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GW Nursing Magazine Fall 2017

GW Nursing is a publication of the George Washington University School of Nursing. The magazine tells the story of GW nurses and their endeavors in the areas of education, research, policy and practice.

GW Nursing is a publication of the George Washington University School of Nursing. The magazine tells the story of GW nurses and their endeavors in the areas of education, research, policy and practice.

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The George Washington University / School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

FALL <strong>2017</strong><br />

Transforming Health Care<br />

Across the Life Span<br />

Through Education, Practice,<br />

Research and Policy


Table of Contents<br />

Features<br />

Departments<br />

From the Dean 3<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> News 4<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> At Home<br />

and Around the World 22<br />

Faculty, Student<br />

and Staff News 24<br />

Meet the Advisory Council 36<br />

Philanthropy News 37<br />

Alumni News 38<br />

10<br />

Transforming Health Care<br />

Across the Life Span—Through<br />

Education, Practice, Research<br />

and Policy<br />

Throughout one’s life, from beginning to<br />

end, nurses are there at every step of the way.<br />

They help to celebrate the happy moments<br />

of birth, care for growing children and<br />

families, offer guidance for healthy adults<br />

and ease the sorrow at the end of life.<br />

18<br />

Introducing: A Cadre of Health<br />

Policy and Media Influencers<br />

Senior fellows at the new <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Center for Health Policy and Media<br />

Engagement work to influence policy<br />

and engage the media, with the goal of<br />

integrating science and the arts to advance<br />

the health of populations.<br />

The George Washington University<br />

THOMAS LEBLANC<br />

PRESIDENT<br />

School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

PAMELA JEFFRIES<br />

DEAN AND PROFESSOR<br />

<strong>GW</strong><strong>Nursing</strong><br />

MANAGING EDITOR<br />

DAVID BIGLARI<br />

CONSULTING EDITOR<br />

LYNN SCHULTZ-WRITSEL<br />

PHOTO EDITOR<br />

ERIN JULIUS<br />

WRITERS AND CONTENT CONTRIBUTORS<br />

AMANDA CHARNEY<br />

ANDREW FRAUGHT<br />

ERIN HARKINS-MEDINA<br />

ERIN JULIUS<br />

MONICA KRZYSZCZYK<br />

REESE RACKETS<br />

PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />

ERIN JULIUS<br />

REESE RACKETS<br />

DESIGN AND EDITING<br />

DIVISION OF EXTERNAL RELATIONS<br />

RACHEL MUIR<br />

MARKETING AND CREATIVE SERVICES<br />

HEATHER OESTERLING (Design and Illustration)<br />

JOSH SCHIMMERLING (Project Management)<br />

<strong>GW</strong><strong>Nursing</strong> is published biannually by:<br />

GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY<br />

SCHOOL OF NURSING<br />

1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW<br />

Suite 500<br />

Washington, DC 20006-5818<br />

Telephone: 202–994–7901<br />

Email: sonmarketing@gwu.edu<br />

Website: nursing.gwu.edu<br />

Comments, letters, advertising and change<br />

of address notices are welcome.<br />

©<strong>2017</strong> The George Washington University<br />

The George Washington University is<br />

an equal opportunity/affirmative action<br />

university.


From the Dean<br />

Remain curious and keep learning.<br />

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of<br />

a fire.”<br />

—W.B. Yeats<br />

Lifelong learning—whether in the form of continuing education, professional<br />

nursing certification or the pursuit of advanced and terminal nursing degrees—<br />

has become essential for all nurses. The practicing nurse, the researcher, the<br />

administrator and the academic must all remain curious and continue to<br />

seek knowledge.<br />

Our learning will be driven by the complexity and instability of the health<br />

care environment, the changing academic demands of preparing new nurses,<br />

new research, determination of best practices and the need to serve diverse<br />

populations and cultures. We must learn to address the evolving needs of our<br />

patients and our students and understand what they experience as they and<br />

the world around them change.<br />

And we must learn to advocate for ourselves and our profession. With<br />

health care laws and policies in flux, staying abreast of and involved in new<br />

developments will help translate nursing practice into health policy that<br />

shapes safe and high-quality care.<br />

It is the role of the educators, administrators and other nursing leaders<br />

to light a fire for knowledge and then nourish that flame. From the day the<br />

nursing student enters a program, the novice nurse walks into a facility or<br />

the newly minted advanced degree nurse joins a faculty or research team,<br />

each must be guided, advised and mentored—with a mindfulness of their<br />

importance to the future of health care and the profession of nursing. No<br />

amount of burnout, budget cuts, professional obstacles or limited resources<br />

can be allowed to extinguish that flame or diminish the curiosity that leads to<br />

a lifetime of learning.<br />

Now there are few barriers to stoking that fire and sparking curiosity. In<br />

today’s world of multiple educational opportunities and environments, the<br />

nurse can search out knowledge online, in a hospital, at a nursing school and<br />

at numerous professional conferences. Learning is all around today’s nurse,<br />

making the individual, the profession and, most importantly, patient care the<br />

better for it.<br />

Lifelong learning is an obligation and a privilege for us all.<br />

Pamela R. Jeffries, phd, rn, faan, anef<br />

Dean and Professor<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 3


<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> News<br />

<strong>GW</strong> NURSING<br />

LAUNCHES DIVERSITY<br />

INITIATIVE, NAMES<br />

INAUGURAL LEADER<br />

Changing U.S. demographics, diversityfocused<br />

health care systems and persistent<br />

health inequities—both domestic and<br />

international—are the forces that spurred<br />

an initiative accelerating and expanding<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s diversity, equity and<br />

inclusion efforts.<br />

“We are embarking on an important<br />

and major priority for the school. Diversity,<br />

equity and inclusion are essential to<br />

providing excellence in nursing education<br />

and preparing the workforce of the future,”<br />

said Dean Pamela Jeffries in her charge to<br />

the initiative’s advisory group formed in<br />

the spring of <strong>2017</strong>.<br />

Co-chaired by Associate Professor<br />

Sandra Davis and MSN Program Associate<br />

Christine Yeh, the council was tasked<br />

by Dr. Jeffries with using the American<br />

Association of Colleges of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

position statement on diversity, equity<br />

and inclusion as a guide for developing<br />

recommendations to promote those issues<br />

throughout the school.<br />

The council centered its work on<br />

the themes of diversity, equity, inclusion<br />

and social justice and tailored a strategic<br />

plan for the school that focuses on four<br />

areas: leadership and accountability;<br />

recruitment and retention; social<br />

transformation; and education, research,<br />

scholarship and service. In addition to the<br />

strategic plan, council members created<br />

a diversity statement and an evaluation<br />

plan to measure the school’s progress in<br />

developing, implementing and sustaining<br />

key indicators of the strategic plan.<br />

As a new school initiative and George<br />

Washington University priority, the<br />

creation of a leadership role in this<br />

area was one of the council’s essential<br />

recommendations. Dr. Jeffries named<br />

Dr. Davis to serve as <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s<br />

inaugural assistant dean for diversity,<br />

equity and inclusion. Dr. Davis will work<br />

to address issues, challenges and barriers<br />

to promote diversity, equity and inclusion<br />

throughout its programs, initiatives<br />

and personnel.<br />

The council also recommended<br />

the establishment of a diversity, equity<br />

and inclusion speaker series to include<br />

professional development workshops<br />

and presentations and to conduct an<br />

annual diversity, equity and inclusion<br />

climate survey.<br />

“At a time of so much unrest in our<br />

nation, the council’s work is important<br />

to the school, university and higher<br />

education,” said Dr. Jeffries.<br />

4 /


It is important that students<br />

are educated in learning<br />

environments that are<br />

representative of the diverse<br />

population they will serve<br />

and where their assumptions<br />

are challenged and<br />

perspectives broadened.”<br />

—Sandra Davis, PHD, DPM,<br />

CRNP-BC<br />

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND ASSISTANT DEAN FOR<br />

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION<br />

Dr. Davis began her career in podiatry, where<br />

she spent several years in private practice before<br />

transitioning to a career in nursing. She has been in<br />

academia for over 17 years, serving in both faculty<br />

and administrative roles, and she currently teaches in<br />

the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> MSN program. Her research focuses<br />

on health equity, social determinants of health and<br />

simulation in nursing. In 2016, Dr. Davis was selected<br />

as an American Association of Colleges of <strong>Nursing</strong>/<br />

Wharton Executive Leadership Fellow.<br />

Before being appointed to the newly created<br />

assistant dean role, Dr. Davis was the director of<br />

the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Adult-Gerontology Primary Care<br />

Nurse Practitioner program. In her new role, she will<br />

continue to roll out further recommendations as they<br />

are developed by her advisory council.<br />

MEMBERS OF THE<br />

ADVISORY COUNCIL<br />

FOR DIVERSITY,<br />

EQUITY AND<br />

INCLUSION<br />

Dean Pamela Jeffries and the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> leadership<br />

thank the members of the council for their time and<br />

exemplary efforts.<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Co-Chairs<br />

»»<br />

Sandra Davis, associate professor and assistant<br />

dean for diversity, equity and inclusion<br />

»»<br />

Christine Yeh, MSN program associate<br />

Faculty<br />

»»<br />

Kimberly Acquaviva, professor<br />

»»<br />

Erin Athey, assistant professor<br />

»»<br />

JoAnn Conroy, clinical assistant professor<br />

»»<br />

Maritza Dowling, assistant professor<br />

»»<br />

Dana Hines, assistant professor<br />

»»<br />

Karen Kesten, associate professor<br />

»»<br />

Mayri Leslie, assistant professor<br />

»»<br />

Karen Wyche, research professor<br />

Staff<br />

»»<br />

David Biglari, director of marketing<br />

and communications<br />

»»<br />

Gina Gerard, human resources manager<br />

»»<br />

Jenny McCauley, student services specialist<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 5


<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> News<br />

<strong>GW</strong> NURSING<br />

WELCOMES<br />

NEW UNIVERSITY<br />

PRESIDENT<br />

Dean Pamela Jeffries welcomes<br />

Thomas LeBlanc, who began his tenure<br />

on Aug. 1 as the 17th president of<br />

the George Washington University.<br />

Dr. LeBlanc previously served as executive<br />

vice president, provost and professor<br />

of computer science and electrical and<br />

computer engineering at the University<br />

of Miami.<br />

ENTREPRENEURIAL PROGRAMS<br />

SUPPORT LEADERSHIP AND LEARNING<br />

Educational and informational<br />

opportunities for senior health care leaders,<br />

high school students and simulation<br />

and palliative care specialists are among<br />

the recent programs offered by <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>’s Division of Entrepreneurial<br />

Enterprises (DEE), the school’s business<br />

strategy concept.<br />

Through collaborations and<br />

partnerships with corporations,<br />

professional societies, hospitals and health<br />

care systems and nonprofit organizations,<br />

the DEE offers state-of-the art learning<br />

and information-sharing experiences<br />

conducted in the nation’s capital, in<br />

Virginia and online.<br />

Partnering for Leadership<br />

UnitedHealth Group (UHG), a major U.S.<br />

diversified health and well-being company,<br />

continues to turn to <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> to<br />

prepare clinicians for executive leadership<br />

roles. In partnership with the UHG Center<br />

for Clinician Advancement, the DEE’s<br />

Clinician Leadership Executive Program<br />

engages senior clinician leaders across<br />

UHG’s many business lines. Participants<br />

develop and hone their executive mindset<br />

and presence, leadership abilities, ability<br />

to drive system change and capacity to<br />

advocate on behalf of the UHG enterprise.<br />

This year’s program transitioned from<br />

a nursing-centric program to one with a<br />

rigorous and customized interprofessional<br />

perspective—and the size of the cohort<br />

increased by 20 percent. Associate<br />

Professor Kate Malliarakis was the lead<br />

faculty member, and numerous other<br />

faculty members and external experts<br />

participated. The curriculum is tailored<br />

each year to meet the evolving needs of<br />

UHG and that year’s cohort.<br />

Creating a High School Pipeline<br />

More than 350 high school students who<br />

are interested in careers in health care<br />

came to <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> this summer from<br />

across the country to participate in an<br />

elite pipeline program. Envision, a leading<br />

experiential education organization<br />

offering opportunities to explore<br />

career and life interests, partnered with<br />

the DEE to stage hands-on activities<br />

and simulations designed from an<br />

interprofessional perspective and relevant<br />

to health professions and topics in the<br />

media today. Students also learned about<br />

the nursing profession and educational<br />

pathways. Nearly 60 BSN students were<br />

brought in to help facilitate the program,<br />

and Simulation Learning and Innovation<br />

Center Director Patricia Davis served as<br />

the lead faculty member.<br />

Showcasing Simulation and the<br />

School to the World<br />

Nurse educators from across the country<br />

and around the globe—including Canada,<br />

Iran, Puerto Rico, South Korea and<br />

6 /


Through the Envision program, high school students are introduced<br />

to the use of simulation in nursing education.<br />

Turkey—attended the <strong>2017</strong> International<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Association for Clinical<br />

Simulation and Learning (INACSL) preconference<br />

at <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>, the INACSL<br />

conference host school. Sponsored by<br />

Laerdal, the pre-conference brought<br />

attendees to the school’s Simulation<br />

Learning and Innovation Center.<br />

In her pre-conference keynote,<br />

Dr. Jeffries addressed the state of nursing<br />

simulation science and presented her<br />

groundbreaking NLN Jeffries Simulation<br />

Theory. Immersion sessions based on the<br />

theory included environmental realism,<br />

pediatric learning through simulation,<br />

using a quality and safety framework,<br />

outcome evaluation and use of technology.<br />

Sessions were led by Assistant Professor<br />

Patricia Davis, Clinical Instructors<br />

Elizabeth Choma and Julia Clark, and<br />

Instructor Christine Seaton.<br />

_____________________________________<br />

Contact sondee@gwu.edu to collaborate<br />

with the DEE and to use <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> as a<br />

venue for an academic event.<br />

VETERANS’ PROGRAM RECEIVES<br />

RENEWED FEDERAL FUNDING<br />

The Health Resources and Services<br />

Administration (HRSA) of the U.S.<br />

Department of Health and Human<br />

Services has renewed a grant<br />

supporting the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Veterans<br />

Bachelor of Science in <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

(VBSN) program.<br />

Graduates of the program, which<br />

was launched in 2014 with an initial<br />

grant of $1 million from the HRSA, now<br />

number 34; 33 students are currently<br />

enrolled, and approximately 25 more<br />

are scheduled to start in the fall<br />

semester. The new grant of more than<br />

$1 million will continue to help provide<br />

on-site support services for veteran<br />

nursing students, including dedicated<br />

study space and academic advising,<br />

counseling and tutoring tailored to<br />

veterans’ needs.<br />

The VBSN program offers a curricular<br />

road map based on prior education,<br />

military service and experience. “We<br />

have had students who went to the<br />

armed forces academies, others who<br />

have a master’s degree, and some<br />

who begin with an associate’s degree<br />

or no degree at all,” said Assistant<br />

Professor Gretchen Wiersma, director<br />

of the program. “We look at what<br />

the veterans did within their service<br />

and figure out how to build on those<br />

skills.” <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> is ranked No. 10<br />

in the U.S. News & World Report Best<br />

Online Master's in <strong>Nursing</strong> Programs<br />

for Veterans.<br />

“While looking for schools, it got<br />

discouraging to see the lack of credit,<br />

both actual and implied, given to<br />

soldiers for their time and education in<br />

the military,” said VBSN student Tricia<br />

Hanson, Cohort 12. During her search,<br />

she found the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> VBSN<br />

program to be veteran-centric, with a<br />

high NCLEX pass rate and unparalleled<br />

use of state-of-the-art equipment and<br />

simulation centers.


<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> News<br />

EXPANDED SPACE<br />

CREATES NEW<br />

OPPORTUNITIES<br />

George Washington Provost Forrest<br />

Maltzman visited the Virginia Science and<br />

Technology Campus last spring, touring<br />

the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Simulation Learning and<br />

Innovation Center and hearing firsthand<br />

from students and faculty about the<br />

school’s space needs. As a result, three<br />

capital improvement projects are now<br />

underway: a student success center, an<br />

OSCE (Observed Structured Clinical<br />

Examination) simulation lab, and an<br />

Patty Davis, former director of the simulation labs,<br />

served as tour guide for Provost Maltzman’s visit.<br />

instructional design and media center. All<br />

three projects will be completed by the end<br />

of 2019, and each focuses on the school’s<br />

“students first” mantra by investing in<br />

infrastructure for quality and excellence in<br />

education that ensures student success.<br />

NEW FACULTY<br />

AND STAFF JOIN<br />

A GROWING<br />

SCHOOL<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> continues to add faculty and<br />

professional staff as its programs expand<br />

and faculty support is enhanced. Since<br />

early spring, seven new faculty have come<br />

on board and 14 additional staff positions<br />

have been filled.<br />

Acute and Chronic Care Community<br />

Cynthia Allen, PhD, APRN, FNP-<br />

BC, is an assistant professor teaching<br />

in the Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)<br />

program. She has been a nurse practitioner<br />

for over 22 years and has practiced<br />

in settings such as family medicine,<br />

telehealth, pediatrics, school-based health<br />

clinics, occupational health, rural health<br />

and cardiothoracic surgery. She comes<br />

to <strong>GW</strong> from the Medical University of<br />

South Carolina.<br />

Jackie Bateman, DNP, RN, clinical<br />

assistant professor, has worked in a variety<br />

of settings from med/surg to trauma<br />

critical care. Over the past 15 years, she<br />

has been a nurse educator in academic<br />

and teaching hospital settings as well as<br />

for NCLEX preparation courses. She is a<br />

certified hospice and palliative care nurse<br />

and is actively involved with the Hospital<br />

and Palliative Care Nurses Association.<br />

Crystel Farina, MSN, RN, joins<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> as the school’s second<br />

simulation director. She received an RN<br />

degree from the Chesapeake College<br />

Macqueen Gibbs Willis School of <strong>Nursing</strong>,<br />

a BSN and an MSN from Wilmington<br />

University and is currently working on<br />

a PhD from Notre Dame of Maryland<br />

University. While at Chesapeake College,<br />

Ms. Farina championed an initiative<br />

to incorporate simulation into the<br />

nursing program.<br />

Janice J. Hoffman, PhD, RN, ANEF.<br />

Dr. Hoffman is profiled on page 13.<br />

Policy, Populations and<br />

Systems Community<br />

Sainfer Aliyu, RN, MSEd, PhD, is<br />

a clinical assistant professor teaching<br />

in the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> and MedStar<br />

Washington Hospital Center Washington<br />

Squared program. She earned a PhD in<br />

nursing from Columbia University and<br />

was previously at Adelphi University.<br />

Dr. Aliyu is a Robert Wood Johnson<br />

Fellow and UnitedHealth Group scholar<br />

whose research includes assessment of<br />

risk factors and outcomes of bloodstream<br />

infection, specifically community- and<br />

8 /


hospital-acquired infections and their<br />

effects on length of stay and mortality.<br />

Carol Braungart, DNP, ACNP-<br />

BC, FNP-BC, joins <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> as an<br />

assistant professor and director of the FNP<br />

program, one of the largest FNP programs<br />

in the nation. Dr. Braungart served<br />

previously as the graduate program<br />

director at the Sage Colleges in Troy,<br />

New York, and is a board-certified acute<br />

care nurse practitioner and family nurse<br />

practitioner. She has been part-time faculty<br />

for <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> since 2012; her practice is<br />

with Capital Care Medical Group.<br />

Mercedes Echevarria, DNP, APNC.<br />

Dr. Echevarria is profiled on page 14.<br />

Staff<br />

✚✚<br />

Dianne Alston joins the school as the<br />

coordinator of the Policy, Populations<br />

and Systems Community. She came<br />

to <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> last summer as<br />

temporary staff and has extensive<br />

experience in administration in both<br />

academia and government agencies.<br />

Ms. Alston earned a bachelor’s<br />

degree and paralegal certificate from<br />

Georgetown University.<br />

✚✚<br />

Katie Brakefield, Office of the<br />

Dean administrative assistant at<br />

VSTC, graduated from Sewanee: The<br />

University of the South and moved<br />

to D.C. to serve as press assistant for<br />

the Senate Budget Committee and<br />

then deputy press secretary for U.S.<br />

Senator Jeff Sessions, now attorney<br />

general. She began her career in higher<br />

education as an admissions counselor<br />

for Washington and Lee University.<br />

✚✚<br />

Patsy Deyo, formerly the clinical<br />

placement manager, is now the manager<br />

in the Office of Academic Affairs. A<br />

graduate of the <strong>GW</strong> Nurse Leadership<br />

Management program, she works<br />

closely with the program deans and<br />

the senior associate dean for academic<br />

affairs to maintain the integrity and<br />

quality of all programs.<br />

✚✚<br />

Jordan Jones, program coordinator<br />

for the Center for Health Policy and<br />

Media Engagement, was previously an<br />

associate at the Center for American<br />

Progress and at the Rape, Abuse and<br />

Incest National Network. She holds a<br />

master’s degree in gender, policy and<br />

inequalities from the London School of<br />

Economics and Political Science.<br />

✚✚<br />

Colleen Kennedy is the clinical<br />

placement coordinator in the Office<br />

of Academic Affairs. She comes to<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> from the Metropolitan<br />

School for the Arts in Alexandria, Va.,<br />

where she was managing director.<br />

Ms. Kennedy is also a <strong>GW</strong> adjunct<br />

instructor, teaching courses in<br />

interpersonal communication.<br />

✚✚<br />

Sydnae Law, an Acute and Chronic<br />

Care Community manager, worked<br />

with Medical Faculty Associates, a<br />

<strong>GW</strong> affiliate organization. She is<br />

an American College of Healthcare<br />

Executives member and served on the<br />

<strong>GW</strong> Hospital Quality Improvement<br />

team. Ms. Law is completing her<br />

master’s in health care administration at<br />

Seton Hall University.<br />

✚✚<br />

Eva Martinez is also an Acute and<br />

Chronic Care Community coordinator.<br />

She has over 30 years of experience<br />

in administrative assistant roles,<br />

including a 27-year stint supporting<br />

the Math Department chair at the<br />

University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley.<br />

While there, she was awarded two<br />

meritorious employee service awards<br />

for outstanding contributions.<br />

✚✚<br />

Natalia Mikheeva has transitioned<br />

to the role of coordinator in the Acute<br />

and Chronic Care Community. Before<br />

assuming this position, she supported<br />

the Virginia Science and Technology<br />

Campus <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> campus as an<br />

administrative assistant.<br />

✚✚<br />

Janice Ouellette is the BSN<br />

program associate. She previously<br />

was a government grants program<br />

coordinator at the Northern Virginia<br />

Community College Geospatial<br />

Technology Department, managed<br />

higher education exchange programs<br />

with Russia and the United States<br />

and served as a U.S. Department of<br />

Commerce international<br />

program specialist.<br />

✚✚<br />

Cortni Romaine, Office of Research<br />

program associate, is a certified<br />

institutional review board professional<br />

who has worked in the field at Walter<br />

Reed Army Medical Center and at<br />

Saint Louis University. She is currently<br />

pursuing a PhD in translational health<br />

sciences at the <strong>GW</strong> School of Medicine<br />

and Health Sciences.<br />

✚✚<br />

Srijana Silwal is the school’s senior<br />

financial analyst. She has over 10 years<br />

of experience and, prior to joining <strong>GW</strong>,<br />

was a senior financial analyst at the<br />

American Red Cross. She has an MBA<br />

from Strayer University and a degree<br />

in business management from Nepal’s<br />

Tribhuvan University.<br />

✚✚<br />

Anthony Spatola is the director of<br />

enrollment management. Previously,<br />

he was the associate director of<br />

recruitment and admissions at <strong>GW</strong><br />

School of Engineering and Applied<br />

Science. In 2015, he received the <strong>GW</strong><br />

Shenkman Award for Innovation in<br />

Faculty and Staff Development for his<br />

work in integrating career services and<br />

recruitment processes.<br />

✚✚<br />

Katie Whitman, a multimedia<br />

producer in the Office of Online<br />

Learning and Instructional Design,<br />

brings to the school her expertise<br />

in graphic design, print and video<br />

production, web design and art<br />

direction. She was a graphics and<br />

video coordinator at Johns Hopkins<br />

University and has a bachelor’s degree<br />

in visual communication design from<br />

Stevenson University.<br />

✚ ✚ Christine Yeh is the MSN program<br />

associate. She recently returned to<br />

the area from New York, where she<br />

had worked as an academic adviser<br />

at the New School, Parsons School<br />

of Design. Her interests range from<br />

higher education and social justice to<br />

counseling and architectural design.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 9


TRANSFORMING<br />

HEALTH CARE ACROSS<br />

THE LIFE SPAN:<br />

THROUGH EDUCATION,<br />

PRACTICE, RESEARCH<br />

AND POLICY<br />

By Andrew Fraught and Lynn Schultz-Writsel<br />

10 /


N<br />

ursing, the profession frequently cited as the heart, backbone and<br />

soul of heath care, touches and improves more lives each day than any<br />

other health profession. Throughout one’s life, from beginning to end, nurses<br />

are there at every step of the way. They help to celebrate the joyous moments<br />

of birth, care for growing children and families, offer guidance for healthy<br />

adults and ease the sorrow at the end of life. And we trust them with our care.<br />

Known since the days of Florence Nightingale as the field of<br />

compassionate “caregivers,” the nursing profession today has been ranked in<br />

Gallup polls for 15 consecutive years as the profession the American public<br />

believes has the highest honesty and ethical standards. That trust is carried<br />

from the bedside to the surgical suite, from the school nurse’s office to the<br />

board room and from the researcher’s environment to the halls of higher<br />

education. At every stage of life and around the world, nurses are there to<br />

care, heal, advise, research and teach—and <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> faculty, students and<br />

alumni are among them.<br />

MIDWIFERY AND<br />

CHILDBIRTH<br />

In a developing country where 65 percent of<br />

children suffer from anemia, <strong>GW</strong> nursing and<br />

midwifery students talk to Haitian maternity<br />

care providers to explore an important practice<br />

that can help reduce infant anemia.<br />

After a baby is born, waiting to cut the umbilical cord<br />

can provide as much as 30 percent more blood volume<br />

to the newborn. This blood contains iron that is critical<br />

to newborn health and can help reduce the incidence of<br />

anemia. “It’s become common to cut the umbilical cord<br />

as soon as the baby is born, but this is not in their best<br />

interests,” Assistant Professor Mayri Leslie said. “We need<br />

to wait until it finishes its job, which is to transfer the rest of babies’ blood<br />

supply from the placenta to them.”<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 11


Dr. Leslie, who is director of the <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> MSN concentration in nursemidwifery,<br />

directed a team of faculty and<br />

student researchers who interviewed 60<br />

Haitian doctors and midwives about how<br />

they took care of the infant’s umbilical<br />

cord at birth. They were specifically asked<br />

about the timing of cord clamping and<br />

how they learned about it. Back in the U.S.,<br />

Dr. Leslie brought in additional students<br />

to work on the qualitative analysis of<br />

the interviews.<br />

The school’s nurse-midwifery<br />

concentration, provided in collaboration<br />

with Shenandoah University, stresses<br />

the integration of research and nursemidwifery<br />

practice with a strong emphasis<br />

on women’s health throughout the life<br />

span, including pregnancy and birth,<br />

gynecology, family planning and primary<br />

care. <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> graduates and other<br />

nurse-midwives have a major role in solving<br />

the critical shortage of maternity care<br />

providers in the U.S. The national Institute<br />

of Medicine has recommended that this<br />

role be expanded to continue improvement<br />

of primary care services for women in rural<br />

and inner-city areas.<br />

PEDIATRICS<br />

A family in a rural American<br />

state—where 18 percent live<br />

below the poverty line and 24.6<br />

percent are children under the<br />

age of 13—receives care through a<br />

collaboration of nurses and other<br />

health care professionals.<br />

In the southern and most rural section<br />

of West Virginia, <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> alumna<br />

Laure Marino, DNP ’16, a clinical assistant<br />

professor at West Virginia University,<br />

launched an innovative and fully integrated<br />

primary care center within a behavioral<br />

health center. “The center was a nurse-led<br />

model, the first of its kind in the state,” she<br />

said of the effort, which expanded access<br />

to care for the 7,000 clients of the center.<br />

Her interdisciplinary team included nurses,<br />

social workers, clinical psychologists,<br />

physicians and pharmacists who promoted<br />

wellness and managed acute and chronic<br />

medical issues.<br />

FAMILY HEALTH<br />

Student nurses at a seven-week<br />

residential camp in Madison,<br />

Va., tend to the health care<br />

needs of vulnerable campers<br />

from underserved areas of<br />

Washington, D.C.<br />

Working with the nonprofit AnBryce<br />

Foundation, <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> created an<br />

opportunity for accelerated BSN students<br />

supervised by seven faculty members to<br />

provide health care for campers at Camp<br />

Dogwood, a residential summer academy<br />

in Madison, Va. The faculty serve as the<br />

camp nurses and educate students on<br />

their role, including physical assessment,<br />

medication administration, first aid,<br />

community assessment, patient education<br />

and how to come up with creative solutions<br />

to address health problems, such as making<br />

an asthma inhaler spacer out of a toilet<br />

paper roll. One supervisor, Assistant<br />

Professor Karen Dawn, described<br />

the experience as a “unique clinical<br />

opportunity that allows students to work<br />

independently with campers and really<br />

delve into the nursing role in the pediatric<br />

and community health settings; they even<br />

had an opportunity to feed a baby calf<br />

each night.”<br />

THE HEALTHY<br />

ADULT<br />

At the <strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong>,<br />

faculty ensure their programs and<br />

courses focus on health promotion,<br />

making sure that people are well<br />

and remain healthy, preventing<br />

hospital stays and chronic illness.<br />

“Nurses spend more time with patients<br />

than a physician. We bring that holistic<br />

approach,” said <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Dean<br />

Pamela Jeffries, emphasizing that the <strong>GW</strong><br />

undergraduate and nurse practitioner<br />

programs highlight that approach. “Besides<br />

health promotion—or stressing healthy<br />

lifestyles and primary care—our nurses<br />

are also being trained to recognize social<br />

determinants, such as poverty and cultural<br />

differences, in patients of all ages. There<br />

are economic reasons why some patients<br />

don’t receive the same treatment; maybe<br />

they can’t afford the medications they need.<br />

Those are the kinds of variables that we<br />

need to look at in educating new nurses.”<br />

Assistant Professor Carol Braungart,<br />

who recently joined the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

faculty as the director of the Family Nurse<br />

Practitioner program, and her colleague<br />

Assistant Clinical Professor Ellen Farrell,<br />

director of the Adult-Gerontology<br />

Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program,<br />

emphasize patient-centered care in<br />

their well-rounded programs that meet<br />

and exceed today’s American Academy<br />

of Colleges of <strong>Nursing</strong> guidelines. The<br />

primary care specialty offers nurses the<br />

ability to specialize in caring for geriatric<br />

patients along with adult patients.<br />

“Patients 65 and older will soon account for<br />

20 percent of the population. Health care<br />

providers will need to be well prepared to<br />

care for this increasing demographic. The<br />

specialized education we provide will be<br />

imperative in providing specialized care<br />

to meet the multiple complex needs of<br />

patients, families and caregivers,”<br />

said Dr. Farrell.<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> education has come a long<br />

way in training students to work in adult<br />

health promotion and illness prevention.<br />

Many of the early hospital-based programs<br />

focused only on pediatrics. “Students had<br />

no experience with adults,” said Patricia<br />

D’Antonio, an internationally recognized<br />

nursing historian and professor in mental<br />

Our nurses are also<br />

being trained to<br />

recognize social<br />

determinants, such as<br />

poverty and cultural<br />

differences, in patients<br />

of all ages.”<br />

—Dean Pamela Jeffries<br />

12 /


health nursing at the University of<br />

Pennsylvania. “It was not seen as a wellrounded<br />

professional nursing education.<br />

The quality varied from excellent training<br />

schools to training schools that provided a<br />

very limited experience. Training nurses to<br />

care for patients across the life span wasn’t<br />

even a consideration at the turn of the 20th<br />

century, when hospitals set their own care<br />

standards and groomed nurses—primarily<br />

in pediatrics—by those standards.”<br />

“The school’s academic programs and<br />

related research must meet the educational<br />

needs of current and future nurses, who<br />

will be instrumental in transforming the<br />

health of the nation,” said Professor Janice<br />

Hoffman, the school’s new senior associate<br />

dean for academic affairs. “It is vital that<br />

we graduate nurses who have the skills to<br />

be lifelong learners, with critical reading<br />

and thinking skills as well as the ability to<br />

evaluate the quality of the evidence of the<br />

sources of data.”<br />

NEW SENIOR<br />

ASSOCIATE DEAN<br />

TO LEAD ACADEMIC<br />

AFFAIRS<br />

Professor Janice J. Hoffman joined <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> in July, having<br />

previously held the position of associate dean for academic affairs<br />

at the University of Missouri School of <strong>Nursing</strong>. With over 38 years<br />

of nursing experience, Dr. Hoffman has taught in undergraduate,<br />

graduate, associate and diploma nursing programs, and has<br />

served in staff development positions in acute care and military<br />

facilities. An experienced academic administrator, she also has<br />

held positions as assistant dean of the BSN program and vice chair<br />

of organizational systems and adult health at the University of<br />

Maryland, Baltimore.<br />

“I am really excited about working with the exceptional faculty<br />

and staff at <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> as we prepare registered nurses at all<br />

levels to address the many health care needs of our citizens,”<br />

said Dr. Hoffman. Her expertise in academic acute care nursing,<br />

new graduate transition, preceptor development and clinical<br />

decision-making will support those efforts. Her work in new<br />

graduate nurse transition included serving as the director for<br />

the design and implementation of the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s<br />

SPRING Program as well as the implementation of a residency<br />

program at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.<br />

Dr. Hoffman was selected to serve on the panel that developed<br />

the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Practice Transition<br />

Accreditation Program and she also has served on the advisory<br />

boards for several acute care hospitals’ nurse residency programs.<br />

Dr. Hoffman was recently awarded the Sigma Theta Tau <strong>2017</strong><br />

Capstone International Book Award for her book, Medical-Surgical<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>—Making Connections to Practice.<br />

She is a retired United States Navy Nurse<br />

Corps captain and holds a bachelor of<br />

science in nursing from the University<br />

of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a master<br />

of science in nursing education from<br />

California State University, Fresno, and<br />

a PhD in nursing from the University of<br />

Maryland.<br />

Dr. Janice Hoffman<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 13


ADULT/FAMILY/PEDIATRIC NURSE PRACTITIONER<br />

IS NEW LEADER OF DNP PROGRAMS<br />

Associate Professor Mercedes Echevarria<br />

has been named the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> assistant<br />

dean for DNP Programs. She joins the<br />

faculty and leadership from Rutgers<br />

University, where she was associate dean<br />

of advanced practice nursing. “This is<br />

an exciting and transformational time to<br />

join a great faculty,” said Dr. Echevarria. “I<br />

look forward to leading the school in<br />

its commitment to a high-quality DNP<br />

program that can sustain growth for <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> and contribute to the school’s<br />

continued success.”<br />

Her research and clinical interests include<br />

improvement of health outcomes with<br />

an emphasis on pediatric populations,<br />

childhood developmental surveillance<br />

and screening, childhood obesity, DNP<br />

program outcomes and advanced nursing<br />

practice. While maintaining full-time faculty<br />

and administrative responsibilities at<br />

Rutgers, she sustained an active practice as<br />

a nurse practitioner and remains active in<br />

a clinical setting as an advanced practice<br />

nurse at a nurse-managed federally<br />

qualified health center in Newark, N.J.<br />

Dr. Echevarria is a fellow of the American<br />

Association of Colleges of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

(AACN)—Wharton Executive Leadership<br />

Program and AACN’s Leadership for<br />

Academic <strong>Nursing</strong> Program.<br />

She earned a bachelor’s degree in health<br />

care administration from Rutgers University<br />

and both a master’s degree in nursing<br />

and doctor of nursing practice from the<br />

University of Medicine and Dentistry of<br />

New Jersey. She has earned post-master’s<br />

certificates as a family nurse practitioner<br />

and as a pediatric nurse practitioner from<br />

Rutgers University.<br />

Dr. Mercedes Echevarria<br />

AGING AND<br />

END-OF-LIFE<br />

Older, isolated residents in our<br />

nation’s capital join a group call<br />

with a nursing student and faculty.<br />

After each participant shares about<br />

their week, the student engages<br />

them on issues of the day, health<br />

problems, online learning courses<br />

and tips for housing, transportation<br />

or computer needs.<br />

Geriatrics was recognized as a medical<br />

specialty in the 1940s, but it has risen<br />

to greater importance in the past 20<br />

years as Baby Boomers outnumber other<br />

generational cohorts. <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Assistant Professor Beverly Lunsford was<br />

part of an effort that in 2015 integrated<br />

gerontology into the core graduate courses<br />

at <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>. The move, which matched<br />

similar challenges at nursing programs<br />

around the country, was in large part fueled<br />

by the lack of primary care providers for<br />

older adults.<br />

Dr. Lunsford, who also is the director of<br />

the university’s Center for Aging, Health<br />

and Humanities, is participating in a<br />

World Health Organization effort to make<br />

communities more “age friendly.” With<br />

funding from the American Association<br />

for Retired Persons (AARP), she and her<br />

students led group telephone calls with<br />

older adults to engage them and reduce<br />

isolation. The goal of the project, “Voices<br />

of Wisdom,” was to reach untended elderly<br />

patients, including those with dementia,<br />

who face fall risks and nutritional issues<br />

caused by poor eating habits. “Loneliness<br />

and isolation in older adults is a major<br />

health risk for physical decline and<br />

death. An age-friendly community can<br />

help engage an older adult in safe and<br />

meaningful ways,” Dr. Lunsford said.<br />

The university’s Geriatrics and<br />

Palliative Care Curriculum, which<br />

Dr. Lunsford helped create, fosters an<br />

integrated geriatric palliative approach<br />

that puts older adults and their families<br />

at the center of care. Developed<br />

through the center, it provides six online<br />

modules to educate registered nurses,<br />

advanced practice nurses, occupational<br />

and physical therapists, physicians<br />

and physician assistants. The modules<br />

focus on compassionate end-of-life<br />

care, collaboration among health care<br />

professionals, better communication with<br />

patients and their families and taking a<br />

multidimensional approach to easing<br />

suffering by incorporating psychological,<br />

social and spiritual aspects of health.<br />

14 /


POLICY AND<br />

EDUCATION FOR<br />

ALL THE AGES<br />

Just blocks from the White House<br />

and close to Capitol Hill, nursing<br />

leaders focus on health care policies<br />

that improve the quality of life<br />

for all ages.<br />

“The Future of <strong>Nursing</strong>: Leading Change,<br />

Advancing Health,” the groundbreaking<br />

and policy-influencing Institute of<br />

Medicine/Robert Wood Johnson 2011<br />

study, remains a critical road map for the<br />

profession. Calling for nurses to take on<br />

an increased leadership role, including<br />

the creation of health care policy and<br />

expanding educational opportunities for<br />

advanced practice nurses, the report is only<br />

the beginning. Sue Hasmiller, the study<br />

director and a senior adviser for nursing<br />

at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,<br />

is now focused on continuing to improve<br />

how nurses are educated and is developing<br />

a nationwide cross-generational culture<br />

of health. Dr. Hasmiller highlights<br />

organizations such as the West Virginia<br />

Healthy Kids and Families Coalition<br />

and Healthy Wisconsin as examples of<br />

successful initiatives.<br />

“I’m telling nurses, ‘these are our roots,’”<br />

she said. “If you go back to Florence<br />

Nightingale or Lillian Wald, who worked<br />

in New York’s Lower East Side with<br />

immigrants, that’s what nurses—public<br />

health nurses—did. I have called on all<br />

nurses to do this in a very big way now.”<br />

Such efforts also align with <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>’s call to action: From Practice<br />

to Policy. Dr. Jeffries and her colleagues<br />

use their proximity to decision-makers<br />

in Washington to advocate for their<br />

profession and for health care and to<br />

educate students and nurses on the value<br />

of advocacy. In her outreach to health care<br />

policymakers, Dr. Jeffries promotes the<br />

role of nursing and, in turn, encourages<br />

nurses to be “at the table” when that policy<br />

is being developed. She recently attended<br />

the Senate caucus on nursing education, an<br />

event that echoes the “Future of <strong>Nursing</strong>”<br />

report in calling for an increased emphasis<br />

on nurses’ roles, responsibilities and<br />

education in the policy arena.<br />

Nurse advocates such as <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

alumna Dr. Laure Marino are leading<br />

localized initiatives that expand the role<br />

of the nurse practitioner. In West Virginia,<br />

Dr. Marino pushed for legislation<br />

that would allow nurse practitioners—not<br />

just physicians—to treat opioid addiction<br />

with buprenorphine, a medication that<br />

helps suppress symptoms of opioid<br />

withdrawal while decreasing cravings for<br />

the drug. She also successfully advocated<br />

to remove West Virginia’s collaborative<br />

practice agreement, which required nurse<br />

practitioners to have a “paper agreement”<br />

with a doctor to prescribe medications.<br />

Today, nurse practitioners with more than<br />

three years of practice can prescribe<br />

drugs without such an agreement.<br />

“Physicians could just refuse to sign<br />

these collaborative agreements, and in<br />

some counties, there were simply no<br />

physicians available for collaboration.<br />

The legislation removes a significant<br />

practice barrier,” said Dr. Marino.<br />

_________________________________<br />

These opportunities to learn,<br />

practice, conduct important clinical<br />

research and advocate for the<br />

profession are just a few examples of<br />

how <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> students, faculty<br />

and alumni are transforming health<br />

care and health care education across<br />

the life span. They make significant<br />

contributions to the well-being<br />

and health of the nation—and the<br />

world—through practice, research,<br />

education and policy.<br />

Chelsea Rohrer-Dann, a <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> alumna, described the<br />

school, its programs and faculty<br />

best: “<strong>GW</strong> was the right choice<br />

for me because the professors<br />

were so overwhelmingly positive<br />

and supportive from day one. As<br />

someone who was changing careers,<br />

I was inspired by the work they’d<br />

done and continually reassured that<br />

I had made the right decision in<br />

joining the nursing profession. They<br />

are still a great source of support and<br />

advice as I advance in my new career<br />

as a nurse.”<br />

_____________________________________<br />

To learn more, visit<br />

nursing.gwu.edu/academics.<br />

DEAN JEFFRIES PROMOTES<br />

THE ROLE OF NURSING AND,<br />

IN TURN, ENCOURAGES<br />

NURSES TO BE “AT THE TABLE”.


AGING CENTER OFFERS EDUCATION, SUPPORT TO<br />

CAREGIVERS, FAMILIES AND PATIENTS<br />

Innovative continuing education is the<br />

hallmark of regional programs created<br />

by the faculty scholars of the <strong>GW</strong> Center<br />

for Aging, Health and Humanities. The<br />

interprofessional team representing the<br />

School of <strong>Nursing</strong>, School of Medicine<br />

and Health Sciences and Milken Institute<br />

School of Public Health at <strong>GW</strong> collaborates<br />

in engaging health care providers, families<br />

and other caregivers to learn about the<br />

care of older adults and to then provide<br />

leadership to teach others.<br />

Through a well-known local program, the<br />

D.C. Area Geriatric Education Center<br />

Consortium, the center has developed<br />

curriculums and provided more than<br />

715 hours of continuing education to<br />

more than 4,545 practicing health care<br />

professionals over the past five years.<br />

The aging center’s director, Beverly<br />

Lunsford, said these programs teach a<br />

person-centered approach to care, using<br />

the mantra, “the older adult is a person<br />

with potential and not just a health care<br />

problem to solve.”<br />

The center’s use of experiential and<br />

interactive education is particularly<br />

innovative in employing the creative arts<br />

and all types of media to reach audiences,<br />

advocate for elders and help others bring<br />

meaning to the experience of aging.<br />

The interactive theater production “Tangles”<br />

is one such program. Using an ensemble<br />

of professional actors and musicians, the<br />

story is told through the eyes of Tyler, a<br />

16-year-old girl, and follows a family as<br />

its members come to terms with their<br />

evolving roles as caregivers for an aging<br />

relative with cognitive impairment and<br />

as navigators of a complex health care<br />

system. The theater production is followed<br />

by discussions about finding creative<br />

solutions and new paths of empowerment<br />

for patients, providers and families.<br />

“Tangles” has been presented at venues<br />

such as rehearsal halls, local assisted living<br />

facilities and health care conferences and<br />

forums, and it has been seen by more<br />

than 1,400 federal and state directors of<br />

aging programs.<br />

The center also builds collaborations that<br />

improve home- and community-based<br />

care through research projects and<br />

clinical innovations. Last year’s community<br />

needs assessment for the D.C. Office<br />

of Aging was awarded to the center.<br />

Faculty scholars developed the research<br />

protocol, disseminated survey information,<br />

analyzed data and prepared the report.<br />

“We are currently determining funding<br />

opportunities to address some of the key<br />

recommendations from this project and<br />

report,” said Dr. Lunsford. In their most<br />

recent project, the scholars are conducting<br />

research designed to reduce social<br />

isolation in homebound older adults by<br />

engaging them in telephone groups every<br />

two weeks.<br />

______________________________________<br />

For more information about the center, go<br />

to nursing.gwu.edu/AgingCenter.<br />

16 /


GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY<br />

SCHOOL OF NURSING<br />

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS<br />

Academic opportunities at the <strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong> reflect the changing nature of the field and the increasing<br />

diversity of the nursing profession. The school offers opportunities for nurses in all stages of their careers through<br />

several Bachelor of Science in <strong>Nursing</strong> options, the Master of Science in <strong>Nursing</strong> , the Doctor of <strong>Nursing</strong> Practice,<br />

multiple post-graduate certificates and extensive distance-based learning programs.<br />

Bachelor of Science in<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> (BSN)<br />

✚✚<br />

Accelerated Bachelor of<br />

Science in <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Veterans Bachelor of Science<br />

in <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

RN to BSN<br />

RN to BSN/MSN<br />

»»<br />

Adult Gerontology<br />

Primary Care Nurse<br />

Practitioner<br />

Master of Science in<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> (MSN)<br />

✚✚<br />

Adult Gerontology Acute<br />

Care Nurse Practitioner<br />

✚✚<br />

Adult Gerontology Primary<br />

Care Nurse Practitioner<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Family Nurse Practitioner<br />

Nurse Midwifery<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Leadership &<br />

Management<br />

Doctor of <strong>Nursing</strong> Practice<br />

(DNP)<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Post-BSN DNP Adult<br />

Gerontology Acute Care<br />

Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-BSN DNP Adult<br />

Gerontology Primary Care<br />

Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-BSN DNP Family<br />

Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-MSN DNP (generic)<br />

Certificates<br />

✚✚<br />

Family Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-Master's Certificate<br />

✚✚<br />

Adult Gerontology Primary<br />

Care Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-Master's Certificate<br />

✚✚<br />

Adult Gerontology Acute<br />

Care Nurse Practitioner<br />

Post-Master's Certificate<br />

✚✚<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Education<br />

Graduate Certificate<br />

»»<br />

Family Nurse Practitioner<br />

»»<br />

Nurse Midwifery<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Post-MSN DNP<br />

Executive Leadership<br />

Post-MSN DNP Health<br />

Care Quality<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Psychiatric/Mental Health<br />

Nurse Practitioner Post-<br />

Master's Certificate<br />

Health Policy and<br />

Media Engagement<br />

Graduate Certificate<br />

✚✚<br />

Advanced Practice Palliative<br />

Care Graduate Certificate<br />

<strong>GW</strong> SON VOICES<br />

“I chose the <strong>GW</strong> MSN-FNP program because<br />

I had such a wonderful experience in my<br />

ABSN program here… The <strong>GW</strong> name in the<br />

D.C. nursing/medical community is very well<br />

respected…making clinical rotations easier and<br />

really carrying a lot of weight when applying<br />

for jobs outside of the D.C. area.”<br />

—WILL SMITH, BSN ’14, MSN FNP ’16,<br />

Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner,<br />

Erie Family Health Center, Chicago, Ill.<br />

“The simulation laboratory run by the faculty<br />

truly mimicked real-life situations that nurses<br />

encounter on a daily basis. Practicing on the<br />

mannequins helped me learn the necessary<br />

skills so as to ease my transition into the<br />

clinical setting…I credit my nursing success<br />

to <strong>GW</strong>.”<br />

—MELISSA BRODER, BSN ’14,<br />

Registered Nurse, High Risk Perinatal<br />

Unit, Holy Cross Hospital,<br />

Silver Spring, Md.<br />

“<strong>GW</strong> SON encourages and supports dreams.<br />

The DNP program helped to open my mind<br />

to all kinds of possibilities and experiences<br />

both nationally and internationally…and the<br />

location at the very center of the free world<br />

incorporates and encourages a very diverse<br />

student population.”<br />

—KELLEY MILLER WILSON, DNP ’15,<br />

Clinical Associate Professor, University<br />

of South Carolina College of <strong>Nursing</strong>,<br />

Columbia, S.C.<br />

APPLY NOW<br />

Office of Admissions<br />

571-553-0138<br />

email: nursing@gwu.edu<br />

REQUEST INFORMATION<br />

Graduate Programs<br />

1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Ste. 500, Washington, D.C., 20006, 202-994-7901<br />

Undergraduate Programs<br />

Innovation Hall, 45085 University Dr., Ste. 201, Ashburn, VA, 20147, 571-553-4498


INTRODUCING:<br />

A CADRE OF<br />

HEALTH POLICY<br />

AND MEDIA<br />

INFLUENCERS<br />

[1]<br />

[2]<br />

[3]<br />

[4]<br />

[5]<br />

[6]<br />

[7]


A dean, a scholar, a poet,<br />

an artist, a researcher,<br />

a reporter and an<br />

advocate have at least one<br />

achievement in common—<br />

all are senior fellows at the<br />

new <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Center<br />

for Health Policy and<br />

Media Engagement.<br />

Each fellow has interests and ambitious<br />

projects that are consistent with the<br />

center’s mission to advance policy and<br />

public health through education, research,<br />

media and public forums. All bring<br />

significant expertise to the table and are<br />

pursuing important projects on a variety of<br />

health policy and media topics.<br />

Through hands-on opportunities<br />

facilitated by the center, the fellows<br />

work to influence policy and engage the<br />

media, with the goal of integrating science<br />

and the arts to advance the health of<br />

populations. As fellows, they receive advice<br />

and mentoring from the members of the<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> National Advisory Council.<br />

They continue meeting their full-time<br />

professional responsibilities during their<br />

fellowship, distribute their work and<br />

findings through new and traditional<br />

media, mentor one another and serve as<br />

advisers to the center on issues pertaining<br />

to communication, leadership and policy.<br />

✚✚<br />

Eve Adler, MA, RN, [1] is an<br />

associate dean in the Health Sciences<br />

Department at Santa Monica College<br />

(SMC) and is a registered yoga teacher.<br />

She is committed to providing<br />

opportunities for education and<br />

personal expression to underserved<br />

populations interested in health and<br />

self-care. Ms. Adler works strategically<br />

and collaboratively with the SMC<br />

Communications and Media Studies<br />

Department, the Public Policy Institute,<br />

the Modern Languages Department<br />

and community-based Integrative<br />

Health Practitioners Program to<br />

broadcast the voices and issues of the<br />

underserved across multiple media<br />

platforms. Her work influences<br />

health policy by bringing the power of<br />

health care advocacy to the grassroots<br />

movements of communities in West<br />

Los Angeles. @eveadler<br />

✚✚<br />

Kenya V. Beard, EdD, AGACNP-<br />

BC, NP-C, CNE, ANEF, [2] is a<br />

2012 Josiah Macy Faculty Scholar, an<br />

associate professor at City University<br />

of New York School of Professional<br />

Studies and a faculty scholar for the<br />

Harvard Macy Institute Program for<br />

Educators in Health Professions. She<br />

is the founding director of the Center<br />

for Multicultural Education and Health<br />

Disparities and a fellow of the New<br />

York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Beard,<br />

a social justice advocate, recognizes<br />

the difficult yet critical dialogues<br />

needed to address health inequities.<br />

Her Multicultural Education Training<br />

workshops have built the capacity of<br />

hundreds of educators and health care<br />

providers and given them the requisite<br />

skills to combat health care disparities,<br />

create inclusive learning environments<br />

and facilitate race-related dialogues. She<br />

is currently exploring unconscious bias<br />

and the extent to which it affects the<br />

ability of health care providers to align<br />

discipline-specific values with actions<br />

and advance health equity policies.<br />

✚✚<br />

MK Czerwiec, MA, RN, [3] is the<br />

artist-in-residence at the Northwestern<br />

Feinberg School of Medicine, where<br />

she focuses on graphic medicine,<br />

end-of-life care and caregiving<br />

support. Ms. Czerwiec is exploring<br />

ways comics can contribute to public<br />

health policy and improve end-of life<br />

care. Her work spearheads innovative<br />

communication methods for health<br />

messaging that amplify the narratives<br />

of those living with illness and the<br />

caregiving that positively impacts<br />

policy implementation. She co-manages<br />

GraphicMedicine.org and is currently<br />

on a speaking tour for her book, Taking<br />

Turns: Stories from HIV/AIDS Care Unit<br />

371. See her website, comicnurse.com.<br />

@comicnurse<br />

✚✚<br />

Joy Jacobson, MFA, [4] is the<br />

poet-in-residence at the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Center for Health Policy and Media<br />

Engagement. Her poems have appeared<br />

in Smartish Pace, Beloit Poetry Journal,<br />

The Examined Life and other journals.<br />

She was a winner of Health Affairs 2015<br />

Narrative Matters Poetry Contest, and<br />

her journalism has been recognized<br />

by the Association of Health Care<br />

Journalists, the Association for Women<br />

in Communications and the American<br />

Society for Healthcare Publication<br />

Editors. In 2016, her essay on using<br />

poetry in nursing education appeared in<br />

the anthology Keeping Reflection Fresh: A<br />

Practical Guide for Clinical Educators. At<br />

Hunter College, where she co-founded<br />

a program in writing for health care<br />

professionals, she co-created an<br />

academic writing curriculum for<br />

undergraduate and graduate nursing<br />

students. She has led workshops<br />

in poetry and narrative writing for<br />

interprofessional clinicians, clinical<br />

and humanities faculty, nurse managers,<br />

and cancer survivors and their siblings.<br />

She has previously had residencies at<br />

Vermont Studio Center, the MacDowell<br />

Colony and Helene Wurlitzer<br />

Foundation. Ms. Jacobson was the<br />

managing editor of the American Journal<br />

of <strong>Nursing</strong> for 10 years. @joyjaco<br />

✚✚<br />

Carole R. Myers PhD, RN, [5] is an<br />

associate professor in the University<br />

of Tennessee-Knoxville College of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> with a joint appointment<br />

in the university’s Department of<br />

Public Health. She coordinates<br />

interdisciplinary graduate health policy<br />

courses and a graduate certificate in<br />

health policy. Dr. Myers’ research<br />

centers on policymaking and health<br />

services with an emphasis on access to<br />

care, TennCare, public health programs<br />

and advanced practice registered nurses.<br />

She was a 2012 American Advocacy<br />

Institute Fellow and is a strong advocate<br />

for access to high-quality, cost-effective<br />

care. Dr. Myers has received the<br />

TN-PAC Advocacy Award, the Nurse<br />

Practitioner Advocate State Award<br />

for Excellence from the American<br />

Association of Nurse Practitioners<br />

and the Tennessee Nurses Association<br />

Louise Browning Political Nurse Award.<br />

She frequently writes and speaks to<br />

professional and community groups<br />

about the Affordable Care Act and<br />

other aspects of national health care<br />

reform. Dr. Myers served as co-chair<br />

of the Tennessee Scope of Practice<br />

legislative task force and has recently<br />

been leading discussions on the<br />

transformation of health care and the<br />

role of APRNs and grassroots advocacy.<br />

She brings her health policy expertise<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 19


to the airwaves twice a month on NPR’s<br />

Morning News at 91.9 FM WUOT in<br />

Knoxville. @TNpolicynurse<br />

✚✚<br />

Liz Seegert, MA, [6] is the director<br />

of the Media Fellows Program at the<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Center for Health Policy<br />

and Media Engagement. She has spent<br />

more than 30 years reporting and<br />

writing about health and other topics<br />

for print, digital and broadcast media.<br />

Her primary beats currently encompass<br />

aging, Baby Boomers, health policy and<br />

social determinants of health. She edits<br />

the aging topic area for the Association<br />

of Health Care Journalists website,<br />

writing and gathering resources on<br />

the many health issues affecting older<br />

adults. She also co-produces the <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Center for Health Policy and<br />

Media Engagement “HealthCetera”<br />

podcast, diving into health issues<br />

underreported in traditional media.<br />

As a senior fellow, she will continue<br />

to report on vital public health issues,<br />

seeking out voices who offer unique<br />

perspectives on policy, health care<br />

and practice issues. As director of<br />

the Media Fellows Program at the<br />

center, she mentors early-career health<br />

journalists to build their understanding<br />

of these and other key issues within<br />

the health care delivery system.<br />

@lseegert<br />

✚✚<br />

Kristi Westphaln, MSN, RN,<br />

PNP-PC, [7] is a San Diego-based<br />

pediatric nurse practitioner with a<br />

passion for all things pediatric. She has<br />

been in the nursing profession for 15<br />

years, with 11 years of PNP expertise<br />

in the areas of pediatric primary<br />

care, pediatric emergency health<br />

care, pediatric trauma and child abuse.<br />

Ms. Westphaln will be producing for<br />

the Center for Health Policy and Media<br />

Engagement a series of elementary<br />

school-based health education podcasts<br />

and will continue her work in radio<br />

with “HealthCetera.” She currently<br />

serves as the legislative/health policy<br />

chair for the San Diego chapters of<br />

the National Association of Pediatric<br />

Nurses (NAPNAP) and the California<br />

Association of Nurse Practitioners,<br />

and she was recently honored as a <strong>2017</strong><br />

National NAPNAP Advocacy Scholar.<br />

She anticipates completing her PhD<br />

in nursing from the University of San<br />

Diego in May 2018 and aspires to pursue<br />

post-doctoral education in the pediatric<br />

health policy research arena. Her<br />

research interests include child health<br />

promotion, social capital, health care<br />

access and use, home visitation<br />

and health disparities/social justice.<br />

@k_westphaln<br />

______________________________________<br />

For more about the Center for Health<br />

Policy and Media Engagement, visit<br />

go.gwu.edu/PolicyFellows.<br />

NURSES:<br />

OUR VOICES<br />

HAVE VALUE<br />

BY BARBARA GLICKSTEIN, MPH, MS, RN,<br />

<strong>GW</strong> NURSING CENTER FOR HEALTH<br />

POLICY AND MEDIA ENGAGEMENT<br />

As nurses, we create innovative models of<br />

care and meet critical health care needs<br />

in communities across the United States.<br />

Our research findings contribute to the<br />

development of clinical guidelines and<br />

influence health policy. But we remain<br />

untapped “expert spokespersons” for<br />

the media, limiting the impact of nurses’<br />

contributions to advancing public health.<br />

The media are the single most powerful<br />

tool at our disposal; they have the power<br />

to educate, effect social change and<br />

determine the policies and elections<br />

that shape our lives. Diversity of voices<br />

in the media landscape is critical to the<br />

health of our culture and democracy. Yet<br />

we tend not to position ourselves as<br />

experts, we don’t take the initiative to<br />

pitch our work to media outlets and too<br />

often we underestimate the significance of<br />

our knowledge.<br />

Nurses are rarely trained in the<br />

professional use of social media or how to<br />

manage interviews with journalists. These<br />

skills are essential if nurses are to become<br />

more influential in the development of<br />

health policy and be a catalyst in the<br />

conversation about health care.<br />

Compounding the issue, journalists<br />

rarely seek out nurses as expert<br />

sources, and nurses are historically<br />

underrepresented in the media. In 1997,<br />

“The Woodhull Study on <strong>Nursing</strong> and the<br />

Media: Health Care’s Invisible Partner”<br />

documented that nurses were represented<br />

in health news stories in the leading print<br />

publications of the day less than 4 percent<br />

of the time and less than 1 percent of<br />

the time in trade publications such as<br />

Modern Healthcare.<br />

Since it appears that few improvements<br />

have been made to those percentages since<br />

1997, it’s time to change the health care<br />

media conversations. Sharing our expertise<br />

begins with recognizing our voices have<br />

value. We have deep expertise based on<br />

our education and clinical and research<br />

experience. And we have powerful stories<br />

about health, illness and caregiving.<br />

The <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Center for Health<br />

Policy and Media Engagement is<br />

committed to making this change and<br />

raising the visibility of nurses’ expertise,<br />

perspectives and work. Developing<br />

informed and effective national health and<br />

social policies depends on it.<br />

The center’s Nurse Messenger<br />

Media Training provides nurses with the<br />

knowledge, tools, skills and confidence<br />

necessary to participate in media coverage<br />

of health issues and to reach the public<br />

with our messages. The training is built<br />

around one key skill—strategic messaging.<br />

When nurses learn to identify the core<br />

information we want to convey and use<br />

basic techniques to ensure we get our<br />

points across, the possibilities for media<br />

exposure are endless.<br />

The center is also embarking on a<br />

replication of the Woodhull study to see<br />

if nurses are better represented in today’s<br />

health news coverage than they were 20<br />

years ago when the original study was<br />

undertaken. The Gordon and Betty Moore<br />

Foundation has provided a matching<br />

grant to assist the center in determining<br />

the extent to which there has been an<br />

improvement in nurses being used as<br />

sources in leading print media and to assess<br />

their representation in the changing media<br />

landscape. The study will also look at why<br />

journalists don’t include nurses as sources<br />

in their stories more often.<br />

_____________________________________<br />

To learn more about Nurse Messenger<br />

Media Training, contact the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Center for Health Policy and Media<br />

Engagement, sonpolicy@gwu.edu.<br />

20 /


[12]


AT HOME AND AROUND THE WORLD<br />

NEW AND<br />

CONTINUING<br />

PARTNERSHIPS,<br />

COALITIONS<br />

BRING <strong>GW</strong><br />

NURSING<br />

PRACTICE TO<br />

DIVERSE AREA<br />

POPULATIONS<br />

Community engagement and learning—<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> values embodied by faculty,<br />

students and staff—are bringing muchneeded<br />

health care to neighborhoods and<br />

patients in the Washington area. Through<br />

volunteerism, grant and fellowship projects<br />

and public service, faculty and their<br />

students are serving the young and old,<br />

the underserved and those suffering from<br />

chronic illness and disease.<br />

Reaching At-Risk Populations,<br />

Building Community Support<br />

At the forefront of bringing health care<br />

and community support to transgender<br />

people and those living with HIV/AIDS<br />

are assistant professors Erin Athey and<br />

Dana Hines.<br />

Dr. Athey, a nurse practitioner who has<br />

spent most of her career in Washington,<br />

D.C., is working to coordinate outreach<br />

initiatives that build community support<br />

and improve wellness for individuals<br />

experiencing chronic disease, including<br />

HIV/AIDS, in under-resourced areas of the<br />

city. She was recently awarded a three-year<br />

Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) Foundation<br />

Clinical Scholars fellowship, which she is<br />

using to “move active, concerned clinicians<br />

out of the clinic and into the community.”<br />

Working jointly with another RWJ fellow,<br />

Nnemdi Elias at United Medical Center,<br />

Dr. Athey is focusing on improving<br />

population-level mental health for at-risk<br />

populations in Southeast D.C.<br />

As a recently appointed member of the<br />

D.C. Department of Health Transgender<br />

Work Group, Dr. Hines is exploring how<br />

the department can work with community<br />

partners to build a system of care across<br />

the region for transgender persons of<br />

color and men who have sex with men. In<br />

Alexandria, Va., she serves on the city’s<br />

Commission on HIV/AIDS, advising<br />

the city council on the formulation and<br />

implementation of AIDS treatment and<br />

prevention policy, encouraging citizen<br />

participation in the formulation of such<br />

policy, providing the council and the<br />

public with current information about<br />

the disease and promoting HIV/AIDS<br />

awareness, treatment and prevention<br />

educational programs.<br />

Caring for the Young,<br />

Serving the Elderly<br />

Professor Joyce Pulcini and Assistant<br />

Professors Beverly Lunsford, Ashley<br />

Darcy-Mahoney and Karen Dawn<br />

bring <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> to area patients across<br />

the life span.<br />

Through the support of grants from<br />

the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research<br />

Institute and the Rodham Institute and<br />

partnerships with the National Association<br />

of School Nurses and the D.C. Asthma<br />

Coalition, Dr. Pulcini and colleagues are<br />

increasing collaborative asthma care for<br />

children in the area. The projects facilitate<br />

better asthma outcomes and identify<br />

ways to increase communication and<br />

collaboration among families, children,<br />

school nurses, primary care providers<br />

and asthma agencies. Dr. Pulcini works<br />

also to increase use by providers of a<br />

standardized Asthma Action Plan template<br />

that improves the consistency of<br />

evidence-based primary care in schools<br />

and other settings and data sharing. The<br />

template augments stakeholders’ ability<br />

to communicate information about<br />

risk factors such as medications and<br />

poor air quality and helps plan effective<br />

interventions for asthmatic children with<br />

their families.<br />

Working with a multiagency initiative,<br />

Dr. Darcy-Mahoney is improving health<br />

and social outcomes for the youngest<br />

members of the community and their<br />

parents. Through “Talk With Me Baby,”<br />

she researches early-childhood outcomes<br />

for these infants, most recently through<br />

language interventions that enhance<br />

future literacy and cognitive development.<br />

As an RWJ Foundation Nurse Faculty<br />

Scholar—and with her most recent grant<br />

from the foundation—she is expanding<br />

her work and comparing developmental<br />

trajectories of children raised in a<br />

bilingual environment to those raised in a<br />

monolingual environment.<br />

Dr. Lunsford, director of the <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Center for Aging, Health and<br />

Humanities, has had a long association<br />

with those who serve the area’s aging and<br />

elderly. She provides education on geriatric<br />

and gerontology topics for health care<br />

professionals practicing in the community,<br />

including those at the D.C. Villages service<br />

organizations that help older adults stay<br />

in their homes. She also chairs the D.C.<br />

<strong>Fall</strong>s Free Coalition, which conducts an<br />

annual <strong>Fall</strong>s Awareness Day at wellness<br />

centers hosted by the D.C. Office on<br />

Aging and other sites that serve older<br />

adults. Her colleague, Dr. Dawn, helps<br />

undergraduate community health nursing<br />

students organize community health fairs<br />

22 /


to provide education and checkups for<br />

older adults. Students also undertook a<br />

needs assessment on falls prevention by<br />

using population health interventions<br />

for reducing falls in community-dwelling<br />

older adults. They conducted a sidewalk<br />

tour and documented problem areas in<br />

the community environment that could be<br />

improved to reduce falls.<br />

NURSES RAISE THEIR VOICES:<br />

‘DO NO HARM’<br />

Excerpts from a “HealthCetera” post written<br />

by Professor Joyce Pulcini with contributions from<br />

BSN students Kari Deakins and Jennifer Kanelos.<br />

Educating Homeless Women,<br />

Continuing to Serve<br />

In Washington’s Anacostia neighborhood,<br />

Dr. Dawn and accelerated BSN students<br />

in the Community Health course lead<br />

weekly health-oriented discussions with<br />

the residents of the Calvary Women’s<br />

Services. Health topics addressed over<br />

the past three years include heart disease,<br />

diabetes, women’s health, addiction and<br />

recovery, and stress. “The students find the<br />

program so beneficial to their community<br />

service work and to the women that many<br />

volunteer at the center after graduation,”<br />

said Dr. Dawn.<br />

Making House Calls, Bringing Care<br />

to the Underserved<br />

Clinical Assistant Professor Lynn Farrell<br />

brings back house calls through her<br />

practice, Gericalls LLC. In Maryland’s<br />

Montgomery and Calvert counties, she<br />

provides primary care in the homes of<br />

patients who are homebound and therefore<br />

have difficulty accessing health care<br />

services. She also volunteers each month<br />

with Mission of Mercy, an organization<br />

that provides clinical services in Maryland<br />

and Pennsylvania. Dr. Farrell practices<br />

in their mobile van in Maryland, helping<br />

to bring free health care, free dental care<br />

and free prescription medications to the<br />

uninsured, underinsured and those she<br />

describes as patients who “fall through the<br />

cracks” of the health care system.<br />

On Thursday, June 22, a group of health care professionals and students in<br />

white coats descended on Capitol Hill to protest the proposed American<br />

Health Care Act (AHCA).<br />

The vehemence with which this group expressed their displeasure with the bill<br />

was refreshing. We heard physician after physician speak of the horrors and<br />

dangers of having no insurance, the consequences of which we all have seen<br />

in many patients who deserve better. Possible victims include: elderly patients<br />

in nursing homes, whose costs represent 42 percent of Medicaid spending<br />

(nursing home residents account for about 6 percent of Medicaid enrollees);<br />

women seeking gynecological care; pregnant women whose pregnancy may<br />

now be defined as a pre-existing condition; children on Medicaid, which<br />

accounts for 40 percent of children in the U.S.; and disabled individuals living<br />

in facilities covered by Medicaid. All will be vulnerable.<br />

The group continued to voice the mantra, “Do no harm.” <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> students<br />

who attended the briefing share their reactions about attending:<br />

KARI DEAKINS:<br />

“As a student, it was very inspiring to be able to stand shoulder to<br />

shoulder with providers of the interdisciplinary team to share our<br />

disagreement with the new AHCA… We must be vigilant and active<br />

as students to protect our patients and those that need our help, and<br />

as we move into our practice and nursing careers, we must remain<br />

proactive in the advocacy of our patients.”<br />

JENNIFER KANELOS:<br />

“From day one at <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>, we learn to provide patient-centered<br />

care focused on evidence-based research. The facts are unequivocal;<br />

denying millions of people health coverage, like the AHCA would do,<br />

will have devastating results on our ability to provide care for those<br />

that need it most… Energized by the passion and commitment of the<br />

speakers and elected officials, I became a health care advocate that day.<br />

I look forward to a lifetime of speaking out on behalf of my patients,<br />

working toward a more perfect union and maybe even one day asking<br />

for your vote.”<br />

From left to right: <strong>GW</strong> BSN<br />

students Kari Deakins and<br />

Jennifer Kanelos, and Professor<br />

Joyce Pulcini


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

A May 1 book party at Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C.,<br />

marked the official publishing and release of Dr. Kimberly Acquaviva’s<br />

book, LGBTQ-inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care.<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Professor Authors<br />

‘Groundbreaking’<br />

Book<br />

Professor Kimberly Acquaviva, a nationally<br />

known authority on lesbian, gay, bisexual,<br />

transgender, gender non-conforming,<br />

queer and/or questioning (LGBTQ) aging<br />

and end-of-life issues, is the author of a<br />

new tool for hospice and palliative care.<br />

LGBTQ-inclusive Hospice and Palliative<br />

Care, a first-of-its-kind handbook, provides<br />

strategies for health care, social work and<br />

counseling professionals who want to<br />

better serve LGBTQ patients and families.<br />

In 2015, Harrington Park Press<br />

approached Dr. Acquaviva about the<br />

possibility of writing a book on the topic.<br />

Dr. Acquaviva recalled, “I knew that if I<br />

wanted to transform hospice and palliative<br />

care for the LGBTQ community, I would<br />

need to write an accessible book that<br />

would give physicians, advanced practice<br />

registered nurses, registered nurses,<br />

social workers, counselors and chaplains<br />

a common framework for providing<br />

inclusive care to all patients and families,<br />

not just those who are LGBTQ.”<br />

To work on the book, Dr. Acquaviva<br />

took a six-month sabbatical from <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, where she serves as the school’s<br />

first non-nurse tenured faculty member.<br />

“The biggest surprise for me wasn’t about<br />

the topic, but rather the writing process. I<br />

didn’t realize how hard it would be to write<br />

using plain language. Writing clearly and<br />

concisely was much more difficult than<br />

I had anticipated. Now I can’t imagine<br />

writing any other way,” she said.<br />

Dr. Acquaviva’s first published book<br />

has been lauded by caregivers and families<br />

alike. Diane Meier, director of the Center<br />

to Advance Palliative Care, described it as<br />

“a groundbreaking road map to inclusive<br />

care delivery.”<br />

To complement the framework laid out<br />

in her book, Dr. Acquaviva created “The<br />

Assessment Tool for LGBTQ-Inclusive<br />

Hospice and Palliative Care,” which care<br />

programs can download for free and use to<br />

audit their current policies and practices.<br />

She also launched “em dash”, a podcast that<br />

explores people’s experiences related to<br />

diversity in the health care arena.<br />

In recognition of these efforts and<br />

her ongoing scholarship and teaching,<br />

Dr. Acquaviva received the Health<br />

Professional Leadership Award in<br />

April at the fifth annual LGBT Health<br />

Workforce Conference.<br />

______________________________________<br />

Download the assessment tool at lgbtqinclusive.com/resources-and-checklists.<br />

The<br />

podcast is available at em-dash-podcast.com.<br />

Students,<br />

Colleagues Honor<br />

Faculty and Staff<br />

The inaugural <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Faculty and<br />

Staff Awards ceremony, held during the<br />

school’s annual end-of-year luncheon on<br />

May 19, recognized the accomplishments<br />

of six faculty and four staff members. The<br />

honorees demonstrated excellence in areas<br />

critical to the school’s mission and values<br />

and were nominated by students and peers.<br />

24 /<br />

Faculty Awards<br />

✚✚<br />

Clinical Education Instructor Jackie<br />

Wavelet received the Excellence in<br />

Undergraduate Teaching Award. In<br />

her nomination, one student said,<br />

“Ms. Wavelet goes the extra mile in<br />

ensuring we master content and has<br />

high expectations for us. She frequently<br />

takes time outside of class to meet<br />

one-on-one with us and hosts weekly<br />

review sessions. I am always excited to<br />

attend her class and just soak in as much<br />

insight from her as possible. I hope to<br />

become the type of nurse she is—always<br />

advocating for patients and practicing<br />

safely and intelligently.”<br />

✚✚<br />

The faculty nominations for Assistant<br />

Professor Majeda El-Banna, who<br />

received the Excellence in Graduate<br />

Teaching Award, said she “has excelled<br />

at teaching and providing guidance<br />

to both graduate and undergraduate<br />

students, exemplifies nursing leadership<br />

in both [the] didactic and clinical world<br />

and is an asset to nursing education and<br />

the school.” A student nominator wrote,<br />

“She has not only provided me with<br />

education but also taught me lifelong<br />

skills that I can use as a Doctor of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Practice. She has prepared me<br />

to become an advocate for my patients<br />

and a leader in my community.”


Majeda El-Banna, Jackie Wavelet, Pearl Zhou and Malinda Whitlow<br />

received <strong>2017</strong> Faculty Teaching Awards. Not pictured, Mary Doyle and Cathie Guzzetta.<br />

✚✚<br />

The Excellence in Graduate Teaching<br />

by a Part-Time Faculty Award recipient,<br />

Clinical Professor Cathie Guzzetta,<br />

“went above and beyond working with<br />

me to complete my DNP final project,”<br />

said one student nominator. “As a<br />

clinical nurse and nurse practitioner for<br />

34 years, the research realm required a<br />

large learning curve for me. She showed<br />

exceptional patience and focused on<br />

details to make sure that I completed<br />

my study to the best of my ability. She<br />

was also very quick to encourage and<br />

praise when it was warranted.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Malinda<br />

Whitlow was the recipient of the<br />

Excellence in Undergraduate Student<br />

Mentoring and Advising Award.<br />

“Dr. Whitlow empowers students to<br />

be successful and goes out of her way<br />

to make you feel comfortable and<br />

settled into a difficult program. Her<br />

office doors are always open to all<br />

students for advising. She makes each<br />

student feel important and accepted,<br />

and always makes time for students<br />

despite her hectic schedule,” said a<br />

student nominator.<br />

✚✚<br />

One student who nominated Assistant<br />

Professor Quiping “Pearl” Zhou for<br />

the Excellence in Graduate Student<br />

Mentoring and Advising Award said she<br />

“did not just advise me in my final DNP<br />

project, she also took the time to review<br />

every material and draft document I<br />

sent her and schedule telephone<br />

conferences. She was never afraid<br />

to explain her disagreements<br />

and offered an alternative<br />

path forward. There was<br />

never a time when I felt<br />

like I was on my own.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Mary Doyle, the Excellence in<br />

Undergraduate Teaching by a Part-Time<br />

Faculty Award recipient, was unable to<br />

attend the event and was honored later.<br />

Staff Awards<br />

✚ ✚“He is the definition of a good citizen”<br />

was how a nominator described<br />

Citizenship Award recipient Justin<br />

Pohl. The nominator added that<br />

although Mr. Pohl, special assistant<br />

to the dean, “has only been here for<br />

eight months, he has quickly made his<br />

mark as an exemplary staff member<br />

who consistently delivers high-quality<br />

customer service without breaking<br />

a sweat. Always pleasant, helpful,<br />

resourceful and eager to step in and do<br />

what’s necessary to get the job done, he<br />

models the values we want to see in the<br />

people we work with day in and day out.<br />

✚✚<br />

The Excellence in Service Award went<br />

to Policy, Populations and Systems<br />

Community Manager Joke Ogundiran.<br />

A colleague said, “When I think of <strong>GW</strong><br />

and service, Joke is definitely at the<br />

top of the list. Joke is a dedicated team<br />

member who can get the job done. Big<br />

or small task, it’s no match for Joke.<br />

Joke is truly a role model in service,<br />

both internally and externally. When<br />

working with her, she makes you feel<br />

as though that’s the most important<br />

thing she is doing all day—and this is<br />

not an easy feat. Joke has truly mastered<br />

customer service in a way that others<br />

are constantly striving to attain.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Two staff members shared the Impact<br />

Award: Patsy Deyo, academic affairs<br />

manager; and Christina Johnson,<br />

clinical placement liaison. Nominators<br />

said that Ms. Deyo “has made<br />

incredible contributions to streamlining<br />

and improving the clinical contract<br />

submission process. Her innovations<br />

have improved processes such that<br />

they benefit the school, the faculty<br />

and the students. She also has been<br />

indispensable in planning the nurse<br />

practitioner student on-campus events.<br />

She always projects a ‘can-do’ attitude.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Ms. Johnson’s nomination said that she<br />

is <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s “interface with clinical<br />

agencies, partners and units where<br />

nursing students complete their clinical<br />

rotations and has created numerous<br />

strategies to improve efficiency,<br />

including creating a scheduling system<br />

for students to register for clinical<br />

placements independently. Our<br />

clinical partners frequently commend<br />

her responsiveness, communication<br />

and collaboration. Her efficiency<br />

and effectiveness are matched by her<br />

positivity and kindness.”<br />

<strong>2017</strong> Staff Recognition Awards were given<br />

to Justin Pohl, Joke Ogundiran and Patsy<br />

Deyo. Not pictured, Christina Johnson.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 25


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

AWARDS, HONORS<br />

AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS<br />

✚✚<br />

Several <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> faculty members<br />

were recognized with gold, silver and<br />

bronze medals by the Corporation<br />

for National and Community Service<br />

and the president of the United States<br />

for their volunteer work, including<br />

Professors Kimberly Acquaviva and<br />

Angela McNelis, Professor Emerita<br />

Stephanie Wright, Associate Dean<br />

Billinda Tebbenhoff, Associate<br />

Professors Joyce Hahn and Karen<br />

Kesten, Assistant Professor Jess<br />

Calohan, Clinical Assistant Professor<br />

Ellen Farrell and Instructor<br />

Esther Emard.<br />

Dean Pamela Jeffries and Joe Jeffries enjoy the outing<br />

and the Nationals’ win.<br />

<strong>GW</strong> NURSING NIGHT AT<br />

THE BALLPARK<br />

The tickets sold out fast when faculty, students and staff signed up to see the<br />

Washington Nationals play the Atlanta Braves June 13 in Nationals Park. One hundred<br />

members of the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> family attended, and the Nationals, the top-ranked<br />

team in the National League East, won 10-5.<br />

✚✚<br />

Dr. Acquaviva received the LGBT<br />

Health Professional Leadership Award<br />

from Building the Next Generation of<br />

Academic Physicians in recognition of<br />

her efforts to promote the development<br />

of a health workforce responsive to the<br />

needs of LGBTQ communities.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Linda Briggs<br />

received the <strong>GW</strong> Morton A. Bender<br />

Teaching Excellence Award and was<br />

selected for a three-year term as a<br />

Trending Now<br />

Connect with the<br />

<strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

/<strong>GW</strong>nursing<br />

@<strong>GW</strong>nursing<br />

@<strong>GW</strong>nursing<br />

<strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

@gwNURSING<br />

22 May <strong>2017</strong><br />

Congrats to<br />

our own, now<br />

DOCTOR<br />

Becky Mance!<br />

#<strong>GW</strong>U #nursing<br />

#nurses<br />

#nursingschool<br />

#congrats<br />

#graduation<br />

26 /


Fulbright specialist by the J. William<br />

Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board<br />

and the U.S. Department of State.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Jess Calohan was<br />

appointed to be an editorial board<br />

member for the Journal of the American<br />

Psychiatric Nurses Association.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Ashley<br />

Darcy-Mahoney has been named a<br />

<strong>2017</strong> Macy Faculty Scholar. Only five<br />

people were selected from a national<br />

applicant pool of 84 talented medical<br />

and nursing educators. She was chosen<br />

because of her accomplishments to<br />

date and her future promise as an<br />

educational leader and innovator.<br />

✚✚<br />

The Eastern <strong>Nursing</strong> Society<br />

has elected Assistant Professor<br />

Majeda El-Banna to serve on the<br />

nominating committee. Dr. El-Banna<br />

was also appointed a National League<br />

for <strong>Nursing</strong> (NLN) Ambassador for<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Cameron Hogg<br />

was voted president-elect of the<br />

Nurse Practitioner Association of<br />

D.C. (NPADC). Dr. Linda Briggs and<br />

Associate Professor Sandra Davis also<br />

serve on the NPADC board.<br />

✚✚<br />

In honor of her consistent advancement<br />

of the university’s mission through her<br />

dedicated volunteer efforts, Professor<br />

and former Dean Jean Johnson, PhD<br />

’93, received the Jane Lingo Alumni<br />

Outstanding Service Award at the<br />

56th Annual <strong>GW</strong> Alumni Outstanding<br />

Service Awards ceremony.<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Professor Karen Kesten and<br />

Kenya Beard, a senior policy fellow<br />

at the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Center for Health<br />

Policy and Media Engagement, are<br />

among the <strong>2017</strong> American Academy of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> inductees.<br />

✚✚<br />

Dr. Kesten has been appointed for a<br />

two-year term as chair of the American<br />

Association of Critical Care Nurses<br />

Certification Corporation board<br />

of directors.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Mayri Leslie was<br />

inducted as a fellow in the American<br />

College of Nurse-Midwives.<br />

✚✚<br />

In May, two of <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s own<br />

graduated from <strong>GW</strong>. Clinical Instructor<br />

Rebecca Mance received a Doctor of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Practice, and Marketing and<br />

Communications Assistant Director<br />

Erin Julius received a master’s degree<br />

in strategic public relations.<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Professor Christine Pintz<br />

has been identified as an “innovation<br />

scholar” and has received a<br />

fellowship from the <strong>GW</strong> Innovation<br />

Hub. Dr. Pintz is developing for<br />

DNP students a course titled<br />

“Design Thinking.”<br />

✚✚<br />

The NLN has asked Assistant Professor<br />

Rhonda Schwindt to serve on its<br />

Strategic Action Group DNP Scholarly<br />

Project. The NLN has become aware<br />

from discussions with members and<br />

a careful review of the literature that,<br />

in the evolving DNP movement,<br />

challenges with the final scholarly<br />

project continue. The action group was<br />

convened to consider approaches to<br />

assist faculty throughout the U.S. and to<br />

better support DNP students through<br />

the development, implementation and<br />

evaluation of the DNP scholarly project.<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Gretchen Wiersma<br />

successfully passed the Certified Nurse<br />

Educator examination.<br />

GRANTS AND FUNDING<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Linda Briggs has<br />

received a Sigma Theta Tau Phi Epsilon<br />

Chapter grant to support her study,<br />

“The Effect of Requiring New Graduate<br />

Nurse Practitioner Collaboration in<br />

Full Practice Authority States.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Majeda El-Banna<br />

and Associate Professors Laurie Posey<br />

and Christine Pintz received the<br />

$25,000 NLN Dorothy Otto Research<br />

Award to conduct the study, “Mindsetenhanced<br />

E-learning to Improve<br />

Medication Calculation.” A Sigma<br />

Theta Tau Phi Epsilon Chapter<br />

grant was also awarded to support<br />

<strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

@gwNURSING<br />

3 Jul <strong>2017</strong><br />

Some of our #BSN<br />

& #FNP students<br />

landed in #Haiti<br />

this weekend<br />

for a weeklong<br />

medical mission in<br />

partnership with<br />

@<strong>GW</strong>SMHS! #<strong>GW</strong>U<br />

#nursing<br />

<strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

@gwNURSING<br />

10 Aug <strong>2017</strong><br />

#tbt When our<br />

students went<br />

to #Haiti to help<br />

provide #healthcare<br />

earlier this summer!<br />

#throwback<br />

#nursing<br />

@<strong>GW</strong>SMHS<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 27


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

the study. Drs. El-Banna and Pintz,<br />

with Professor Joyce Pulcini, also<br />

received funding for the third year<br />

to conduct “University Seminars:<br />

Innovations in Interprofessional Health<br />

Care Education.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Professor Ashley<br />

Darcy-Mahoney and her team have<br />

won a grand prize of $75,000 in the<br />

U.S. Department of Health and Human<br />

Services Health Research Service<br />

Administration’s Bridging the Word<br />

Gap Challenge for their “Háblame<br />

Bebé” project, the Spanish-language<br />

version of “Talk With Me Baby.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Asefeh Faraz,<br />

Research Instructor Ed Salsberg<br />

and Senior Research Associate<br />

Leo Quigley received the inaugural<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> research funding grant to<br />

conduct the study, “Understanding and<br />

Tracking the Nurse Practitioner Job<br />

Market: Pilot Testing a Survey of New<br />

Nurse Practitioners.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Dr. Faraz also is the recipient of<br />

the George Washington University<br />

Shenkman Career Services Fund<br />

Faculty and Staff Innovation Grant to<br />

develop a workshop for successful nurse<br />

practitioner transition to practice.<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Professor Kathleen Griffith,<br />

Assistant Professor Maritza Dowling<br />

and team received a <strong>GW</strong> Cross<br />

Disciplinary Research Fund (CDRF)<br />

grant for their project, “Chemotherapy<br />

Induced Central and Peripheral<br />

Nervous System Toxicities.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Dr. Griffith is also working with<br />

Assistant Professor Dana Hines on<br />

a $50,000 D.C. Center for AIDS<br />

Research pilot grant award for their<br />

project, “Understanding Barriers to<br />

PrEP Uptake and Adherence among<br />

Black Transgender Women in D.C.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Dr. Hines was also awarded a<br />

Nashman Center Faculty Grant for<br />

Community-Engaged Scholarship from<br />

the Honey W. Nashman Center for<br />

Civic Engagement and Public Service<br />

for her project, “Using Intervention<br />

Mapping to Develop a Transgender-Peer<br />

Navigation Program.”<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Professors Laurie Posey,<br />

Christine Pintz and their team<br />

received a second year of funding<br />

from the CDRF for their “Design and<br />

Evaluation of a Virtual Standardized<br />

Patient Portal” project.<br />

✚✚<br />

Informatics Education.org has<br />

awarded $2,500 to Associate Professor<br />

Karen Whitt for the study, “Promoting<br />

Informatics Education by Evaluating<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Students’ Knowledge of<br />

Electronic Health Record (EHR)<br />

Features.” The study will identify EHR<br />

features for which students have a<br />

lack of knowledge, so that educational<br />

materials and training modules about<br />

specific EHR features can be developed.<br />

PROMOTIONS AND<br />

LEADERSHIP CHANGES<br />

✚✚<br />

Assistant Professor Carol Braungart<br />

is the new Family Nurse Practitioner<br />

program director.<br />

✚✚<br />

Clinical Assistant Professor<br />

Ellen Farrell is the new Adult<br />

Geriatric-Primary Care Nurse<br />

Practitioner program director. She<br />

is also leading the Palliative Care<br />

Graduate Certificate program.<br />

✚✚<br />

Kimberly Acquaviva was<br />

promoted to professor, and<br />

Sandra Davis and Arlene Pericak<br />

are now associate professors.<br />

Washington, D.C. | In June,<br />

Assistant Professor Ashley Darcy-<br />

Mahoney joined other infancy and<br />

childhood specialists at the Busboys<br />

and Poets bookstore and restaurant<br />

for Science Café 360. The café<br />

is a casual space for open dialogue<br />

among community members,<br />

medical researchers and<br />

social scientists. Researchers<br />

demystify what they do, how they<br />

do it and why they think it will help<br />

local residents.<br />

28 /


PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES HONOR<br />

<strong>GW</strong> NURSING FACULTY<br />

In April, at the 43rd conference of the<br />

National Organization of Nurse Practitioner<br />

Faculties (NONPF) in Washington,<br />

D.C., the organization recognized the<br />

accomplishments of <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> faculty<br />

members.<br />

Professor Jean Johnson received the Friend<br />

of the NONPF Award.<br />

Assistant Professor Erin Athey took home<br />

the Outstanding Rising Star Award.<br />

Other faculty and staff also represented<br />

the school with podium presentations,<br />

workshops and posters, including:<br />

✚ ✚”You’ve Got Mail: A Web-based<br />

Structured Mentorship Program<br />

for Student-Alumni Pairs,” a poster<br />

presented by Assistant Professor<br />

Asefeh Faraz.<br />

✚ ✚“Interprofessional Care of Individuals<br />

with Multiple Chronic Conditions:<br />

An Open-Access Resource for NP<br />

Educators,” a podium presentation<br />

by Associate Professors Christine<br />

Pintz and Laurie Posey and Research<br />

Professor Patricia Farmer.<br />

✚✚<br />

The workshop, “Teaching Graduate<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Students Social Determinants<br />

of Health with Simulation Based<br />

Learning,” was conducted by Associate<br />

Professor Sandra Davis, Associate<br />

Professor Arlene Pericak, Assistant<br />

Professor Linda Briggs, Clinical<br />

Assistant Professor Ellen Farrell,<br />

Academic Affairs Manager Patsy Deyo<br />

and Professor Angela McNelis. Clinical<br />

Assistant Professor Pamela Slaven-Lee<br />

was also an author of the workshop.<br />

Faculty, leadership and programs are<br />

being honored at the 44th Sigma Theta Tau<br />

International Biennial Convention Oct. 28<br />

through Nov. 1 in Indianapolis, Ind.<br />

✚✚<br />

Dean Pamela Jeffries will receive the<br />

<strong>2017</strong> Edith Moore Copeland Award for<br />

Excellence in Creativity (the Founder’s<br />

Award).<br />

✚✚<br />

The <strong>GW</strong> Interprofessional Education<br />

Collaborative, formed and led by<br />

Associate Professors Christine<br />

Pintz and Laurie Posey, will<br />

receive this year’s Best Practice in<br />

Technology Award.<br />

✚✚<br />

Associate Dean for Academic Affairs<br />

Janice Hoffman and her co-author Dr.<br />

Nancy Sullivan will share the Capstone<br />

International <strong>Nursing</strong> Book Award<br />

for Medical-Surgical <strong>Nursing</strong>: Making<br />

Connections to Practice.<br />

✚✚<br />

✚✚<br />

Research Professor Karen Wyche will<br />

be inducted as an honorary member of<br />

Sigma Theta Tau International.<br />

Faculty members who also will be<br />

presenting at the convention include<br />

Instructor Esther Emard, “A Nurse<br />

Practitioner’s Innovative, Value<br />

Approach to Redesigning Access to<br />

End of Life Care”;Assistant Professor<br />

Malinda Whitlow, “Building a<br />

Leadership Backbone: A Scholar’s<br />

Nurse Faculty Leadership Journey”;<br />

and Assistant Clinical Professor Pamela<br />

Slaven-Lee, “Transition to a Student-<br />

Driven, Competency-Based Clinical<br />

Placement Model for Advanced Practice<br />

Registered Nurse Education.”<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 29


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

NEWS OF STUDENTS & RECENT<br />

GRADUATES<br />

The new <strong>GW</strong> Student Nurses’ Association officers are (from left) Tricia Hanson, vice president; Sabrina Livne-Kennedy,<br />

president; Jessica Litz, secretary; Jordan Ramsdall, treasurer; and Meghan Martin, historian. The National Student Nurses’<br />

Association mentors professional development of future registered nurses and facilitates their entrance into the profession by<br />

providing educational resources, leadership opportunities and career guidance.<br />

Leilani Attillo, MSN-FNP ’19, a U.S.<br />

Army veteran, has been named<br />

a Pat Tillman Foundation Scholar.<br />

Ms. Attillo served as a critical care nurse<br />

in both Afghanistan and Iraq. For more<br />

information, visit pattillmanfoundation.<br />

org/scholar/leilani-attilio/.<br />

At Camp Dogwood in Madison, Va., <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> accelerated BSN students<br />

(from left) Elizabeth Hayes, Alex Lapple and Margaret Rosati “nursed” a<br />

calf and helped care for campers.<br />

30 /


STUDENTS,<br />

ALUMNI AND<br />

FACULTY<br />

ADVISERS MAKE<br />

MARK AT <strong>GW</strong><br />

RESEARCH DAYS<br />

<strong>GW</strong>’s annual Research Days, an annual<br />

two-day event held in April, highlights<br />

the best of student research through<br />

poster presentations and information<br />

sessions. This year’s event featured<br />

over 200 undergraduate and graduate<br />

students in disciplines ranging from<br />

education, mathematics and engineering<br />

to health sciences and many more. The<br />

event filled both ballrooms of the Marvin<br />

Center and drew large crowds from the<br />

<strong>GW</strong> community. Teams of faculty judges<br />

evaluated each student’s research and<br />

awarded cash prizes in different categories.<br />

Three <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> students—now<br />

graduates—received honors and showcased<br />

their research at the event.<br />

✚✚<br />

Jessica Blakely, BSN ’17, received<br />

the Outstanding Student Award in<br />

Research and presented “Integrating<br />

Social Determinants of Health<br />

in Health Care Education: Using<br />

Simulation Based Learning to<br />

Prepare Nurse Practitioner Students.”<br />

Ms. Blakely has served as a research<br />

assistant for Associate Dean Angela<br />

McNelis, working on numerous<br />

research projects during the past year,<br />

including the National FNP Education<br />

Study, a simulation study that has<br />

included <strong>GW</strong> nurse practitioners. As<br />

<strong>GW</strong> Research Days is a showcase of research,<br />

scholarship and creative endeavor.<br />

a research assistant, she has used her<br />

skills in database administration to<br />

ensure integrity of survey collection and<br />

data storage.<br />

✚✚<br />

Azra Kukic, DNP ’17, received<br />

first prize for her DNP project<br />

poster titled “Effects of Bariatric<br />

Program Implementation on 30-day<br />

Readmission and 30-day ER/Infusion<br />

Clinic Visit Rates due to Dehydration,”<br />

and Kathleen Hewitt, DNP ’17,<br />

was selected to present during the<br />

concluding ceremony her DNP project,<br />

“Disparities in Cardiac Rehabilitation<br />

Referral for Patients with Myocardial<br />

Infarction in the United States.”<br />

Clinical Professor Cathie Guzzetta<br />

was a co-author on both projects. Dr.<br />

Kukics’s presentation can be viewed at<br />

go.gwu.edu/<strong>GW</strong>ResearchKukics.<br />

Other presentations from <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> DNP students and faculty<br />

advisers included:<br />

✚ ✚“A Retrospective Analysis of Surgeon<br />

Estimated Time and Actual Operative<br />

Time to Develop an Efficient Operating<br />

Room Scheduling System”—<br />

Pearly Brown, DNP ’17, Dr. Guzzetta<br />

and Assistant Professor Quiping<br />

“Pearl” Zhou.<br />

✚ ✚“Because It Belongs to the Baby:<br />

Practice and Cultural Beliefs on<br />

Umbilical Cord Management in<br />

Haiti”—Stacey Stavlund, MSN ’16, and<br />

Assistant Professors Jeonyoung Park<br />

and Mayri Sagady Leslie.<br />

✚ ✚“Disparities in Cardiac Rehabilitation<br />

Referral for Patients with Myocardial<br />

Infarction in the United States”—<br />

Dr. Hewitt and Dr. Guzzetta.<br />

✚ ✚“Implementation of a <strong>Fall</strong>s Prevention<br />

Plan Among the Communitydwelling<br />

Seniors of Ward 8”—BSN ’17<br />

graduates Laura Hink, Kimberly<br />

Demirhan, Zohra Wardak and<br />

Louise Williamson.<br />

✚ ✚“Integrating Social Determinants of<br />

Health in Health Care Education: Using<br />

Simulation Based Learning to Prepare<br />

Nurse Practitioner Students”—Ms.<br />

Blakely, Dr. McNelis, Assistant Deans<br />

Sandra Davis and Pamela<br />

Slaven-Lee, Associate Professor<br />

Arlene Pericak and Academic Affairs<br />

Manager Patsy Deyo.<br />

✚ ✚“Variables Associated with Overweight/<br />

Obesity among African American<br />

Women with Hypertension and<br />

Diabetes”—Monica Hamilton, DNP<br />

’17, Assistant Professor Linda Briggs<br />

and Dr. Zhou.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 31


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

PRESENTATIONS<br />

Boston | In conjunction with her<br />

presentation at the American Academy<br />

for the Advancement of the Sciences<br />

in May, Assistant Professor ASHLEY<br />

DARCY-MAHONEY gave a talk, Bridges<br />

to Success from Birth: Novel Community<br />

Programs to End “Poverty of Words,<br />

at the Massachusetts Institute of<br />

Technology Department of Brain and<br />

Cognitive Sciences.<br />

Columbus, Ohio | At the Ohio Nurse<br />

Educator Conference in April, Dean<br />

PAMELA JEFFRIES presented “Policy<br />

implications and Considerations Utilizing<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Simulations in the Curriculum.“<br />

Denver | Research PROFESSOR<br />

PATRICIA FARMER presented ”Academic<br />

Progression Outcomes, Strategies and<br />

Future Directions“ in June to the National<br />

Forum of State <strong>Nursing</strong> Workforce Centers.<br />

Dublin, Ireland | At the Sigma Theta Tau<br />

International <strong>Nursing</strong> Research Congress<br />

in July, Assistant Professor RHONDA<br />

SCHWINDT and Professor ANGELA<br />

MCNELIS presented “Working Together<br />

to Treat Tobacco Dependence among<br />

Smokers with Serious Mental Illness.”<br />

DNP students presenting included EMILY<br />

EMMA, ”Improved Outcomes Associated<br />

With An Early Mobilization Protocol<br />

Among Hip And Knee Replacement<br />

Patients;“ VICKI WAGNER, ”Low Acuity<br />

Emergency Department Visits Comparing<br />

Demographics and Patient Profiles<br />

For A Midwestern Accountable Care<br />

Organization;“ HAOFEI WANG,”Using<br />

a Bundle Prophylactic Approach in<br />

Post-operative Total Knee and Total Hip<br />

Arthroplasty Patients;“ and MEGAN<br />

WOLFE, ”An Assessment of Errors<br />

and Near-Misses from Pre-Licensure<br />

Student Nurses.“<br />

Florence, Italy | DRS. SCHWINDT and<br />

MCNELIS presented “Training Health<br />

Professional Students to Treat Tobacco<br />

Dependence among Persons with Mental<br />

Illness and Co-Occurring Substance Use<br />

Disorders: A Mixed-Methods Study” at<br />

the Society for Research on Nicotine and<br />

Tobacco Annual Conference in February.<br />

Dr. Schwindt also presented “Development<br />

and Dissemination of a Shared Tobacco<br />

Curriculum for Current and Future<br />

Healthcare Providers.”<br />

Reno, Nev. | DR. FARMER was the<br />

keynote speaker in May at the Nevada<br />

Nurses Association Annual Meeting.<br />

Her presentation was an update on<br />

implementation of the IOM Future of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> report.<br />

San Antonio, Texas | Professor<br />

KIMBERLY ACQUAVIVA co-presented a<br />

workshop, “Working Smarter, Not Harder:<br />

Crafting Scholarly Projects that Count,“ at<br />

the American Physical Therapy Association<br />

Combined Sections Meeting in February.<br />

San Diego | Associate Professor<br />

KAREN KESTEN delivered a podium<br />

presentation,"Retirements and Succession<br />

of <strong>Nursing</strong> Faculty in the Next 10 Years,<br />

2016-2025,”at the January American<br />

Academy of Colleges of <strong>Nursing</strong> Doctoral<br />

Education Conference.<br />

Scottsdale, Ariz. | In February, DR.<br />

ACQUAVIVA presented “LGBTQ-Inclusive<br />

Hospice and Palliative Care” at the Social<br />

Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network<br />

General Assembly.<br />

St. Paul, Minn. | DR. JEFFRIES<br />

presented “State of the Science in Clinical<br />

Simulations and Teaching with Simulations”<br />

at the Minnesota Board of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Education Conference in May.<br />

Tampa Bay, Fla. | At the American<br />

Nurses Association‘s annual conference<br />

in March, Assistant Professor GRETCHEN<br />

WIERSMA presented a poster titled<br />

“Accelerated Second-Degree BSN<br />

Graduates: Are They Ready for Practice?”<br />

Washington, D.C. | In March, DR.<br />

ACQUAVIVA moderated a panel at <strong>GW</strong>’s<br />

<strong>2017</strong> Diversity Summit titled “Strategies<br />

for Creating Affirming Environments for<br />

Sexual and Gender Minorities: Embracing<br />

LGBTQ Students, Faculty, Staff, and<br />

Patients” and in April presented “Diversity<br />

and Inclusion: What Speech Pathologists<br />

and Audiologists Need to Know” as part<br />

of the <strong>GW</strong> Department of Speech and<br />

Hearing Science’s Guest Speaker Lecture<br />

Series. At the 32nd National Hospice and<br />

Palliative Care Organization Management<br />

and Leadership Conference in May,<br />

Dr. Acquaviva presented a workshop,<br />

“Funding Your Mission Through Grants,<br />

Contracts, and Major Donors” and in June,<br />

she participated in the workshop “Cultural<br />

Diversity: LGBTQ-Inclusive Care” at the D.C.<br />

Board of <strong>Nursing</strong>'s Symposium.<br />

In May, Associate Professor CATHERINE<br />

COX and DR. ANGELA MCNELIS, coliaisons<br />

to the <strong>GW</strong> Hospital <strong>Nursing</strong> (<strong>GW</strong>H)<br />

Research Council, planned and delivered<br />

at the hospital the first <strong>GW</strong>H Annual<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Research Conference.<br />

At the National League for <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Leadership Academy in June, DR.<br />

JEFFRIES delivered “Simple Strategies for<br />

Effective Leadership.”<br />

At the Women‘s Health Symposium<br />

sponsored in May by the D.C. affiliate of<br />

the American College of Nurse-Midwives,<br />

Assistant Professor MAYRI LESLIE<br />

presented ”An Idea Whose Time Has<br />

Come: Neonatal Resuscitation with an<br />

Intact Cord.“<br />

Worldwide | Assistant Deans SANDRA<br />

DAVIS and PAMELA SLAVEN-LEE were<br />

panelists for a May webinar, ”Beyond<br />

the Bedside: Social Determinants of<br />

Health Curriculum and Assessment in the<br />

Health Professions,“ co-sponsored by the<br />

Association of American Medical Colleges<br />

and the American Association of Colleges<br />

of <strong>Nursing</strong>.<br />

32 /


Alumni, Students, Faculty and<br />

Staff Gather at Happy Hour<br />

The Aug. 10 alumni social hour at Circa in Foggy Bottom was<br />

hosted by Dean Pamela Jeffries and <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> Development<br />

and Alumni Relations.<br />

Honor Society Inducts<br />

Spring Graduates<br />

In May, <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s Phi Epsilon chapter of the Sigma Theta<br />

Tau Honor Society welcomed 112 outstanding new members<br />

representing the BSN, MSN and DNP programs.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 33


Faculty, Student and Staff News<br />

Faculty Publications—<br />

January-September <strong>2017</strong><br />

KIMBERLY ACQUAVIVA. “The challenge<br />

of staying hopeful in the age of Trump.”<br />

The Advocate, April 28.<br />

…“LGBTQ-Inclusion: A call to action for<br />

nurses.” International Journal of Palliative<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, May.<br />

…“Lucky.” Neurosis Nonsense, June.<br />

…“LGBTQ aging and empathy-as-activism.”<br />

American Society on Aging blog, August.<br />

ASHLEY DARCY-MAHONEY and<br />

L. Zauche, S. Hallowell, A. Weldon.<br />

“Leveraging the skills of nurses and the<br />

power of language nutrition to ensure a<br />

better future for children.” Advances in<br />

Neonatal Care, February.<br />

…and L. Zauche, M. Higgins. “Predictors<br />

of co-occurring neurodevelopmental<br />

disabilities in children with autism<br />

spectrum disorders.” Journal of Pediatric<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, July-August.<br />

N. MARTIZA DOWLING and C. Nicholas,<br />

S. Hoscheidt, L. Clark. “Positive affect<br />

predicts cerebral glucose metabolism in<br />

late middle-aged adults.” Social Cognitive<br />

and Affective Neuroscience, April.<br />

…and A. Willette, J. Webb, M. Lutz.<br />

“Family history and TOMM40 ’523<br />

interactive associations with memory<br />

in middle-aged and AD cohorts.”<br />

Alzheimer’s & Dementia, May.<br />

MAJEDA EL-BANNA and E. Kurnat-<br />

Thoma, M. Oakcrum, J. Tyroler. “Nurses’<br />

health promoting lifestyle behaviors in<br />

a community hospital.” Applied <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Research, June.<br />

…and MALINDA WHITLOW, ANGELA<br />

MCNELIS. “Flipping around the classroom:<br />

Accelerated Bachelor of Science in <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

students’ satisfaction and achievement.”<br />

Nurse Education Today, September.<br />

KATHLEEN GRIFFITH and L. Buffart,<br />

J. Kalter, M. Sweegers, K. Courneya, R.<br />

Newton, N. Aaronson, P. Jacobsen, A. May,<br />

D. Galvão, M. Chinapaw, K. Steindorf,<br />

M. Irwin, M. Stuiver, S. Hayes, A. Lucia,<br />

I. Mesters, E. van Weert, H. Knoop, M.<br />

Goedendorp, N. Mutrie, A. Daley, A.<br />

McConnachie, M. Bohus, L. Thorsen, K.<br />

Schulz, C. Short, R. James, G. Plotnikoff,<br />

M. Arbane, M. Schmidt, K. Potthoff, M.<br />

van Beurden, H. Oldenburg, G. Sonke,<br />

W. van Harten, R. Garrod, K. Schmitz,<br />

K. Winters-Stone, D. Velthuis, W. Taaffe,<br />

M. van Mechelen, M. Kersten, F. Nolle,<br />

J. Wenzel, J. Wiskemann, I. Verdonck-de<br />

Leeuw, J. Brug. “Effects and moderators<br />

of exercise on quality of life and physical<br />

function in patients with cancer: An<br />

individual patient data meta-analysis of 34<br />

RCTs.” Cancer Treatment Review, January.<br />

…and H. Kim, G. Yang, J. Greenspan, K.<br />

Downton, C. Renn, M. Johantgen, S.<br />

Dorsey. “Racial and ethnic differences in<br />

experimental pain sensitivity: systematic<br />

review and meta-analysis.” Pain, February.<br />

…and S. Zhu, M. Johantgen, M. Kessler,<br />

C. Renn, A. Beutler, R. Kanwar, N.<br />

Ambulos, G. Cavaletti, J. Bruna, C.<br />

Briani, A. Argyriou, H. Kalofonos, L.<br />

Yerges-Armstrong, S. Dorsey. “Oxaliplatininduced<br />

peripheral neuropathy and<br />

identification of unique severity groups in<br />

colorectal cancer.” Journal of Pain Symptom<br />

Management, July.<br />

…and G. Yang, H. Kim, S. Zhu, S. Dorsey, C.<br />

Renn. “Interventions for the treatment of<br />

aromatase inhibitor-associated arthralgia<br />

in breast cancer survivors: A systematic<br />

review and meta-analysis.” Cancer <strong>Nursing</strong>,<br />

July-August.<br />

DANA HINES and C. Draucker, B.<br />

Habermann. “HIV testing and entry to<br />

care among trans women in Indiana.”<br />

Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS<br />

Care, May.<br />

PAMELA JEFFRIES and H. Connors, D.<br />

Skiba, M. Rizzolo, D. Billings. “Health<br />

Information Technology Scholars Program:<br />

From implementation to outcomes.”<br />

Journal of <strong>Nursing</strong> Education Perspectives,<br />

January/February.<br />

…and C. Huston, B. Phillips, C. Todero,<br />

J. Rich, P. Knecht, S. Sommer,<br />

M. Lewis. “The academic practice gap:<br />

Strategies for an enduring problem.”<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> Forum, August.<br />

ELLEN KURTZMAN, JEAN JOHNSON, B.<br />

Barnow, S. Simmens, D. Infeld, F. Mullan.<br />

“Does the regulatory environment affect<br />

nurse practitioners’ patterns of practice or<br />

quality of care in health centers?” Health<br />

Services Research, January.<br />

…and B. Barnow. “A comparison of nurse<br />

practitioners, physician assistants, and<br />

primary care physicians’ patterns of<br />

practice and quality of care in health<br />

centers.” Medical Care, February.<br />

...and E. Hing, D.T. Lau, C. Taplin, A.<br />

Bindman. “Characteristics of primary care<br />

physicians in patient-centered medical<br />

home practices: United States, 2013.”<br />

National Health Statistics Reports, February.<br />

34 /


BEVERLY LUNSFORD and LAURIE<br />

POSEY. “Geriatric education using a<br />

palliative care framework.” Gerontology and<br />

Geriatrics Education Review, January.<br />

ANGELA MCNELIS and H. Wonder,<br />

D. Spurlock, P. Ironside, S. Lancaster,<br />

C. Davis, M. Gainey, N. Verwers. “A<br />

comparison of nurses’ self-reported and<br />

objectively measured EBP knowledge.”<br />

Journal of Continuing Education in<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, February.<br />

…and J. Carlson, J. Agley, R. Gassman.<br />

“Effects and durability of an SBIRT training<br />

curriculum for first-year MSW students.”<br />

Journal of Social Work Practice in the<br />

Addictions, April.<br />

…and RHONDA SCHWINDT, J. Carlson, J.<br />

Agley. “Effects of training on social work,<br />

nursing, and medical trainees’ knowledge,<br />

attitudes, and beliefs related to screening<br />

and brief intervention for alcohol use.”<br />

Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, April.<br />

ARLENE PERICAK, MARJORIE<br />

GRAZIANO and ANGELA MCNELIS.<br />

“Faculty clinical site visits in NP<br />

education: The student perspective.”<br />

Nurse Educator, January.<br />

JOYCE PULCINI and D. Oldenburger, S.<br />

Cassiani, D. Bryant-Lukosius, R. Valaitis,<br />

A. Baumann. “Implementation strategy for<br />

advanced practice nursing in primary care<br />

in Latin America and the Caribbean.” Pan<br />

American Journal of Public Health, April.<br />

RHONDA SCHWINDT, ANGELA<br />

MCNELIS, and J. Carlson, J. Agley, J.<br />

Vannerson, R. Gassman, D. Crabb.<br />

“Effects of training on social work,<br />

nursing, and medical trainees’ knowledge,<br />

attitudes, and beliefs related to<br />

screening and brief.” April.<br />

…and J. Agley, K. Hudmon, K. Lay,<br />

M. Bentley. “Assessing perceptions<br />

of interprofessional education<br />

and collaboration among graduate<br />

health professions students using<br />

the Interprofessional Collaborative<br />

Competency Attainment.”<br />

Journal of Interprofessional Education<br />

& Practice, September.<br />

…and L. Carter-Harris, G. Bakiyannis, D.<br />

Ceppa. “Current smokers’ preferences for<br />

receiving cessation information in a lung<br />

cancer screening setting.” Journal of Cancer<br />

Education, April.<br />

KRISTEN STEVENS and E. Duffy. “A<br />

toolkit for nursing clinical instructors.”<br />

Teaching and Learning in <strong>Nursing</strong>, April.<br />

KAREN WHITT and M. Hughes, L. Eden,<br />

K. Merrill. “<strong>Nursing</strong> student experiences<br />

regarding safe use of electronic health<br />

records: A pilot study of the SAFER<br />

guides.” CIN: Computers, Informatics,<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, January.<br />

Books, Book Chapters<br />

and Monographs<br />

N. MARTIZA DOWLING and D. Bolt,<br />

Y-S. Shih, W-Y, Loh. “Using<br />

Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition to<br />

Explore Differential Item Functioning:<br />

Application to PISA 2009 Reading.” Test<br />

Fairness in the New Generation of Large-Scale<br />

Assessment. Charlotte, N.C.: Information<br />

Age Publishing.<br />

PAMELA JEFFRIES and K. Dreifuerst, K.<br />

Haerling Adamson. “Clinical Simulations<br />

in <strong>Nursing</strong> Education: Overview,<br />

Essentials, and the Evidence.” Teaching in<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>, (2nd ed). New York, N.Y.:<br />

Springer Publishing.<br />

RHONDA SCHWINDT, ANGELA<br />

MCNELIS and P. O’Haver-Day. “The<br />

mindful educator.” Reflective Practice:<br />

Transforming Education and Improving<br />

Outcomes (2nd edition). Indianapolis: Sigma<br />

Theta Tau International.<br />

KAREN WYCHE. “Gender socialization<br />

and women.” Sage Encyclopedia of Psychology<br />

and Gender. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage.<br />

JEONGYOUNG PARK and B. Frogner,<br />

X. Wu, P. Pittman. “The association of<br />

electronic health record adoption with<br />

staffing mix in community health centers.”<br />

Health Services Research, February.<br />

KAREN WYCHE and B. Pfefferbaum,<br />

A. Jacobs, R. Jones, G. Reyes. “A skill<br />

set for supporting displaced children in<br />

psychological recovery after disasters.”<br />

Current Psychiatry Reports, September.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 35


Advisory Council<br />

MEET THE ADVISERS TO <strong>GW</strong> NURSING<br />

JANET SOUTHBY,<br />

PhD, RN<br />

DR. SOUTHBY is a former U.S. Army<br />

Nurse Corps officer who retired with<br />

the rank of colonel in 1996. Her career<br />

included teaching in the Walter Reed<br />

Army Institute of <strong>Nursing</strong> and serving as<br />

director of nursing research and chief in<br />

the Department of <strong>Nursing</strong> at Walter Reed<br />

Army Medical Center. She was also the<br />

chief nurse of the North Atlantic Regional<br />

Medical Command, completed tours in<br />

Vietnam and Korea, and was named a<br />

White House military social aide for six<br />

years, serving as the first female senior aide<br />

during the last year of her appointment.<br />

Dr. Southby earned a bachelor’s degree in<br />

nursing from the University of Pittsburgh,<br />

a master’s in pediatric nursing from<br />

the University of Maryland and a PhD<br />

in nursing science from the Catholic<br />

University of America.<br />

HOME: Washington, D.C.<br />

PROUDEST ACCOMPLISHMENT:<br />

The pinnacle of my Army nursing career<br />

was serving as the chief nurse executive at<br />

Walter Reed Army Medical Center where,<br />

more than 30 years earlier, I was first<br />

assigned as a pediatric staff nurse.<br />

CURRENTLY READING: The recently<br />

released 25th anniversary-edition of Diana:<br />

Her True Story—In Her Own Words.<br />

NOT MANY PEOPLE KNOW THAT:<br />

I volunteer as an Army Arlington Lady<br />

at Arlington National Cemetery. The<br />

Arlington Ladies are a group of volunteers<br />

whose purpose is to attend funeral services<br />

to ensure that no “Soldier, Sailor, Airman or<br />

Coast Guardsman is ever buried alone.”<br />

GREATEST WISH FOR <strong>GW</strong> NURSING:<br />

Continue the rapid trajectory toward<br />

achieving strategic goals and being<br />

recognized as a premier nursing school for<br />

teaching, learning, practice, research and<br />

health policy.<br />

MEMBERS OF THE ADVISORY COUNCIL<br />

Co-Chairs<br />

Members<br />

Mary-Michael Brown,<br />

DNP, RN<br />

MedStar Health<br />

Karen N. Drenkard,<br />

PhD, RN, FAAN<br />

GetWell Network<br />

Diane Billings,<br />

EdD, RN, FAAN<br />

Indiana University School<br />

of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Alan Schurman Cohn, JD<br />

AbsoluteCare<br />

Ellen Dawson, PhD, RN<br />

Malcolm Harkins III, JD<br />

St. Louis University School<br />

of Law<br />

Lucas Huang, BEE, BAE<br />

B-Line Medical<br />

Robin Kaplan, MSN, RN<br />

Kushner Hebrew Academy<br />

Elizabeth (Betsy) K.<br />

Linsert, MS, FNP<br />

<strong>GW</strong> Colonial Health Center<br />

Molly McCarthy,<br />

MBA, RN<br />

Microsoft US Health<br />

Lynn Mertz, PhD<br />

AARP Center to Champion<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> in America<br />

Angela Patterson,<br />

DNP, RN<br />

CVS MinuteClinic<br />

Sandra Ryan,<br />

MSN, RN, FAAN<br />

Walmart Care Clinic<br />

Al Shimkus, MSN, RN,<br />

Capt. USN (Ret.)<br />

Naval War College<br />

Janet R. Southby,<br />

PhD, RN<br />

Interagency<br />

Institute for Federal<br />

HealthCare Executives<br />

Philip Spector, JD<br />

Talemi, LLC<br />

36 /


Philanthropy News<br />

MAKING HISTORY<br />

CAMPAIGN A<br />

MONUMENTAL<br />

SUCCESS<br />

<strong>GW</strong>’s first $1 billion fundraising<br />

campaign breaks records<br />

and delivers support for<br />

students, researchers, faculty<br />

and programs.<br />

Nearly 67,000 donors contributed more<br />

than $1.02 billion to the university in the<br />

recently concluded Making History: The<br />

Campaign for <strong>GW</strong>.<br />

“Campaigns are really about people,”<br />

said Nelson A. Carbonell, B.S. ’85, chair<br />

of the <strong>GW</strong> Board of Trustees, who,<br />

with his wife Michele endowed the<br />

Carbonell Family Professor in Autism and<br />

Neurodevelopmental Disorders. “They<br />

are about getting people engaged with the<br />

institution and connecting their passion<br />

with an area of the university they can<br />

support. And that philanthropic support<br />

can in turn transform another person’s life.”<br />

Among the <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> donors who<br />

shared a commitment to the university<br />

and to health and healing throughout<br />

their careers are Jean Johnson, PhD<br />

’93, and physician L. Gregory Pawlson,<br />

who endowed the Johnson-Pawlson<br />

Scholarship for Enhanced Quality and<br />

Safety. The scholarship provides one<br />

need-based scholarship each year for<br />

an Accelerated Bachelor of Science in<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> student who demonstrates an<br />

interest in patient safety and quality<br />

improvement and includes those areas<br />

in his or her coursework while in the<br />

program. “Support of students through<br />

scholarship funds has such an immediate<br />

impact,” said Dr. Johnson, founding<br />

dean and professor at <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>. “We<br />

wanted to give deserving students a<br />

chance to have a career that we think is<br />

incredibly rewarding.”<br />

Recent graduate and Johnson-Pawlson<br />

Scholarship recipient Juan Torres, BSN ’17,<br />

said that with a wife also in nursing school<br />

and a toddler, “This scholarship came at an<br />

opportune moment. It’s not only helping<br />

me, but my whole family.”<br />

Another nursing student benefiting<br />

from scholarships generated by the<br />

campaign is Sandra (Sandie) Lindberg.<br />

After 25 years in a rewarding nursing<br />

career, she recognized the necessity of<br />

a bachelor’s degree to advance in the<br />

field and enrolled in <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong>’s<br />

online RN-BSN program. Thanks to the<br />

generosity of the James M. Johnston Trust<br />

for Charitable and Educational Purposes<br />

scholarship, she has been able to take<br />

time out from her career to focus on her<br />

studies. As a veteran of acute-care hospital<br />

nursing, Ms. Lindberg is interested in<br />

returning to direct patient care in more<br />

of a management or leadership role. “The<br />

jury is still out on the locale or type of<br />

institution, because there are a wide<br />

range of options to choose from,” she<br />

said. “When I move closer to graduation,<br />

I’m positive the right opportunity will<br />

present itself.”<br />

“The Making History Campaign<br />

has brought to the school opportunities<br />

that will have widespread impact on our<br />

students and on their future patients,”<br />

said Pamela Jeffries, <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> dean<br />

and professor. “As a relatively young<br />

school, scholarships such as these can<br />

significantly expand our acceptance of<br />

worthy applicants.”<br />

_____________________________________<br />

This article was adapted from<br />

the <strong>GW</strong> Today article, June 17, <strong>2017</strong>,<br />

and from campaign impact stories.<br />

For more campaign outcomes and<br />

beneficiary information,<br />

visit makinghistory.gwu.edu/nursing.<br />

Johnson-Pawlson Scholars from left to right,<br />

Kayla Magee, BSN ‘18, Juan Torres, BSN ‘17,<br />

and Morgan Rollo, BSN ‘17.<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 37


Alumni News<br />

All nurses help people, but, as a flight nurse,<br />

<strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> alumna Brittany Key,<br />

BSN ’11, is often among the first to help<br />

victims with traumatic injuries. Working<br />

with only a paramedic and a pilot, she is<br />

the lead caregiver on medevac flights that<br />

retrieve and care for critically injured<br />

persons and convey them to a trauma center<br />

for further medical treatment.<br />

Where Are They Now?<br />

Brittany Key, RN<br />

MedStar Washington<br />

Hospital Flight Nurse<br />

A member of Cohort 2, Ms. Key was among <strong>GW</strong><br />

<strong>Nursing</strong>’s earliest graduates in the Accelerated<br />

Bachelor of Science <strong>Nursing</strong> program. She was profiled<br />

in the 2014 <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> magazine (“A Strong Start”)<br />

and at that time had just been promoted to team<br />

leader in the intensive care unit (ICU) at the George<br />

Washington University Hospital, where she went to<br />

work shortly after graduation. Today, she has realized<br />

her goal of becoming a flight nurse. Knowing her body<br />

won’t be able to handle the stress of flight nursing<br />

forever, Ms. Key’s next career step is to become a<br />

nurse practitioner.<br />

<strong>GW</strong>N: After starting your career in the ICU, you<br />

became a flight nurse in 2015. What attracted<br />

you to that nursing specialty?<br />

BK: The flight nurse serves as some people’s last<br />

chance. I wanted to be that person, to save them<br />

and give them that chance. I come from a small<br />

Midwestern town where we don’t have nearby tertiary<br />

care centers. Farm accidents and car crashes are<br />

common there and, without the medevac team, some<br />

people from my hometown would not be alive today.<br />

<strong>GW</strong>N: What is the training for a flight nurse?<br />

BK: To become a flight nurse you must first be an<br />

ICU nurse; more specifically, a surgical ICU nurse.<br />

At MedStar, flight nurses must have three years of<br />

experience as an ICU nurse. For the first three months,<br />

we were trained in the trauma bay at Washington<br />

Hospital Center, a rotation that distinguishes the<br />

MedStar training from other flight companies.<br />

There we honed our skills and knowledge by having<br />

38 /


hands-on experiences with penetrating or blunt trauma and with<br />

surgical transfers. Following the trauma bay, we were trained by a<br />

paramedic for six weeks and then by a nurse preceptor for<br />

an additional six weeks. Following the training, we took an oral<br />

exam given by the training director, and, once we passed, we<br />

obtained our wings.<br />

<strong>GW</strong>N: Emergency flight nursing is tough and stressful work.<br />

What do you do to stay mentally and physically healthy?<br />

BK: I remember the first flight shift I had on my own. My<br />

paramedic, a former Navy Seal, told me to check and calm my own<br />

heart rate before I checked anyone else. Now before every call<br />

I think about what he told me. It will be with me forever: “Calm<br />

your own heartbeat, your own breathing.”<br />

Stable and secure professional and personal relationships also<br />

help me deal with the stress of my job. I’m originally from a very<br />

small town in Illinois. I’m a farm girl where there are more cows<br />

in the town than people. Even though I haven’t lived there for 13<br />

years, I try to keep the Midwestern values taught to me by my<br />

parents and older siblings. I also have an enormous amount of<br />

support from my family, friends and coworkers. My coworkers and<br />

I are a team, and our motto is that we work together and we don’t<br />

leave each other behind.<br />

Physically, CrossFit training helps me stay in shape so I can<br />

manage the 50-pound bag of gear required in the field and be<br />

able to save lives in some of the most extreme conditions. The<br />

helicopter can be as cold as 5 degrees or as hot as 120.<br />

<strong>GW</strong>N: What advice do you give to students just embarking<br />

on their nursing education and careers?<br />

BK: Trust in the process, and take it one day at a time, one week<br />

at a time, one test at a time. Everything you do in nursing school<br />

leads up to the NCLEX. My advice to new nurses is to know it’s<br />

OK to make mistakes, just learn from them. I’ve made mistakes<br />

before, but I learn from them and keep going.<br />

“Trust in the process, and take it one<br />

day at a time, one week<br />

at a time, one test at a time.”<br />

— Brittany Key, BSN ’11<br />

nursing.gwu.edu / 39


Alumni News<br />

CONGRATULATIONS<br />

GRADUATES!<br />

The spring <strong>2017</strong> <strong>GW</strong> <strong>Nursing</strong> graduating<br />

class of 252 students again broke records,<br />

showing a 500 percent increase over the<br />

first spring graduation in 2012. At this<br />

year’s May commencement, degrees were<br />

conferred on 78 BSN students, 135 MSN<br />

students and 31 DNP students. Eight<br />

others received post-master’s certificates.<br />

FROM 2012 TO <strong>2017</strong><br />

40 /


Alumni Resources<br />

Our more than 1,900 alumni are a vital part of the School of<br />

<strong>Nursing</strong> community, actively giving back by offering their<br />

time, talents and expertise. <strong>GW</strong> offers a variety of programs<br />

and services tailored especially for alumni. We invite you<br />

to explore these resources and opportunities and to stay<br />

involved with the community.<br />

Update your information and share your news!<br />

alumni.gwu.edu/update-your-contact-information<br />

Benefits & Services<br />

Alumni Education Programs,<br />

Transcripts & Diplomas, Email<br />

alumni.gwu.edu/benefits-services<br />

<strong>GW</strong>Alumni<br />

<strong>GW</strong>Alumni<br />

The George Washington Alumni Association<br />

Events & Programs<br />

<strong>GW</strong> Alumni Calendar of Events<br />

alumni.gwu.edu/events<br />

News & Updates<br />

<strong>GW</strong> Alumni News<br />

gwalumni.org<br />

Connections<br />

Update Contact Information, Alumni Directory<br />

alumni.gwu.edu/alumni-directory<br />

School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

Office of Development and Alumni Relations<br />

45085 University Dr.<br />

Suite 302K<br />

Ashburn, VA 20147<br />

Phone: 571-553-0122<br />

Erin Harkins-Medina<br />

Associate Director for Development<br />

School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

ehmedina@gwu.edu<br />

Monica Krzyszczyk<br />

Development and Alumni Relations Coordinator<br />

monicak@gwu.edu<br />

BILLION<br />

Making History, our largest fundraising campaign ever, wrapped up June 30, <strong>2017</strong>.<br />

With your support, the <strong>GW</strong> community raised more than $1 billion for students, faculty, research, and programs.<br />

Go to makinghistory.gwu.edu/nursing to see how your gifts are making a difference.<br />

DAR3104


School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

The George Washington University<br />

1919 Pennsylvania Ave., NW<br />

Suite 500<br />

Washington, DC 20006-5818<br />

27 million more Americans<br />

have health insurance,<br />

and the strain on providers<br />

has never been greater.<br />

Amid the uncertainty of the American health care landscape, the <strong>GW</strong> School of <strong>Nursing</strong><br />

is steering the policy debate toward a focus on patient-centered care from the heart of<br />

Washington, D.C. We aim to advance policies that address workforce shortages, gaps<br />

in care and the needs of underserved populations.<br />

Learn more about our efforts to improve health care through education,<br />

practice and policy at backtohealth.gwu.edu.

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