Vital Signs 2021

Making History

Students get an education in vaccination

Black Birth Matters

Addressing stark maternal health disparities

Partnerships in Practice Teaming up to improve people’s lives

FALL 2021

Eileen Collins takes the helm

ALL IT TAKES IS A SINGLE

Join the UIC College of Nursing as we blaze a trail toward our most ambitious fundraising goal in history, all to support students, increase resources for faculty and improve facilities.

Small and large gifts to any of these funds move us closer to our $33 million goal.

• COLLEGE OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP FUND • COLLEGE OF NURSING ANNUAL FUND • COLLEGE OF NURSING EQUITY & INCLUSION FUND

ALL IT TAKES IS A SINGLE

• GERTRUDE E. SKELLY EMERGENCY FUND • DEAN’S FACULTY CATALYST FUND

Give today at go.uic.edu/IgniteUICNursing.

Join the UIC College of Nursing as we blaze a trail toward our most ambitious fundraising goal in history, all to support students, increase resources for faculty and improve facilities.

Small and large gifts to any of these funds move us closer to our $33 million goal.

• UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING SCHOLARSHIP FUND • UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING REGIONAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND • UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING ANNUAL FUND • DEAN’S FACULTY CATALYST FUND

Give today at go.uic.edu/IgniteUICNursing.

Volume 36

FALL 2021

DEPARTMENTS

FEATURES

17

20

2 Dean's Message 3 Notepad College of Nursing news

Immunization crash course (page 32)

12 Introducing Dean Collins Follow Eileen Collins’ trajectory from trailblazing researcher to dean.

14 Awarding Alumni Excellence Meet the 2021 recipients of UIC Nursing’s top alumni awards.

17 Practice Partnerships Make Perfect From opioid use disorder to pediatric dental care, clinical partnerships are improving healthcare.

20 Black Birth Matters Pregnancy mortality rates are three to four times higher for Black people. A UIC Nursing team fights back.

25 IGNITE Impact Achieving goals through philanthropy 30 Student Spotlight After cancer, a calling 32 Focus on Education Students make history with vaccination efforts 34 Research Round-up Highlights from UIC nurse scientists 37 Around the State Updates from Peoria, Quad Cities, Rockford, Springfield and Urbana

Old rules go up in smoke (page 4)

40 Looking Back 62 years ago, UIC Nursing became a college

DEAN Eileen G. Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF CHIEF EDITOR Liz Miller MANAGING EDITOR & WRITER Deborah Ziff Soriano

On the cover: Eileen G. Collins became the UIC College of Nursing’s ninth dean on Sept. 1, 2021. (see p. 12)

24 Expert Viewpoint Why school nurses are more important than ever

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Lori Botterman, Jane Burns, Liz Miller, Jessica Olive GRAPHIC DESIGNER Joanne Chappell PHOTOGRAPHERS Mark Mershon, Joshua Clark

UIC COLLEGE OF NURSING OFFICE OF ADVANCEMENT Steven A. George, Assistant Dean Liz Miller, Director, Marketing and Public Affairs Sara Almassian, Associate Director, Alumni Engagement and Participation Caitlyn Cannatello, Advancement Coordinator Joanne Chappell, Graphic Designer Mark Mershon, Multimedia Associate Jennifer Samples, Digital Content Strategist Deborah Ziff Soriano, Editorial Writer

Vital Signs is published for the alumni, faculty, students and friends of the University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing. © 2021 Your comments are welcomed: University of Illinois Chicago College of Nursing (MC 802) 845 S. Damen Ave. Chicago, IL 60612 Phone: 312.996.5497 Email: lhmiller@uic.edu Web: nursing.uic.edu Facebook: UIC.CON Twitter: @uicnursing Instagram: uicnursing LinkedIn: UIC College of Nursing

DEAN’S MESSAGE

For many years, I worked at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, and what I loved about it was its mission to serve every veteran equally. It doesn’t matter whether you are a CEO or living on the streets; whether you have health insurance or not. If you’re a U.S. veteran, you receive the same standard of care.

This is also what I love about UIC. Students from all income levels and life circumstances get opportunities here at a scale and scope that far exceeds what most universities offer. Individuals from vastly different backgrounds— whose paths might never have crossed otherwise—befriend each other, learn from each other and grow professionally together. And as soon as any student, faculty or staff member joins our college, the commitment we make to health equity, in our research as well as in the way we teach and practice patient care, is at the forefront.

The specialness of this place was on public display during the past nearly two years. In the battle against COVID-19, we did what nurses do best. We jumped in. In the pre-vaccine days of the pandemic, our faculty and students stepped up by the dozens to coordinate triage phone lines, take shifts at the hospital, screen frontline workers, perform testing in vulnerable communities and more.

When the vaccine became available, roughly 1,000 volunteers from UIC’s health professions colleges stepped up to administer vaccinations, and nearly half of them came from the UIC Nursing community.

I was delighted, but not surprised, when we were recognized by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing with a New Era Award for our collaboration with UI Health to fight the spread of the virus (p. 3).

Truly, based on all I know about our students, faculty and staff after 20 years on faculty, I have innumerable reasons to feel so proud to lead this college.

What I’m most looking forward to now, as dean, is the opportunity to meet more of our wonderful alumni and friends—to learn about the myriad ways they are making us proud as the living evidence of the excellence we strive to achieve every day.

Equally, I’m eager to demonstrate to all of you my commitment to be a good steward of this college, building on the legacy of the extraordinary deans who preceded me. I intend to lead us into the future with a continued emphasis on our tripartite mission: to educate top-tier nurses, nurse practitioners and nurse scientists; to discover new knowledge that moves healthcare forward; and to deliver the highest quality care to communities that need it most.

Eileen Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF Professor and Dean

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NOTEPAD

106,467 VACC I N AT I O N S

21,160 HOURS

503

N U R S I N G VO L U N T E E R S OUT OF 1052 TOTAL VOLUNTEERS Reflects data from Dec. 18, 2020 to July 16, 2021 at UIC College of Pharmacy clinic and Credit Union 1 Arena clinic

Undergraduate student Jasmine Medina administers a vaccine at the UI Health clinic on Jan. 12. Helping to choreograph the massive vaccination effort were UIC College of Nursing faculty members, including visiting teaching associate Stacy Arriola, MS ’16, RN, CNE, clinical assistant professor Virginia Reising, DNP ’18, RN, PEL-CSN, PHNA-BC, and Robin Johnson, DNP, CPNP-PC.

A new era The UIC College of Nursing was selected for the 2021 “New Era for Academic Nursing Award” from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing for its strong partnership with UI Health, the college’s practice partner, particularly to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our award submission focused on the extraordinary efforts of nursing faculty in clinical practice over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic to support UI Health initiatives,” says Lauren Diegel-Vacek, DNP ’10, MS ’02, FNP-BC, CNE, FAANP, director of the UIC Nursing DNP program.

Those efforts included working with UI Health leaders to build a mass vaccination program, powered by an army of more than 500 nursing volunteers, which made up nearly half of the total volunteers. UIC Nursing faculty and students also teamed with interprofessional colleagues to run a COVID-19 screening program for people in congregate settings; performed telephone screening and triage for more than 1,000 students and employees with COVID-19 symptoms; and supported COVID-19 related clinical research studies, including Phase 3 vaccine clinical trials.

“Our partnership with UI Health is truly a win-win,” says Susan Corbridge, PhD ’09, APRN, FAAN, FAANP, FCCP, UIC Nursing executive associate dean. “We’re supporting and amplifying the health system’s mission while also providing new and valuable opportunities for students and faculty.”

R E A D A B O U T the experiences of students who contributed to vaccination efforts in Chicago, Urbana and Springfield on page 32.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 3

NOTEPAD

Legislating better health Surgical smoke

Illinois hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers will need to adopt policies to mitigate surgical smoke, thanks to the work of assistant professor Rebecca Vortman, DNP ’17, RN, CNOR. Along with Penny Smalley – an independent nurse consultant and director of education and regulatory affairs for the International Council on Surgical Plume – Vortman was instrumental in the passage of a new state law requiring an appropriate evacuation system for every procedure that generates surgical smoke plume.

Vortman’s research has added to the growing volume of studies showing the health consequences from exposure to surgical smoke. Surgical smoke plume is the vaporization of substances, such as tissue, blood or fluid, into a gaseous form. It is the byproduct of surgical instruments used to destroy tissue and contains contaminants harmful to the surgical team and patients.

NURSE REPRESENTATION UIC Nursing and Columbia University’s School of Nursing co-sponsored “Nurses Belong on the Hill,” a conversation with U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood, MS, MPH, RN, via Zoom on Feb. 16.

Underwood, D-IL, one of three nurses serving in the U.S. House of Representatives, spoke with nursing students, educators and professionals about how they can advocate for a better health system for all.

WATC H the recording at go.uic.edu/Underwood.

Vortman and Smalley worked with the bill’s sponsors to build a grassroots coalition to get the measure passed.

STI treatment UIC College of Nursing students in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program successfully worked with Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, to advocate for an expansion of Illinois law, which will help curb the common sexually transmitted infection, trichomaniasis.

Under the amendment, healthcare providers in Illinois will now be able to treat the sex partners of patients diagnosed with trichomoniasis. This practice, called “expedited partner therapy” already applies to patients diagnosed with chlamydia and gonorrhea under current state law.

Michelle Seaquist, RN, a DNP student who advocated for the legislation, says this therapy is considered the “gold standard of care for treating patients with an STI,” to prevent reinfection. UIC Nursing alumni Emma Oanes, DNP ’20, RN, and Anna Baboulas, DNP ’20, BSN ’15, RN, also worked on the legislation under the faculty guidance of Denise Bockwoldt, PhD, FNP-BC, and Charles Yingling, DNP ’12, MS ’05, FNP-BC, FAANP.

APPLAUSE! The Illinois Nurses Foundation recognized adjunct clinical instructor Terese Knake, DNP ’20, RN (left), and clinical assistant professor Jacqueline Wolak Shanks, DNP, FNP-C, on its 2021 list of “40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders.” In addition, Dorota Czernecki and Martha Kanthak, both nurses practicing at UI Health, are on the list.

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Associate professor emerita Colleen Corte, PhD, RN, FAAN, was the 2021 recipient of the Betty Ford Award from AMERSA. UIC Nursing matched a $15,000 grant from Jonas Philanthropies to fund the scholarship of PhD student Heather Nimmagadda, MS, APRN, who is studying veteran’s health.

NOTEPAD

Awarding innovation Two of five awards from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation were awarded to UIC Nursing teams in the department of Human Development Nursing Science. Each team was awarded $50,000 through the Emergent Innovation Program.

A boost for Black nursing history A project to create a publicly accessible, Black-centered history of nursing in Chicago at the Midwest Nursing History Research Center received two grants in 2021. Gwyneth Milbrath, PhD, RN, MPH, director of the center, and Karen Flynn, an associate professor in the departments of Gender & Women’s Studies and African American Studies at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, are co-investigators on the project.

“This project marks a pivotal moment as we work to recognize and celebrate Black nursing history, revealing narratives of Chicago’s Black nurses not only during crisis points in American history such as the Civil Rights movement or the HIV/AIDS crisis, but also in the current climate,” Milbrath says.

Milbrath and Flynn received $175,000 in funding from the University of Illinois System’s Presidential Initiative to assemble the history of how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected Black communities in Chicago. They also received a $60,000 grant from the Chicago-based Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelly Foundation’s “Broadening Narratives” initiative to promote existing archival collections, conduct oral interviews with working and retired Black nurses, and create mobile and digital exhibits highlighting their work in Chicago over the past 130 years.

Assistant professor Sarah Abboud, PhD, RN, is leading an initiative to prevent intimate partner violence in the Arab community by involving Arab youth in promoting early intervention, mobilizing community change and promoting healthy relationships.

A team of nurse scientists and nurse-midwives will develop a training program to enable Black certified nursing assistants to assess postpartum warning signs for major complications, link to wraparound services and referrals, and provide basic support and education for postpartum recovery. Alumna Karie Stewart, MS ’17, CNM, MPH, is principal investigator on the award.

Read more on page 20.

#UICPROUD Clinical assistant professor Leah Burt, PhD ’20, MS ’10, ANP-BC, has been selected as a 2021-22 Fellow by the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine.

Associate professor Judith Schlaeger, PhD, CNM, LAc, FAAN, was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Nurse Midwives.

Sheila Dinotshe Tlou, PhD, ’90, RN, FAAN, was appointed chancellor of Botswana Open University.

Rohan Jeremiah, PhD, MPH, and Virginia Reising, DNP ’18, PHNA-BC, PEL-CSN, have been appointed interim associate deans for global health and for practice and partnerships, respectively.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 5

NOTEPAD

A+ A+

The UIC College of Nursing bachelor’s of science program was ranked No. 19 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2022 Best Colleges ranking, earning the highest ranking among undergraduate nursing programs in the state of Illinois.

This marks the first time the publication has assessed undergraduate nursing programs. UIC Nursing is in good company, tied at No. 19 with Boston College, University of Rochester and University of Wisconsin-Madison. It’s the only undergraduate nursing program in Illinois to make the top 30.

Students filled the seats for the start of the 2021 academic year, with nearly 1,600 students enrolled across degree programs, including 664 bachelor’s students.

APPLAUSE! In September 2021, the college celebrated two years of recipients for its esteemed faculty awards.

They were: Distinguished Researcher Awardees Shannon Zenk, PhD, MPH ’99, RN, FAAN (2020) and Barbara McFarlin, PhD, ’05, MS ’84, BSN ’74, CNM, FACNM, FAAN (2021); Distinguished Mentor of Faculty Awardees Barbara McFarlin (2020) and 6 |

College of Nursing

Colleen Corte,, PhD, RN, FAAN (2021); Judith Lloyd Storfjell Distinguished Award for Scholarly Practice recipients Charles Yingling,, DNP ’12, FNP-BC, FAANP (2020) and Susan Walsh,, DNP ’14, MS ’00, BSN ’80, PNP-PC, FAAN (2021); and Julie & Mark Zerwic Diversity Awardees Elaine Hardy, PhD ’11, RN (2020) and Alysha Hart,, PhD ’20 (2021).

Alysha Hart

NOTEPAD

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to serve our community and for all individuals and organizations that supported the COVID-19 task force and its activities.

KAMAL ELDEIRAWI

Prof lauded as change-maker Associate professor Kamal Eldeirawi, PhD, RN, FAAN, received the Muslims Making Change: National Honors award for his work protecting public health during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eldeirawi, a nurse epidemiologist, is a board member of the Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater Chicago (CIOGC) and helped create a Joint COVID-19 Taskforce of more than 100 volunteers and organizations, one of the first coordinated and comprehensive responses to COVID-19 in the Chicago area. The taskforce provided education and guidance to the Muslim community, facilitated access to health and dental care, linked individuals to food and financial support, brought resources to community organizations and distributed much-needed personal protective equipment to facilities.

#UICPROUD Teaching associate Alisha Carter, MSN, RN, and clinical instructor Jennifer Maffucci, EdD, ACNS-BC, were among 19 instructors statewide selected as 2021-22 Nurse Educator Fellows by the Illinois Board of Higher Education.

UIC College of Nursing Dean Emerita Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM, received the 2021 William C. Dement Academic Achievement Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Mary Pasquinelli, DNP ’18, MS ’14, FNP, has become the first nurse ever to win the Prevent Cancer Foundation’s James L. Mulshine, MD, National Leadership Award.

Associate professor Pamela Martyn-Nemeth, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, was appointed director of the UIC Nursing PhD program.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 7

NOTEPAD

Diversity efforts garner notable AACN award The UIC College of Nursing was selected to receive the 2020-21 Lectureship Award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Sustainability in Nursing Education for Academic Health Centers from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing.

“This award reflects very intentional efforts on the part of our college over several years, and it recognizes our faculty and staff’s dedication to equity and inclusion,” said then-Dean Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM. In the award letter, AACN noted UIC Nursing’s Diversity Strategic Plan, which functions as a roadmap for achieving diversity, equity and inclusion goals. Also noted was the college’s holistic admission process, which the college has been using since 2014 to consider applicant experiences and attributes as well as academic metrics.

Since instituting the Diversity Strategic Plan in 2015, college leaders have made important changes aimed at sustaining achievements and strengthening the college’s ability to serve the needs of a diverse student body.

In January 2020, after a national search, Phoenix Matthews, PhD, was appointed the first associate dean for equity and inclusion in the College of Nursing. The college’s recently formed Equity & Inclusion Committee hosts virtual “Meet and Learn” sessions and has developed a resource document for faculty on how to manage instances of microaggressions in the classroom setting. This is in addition to skill-building activities, individual and group consultations, and diversity trainings offered to the UIC Nursing community.

MENTORSHIP PROGRAM TARGETS UNDERREPRESENTED STUDENTS Twenty students participated in the first cohort of a 15-week mentorship program last spring, created by the college’s Urban Health Program to support students who are traditionally underrepresented in nursing. This includes students who are first-generation, LGBTQ, and racial and ethnic minorities.

“In helping students cope, we felt the need to respond to the significant challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, racism, and sociopolitical unrest,” says Charese Smith, assistant director of the program. “We created this innovative mentorship program to increase social support, resiliency, and academic success among our undergraduate students.”

Students from Chicago, Urbana and Springfield met weekly for 90-minute sessions led by three trained facilitators. The sessions, which included presentations, dialogue and an opportunity to share experiences, focused Charese Smith on academic and professional development resources specific to the needs of underrepresented students.

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College of Nursing

NOTEPAD

Half a million dollars in scholarships awarded Fifty UIC Nursing students were awarded $6,000 scholarships and 40 more were awarded $5,300 scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic year through two Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) grants intended to diversify the nursing workforce.

“I am very happy to report that we will be awarding over a half million dollars in scholarships to our nursing students for this academic year [through these grant programs],” says clinical assistant professor Kelly Rosenberger, DNP ’12, CNM, WHNP-BC, FAANP, director of the UIC Nursing-Rockford campus.

Rosenberger and clinical professor Valerie Gruss, PhD, CNP-BC, FAAN, are project directors on the two grant programs. The first, INcreaSing Program DIveRsity for NursEs (INSPIRE), is a $2.2 million grant intended to recruit, support and train diverse students for work in underserved urban and rural communities across all six campuses. In addition to funding 50 annual scholarships, the four-year grant will give students access to faculty mentoring, peer student support, experiential learning in clinical settings and telehealth training.

5

$6,000

SCHOLARSHIPS

4

$5,300

SCHOLARSHIPS

The second HRSA grant supports Enhancing Diversity in Geriatric Nursing (EDGE). It provides $362,335 to create and implement an Integrated Geriatric Nurse Training Scholarship Program for diverse UIC Nursing students. Students will participate in didactic geriatric training through training modules, experiential learning through clinical placements and telehealth training.

Marion Tan, BSN ’17, RN, an FNP student on the Rockford campus, is an INSPIRE recipient.

Rebecca Singer, DNP ’18, RN, was one of the UIC College of Nursing nurses featured in a short film, released to coincide with National Nurses Week 2021, made in honor of the healthcare workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. The production was funded by generous donors and was the result of a collaboration between UIC Nursing and the UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts.

WATC H it at go.uic.edu/ FacesOnTheFront.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 9

NOTEPAD

Plan drives Asthma Van Two UIC Nursing doctoral students worked with Mobile Care Chicago to help reduce a high no-show appointment rate on the mobile clinic’s “Asthma Vans.”

The two vans travel to public schools within Chicago to deliver comprehensive asthma care to pediatric patients, but more than one-third of appointments were considered “failed patient visits”—or no-shows.

That’s because while the children were on site, their parents often were not. Many were struggling with logistics to make it to their child’s scheduled appointments.

Iron Mom strong What do you get when you cross the science behind iron deficiencies with maternal health? Iron Mom, of course.

The UIC Colleges of Nursing and Applied Health Sciences teamed up to hold a joint alumni event about the two intertwined topics. Dozens of alumni, faculty, students and staff attended the virtual event to learn more about probiotic supplements and nutrition tips for better iron absorption during pregnancy. The event featured associate professor Mary Dawn Koenig, PhD, CNM, and clinical assistant professor Kirsten Straughan, kinesiology and nutrition.

Participants also got to observe a cooking demonstration on iron rich foods from instructor Renea Lyles, kinesiology and nutrition, using herbs and vegetables from the UIC Nutrition Teaching Garden.

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College of Nursing

Lindsay Van Houten, DNP ’18, and Kelsey Deegan, DNP ’20, developed an innovative solution: Use telehealth to beam the parents into the appointments, eliminating transportation and wait time barriers.

They published the results of their work in the Journal of Pediatric Nursing in April. Their advisor, clinical associate professor Susan Walsh, DNP ’14, MS ’00, BSN ’80, PNP-PC, FAAN, and Matt Siemer, executive director of Mobile Care Chicago, are also co-authors on the paper.

Using the innovative, “patient onsite, parent off-site” model, no-show rates dropped from 36% to between 8% and 18% over a 10-month implementation period, according to the paper.

“Having routine follow-up is key in reducing emergency department visits,” Deegan says. “That’s the goal.

Emergency department visits are expensive and traumatic for patients and families.”

NOTEPAD

Alumni Mentor Program Webb, left, and Phillips, right, meet on Arthington Mall near the UIC College of Nursing building.

Mentor magic

NIH SUPPORTS UIC

Karelle Webb, BSN ’16, MPH, RN, took a job as compliance officer at Erie Family Health Centers just before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Through her relationship with Rush University’s Janice Phillips, PhD ’93, RN, CENP, FAAN, via the UIC Nursing Alumni Mentorship Program, she navigated the crisis and achieved a major career goal.

According to the NIH Reporter, UIC Nursing outranked nursing schools at Duke University, the Ohio State University and the University of Michigan in the amount of funding granted to nursing schools by NIH in 2020.

Webb: “It was really a roller coaster, a crash course in nursing and public health leadership in a very new role for me. Dr. Phillips encouraged me to evaluate what I learned from that experience and to write about it for publication.”

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Webb: “I’ve wanted to publish ever since I was 16 years old.

That was a major professional goal that was a direct result of my mentorship relationship with Dr. Phillips.”

Webb: “I was looking for mentorship. I was looking for professional connection. But through my relationship with Dr. Phillips, I’ve gotten so much more than I even bargained for.”

Phillips: “I have to give it to her, in the midst of a busy schedule, she managed to get this on her plate and get it accepted in a credible journal, the Journal of Public Health Nursing. I know that it’s going to be widely read by nurses and non-nurses.”

Phillips: “I’ve been so blessed over my career to have mentors to assist me, guide me and inspire me.

When you have someone who’s willing to help you, it gives you that extra push.”

million

UIC Nursing topped this amount in 2020

#1

Among Midwest nursing schools

#3

Among public universities nationally; ranked 8th overall

L E A R N M O R E The AMP program is in its third year. To learn more about joining as a mentor or mentee, visit go.uic.edu/nursingAMP. VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 11

INTRODUCING

Dean Collins Eileen G. Collins, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, was selected from a national pool of

candidates as the UIC College of Nursing’s ninth dean. She took the helm on Sept. 1.

Even as she shot to the top as a researcher at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital, Eileen Collins was keen to keep her identity as a nurse at the forefront.

In her 32-year career at the VA, Collins rose to acting associate chief of staff for research at the Hines VA and Lovell Federal Health Care Center.

She was inducted into the International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame in 2016, recognizing a career that garnered $41 million in grant funding for her work on rehabilitation.

“What I found was that as I was becoming more and more entrenched in research, I was losing my identity as a nurse,” Collins says. “I just love what nurses do, and it was important to me to keep that part of me intact.”

Collins, who already had a part-time position as a professor at UIC Nursing, retired from the VA in 2017 to take a full-time position on the faculty.

She became associate dean for research the next year.

After a rigorous search process, Collins was selected to succeed Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM, who retired this year after 11 years and is now dean emerita.

“I truly love this college,” Collins says. “In my nearly 20 years on the faculty, I've observed that the commitments we make to our students, to our community, and to each other make this college unique among nursing schools nationwide.”

L E A R N M O R E about Dean Collins at go.uic.edu/nursingdean.

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enjoyed it, and I was good at it, too. I liked that I had the authority to make decisions and to change things that I thought needed to be changed; not alone, but within teams. I like working with people. I like solving problems.

CHARTING A COURSE V.S.

E.C.

V.S.

You were a pioneer in nursing research at the VA. Tell us about that.

I finished my PhD in 1994 at an opportune time. The leaders at the VA recognized that nurses were their largest workforce, but they never had a seat at the table in terms of research. The Veterans Health Administration had just started a two-year postdoctoral fellowship program for PhD-prepared nurses. I applied and was accepted into the inaugural class.

How did you end up getting the attention of the heavyweights in Washington, D.C? be looking for a doctorally prepared nurse to serve on a committee at the VA’s central office in Washington, D.C., someone would say: “Well, there’s Eileen in Chicago.” I had the advantage of being asked to serve on a lot of important research boards and scientific review committees because I was one of only a few PhD-prepared nurses at the VA. These were opportunities that somebody at my level would not typically have been afforded, so I made the most of them.

When I came to UIC full time, I sought out leadership opportunities: the UIC Faculty-Administrator Leadership Program and the UI System President’s Executive Leadership Program. I was really struck by the fact that, when UIC leadership talks about wanting to serve the underserved, they really mean it. The deans were making a difference in student lives and I wanted to be part of that.

V.S.

What are your priorities for the college?

E.C.

To continue to grow our tripartite mission: research, education and practice. We have expertise at the college in all of those areas. Our BSN, MS and DNP programs are the highest ranked among comparable programs at all public Illinois universities, and I would like to see us continue to be on top of that heap. We’re providing the workforce for Chicago and the state of Illinois. And we have an opportunity to really make a difference in addressing health inequities and structural racism through our practices and our research. We have such talented faculty in both areas.

V.S.

What sorts of challenges and opportunities does the COVID-19 pandemic bring?

E.C.

In terms of the College of Nursing, we really rose to the occasion. From the beginning, our faculty volunteered with the employee health service, testing the Chicago community and vaccine rollout at UI Health. At one point in time, [UI Health] was giving the most vaccinations in the city of Chicago. That would not have happened without the faculty and students of this college.

E.C. . When they would

Eventually I became the first nurse to ever receive an award through the VA’s Career Development Program [which provides mentoring for junior researchers so they can learn from experienced VA researchers]. It doesn’t sound like a lot now, but then it was major. People looked at this as: ‘You’re opening doors for nurses within the VA system.’ And that’s what actually happened.

V.S.

E.C.

Given your success at the VA, what made you want to join UIC Nursing faculty and administration full time?

But also, it really did lay bare those social determinants of health. You couldn’t deny the numbers and what was happening to people of color and people without economic means. These were the people who kept society moving, but they were also the people most stricken by COVID.

I liked working with the students. I liked what nurses did.

That was always my theme from the beginning of my career—that we, as nurses, could help patients manage the symptoms they were struggling with.

The vision of the National Academy of Medicine’s Future of Nursing Study is to promote health equity by strengthening the nursing profession. That must be part of our mantra moving forward.

I also had very good nursing role models in academia that cemented my feelings. Also, I wanted more interactions with students. I loved my time at the VA; it was just time to move on.

V.S.

What appealed to you about the job of dean?

E.C.

It wasn’t something that I started out wanting to do [laughs]. When I was at the VA, I had to be talked into taking the position of acting associate chief of staff for research.

That was a high-level administrative position, running a large department. But what I found out was that I really

V.S.

What are your hobbies?

E.C.

I’m a huge Cubs fan. You’ll find me sitting in Wrigley Field for several games each year (before the pandemic, it was more).

My husband and I like to go boating on the Chain o’ Lakes, on the border of Illinois and Wisconsin. I also like to walk. If I have a decision to make or I’m mulling something, you’ll often find me getting out of the office and going for a walk.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 13

The UIC College of Nursing proudly celebrates recipients of its 2021 Alumni Awards program.

The college conferred the 43rd annual Distinguished Alumni Award and honored the fourth class of Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award winners.

TONDA HUGHES, PHD ’89, RN, FAAN, HENRIK H. BENDIXEN PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL NURSING AND ASSOCIATE DEAN FOR GLOBAL HEALTH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING

DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARD

A

s a young researcher in the early 1990s, Tonda Hughes wanted to study the effects of alcohol on lesbian women’s health. It was an area with little research and the studies that had been done relied on problematic methods.

Her advisors discouraged her, saying she might not be able to get funding, publish or earn tenure if she focused on the stigmatized topic.

“My well-meaning advisors didn’t think it was a good idea— that I might jeopardize my career,” she recalls.

Hughes persevered, and 30 years later, she’s an internationally recognized expert in the field of sexual minority (e.g., lesbian and bisexual) women’s health, with more than $25 million in career research funding. A professor emerita at UIC Nursing, she is the Henrik H. Bendixen Professor of International Nursing and associate dean for global health at the Columbia University School of Nursing.

“The idea of really following your passion—even if it isn’t the most popular thing to do—I think that’s so important, and has made all the difference in my life,” Hughes says.

Hughes grew up in rural, southeastern Kentucky, in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Her parents didn’t have much formal education—her father started working in the coal mines at age 18—but they instilled in their children an “unquestionable respect for education,” Hughes says.

Her master’s degree program in community mental health at the University of Kentucky influenced her

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interest in women’s health, and she chose UIC for her doctoral degree because of its strong program in that area. “UIC was really, truly a leader in the women’s health movement in the 1980s,” she says.

As a young researcher at UIC Nursing, Hughes became interested in studying what she called, “the myth of lesbian alcoholics.” She found that many research papers at the time used the same startling statistic: one-third of lesbians were alcoholic. There was just one problem. The original research —which was referenced by subsequent authors—relied on participants recruited at gay bars, a sample that did not reflect the broader population.

Since then, the field of sexual minority health studies has continued to gain mainstream recognition. Hughes’ early studies have grown into the world’s longest running longitudinal study of alcohol use and health among sexual minority women.

In pursuit of that research, Hughes faced what she calls “bumps in the road,” including being numbered among an infamous 2003 list of more than 200 NIH grantees—most investigating sexual behavior and drug abuse—created by a conservative Christian advocacy group. The NIH reviewed the grants and ultimately determined all were sound.

“Those of us who have known Tonda for many years, know she began this research in the 1990s at a time when there was [almost] no concern or acknowledgement of sexual minority women’s health needs,” wrote Mariann Piano, PhD ’88, MS ’84, RN, FAAN, FAHA, in her nomination letter. Piano, UIC Nursing professor emerita and former Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, is now senior associate dean for research and Nancy and Hilliard Travis Professor of Nursing at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

Hughes was a UIC Nursing staple for 27 years, serving as associate dean for global health, head of the department of Health Systems Science and Nursing Collegiate Professor.

“She has had a long-term, outstanding program of research that places her among the premiere nurse-scientists in the U.S. and internationally,” Piano wrote. “Her research has had a major impact on both knowledge and healthcare for sexual minority women.”

DALE BEATTY, DNP ’17, RN, NEA-BC CHIEF NURSING OFFICER, VP PATIENT CARE SERVICES, STANFORD HEALTHCARE OUTSTANDING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

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ale Beatty’s career can be summed up with four words that are good for anyone to consider no matter where life takes them: Listen to your mother.

Two years into college Beatty still didn’t have a career goal.

His mother, an occupational hazard nurse at an Ohio steel mill, took notice.

“She said, ‘Why don’t you think about becoming a nurse?’”

Beatty says. “This was the 1980s. I hadn’t even thought about the possibility.”

It made perfect sense, even if he was the only man in his nursing program. That experience of “being the only one” helped him understand what many people face throughout their lives and careers.

Now leading a team of 3,000 nurses at Stanford, Beatty cites that kind of empathy as a foundation for his leadership career.

He was previously vice president of patient care services and CNO at St. Francis Hospital and Health Center in Blue Island, Illinois, and CNO at Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

Beatty was recognized by US News and World Report’s Top 15 Hospital Chief Nursing Officers in 2021 and is president-elect of the Association of California Nurse Leaders.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 15

TIMOTHY CARRIGAN, PHD ’11, RN, CNO, VP PATIENT CARE, LOYOLA UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER OUTSTANDING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

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he pandemic hit just four months after Timothy Carrigan came to Loyola, creating an immediate challenge.

“You can argue that you learn the strengths and weaknesses of an organization quickly in a crisis,” he says. “It might have taken me a year or two to figure out some of the things I saw in the first six months of the pandemic.”

SANDRA MARTELL, DNP ’10, MS ’93, RN, PUBLIC HEALTH ADMINISTRATOR, WINNEBAGO COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENT OUTSTANDING ALUMNI ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

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andra Martell, started college with a plan to be a biomedical engineer, but a campus outbreak of Russian flu changed her course. With her dorm quarantined, Martell helped take care of those around her who fell ill.

She recalls one of her dorm mates asking, “Have you ever thought about being a nurse?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it [before that],” Martell says.

“But I knew I wanted to help people.”

Now, she’s leading a county of 280,000 people that includes Illinois’ fifth most populous city, Rockford, through the COVID-19 pandemic, setting policy and providing education and guidance to reduce the transmission of the virus.

The pandemic is just one challenge Martell faces because of Winnebago County’s variety of populations: urban, suburban and rural. She has worked for the county since 2014 after serving as the Cook County Department of Public Health’s chief nursing officer and interim chief operations officer.

“It’s the right size for those of us who are looking to do intervention work,” she says. “There are opportunities for community engagement, intervention and evaluation of the impact.”

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Carrigan, who grew up in Decatur, Illinois, began his career as an ICU nurse at UI Health, UIC’s affiliated medical center, in Chicago. At the urging of a mentor, he soon began his PhD studies at UIC. Four years into his career, colleagues recognized his leadership potential and encouraged him to apply for a management position.

Leadership positions at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center and Rush University Medical Center followed, and Carrigan quickly gained notice for his work. He received the Chicago Health Executive Forum Early Career Healthcare Executive Award and was named to the Illinois Nurses Foundation list of 40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders in 2018. In 2020, he was named a Chicago Crain’s Notable LGBTQ Executive. He is president-elect of the Illinois Organization of Nurse Leaders.

The impact Carrigan has made on healthcare has brought him satisfaction, but what brings him particular joy is the ability to recognize and mentor talent in the same way others made an impact on him—including Mariann Piano, PhD ‘88, MS ‘84, RN, FAAN, FAHA, and Mary Ann Anderson, his PhD advisor and dissertation committee chair.

R E A D M O R E Visit go.uic.edu/MeetNursingAlumni to read full profiles of our award winners.

The college is accepting nominations for the 2022 Alumni Awards Program through Feb. 1. Nominate a colleague at go.uic.edu/NursingAlumAwards.

Practice partnerships make perfect

UIC Nursing faculty and students are joining forces with other UIC healthcare professionals, bringing more nurse practitioners into the fight against the opioid epidemic and helping to improve pediatric dental care.

CONFRONTING ADDICTION In Chicago, opioid-related overdose deaths increased by 50% during the first six months of 2020 over the same period in the previous year. (above, top) Nursing clinical assistant professor Karen Cotler, pharmacy assistant professor Jennie Jarrett, and trainees Sooyoung Yeom and Stephanie Guerrero in front of the COIP mobile clinic. (above, bottom) Faculty Jacqueline Wolak Shanks and Celeste Schultz at the UIC Pediatric Dentistry Outpatient Care Center.

In her five years as a nurse on a stepdown unit at UI Health, Sooyoung Yeom, DNP ’21, FNP-BC, frequently cared for patients going through active withdrawal from substance use. The patients looked “miserable,” Yeom says, presenting with severe pain, nausea and discomfort. What was even worse, she says, was seeing the same patients land in her unit again and again.

“They keep coming over and over and over again,” she says. “I thought they would get some help and recover in a rehab program. But even if they get some help, they keep coming back.”

Yeom says she now believes that prevention and harm reduction are the biggest tools in the battle against opioid addiction, which is why she’s one of two nurse practitioners taking part in the inaugural year of a UIC Nursing-led training program to integrate work with patients with substance use disorders into primary care practice.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 17

The program, which received a $1.8 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, is forging new ground as UIC Nursing’s first post-doctoral fellowship program focused on clinical practice, says clinical assistant professor Karen Cotler, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, one of the program’s co-leaders. And while it’s housed at UIC Nursing, the program is taking a distinctly interprofessional approach. The five-year grant is co-led by UIC College of Pharmacy assistant professor Jennie Jarrett, PharmD, BCPS, MMedEd, FCCP. “No matter where [the trainees] go, they’re going to be integrated into this collaborative care model,” says Jarrett. “We’re going to train them to be phenomenal nurse practitioners, but also to work well in teams to really support patients in the best way.”

Program trainee Sooyoung Yeom, left, and College of Pharmacy faculty member Jennie Jarrett, right, interact with a patient from a mobile clinic, where they bring harm reduction services and primary care to West and Southwest Side Chicago neighborhoods.

"No matter where [the trainees] go, they’re going to be integrated into this collaborative care model.

We’re going to train them to be phenomenal nurse practitioners, but also to work well in teams to really support patients in the best way.”

JENNIE JARRETT

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In addition to Yeom, Stephanie Guerrero, DNP ’21, FNP-BC, was also selected for the first year of the training program. The two will rotate through UI Health’s network of federally qualified health centers, Mile Square, which primarily serve the West and Southwest Sides of Chicago. They will also train at the Community Outreach Intervention Projects (COIP) field station, a needle exchange site and primary care clinic in the Austin neighborhood, and its mobile unit, which brings primary care and harm reduction services to patients in their communities. (Both are operated by the UIC School of Public Health and the mobile unit partners with Mobile Health Chicago and Family Guidance, Inc.) Future years of the program will feature two or more trainees selected from a national pool.

“We want new providers to be out there working as harm-reduction providers [after they complete] the training program,” Cotler says. “We want them to be well-equipped, well-educated and fully comfortable treating people with an opioid addiction.”

The program is targeting a critical problem that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has declared as both an epidemic and a public health emergency.

There was a record high 96,779 drug overdose deaths from March 2020 to March 2021, according to provisional statistics from the CDC. That represents a nearly 30% increase over the prior year.

In addition to hands-on experience, the program also incorporates a didactic curriculum that teaches prevention and treatment of substance use disorder, including waiver training in Medically Assisted Recovery (MAR) and workshops on the intersection of substance use and serious mental illness.

“I think it’s very meaningful,” Yeom says. “I get to see this population in the outpatient setting and try to effect some change.”

PREPARING PEDIATRIC PATIENTS A partnership between the UIC Colleges of Nursing and Dentistry will mean more children will be able to receive much-needed dental care more quickly.

Patients travel from all over the state to the UIC Pediatric Dentistry Outpatient Care Center, the largest provider of pediatric dental care in Illinois.

The facility, which opened a year ago within the UIC College of Dentistry in Chicago, treats children with severe early childhood cavities. Because most of the patients are under 4 years old, they may need general anesthesia to tolerate the extensive dental work.

Previously, parents had to obtain required health screenings from their child’s primary care provider, sometimes leading to paperwork headaches and delays.

But now, UIC Nursing clinical assistant professors Celeste Schultz, PhD, RN-BC, CPNP-PC, and Jacqueline Wolak Shanks, DNP, FNP-C, are stationed there once a week to conduct physicals and take histories on-site.

“This saves time for the families. They are able to leave the dental clinic with all [preoperative] documentation cleared and with a surgery date,” says Marcio da Fonseca, DDS, MS, head of the UIC Department of Pediatric Dentistry. “It is helping expedite the scheduling process so we can take care of the children more quickly.”

The center sees a high volume of patients; they’ve performed more than 800 general anesthesia surgeries in the last year, and have another 1,000 patients on the waiting list. This is because the center offers the rare combination of providing general anesthesia and accepting Medicaid patients, making it in-demand for children with severe dental needs, da Fonseca says.

Because it’s an outpatient center, patients need to be low-risk, and preoperative histories and physicals are important “to screen for anything that would add increased risk for adverse anesthetic events,” says Schultz, a pediatric nurse practitioner with 30 years of experience.

“If we identified, say, a heart murmur, or a child with a paralyzed vocal cord, they should be cared for in the hospital,” she says.

“This saves time for the families. They are able to leave the dental clinic with all [preoperative] documentation cleared and with a surgery date.” MARCIO DA FONSECA (above, top) Family nurse practitioner Jacqueline Wolak Shanks performs a required preoperative physical on a pediatric patient who is a candidate for outpatient dental surgery.

The partnerships will also create meaningful clinical opportunities for nursing students, says Charles Yingling, DNP ’12, MS ’05, FNP-BC, FAANP, formerly UIC Nursing’s associate dean for practice and partnerships.

(above, bottom) Pediatric nurse practitioner Celeste Schultz takes the pulse of a pediatric patient as part of a screening for surgery. The patients need to be considered low-risk to qualify for the surgery.

“This collaboration with our colleagues in the College of Dentistry is a win for everyone involved,” Yingling says. “We are improving access to care for children, creating opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty, and providing interprofessional learning for dental and nursing students.”

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 19

Black Birth Matters In a radical paradigm shift to healthcare delivery, a UIC Nursing-led team is taking a novel approach to addressing stark disparities in pregnancy outcomes for Black people. Instead of focusing on

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just one intervention, a $7 million grant will allow researchers to implement multiple strategies to increase maternal health equity and attenuate the impacts of structural racism in healthcare.

Ymani Blake had just given birth to a healthy baby girl, but something was wrong.

The 31-year-old, first-time mom was having hot flashes and throwing up. Her breathing was irregular. Drowsy and unable to talk, Blake only caught snippets of conversation from her hospital bed. The wrong medicine. A bad reaction. Suddenly, a dozen doctors and nurses surrounded Blake. On her left, a Black provider appeared, and Blake grabbed for her arm.

“I remember just being so lost when that was happening to me,” Blake says. “I felt like I was disappearing. When I saw her, I just felt like, ‘OK, maybe she’ll see me in this moment as a Black woman.’ It just gave me hope that someone would speak up for me.”

Blake had never met the person before—and in fact still doesn’t know who she was—but she was comforted by the color of the woman’s skin, which matched her own. Emerging research shows Blake isn’t alone in seeking out a provider who looks like her. Now, a group of researchers from UIC is exploring that idea to try to address deep-rooted disparities in maternal health.

The problem is at a crisis point. The barriers that Black patients face to getting high-quality—or even adequate—maternity care and support have led to mortality rates three to four times higher than white women. In Chicago, those numbers are even more bleak. Black women are six times as likely to die of a pregnancy related condition as non-Hispanic white women, according to the Illinois Department of Public Health.

“Many of the patients I work with are nervous,” says co-principal investigator Karie Stewart, MS ’17, CNM, MPH, who is an adjunct faculty member at UIC Nursing as well as director of midwifery care at University of Chicago Medicine. “They don’t feel trust with their providers. Patients may think, ‘I’ll try to have baby at home without the proper provider,’ and we don’t want that.”

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Ymani Blake nurses her daughter, Indigo, who was born in July. After what Blake calls an “extremely traumatic” birth experience in the hospital, UIC Nursing assistant professor Kylea Liese provided Blake with a “rebirth,” an opportunity to heal from that experience by replaying Indigo’s birth at home.

CREDIT: ALICIA TARVER

h s

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Melanated Group Midwifery Care

A $7.1 million grant over five years from the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute will allow the research team to adopt the Melanated Group Midwifery Care model. The multipronged strategy will match Black pregnant people with Black midwives, a concept called racial concordance, which is intended to facilitate trust and open communication. The model also calls for prenatal care to be provided in a group setting for peer support; for a Black nurse to coordinate care and engage with patients during pregnancy and after; and for a Black doula to provide in-home support for the patients for up to a year after delivery.

Members of the research team (from left): PAMELA PEARSON, DNP ’18, CNM, RN UIC Nursing assistant clinical professor STACIE GELLER, PhD G. William Arends Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology and director of Center for Research on Women & Gender at the University of Illinois College of Medicine KYLEA LIESE, PhD, CNM UIC Nursing assistant professor KARIE STEWART, MS ’17, CNM, MPH University of Chicago Medicine director of midwifery CRYSTAL PATIL, PhD UIC Nursing professor SARIA LOFTON, MS ’05, PhD, RN UIC Nursing assistant professor

“The numbers are devastating,” says Stewart. “There are lots of issues that arise during the postpartum period that lead to morbidity and mortality, but they often aren’t addressed because we just assume patients are fine at six weeks postpartum, when care typically drops off.”

Two maternal mortality review committees established in Illinois found that one-third of pregnancy-related deaths occurred more than two months after pregnancy, according to a report released in April. The leading cause of pregnancy-related death was mental health conditions, including substance use disorders. The reports found that 83% of deaths were totally preventable.

“Postpartum in-home visitation is a key recommendation of the maternal mortality review committees,” says Kylea Liese, PhD, CNM, UIC Nursing assistant professor and co-principal investigator on the project. “This study will provide evidence on whether a trusted postpartum doula can successfully support individuals after birth and help link them with mental health resources.”

The researchers plan to enroll 432 pregnant individuals in their first trimester of pregnancy. Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to the Melanated Group Midwifery Care model and the other half will have their usual one-on-one care with a midwife or obstetrician.

Black midwives are in short supply—only about 7% of midwives are Black, according to the American Midwifery Certification Board—but the researchers hope to help address

Melanated Group Midwifery Care merges

evidence-based interventions

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Racial concordance between patients and providers establishes trust and open communication.

Group prenatal care improves health literacy, self-advocacy and peer support.

this by creating infrastructure for more Black providers. In addition to including students on the project, UIC Nursing is also in the process of building a doula certification program on the South Side of Chicago, says Crystal Patil, PhD, UIC Nursing professor and co-investigator on the grant, which could, in turn, create a pipeline to midwifery.

A crucial part of the project is community engagement, Liese says. The researchers are collaborating with the non-profit group Melanated Midwives, which Stewart founded, and will be advised by a community advisory board of Black postpartum mothers from the South Side.

'Extremely Traumatic'

Aware of the issues that surround Black people and birth, Ymani Blake deliberately searched for a sympathetic midwife who could deliver her baby at home.

But in her last month of pregnancy, she saw her plans go awry. Her blood pressure was elevated, and her midwife referred her to an affiliated obstetrician at a nearby hospital. At her last appointment, still hopeful that she might be able to deliver at home, the doctor pushed to induce labor immediately in the hospital. Blake questioned the decision, but felt her concerns were brushed off.

“I didn’t feel heard in that moment,” Blake said. “I wouldn’t say what I experienced with that particular professional was racism, but I would say I experienced gaslighting and just very bad bedside manner.”

Blake and her daughter, Indigo, born in July, are now home and healthy. But she calls her birth experience “extremely traumatic.” She began to have distressing flashbacks a few weeks after she was home. By then under the care of Liese, Blake says she was grateful she had a support team watching for signs of postpartum depression.

“I think this grant is going to save lives,” Blake says. “I could just imagine somebody who doesn’t know they need a team like that, especially during the postpartum period.

I can only imagine the difference it’s going to make in people’s lives. I’m really excited about that.”

Alum fights for South Side birthing center A year ago, alumna Karie Stewart, MS ’17, CNM, MPH, was featured in the Chicago Tribune and on WBEZ for trying to offer more birthing options on the South Side by building a new birthing center.

Those efforts—in partnership with Jeanine Valrie-Logan, MPH, CNM, a midwife at PCC Wellness—paid off in August when Gov. J.B. Pritzker approved a bill to increase the number of birth centers in the six-county Chicago area by 50%, from four to six. The new law also allows two, rather than one, of the centers to be owned or operated by a federally qualified health center.

“There aren’t options on the South and West Sides like there are in more affluent neighborhoods. This will be vital to this population having better outcomes.”

—Karie Stewart

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Maternal care coordination connects women to wrap-around services, mental health and specialty care.

“A birth center would fill a huge need and gap in the South Side community,” says Stewart, who is co-principal investigator on Melanated Group Midwifery Care with UIC Nursing researchers. “There aren’t options on the South and West Sides like there are in more affluent neighborhoods. This will be vital to this population having better outcomes.”

4

In-home, postpartum doula support decreases postpartum depression, and increases continuity of care and breastfeeding.

With the new law in place, they’re in the early stages of putting together an application for an independent birth center.

“It’s been a long journey,” says Stewart.

“Now we get to see our vision come to life.”

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EXPERT VIEWPOINT

School nurses at the forefront After the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to shut down in March 2020, school nurses were thrust into a pivotal and uncharted role: ensuring that millions of students, teachers and staff could return to and stay in school safely. Eileen Moss, DNP, RN, PEL-CSN, NCSN, an adjunct instructor in the UIC School Nurse Certificate Program and lead nurse in New Lenox (Illinois) District 122, says the pandemic brought both historic challenges and opportunities to lead.

This is my 20th year in school nursing, and I’ve never experienced anything like this before. As school nurses, we do public health all day long. We’re experts in infection control among children in the school setting, but I don’t think we were prepared for the magnitude of the pandemic—the continuousness and seriousness of it.

The job itself changed. School nurses are used to a school-day schedule: 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m, Monday through Friday. That job turned into a 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. workday, seven days a week.

We had to keep up with the ever-changing guidance from the CDC and state public health departments. We assessed students with a different lens, assuming any student with symptoms could have COVID-19. We were making decisions about whether students needed a test, or if, perhaps, they had allergies or somatic complaints, such as headache, stomachache or fatigue. If a COVID-19 case was identified after school hours, we had to contact trace and notify parents before the next day, so we didn’t have large-scale potential exposure.

be overlooked as they may be associated with anxiety, depression, and school stress. As the health expert in school, the school nurse is in the perfect position to begin a conversation with parents or guardians and initiate referrals to behavioral healthcare providers if indicated.

The CDC recommends that viral testing in schools should be part of a comprehensive approach to all levels of community transmission. That means the school nurse can and should be helping to facilitate testing in schools as well as educating and facilitating vaccination of the school community.

In many districts, school nurses bore a vital role in creating a layered, COVID-19 prevention and mitigation strategy. But not all. The pandemic exposed how much local school administrators value nurses. Districts that did not utilize their school nurses to create their strategies missed out on an opportunity to gain improvements from an expert source.

This was in addition to the usual tasks of ensuring compliance with health exams and immunizations, obtaining and administering medications, and developing individualized healthcare and emergency plans.

The alignment of public health and education has never been more important. We, at all costs, must avoid going back to remote learning. Student recovery depends on the return to in-person learning with robust social/ emotional support. School nurses are in position to make that happen.

Now in the second year of the pandemic, school nurses are poised to play a critical role in multiple ways, including identifying mental health and social/emotional support needs of both students and staff. Considering the trauma of the pandemic, somatic symptoms should not

This article was compiled from an interview with Moss and excerpts from her paper, “Roadmap to Recovery: Year 2 of the COVID-19 Pandemic,” which was published in NASN School Nurse, a peer-reviewed clinical resource journal of the National Association of School Nurses.

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IGNITE IMPACT

Supporting PhD students Sherri Mendelson, PhD, MS ’84, BSN ’77, says her success as a UIC Nursing master’s degree student was due to the encouragement of classmates and faculty; they even rallied behind her as she brought her newborn daughter to class the week after she was born.

“I was supported physically, financially and emotionally during my master’s degree at University of Illinois Chicago,” she says. “Without that support, I probably couldn’t have done it.”

Mendelson, now nurse scientist and Magnet program director at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, California, wanted to pass on that same sense of support to a future generation of nurse scientists.

She and her husband made a gift in 2020 to endow the Tom and Sherri Mendelson PhD Awards. The inaugural awards were given to five doctoral students in April.

“My current position as research scientist for a large hospital system really helped me understand how much nurses need support in order to do their research and to move forward in understanding evidence-based practice and research,” she says.

THE FIVE INAUGURAL RECIPIENTS ARE: Elizabeth Rios RESEARCH TOPIC: Psychosocial factors that may influence the development of type 2 diabetes among Mexican immigrant and Mexican-American women living in the United States ADVISOR: Lauretta Quinn, PhD ’96, RN, CDE, FAHA, FAAN Sungwon Park TOPIC: Factors RESEARCH TOPIC influencing adherence to health behaviors recommended by a metabolic syndrome management program ADVISORS: Carol Ferrans, ADVISORS PhD ’85, MS ’82, RN, FAAN; Quinn, PhD ’96, RN, Lauretta Quinn CDE, FAHA, FAAN Asha Mathew Solomon TOPIC: RESEARCH TOPIC Symptom-cluster experiences in oral cancer ADVISOR: Ardith Doorenbos, ADVISOR PhD, RN, FAAN Wiphawadee Potisopha TOPIC: RESEARCH TOPIC Understanding treatment-seeking decisions in acute stroke survivors ADVISOR: Patricia Hershberger, ADVISOR PhD ’05, FNP-BC, FAAN Manassawee Srimoragot TOPIC: Sleep RESEARCH TOPIC characteristics and cardiovascular disease risk among Asian women

Mendelson and her husband, Tom, met on the Urbana campus, where she was preparing to study nursing and he, agriculture. She is pictured here on their farm in Wisconsin.

ADVISOR: Bilgay Izci Balserak, PhD

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IGNITE IMPACT

A gift for clinical faculty

The Kathleen M. Irwin Endowed Chair Professorship in Outstanding Nursing Practice will support clinical-track faculty.

Longtime University of Illinois supporter Steven Irwin, MD, has made a gift to the UIC College of Nursing to help support the work of an exceptional clinical-track faculty member active in nursing practice.

The endowment is in accordance with the wishes of his late wife, Kathleen, who was a nurse, and establishes the Kathleen M. Irwin Endowed Chair Professorship in Outstanding Nursing Practice.

“Kathy wanted to give to the College of Nursing after her passing,” Irwin says. “She knew the chair we would establish in her name would bring talented faculty to the college—faculty whose work honors Kathy’s many decades serving as an exceptional nurse.”

Kathleen had a modest upbringing in Chicago’s Bowmanville neighborhood, Irwin says, bestowing her with great empathy and insight. Kathy and Steve Irwin both attended UIC, although they didn’t meet until much later. Together, the couple became advocates for top-notch public education at a reasonable price. They began supporting the University of Illinois in 1983.

Although Kathleen did not get her nursing degree at UIC, they knew of the college’s excellence. After research and discussion, the couple determined they wanted to support UIC Nursing’s academic enterprise.

UIC Nursing Dean Emerita Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM, says she believes this is one of the nation’s few endowed positions aimed at nursing faculty engaged in clinical practice at a Research I university.

“I find it noteworthy that Kathy was not an alumna of UIC Nursing, but together, she and Steve decided our college was the one to entrust with her legacy,” says Weaver.

“That is a testament to the outstanding reputation our faculty and staff have built for our college.”

Rewarding research

Established by an emerita dean and her husband, the Heung Soo and Mi Ja Kim Endowed Faculty Scholar is the college's first endowed scholar position focused on research.

UIC Nursing Dean Emerita Mi Ja Kim, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, credits the college for her illustrious career, saying it’s where she “grew up.”

In 2018, Kim made a significant gift to create the Dr. Mi Ja Kim Endowed Faculty Research Award. Now she and her husband, Heung Soo, have doubled the endowment to $250,000 to transform the award into the Heung Soo and Mi Ja Kim Endowed Faculty Scholar Position.

“Expanding the gift was important to me to recognize and support faculty research at a higher level,” says Kim, who also served as vice chancellor for research and dean of the Graduate College during her 38 years on faculty at 26 |

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UIC. “This is special because my husband has joined me for this gift.”

“An endowed faculty scholar position bearing the name of Mi Ja Kim, who is known worldwide in the field of nursing science, is an incredible tool for our college to use in recruiting and retaining world-class faculty,” says Dean Eileen Collins.

Named an American Academy of Nursing “Living Legend” in 2012, Kim continues to remain active in research and scholarship. Her research career includes more than $12 million in extramural funding, 160 scholarly publications and honorary fellowship in the Royal College of Nursing in London.

Says Kim: “God has blessed me and my family immensely.

I hope the gift will serve as inspiration for others to also give when their time comes. If I can do it, anybody can do it.”

IGNITE IMPACT

Expressing Gratitude

“I was drawn to nursing after working almost 20 years in nonprofits, but before I even applied, I did a lot of math. My wife works as a preschool teacher, with no health insurance or 401k plan. We had recently purchased a home and my daughter was entering first grade as I was entering grad school. I knew I could use all the help I could get, and for me, this scholarship meant I could avoid taking out Graduate PLUS loans, which carry a higher interest rate.”

Theresa Gibbons, MS ’21 UIC College of Nursing Scholarship “Born in Belize, I immigrated to the U.S. at age 5 and grew up in Chicago's Englewood and Back of the Yards neighborhoods. A first-generation college student, scholarships have helped decrease the amount of loans I have taken out this year. They’ve inspired me to complete my midwifery degree and return to those neighborhoods to work with minority populations in underserved communities in Chicago.”

Janelli Barrow, Midwifery DNP student Craig & Sarah Allen Scholarship in Memory of Hal Gold; Mitzi L. Duxbury Nursing, Neonatal Nursing and Midwifery Scholarship Fund in Honor of Dr. Alexander (Mack) Schmidt “My mother has seven autoimmune disorders.

I had to help her when she was feeling bad, and I also had to help tend to my younger sibling. That was where I developed skills to care for other people and to have empathy and compassion. I knew nursing was where my heart belonged. Thanks to this scholarship, I’m able to go through school and not have added stress from having to work.”

Heather Beckman, BSN student Memorial Health System Scholarship

Diversifying midwifery Scholarship recipient Jayme Henderson, RN, is passionate about addressing maternal health disparities.

Jayme Henderson’s interest in midwifery was solidified when she shadowed a midwife during a practicum in her undergraduate program. She was inspired by the individual attention the midwife gave to her patient, staying with her for the duration of her labor.

Just six months after graduating with her BSN, Henderson enrolled in the UIC Nursing DNP program for midwifery and women’s health.

“All aspects of [these fields] excite me, from preparation and prenatal care, to actual delivery, to postpartum care,” she says. “That’s why I wanted to jump right into the midwifery program.”

Henderson is the first recipient of the Diversity & Inclusion Scholarship established by the UIH Midwifery Practice in October 2020 to benefit midwifery students from underrepresented backgrounds. UI Health midwives Kathleen Harmon, MS ’95, CNM and Maddalena Buscemi, DNP ’19, CNM, were primary drivers in bringing the fund to fruition.

“I’m glad that this scholarship brings to light the need for more diversity in midwifery,” Henderson says. “As a student just starting my journey at UIC, this is really encouraging.”

Henderson works full-time as a labor and delivery nurse at Advocate Trinity Hospital in southeast Chicago, adding that she deliberately chose a hospital where much of her patient population would be people of color.

“As a person of color, I want to ensure all my patients of color get the same treatment that their white counterparts get,” she says. “I’m driven to be there as a resource, to educate and to ensure those patients of color aren’t falling through the cracks.”

Jayme Henderson | 27

IGNITE IMPACT

‘We always knew we had to give back’

Karyn and Terrance Holm shared a rich life together, anchored by a mutual passion for sailing, a love of family and a common value system that prioritized charitable giving.

A Photographed while sailing on Lake Michigan, the Holms shared a passion for sailing and giving back.

fter her husband, Terrance, passed away in July 2019—just shy of their 50th anniversary—Karyn Holm wanted to honor their relationship with a gift to a cause that was important to both of them: the University of Illinois. Karyn Holm, PhD, FAAN, FAHA, had spent 12 years on faculty at UIC Nursing, ultimately becoming associate dean of practice, and Terry earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign.

“There were so many things that Terry and I held in common: Our value system, our love of the water, our love of family and parents, and being active givers,” Karyn says. “We always knew we had to give back. It’s part of being human.”

Now her gift of $1 million will create the Terrance and Karyn Holm Endowed Professorship Fund and the Terrance and Karyn Holm Unrestricted Research Center Program Fund to support the college’s Midwest Nursing History Research Center (MNHRC).

A New Year’s Resolution The Holms met in March of 1969 when Karyn and a roommate considered subletting an apartment from Terry and his roommate Jim, who had gotten drafted. She didn’t take the apartment, but she did click with its occupant.

Karyn and Terry were married by October of that year.

The two were well-matched. Both goal-directed, they took turns supporting each other as they advanced in their careers and attended graduate school (she in nursing and he in business). When accepted into her PhD program, Karyn recalls that Terry formally pledged to help.

“He always wrote down his New Year’s Resolutions,” she says. “‘Help Karyn get her PhD’ was one of his resolutions that year. He was so supportive.”

As she pursued a career in nursing and healthcare, he worked as an executive at Edward Hines Lumber Company and later realized his dream of launching Holm Financial, a successful financial services company. Through it all, they “appreciated each other’s friends and colleagues,” she says, recalling their close friendship with former UIC Nursing Dean Mitzi Duxbury and others at UIC, including Marjorie Powers, Susan Dudas, MiJa Kim, Jan Baldwin, Laurie Whitney and Mary Sheehan.

The Holms also shared a strong desire to give to causes that were important to them, previously creating the Terrance and Karyn Holm Endowed Visiting Scholar Award in honor of their parents.

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IGNITE IMPACT

Spending power Donors support faculty with flexible funding In October 2021, Dean Eileen Collins issued the first awards from the Dean’s Faculty Catalyst Fund, a flexible, current-use fund launched with a gift from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation President’s Grant Fund of the Princeton Area Community Foundation, as directed by alumnus Paul Kuehnert, DNP ’12, MS ’91, RN.

Karyn and Terry Holm aboard their sailboat, South Side Magic, in Burnham Harbor.

A life on the water Sailing was a constant in their lives. The Holms began sailing in 1972 and attended the Annapolis Sailing School. Over the years, they spent their free time setting sail from progressively challenging boats on Lake Michigan (often with their golden retriever, Rainbow, in tow).

In 1982, they set their sights on one of the trickiest of sailing conquests: piloting a boat under the Golden Gate Bridge. They faced repeated warnings about unpredictable winds, currents and tides in San Francisco Bay. The subtext was clear: only expert sailors should attempt.

“Our history is essential to moving the profession forward as we truly stand on the shoulders of giants.”

Terry later wrote about the experience, recalling the “intense” anticipation as they drove across the bridge to their lodgings. The next day, their strategic planning paid off, as they “seemed to fly over the sea” and approached the bridge “smack dab in the center.”

“The exhilaration was unbelievable,” he wrote. “We had done it.”

Karyn now cherishes these paper artifacts, which memorialize her relationship with her husabnd.

It’s her interest in preserving history—whether the history of her family or, more broadly, nursing history—that prompted her gift to UIC Nursing.

“Our history is essential to moving the profession forward as we truly stand on the shoulders of giants,” she says.

Valerie Gruss

Kuehnert, retired associate vice president at RWJF, and his wife, Judith, seeded the fund, which was swiftly enhanced by major gifts from a number of UIC Nursing alumni, donors and friends who understood a dean’s need for dynamic, philanthropic funding to use in attracting and retaining top-notch faculty.

Susan Kilroy

The inaugural Catalyst recipients, each awarded with funds to be used as a part of their professional activities, are:

Pamela Martyn-Nemeth

Valerie Gruss, PhD, CNP-BC, FAAN, clinical professor and the college’s director of interprofessional education Susan Kilroy, PhD ’20, RN, CHSE, visiting clinical assistant professor and director of the Clinical Learning Resource Center, including the M. Christine Schwartz Experiential Learning & Simulation Laboratory Pamela Martyn-Nemeth, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, associate professor and director of the college’s PhD program

If you are interested in adding to the Dean’s Faculty Catalyst Fund or creating your own fund to help UIC Nursing reach its $33 million IGNITE goal, please contact Steven George at steveg@uic.edu.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 29

STUDENT SPOTLIGHT

Dual cancer diagnoses take life in a new direction

Tosha Donnals was inspired to become a nurse when her son was diagnosed with cancer. Then, she faced her own health crisis.

Tosha Donnals, DNP ’21, RN, says she was going through “the worst time” of her life when she decided to become a nurse.

A warrant officer in the Illinois Army National guard, Donnals had returned from a tour of duty in Afghanistan with the U.S. Army when she learned that her then 4-year-old son had acute myeloid leukemia, a rare form of childhood cancer.

She moved her family to Memphis so that he could receive care at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. There, she became a full-fledged care partner: taking care of his central line, giving his medications, measuring urine and other duties.

“I was doing a lot of things that I never thought I would do,” Donnals says.

“That’s when I started thinking about it. I thought, ‘maybe I could be a nurse.’”

Then, while getting her bachelor’s degree in nursing at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, Donnals learned she had breast cancer.

She was 38 and considered young for breast cancer. She immediately started treatment—chemotherapy, followed by radiation—only taking one semester off from school.

Donnals and her son are now healthy, but she says those experiences inform her care as a nurse.

“I want to treat everyone as an individual and a human,” she says. “I try not to talk ‘medical speak’ to them. I need to be empathetic and sympathetic, and I can be both of those, because we’ve been through pretty much everything.”

Four months after graduating from UIC’s Family Nurse Practitioner program, Donnals accepted her first job as a nurse practitioner with Decatur Memorial Hospital in Decatur, Illinois, part of a new program where she will be one of two NPs caring for stroke patients.

“I definitely feel my education I received at UIC has prepared me for this journey,” she says. “It is an extremely hard time for new graduates to find jobs.

I feel my clinical experiences and the overall reputation of the UIC College of Nursing helped me to stand out in the sea of candidates.”

Donnals’ dedication to her community and personal drive has been an “inspiration” to her instructors and fellow students, says clinical assistant professor Karen Cotler, DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP, director of the UIC Nursing Family Nurse Practitioner program.

“Her deep commitment to caring for vulnerable and underserved communities and service permeates every aspect of her life,” Cotler says. “She represents and implements the very essence of the UIC College of Nursing mission.”

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“I was doing a lot of things that I never thought I would do,” Donnals says. “That’s when I started thinking about it.

I thought, ‘maybe I could be a nurse.’”

Tosha Donnals is flanked by her two sons: Ty, 21 (left) and Max, 16. Donnals decided to become a nurse when Max was diagnosed with cancer at age 4.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 31

SOURCES: JOSHUA CLARK/UIC AND SUBMITTED PHOTOS

FOCUS ON EDUCATION

BSN student Eva Cancino administers the COVID-19 vaccine at the Credit Union 1 Arena in Chicago.

Making history

Prelicensure students in Chicago, Springfield and Urbana got an unprecedented learning opportunity by taking part in the mass COVID-19 vaccination effort.

Presches Keck, BSN ’21, says she hadn’t previously given an intramuscular injection as a bachelor’s degree nursing student in Springfield, although she’d practiced the skill in the simulation lab.

But she quickly became adept at it after giving more than 40 back-to-back COVID-19 vaccinations at a community vaccination clinic at HSHS St. John’s Hospital as part of her population health class. She and her classmates delivered some of the first COVID-19 vaccinations to the Springfield public.

“You would’ve thought it was Christmas for many of them,” she says. “It was nice to be a part of that moment for so many people.”

Hundreds of prelicensure UIC Nursing students across degree programs and campuses participated in the

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COVID-19 vaccination effort, both through classroom opportunities and as volunteers. Beyond offering feel-good moments, the vaccination clinics provided valuable learning experiences for students, many of whom had limited in-person clinical opportunities during the start of COVID-19.

“Our students and faculty have eagerly embraced this opportunity to be leaders and active participants in promoting and protecting the health of our community,” says Krista Jones, DNP ’11, MS ’07, RN, PHNA-BC, director of the Urbana campus. “For those students on the cusp of professional practice, this offers an evidence-based, service-learning opportunity to apply knowledge to practice and positively impact the health of our population. It is such a remarkably rewarding experience for them and our faculty.”

(left) Chicago nursing student Maria Escamilla administers COVID-19 vaccinations at Credit Union 1 Arena. (center) Springfield student Karly Schmitz takes part in the vaccine effort at St. John’s Hospital. (right) Jason Brooks, a pre-licensure master’s degree student in Urbana, administers COVID-19 vaccine at I Hotel in Champaign.

106,467

CHICAGO: 439 nursing students contributed to the vaccination effort at two clinics – an employee-only clinic and a public clinic at Credit Union 1 Arena—where 106,467 COVID-19 vaccinations were administered from December 2020 to July 2021.

600

SPRINGFIELD: BSN students in a population health class gave some of the first COVID-19 vaccinations to the Springfield public at HSHS St. John’s Hospital, vaccinating nearly 600 people in one day.

In Chicago, BSN student Jasmine Medina was so eager to begin giving vaccinations at a University Health Service clinic that she jumped on the opportunity to sign up as soon as it was available to juniors; she was at the clinic the very next day.

“I thought it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to meet healthcare workers and also to be able to gain more skills, since COVID has [limited] some of our opportunities and even cancelled some of our clinicals.”

Medina says she was nervous at first to administer the injections, but by her third patient, she was “rocking and rolling.” Later, she even had the honor of vaccinating then-Dean Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM, who, Medina recalls, took the opportunity to quiz her with a question about anticoagulants.

702 &152

URBANA: BSN and Master of Science/graduate-entry students provided COVID-19 vaccinations at the Vermilion County Health Department and at the I Hotel, supporting the efforts of the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District. The work comprised 702 student hours and 152 instruction hours

In Springfield, clinical instructor Jennie Van Schyndel, PhD, RN, says she was moved to see the students participate in “part of history.”

The experience allowed students to interact with seniors and other patients, educate them on the vaccine, make appointments, observe patients post-vaccination, and listen to their health histories and medications.

“Students were able to see how much effort it is for a healthcare organization to organize and efficiently carry out mass vaccination clinics,” says Van Schyndel. “They saw how hospital managers volunteered their time to be there and support the efforts. They interacted with senior citizens who came on a cold and icy day—many who thought they had won the lottery by being able to get their first dose.”

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 33

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

COVID from all angles HIV rates among Phoenix Matthews, PhD, professor and associate dean Black women for equity and inclusion, is involved in three critical areas of COVID-19 research: vetting the vaccine’s approval process, helping communities disproportionately affected by the virus, and outlining ways to conduct ethical research.

Vaccine confidence: Matthews was among three UIC faculty involved in the Chicago Scientific COVID-19 Vaccine Working Group. The group, convened by the Chicago Department of Public Health, was tasked with independently evaluating whether the proper scientific and regulatory review has taken place for authorizing emergency use for COVID-19 vaccines.

“Providing reassurances to community members about safety is critically important to the success of widespread vaccination programs,” Matthews said.

Community outreach: Matthews joined the Chicagoland COVID Collaborative, a multi-center group that is bolstering research and outreach to help communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

The UIC-led collaborative, supported by a $1.3 million NIH grant, will focus on strengthening COVID-19 vaccine confidence and access in Chicago-area Black and Latino communities, as well as improving access to testing, treatment and opportunities for clinical trial participation.

Ethical research: Matthews joined assistant professor Natasha Crooks, PhD, RN, in authoring a paper on how to ethically conduct research with Black populations in the context of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. It was published online in the Journal of Medical Ethics. “Our recommendations include understanding the impact of ongoing trauma, acknowledging historical context, ensuring diverse research teams and engaging in open and honest conversations with Black populations to better address their needs,” the authors wrote.

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Assistant professor Natasha Crooks, PhD, RN, explored sociocultural conditions that are contributing factors in higher rates of HIV and STIs among Black women as lead author in a paper published in the journal Social Science & Medicine.

These conditions include: being silenced about their sexuality; protecting Black men who may be transmitting infections; and cultural norms, stereotypes and messaging about sexuality.

“Our findings demonstrate the need for STI/HIV prevention programs to address these sociocultural conditions to improve Black female sexual health,” Crooks and her co-authors wrote in the paper.

“You can’t work to reduce STIs and HIV [among Black women] if you don’t understand their experiences.”

Despite the fact that Black women have fewer sex partners and are less likely to engage in unprotected sex, their chlamydia rates were five times those of white women, and gonorrhea rates were 8.8 times higher, according to CDC data for 2018. Among women diagnosed with HIV in 2016, 61% were Black, compared with 19% who were white, according to the CDC. “There was no framework or theories specific to Black women,” Crooks said. “That’s huge: You can’t work to reduce STIs and HIV in this population if you don’t understand their experiences.”

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

Managing suicide risk What should researchers do if a study participant reports suicidal thoughts?

Susan Dunn, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, UIC Nursing associate professor, explored this question as lead author in a paper that was published in the January/February edition of Nursing Research.

Although suicide screening tools are widely available for patients in emergency, hospital and primary care settings and have been used in research, there is a “significant gap” in the availability of published suicide risk management protocols for use in research studies, the authors wrote.

COVID cleaning an asthma trigger?

Those with asthma are experiencing less asthma control related to an increase in using household disinfectants — known asthma triggers — because of COVID-19, according to a survey co-conducted by University of Illinois Chicago researchers.

Results of the survey, co-led by UIC Nursing associate professor Kamal Eldeirawi, PhD, RN, FAAN, are published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice.

Because of this, Dunn, who is conducting an NIH-funded study on hopelessness in cardiac patients, says she developed a protocol “from the ground up” to identify, measure and act on suicidal ideation expressed by study participants.

“The reason I wanted to publish the protocol is so that others can use it as a model for their own research,” she says. “How many studies are assessing for suicidal ideation? I think that’s a significant issue. It’s not always being assessed in high-risk patients.”

Age-adjusted suicide rates increased 30% from 2000 to 2016, according to the paper, and Dunn says they’re even higher now due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the online survey, conducted between May and September 2020, adults with asthma answered questions about handwashing and hand sanitizer use, household disinfectant use and frequency. They also were asked five questions about asthma symptoms, use of rescue medications, and effect of asthma on daily functioning.

Researchers observed significant associations of frequent disinfectant use since the pandemic with uncontrolled asthma. And, while the researchers did not collect data on increases in health care providers’ or ER visits for asthma, a large percentage of the respondents indicated having had an asthma attack, Eldeirawi said.

“We became concerned with increased cleaning and disinfecting related to the COVID-19 pandemic. This, combined with spending more time indoors, may expose people with asthma to more environmental triggers for asthma symptoms,” Eldeirawi said. “This prompted our interest in studying the impact of disinfectants and asthma control among those living with asthma.”

Cleaning products are considered respiratory irritants that cause inflammation and bronchial hyperresponsiveness, Eldeirawi explained.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2020 | 35

RESEARCH ROUND-UP

Disrupting “mother-blaming”

Generational effects of Rwandan genocide

Poor birth outcomes in marmoset monkeys—such as stillbirth or early neonatal death—were not predictable based on adult maternal characteristics, such as age or weight gain during pregnancy, according to a study led by associate professor Julienne Rutherford, PhD.

A study led by Glorieuse Uwizeye, PhD ’20, finds that Rwandans who were conceived by mothers who survived the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi have poorer adult health outcomes than those who were conceived by Rwandan mothers living outside the country at that time.

That’s important because the findings could translate to humans, where it could “disrupt mother-blaming narratives of pregnancy outcomes,” wrote Rutherford and her co-authors in a paper published in the journal PLOS One.

In addition, those who were conceived through genocidal rape have poorer adult health outcomes than those conceived by genocide survivors who were not raped. The findings were published in Social Science and Medicine.

“So much guilt and shame around pregnancy loss is in part because of our focus on lifestyle, and the individualist emphasis on personal responsibility complicates our ability to address the problems that are deeper, structural and intergenerational,” Rutherford said.

“So much guilt and shame around pregnancy loss is in part because of our focus on lifestyle.”

More than 1 million Rwandans were killed during the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda from April 7 to July 4, 1994. It is estimated that 100,000 to 250,000 women were raped during the 100-day genocide, and that 10,000 children were born as a result.

Uwizeye, a Rwandan genocide survivor and now an anthropology postdoctoral fellow of the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth, conducted the research for this study as part of her dissertation while a doctoral student at the UIC College of Nursing. Her PhD advisor, associate professor Julienne Rutherford, PhD, is senior author on the paper.

PHOTO CREDIT: KATHY WEST

Instead, the researchers found that a marmoset monkey’s own experiences in the womb and at birth were associated with early neonatal death for her offspring.

Female marmosets who were triplet-born or born at lower birth weights had greater rates of infant loss during the first week of life when they became mothers.

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UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE

(left) Peggi White, MS ’89, UIC Nursing-Urbana simulation lab coordinator, and her son, Beau Barber, pose for a photo after running a 5K together, one year after Barber’s surgery. Both medaled in their age divisions. (top) Beau Barber recovers in the hospital after a surgery to remove a benign tumor. His experience after surgery inspired Peggi White’s idea for a better wound drain device.

URBANA

Faculty member wins seed money for wound drain device After her son’s surgery, Peggi White, MS ’89, FNP-BC, CADC, MAC, who graduated from the Peoria campus, worked to develop an innovative wound drain holder.

After surgery to remove a golf ball-sized tumor from under his tongue, Peggi White’s oldest son, Beau Barber, had a Jackson-Pratt drain inserted in his neck to help remove excess fluid.

Barber noticed whenever his gown moved—a frequent occurrence—it pulled at the drain and caused strain on the insertion point.

“Mom, there has to be a better system for this,” White recalls her son saying.

White agreed. But even though she had ideas for a less cumbersome drain holder, she had “no way to follow up on them,” she says.

Then, while working as simulation lab coordinator at UIC Nursing in Urbana, a representative from the mechanical engineering department inquired if White had any ideas for capstone senior projects. It was the opportunity she’d been seeking. White soon began working on a design for a wound drain holder with four engineering students:

Faisal AlSayed, Jacey Lambert, Poom Prasopsukh and Amol Rairikar. Together, they developed a protoype of the device.

With assistance from UIC’s Office of Technology Management, White received a provisional patent at the end of last year. She also recently won a grant through the 2021 Chancellor’s Translational Research Initiative to advance her research toward commercialization.

The innovation grant, worth up to $25,000, will allow her to reproduce the prototype and possibly pursue a clinical trial.

Barber’s tumor was benign, and he is now a doctoral student in agricultural and biological engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Even though my son has fully recovered, this collaboration will hopefully result in a product that will improve the comfort of wound drains for many more individuals,” White says.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 37

UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE SPRINGFIELD

McPherson named director of Springfield Campus Assistant clinical professor Sara McPherson, PhD, RN, CNE, has taken the helm at the Springfield Campus.

Sara McPherson

Cynthia Reese

McPherson has been with UIC Nursing since 2016, assuming several informal leadership roles in the college. She has coordinated many courses, including foundations and medical/surgical nursing, helping to orient faculty in the lab and clinical settings, and she brings a substantial amount of expertise in pedagogy and simulation.

“Dr. McPherson’s knowledge of simulation helped [us] develop the curriculum to better prepare our students,” said then-Dean Terri Weaver, PhD, RN, FAAN, ATSF, FAASM, at the time of McPherson’s appointment. “She has been a tremendous asset as we transitioned to more online and lab activities during the pandemic.”

Weaver added: “She consistently mentors faculty… . Her work with both full-time and part-time faculty has helped us recruit and retain some excellent educators on our Springfield campus.”

As a scholar, McPherson has worked with bedside nurses to conduct a study on their comfort with implementing evidence-based practice, and is currently conducting a study on fear of COVID-19 and job satisfaction among rural Magnet hospital nurses.

Named to the Illinois Nurses Foundation 2020 list of “40 Under 40 Emerging Nurse Leaders,” she was also recently named a Nurse Educator Fellow by the Illinois Board of Higher Education. McPherson also serves on the Board of the Illinois League for Nursing.

McPherson succeeds the campus's inaugural director, Cynthia Reese, PhD, RN, CNE, who retired in August 2021.

During her tenure, Reese led the recruitment of UIC Nursing-Springfield faculty, the initiation of new clinical placements, and the procurement of office and classroom space. She was instrumental in securing more than $188,000 over three years to help build the nursing simulation lab in Springfield. All along, she was a key player in forging and maintaining the campus’s critical relationships with the University of Illinois Springfield and Memorial Health System.

“Dr. Reese’s contributions to the Springfield campus, to the college and to the university, as well as to the discipline of nursing, have been exemplary,” Weaver noted in announcing Reese’s retirement. “I am thankful to have had her as a leader on our faculty.”

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Cheers!

Director of the UIC Nursing-Quad Cities campus, Kathleen Sparbel, PhD, MS ‘96, FNP-BC, has assumed an additional leadership role as interim head of the college’s Department of Population Health Nursing Science.

A clinical associate professor, Sparbel is in her 26th year on the faculty at UIC Nursing. She joined the Quad Cities Campus in 1995 and was named director there in 2012.

UIC Nursing AROUND THE STATE PEORIA

ROCKFORD

Peoria campus goes virtual

Rural Nursing program honored

The UIC Nursing campus in Peoria has become fully virtual in accord with changes to the college’s doctor of nursing practice program and as the successes of remote operations during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic become clear. The transition was effective in August 2021.

Throughout the pandemic, UIC Nursing faculty members’ competency in online educational delivery has risen from proficient to expert, says Susan Corbridge, PhD ’09, APRN, executive associate dean and interim director of the Peoria campus, who notes that the college prides itself on a strong focus on community building and student engagement in online education.

“We’re embracing new technologies in education and healthcare, and the virtual campus model is a forward-thinking part of that evolution,” says Corbridge.

“Brick-and-mortar is no longer a mission-critical investment for us in Peoria. Instead, we plan to invest in collaborations with alumni, preceptors, community partners, and the U of I College of Medicine in Peoria to grow our presence in the region.”

Corbridge adds that all DNP students enrolled at the virtual campus continue to have access to the library and study rooms at the UIC campus in Peoria, and also still receive academic advising, tutoring services, faculty access, and personalized support from the campus director and their DNP focus area director—all delivered virtually.

Moreover, UIC Nursing students in Peoria will still enjoy high-quality clinical placements in the area.

“Those relationships with preceptors mean we’re still very much in Peoria,” Corbridge notes. “We’re just not tying students to a physical location for classes.”

“The pandemic showed us how much we can do, and do efficiently, in virtual environments,” says Sarah Overton, MS ’17, BSN ’10, an alumna of UIC Nursing’s Peoria campus and now vice president/chief nursing officer of clinical services at OSF Multispecialty Services. “I’ll always have great affection for the physical place where I got my [master’s] degree, but I’m proud to see my alma mater looking forward, adapting to current realities, and being a good steward of resources.”

Kelly Rosenberger, DNP ’12, CNM, WHNP-BC, FAANP, director of the UIC Nursing-Rockford campus, was recognized for her work on the interprofessional Rural Health Professions Program with one of only two I-TEAM Awards from UIC’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs. Rosenberger was among an interdisciplinary team from the University of Illinois Health Sciences Campus in Rockford to garner the award, which honors faculty and staff who have demonstrated excellence in interprofessional practice and education through teaching innovation.

Field trip! Nursing, pharmacy and medical students in the Rural Health Professions Program observe first responders training for farm-accident rescues in Freeport, Illinois.

“The mission [of the program] is clear and specific: to meet the healthcare needs of rural Illinois residents through collaborative projects involving multiple health professions,” wrote Alex Stagnaro-Green, MD, MHPE, Rockford Regional Dean of the College of Medicine, when he nominated the program for the award.

Rosenberger is the founding director of the “RNURSING” concentration, which helps advanced practice nursing students develop the specialized skills for practicing in rural settings. It was first offered to DNP students at the Rockford campus in 2016 and was made available to DNP students at all six UIC Nursing campuses a year later.

In early 2021, Rosenberger and counterparts in the Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy conducted a mixed-methods program evaluation—collecting quantitative and qualitative data—and found that students from the three colleges benefitted from, and were satisfied with, the interprofessional education and collaborative practice offered in the program. The study findings were published in May in the Journal of Nursing Education and Practice.

VITAL SIGNS FALL 2021 | 39

CHICAGO PROFESSIONAL COLLEGES – OFFICE OF PUBLIC INFORMATION – CPC NEWS, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS & UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO.

LookingBack

(above) Director Emily C. Cardew’s door was the backdrop when student Penelope Carson modeled a new uniform design in February 1955. (right) In 1959, Henry Tesch, physical plant painter, modifies the door signage as student Patricia Blaser, BSN ’60, a junior, looks on.

“Student nurses here found themselves going to school one day—and to college the next.”

So began an article in the February 1959 issue of CPC News, a publication for the professional colleges— Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmacy—at the University of Illinois in Chicago. The article was reporting on the Jan. 20 Board of Trustees meeting, during which a unanimous vote changed the name of the university’s School of Nursing to College of Nursing. Administrators wasted no time making it official. Within days of the trustees’ meeting, the office door of Emily C. Cardew—program Dean Emily C. Cardew director for 10 years—was relettered to indicate the new status of the college, and her new role as the first dean of the University of Illinois College of Nursing.

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Let UIC Nursing be part of your professional development Follow us on LinkedIn at linkedin.com/school/ uic-college-of-nursing. Alumni, be sure to choose UIC College of Nursing as your alma mater in your profile.

Join us for On Duty, our new webinar series featuring faculty and alumni experts. On Jan. 26, Geraldine Gorman, PhD, RN, will present “Restorative justice and resilience.”

Register at go.uic.edu/NursingAlumEvents.

Enroll in our Alumni Mentor Program (AMP) when enrollment re-opens in spring 2022.

Keep an eye on your email for details in the Alumni & Friends Newsletter, or visit go.uic.edu/nursingAMP. And keep us posted on your news by visiting go.uic.edu/NursingAlumUpdate.

Janice Phillips, PhD ’93 (left) and Karelle Webb, BSN ’16, enjoy a mutual appreciation as mentor and mentee in the UIC College of Nursing Alumni Mentor Program. Read more on p. 11.