The Latest News from the School of Nursing

When Corrie O’Hara, DNP ’13, was 18 years old, she wanted to become a physician – that all changed, though, when at the end of her senior year in high school she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

University at Buffalo School of Nursing’s Post-Master’s DNP Program is designed for full-time employed specialty-certified advanced practice nurses with a desire to improve clinical outcomes via application of the latest evidencebased science and innovation in practice. The program builds on the clinical preparation of NPs, CNSs and CRNAs, supporting professional nurses in their endeavor to reach their full potential.

Greetings!

After spending close to two decades working in home care, Suzanne Sullivan, MBA, RN, wanted to make an impact on patient care in the community, so when it came time for her to choose a dissertation topic for her PhD program, she needed to look no further than her extensive nursing career experience to find her focus.

As a registered nurse at Taiwan’s National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) Hospital in the early 1990s, then later as an instructor in the child psychiatric unit of Taipei City Psychiatry Center, Jui-Ying Feng, DNS ‘03, RN, PNP, recognized the role of health care and social resource disparities in outcomes for abused children and their families. She has since carved a considerable path in child maltreatment research and education.

A rising star among our young alumni, Christina Slota, BS ’09, came to the University at Buffalo to fulfill her dream of becoming a nurse practitioner, a career she felt was her destiny. Slota grew into a young adult amidst an assemblage of nurses – her mother and many aunts – but, somewhere along the way, she fell in love with research.

Following a slight detour from her desired path, Slota’s focus shifted during her junior year at UB. Slota, seeking out research assistantships, began working with Emeritus Professor Janice Feigenbaum, PhD, RN, on a literature review of parents recovering from addiction and, after being awarded a Lois Widly Scholarship, the group presented their work at a conference in Georgia.

Now immersed in research and scholarship, Slota paired with Associate Professor Mary Ann Meeker, DNS, RN, to investigate family caregiver issues. She assisted with a UB SON- and National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded qualitative descriptive content analysis of focus groups to identify needs of inner-city caregivers – it was these projects that ignited her initial interest in caregiver stress, a topic that has become her research area of interest and life’s work. These early research experiences, along with her work as a nurse’s aide on a hospice unit, became the prime motivators for her pursuit of a career in nursing research.

Slota says her desire to pursue a PhD was cultivated by UB’s great educational environment, coupled with the abundance of opportunity for student scholarship. Post-graduation, she went on to the University of Pennsylvania and earned her master’s in nursing in 2010, a master’s in bio-ethics in 2012 and a PhD in 2014, all while funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research as an NIH fellow. Slota dedicated herself to three years of dissertation research at the NIH Clinical Center working with Lt. Cmdr. Margaret Bevans, PhD, RN, AOCN.

Eager to share her experiences and guide current and former students interested in furthering their education, Slota emphasizes curiosity and connections – to professors, to nurses, to researchers, to other students and to ideas. She urges them to query faculty about possible pathways, to immerse themselves in the field by shadowing a nurse practitioner or researcher, to network with other students sharing similar interests, and to be determined.

Currently a nurse research specialist at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences at the NIH, Slota is a clinical coordinator researching patient-reported outcomes and quality of life for rare genetic disorders.

Slota credits Feigenbaum and Meeker with nurturing her passion for research: “They took me under their wings, supporting and mentoring me throughout my undergraduate studies. I owe them both a lot for all the support they have given me throughout this process.”

She also praises UB for helping her form lifelong friendships with classmates who continue to support her through this arduous journey of making her dream a reality.

UB SON alumna (MS ’83) Dianne Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, senior associate vice president of USF Health at the University of South Florida and dean of the College of Nursing, was recently selected for induction into the 2015 International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI). She is one of 19 nurse scientists from around the world, including Australia, Belgium, Canada and the United States, to receive this coveted award.

The University at Buffalo (UB) Center for the Arts was the backdrop for a special night set aside to honor those extraordinary individuals who, with their remarkable achievements, embody UB’s local and global impact. The UB School of Nursing (SON) is especially proud that one of our own, Rear Admiral Rebecca McCormick-Boyle, BS ‘81, is a recipient of the UB Alumni Association (UBAA) Distinguished Alumni Award for 2015. Her many accomplishments, along with her outstanding leadership, were recognized and celebrated by the university and the Western New York community.

In 2014, a group of UB School of Nursing RN-BS students, Ann Duignan, RN; Naghma Mustafa, RN; Michelle Poole, RN; Leah Puckett, RN; and Jacqueline Somma, RN, PCCN, used their quality improvement project as an opportunity to attack an issue that is common and costly in terms of both lives and resources, for individuals and institutions – catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI), the most frequently reported health condition acquired at hospitals, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA).

Partnering with our area hospitals and health care providers, UB School of Nursing has opened several new Dedicated Education Units (DEU) to provide more clinical opportunities in this collaborative undergraduate learning environment. The new sites include a 26 bed telemetry unit at the Catholic Health Systems Sisters Hospital, St. Joseph Campus; a medical-surgical unit at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital; a medical-surgical/oncology/hospice unit at Sisters of Charity Hospital; and a perioperative surgical unit at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. With the addition of these four sites, the SON now offers undergraduate students experiences in a total of 15 DEUs comprised of 18 nursing units in both inpatient and hospice settings throughout WNY. On June 17, the SON held its third annual DEU collaborative partnership meeting. All DEU partners were represented and discussed ongoing opportunities to collaborate in sustaining the DEU, potential expansion of the DEU into additional specialty areas such as critical care and ED, and ways to strengthen the undergraduate nursing program to bridge the gap between academia and practice.

This is not how your typical Buffalonian would experience winter – unless, of course, you’re one of those fortunate UB nursing students who took advantage of Clinical Assistant Professor Joann Sands’ winter intersession course, Community Engagement Across Populations. Now in its second year, this unique study abroad opportunity offers students a chance to immerse themselves in a culture outside of the United States, encouraging them to absorb new and exciting personal and professional perspectives on life and health. Returning to Belize for a second year, Sands’ group, which consisted of nine UB students and three Pace University students, visited two villages, More Tomorrow and Franks Eddy, for nine days in early January 2015.

Concurrent success – and sanity – in athletics and academics is a careful balancing act, one with which Erika Bradley, a traditional BS nursing student at the UB School of Nursing (SON), is well acquainted.

Something old, something new: A marriage of existing resources and novel approaches.