STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
MS student helps lead interprofessional team to a win Consider this real-world question: How do you solve the problem of an encampment of more than 300 homeless individuals in south Minneapolis who are experiencing an increasing number of healthcare emergencies?
That was the dilemma put before Jennifer Neely, a nursing student in the graduate-entry master’s degree program. Luckily, she didn’t have to try to solve it alone. Neely was part of a group of four UIC students from across healthcare disciplines who worked on a recommended solution as part of the 2019 CLARION National Interprofessional Case Competition, hosted by the University of Minnesota’s CLARION board. Neely and her group, the IHI (Institute for Healthcare Improvement) UIC Open School chapter team, placed first in the competition on April 13, 2019, with a proposal based on two proven models: Street Medicine, the practice of providing on-site care in the camp, and Housing First, providing housing and ongoing care. They got support from co-faculty advisors Marianne Durham, DNP, RN, CPPS, UIC Nursing clinical assistant professor, and Frank Borgers, UIC School of Public Health clinical assistant professor.
Neely, left, poses with her team at the 2019 CLARION National Interprofessional Case Competition.
When asked what she learned from the experience, Neely says, “Working in silos will not solve big problems; only broad, dedicated, equitable teams can even get close.”
BSN student wins first place in MNRS research competitions Brooklyn Hastings, who graduated with her BSN in May 2019, was honored last spring with two big awards for her research on quality of life among sickle cell disease patients who have received stem cell transplants. At the Midwest Nursing Research Society conference in late March, she won first place among bachelor’s degree students in a poster competition. She also won the best student paper award, which meant her manuscript was published in August by the Western Journal of Nursing Research. That award also comes with $500 from Sage Publishing. Her mentors were Crystal Patil, PhD, associate professor and head of the Department of Women, Children and Family Health Science, and Agatha Gallo, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor emerita.
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College of Nursing
Hastings poses with her poster at the MNRS conference in Kansas City, Missouri.