for work in underserved urban and rural communities. The more recent, called ENRICH, is benefiting teens in underserved rural communities (see p. 38).

“I want to thank [Dr. Rosenberger] most sincerely, not only for 10 years of leading the daily operations here, but for the passion she brought to everything she did,” said Collins in her remarks.

Rosenberger will continue to serve as clinical associate professor, focusing on her role as principal investigator on the ENRICH grant.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 39

UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE QUAD CITIES

QUAD CITIES

Supporting rural health care

Sparbel retires

On June 27, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., held a news conference in Aledo, Illinois, to announce his “Roadmap to Grow Illinois’ Rural Health Workforce.” He was joined by rural health care leaders, including Kathleen Sparbel, PhD, MS ’96, FNP-BC, then director of the UIC Nursing-Quad Cities Campus.

Durbin said at the conference: “Rural hospitals and clinics are facing a real threat … from a shortage of health care professionals.

Durbin’s plan aims to address professional shortages by introducing younger people to health careers, reaching them while they are still in middle or high school.

For her part, Sparbel emphasized what UIC Nursing has to offer in terms of combatting the shortage of baccalaureate-prepared nurses: “Our [six] campuses … offer convenient access to nursing education. We collaborate with community colleges statewide, allowing students to earn an associate degree in nursing while enrolling in our online BSN-completion program.”

She further emphasized UIC Nursing’s Teaching/Learning in Nursing Certificate, aimed at expanding the pool of much-needed nursing faculty, and the college’s rural health concentration, which educates nurse practitioners on health issues unique to rural populations.

Kathleen Sparbel (far left) spoke at Sen. Dick Durbin’s (center) June 27 press conference, along with (l-r) Hana Hinkle, PhD, MPH, director of the National Center for Rural Health Professions at the UIC Health Sciences Campus-Rockford; Ted Rogalski, FACHE, administrator of Genesis Medical Center, Aledo; and U.S. Rep Eric Sorensen.

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College of Nursing

Clinical associate professor and longtime director of UIC Nursing–Quad Cities Campus Kathleen Sparbel retired in August. At the time of her retirement, she had also served for two years as interim head of the Department of Population Health Nursing Science.

Sparbel was a leader in nurse practitioner education at UIC for more than 20 years. Her efforts helped launch the BSN-to-DNP degree program, which now enrolls 500 students, as well as the post-DNP certificate and a rural health concentration for DNP students.

A champion of interprofessional education, Sparbel co-founded and was inaugural president of the first two-state (Iowa/Illinois) professional organization for both nurse practitioners and physician assistants.

She also chaired the annual Peoria Immersion Day, which brings together hundreds of students from health disciplines at UIC, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Bradley University, to work together on patient case scenarios.

Kathleen Sparbel

As a member of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty since 2000, Sparbel chaired the Preceptor Development Committee, strengthening clinical education support through the organization’s Preceptor Portal.

“Dr. Sparbel has provided extraordinary leadership to the college, and her contributions span local, state, national and international influence.”

–DEAN EILEEN COLLINS

Sparbel’s impact extends internationally as well. Most notably, her curriculum consultation to the University of Bahrain assisted development of that nation’s first graduate specialty nursing education program.

LookingBack PEORIA

Celebration!

Dean Eileen Collins and interim Peoria campus director Sara McPherson, PhD, RN, CNE, presided over a dinner to honor students, graduates, preceptors and alumni of the Peoria campus on April 10 at the Embassy Suites Hotel in East Peoria, Illinois.

Three 2023 DNP graduates — Jennifer Cunningham, Maria “Mika” Bertsche and Erin Thurston — were celebrated with a Blessing of the Hands ceremony, a traditional ceremony symbolizing the importance of nurses’ hands in delivering compassionate care.

Jennifer Ali, MS ’09, a nurse practitioner with Carle Health, received the Outstanding Preceptor of the Year award.

Also attending were members of the Kelly family, including Kara Kelly, who delivered remarks about the Norma R. Kelly Peoria Nursing Scholarship Fund, named for her mother.

Members of the Peoria Alumni Committee attended the honors dinner (l-r): Joan Ruppman, MS ’83, Jana Reed, MS ’02, Deb Clark, MS ’84, current DNP student Meg Tomlins, Pam Garner, MS ’07, interim director Sara McPherson and administrative assistant Scotti Nieukirk.

Before he was president Although it’s not unusual for Illinois politicians to attend the UIC Nursing-hosted Power of Nursing Leadership event, which has been held every year since 1998, only one so far had the U.S. presidency in his future.

In this photo from the 2002 Power of Nursing Leadership, then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama is flanked by (l-r) Mary Ann McDermott, EdD, BSN ’78, RN, then-UIC Nursing Dean Joan Shaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Illinois State Representative Mary Flowers.

On the far right is Lucy Marion, PhD ’90, RN, FAAN, FAANP, who died in April after battling cancer (see p. 14 for more about Marion).

Obama also served as honorary chair of the event in 2004. By then, the state senator was a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a rising star in the Democratic party.

Mika Bertsche, DNP ’23, left, presented Jennifer Ali, MS ’09, with the Outstanding Preceptor of the Year award.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2023 | 41

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Dozens of alumni and friends gathered for REUNION 2023 on Saturday, Sept. 23. They had a chance to reconnect, network, see our newest learning and research spaces, and celebrate fellow alums.

L E A R N M O R E and see photos at nursingreunion.uic.edu

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