Voice, Spring 2013

Spring 2013

william f. connellschool of nursing voice

Advancing education Nurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

Cover:2 3Voice Spring 2013

news

4 Pinnacle lecture wrap-up, faculty honors, and alumni and student inducted into AAN

features

6 Advancing educationNurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

10 Beyond the bedsideNurse advocates make a mark in public policy arenas

14 Flourishing in its fourth yearWith Price Foundation help, KILN expands

16 ChronicleA CSON parent’s journey to Haiti

achievements

18 Faculty publications

Spring 2013

4

From the Dean

Dear Friends, The William F. Connell School of Nursing is a bustling village—a

productive and complex enterprise compelled by its mission to “prepare

nurses whose practice reflects a humanistic ethic and is scientifically

based, technically competent, and highly compassionate.” So it is not

surprising that faculty, staff, and students work together to improve health

care, educate future leaders, and develop the science that will shape

health care in the years and decades to come.

What surprises and impresses me, however, is the strength of our ties to

so many collaborators and partners: families, alumni, patients, teachers,

caregivers, policy makers, and other health care providers.

In this issue of Voice, we feature members of our network, with stories

about advocates for changes in health policy, preceptors who work with us

to educate BC nurses of the future, and partner alumni and parents.

It takes a village to change health care. And I am so proud to be part of the

Connell School village, and to share some of the stories that make it such

an exciting place to be.

Yours,

Susan Gennaro

Dean

dean

Susan Gennaro

editor

Maureen Dezell

managing

editor

Tracy Bienen

contributors

Alicia Potter

Debra Bradley Ruder

Michael Prager

Alex Spanko

photographers

Aaron Clamage

Caitlin Cunningham

Gary Wayne Gilbert

Justin Knight

Josh Levine

Lee Pellegrini

Tony Rinaldo

Lexey Swall 12

voice

Voice is published by the William F. Connell School of Nursing and the Boston College Office of Marketing Communications.

Letters and comments are welcome:[email protected] SpecialistWilliam F. Connell School of Nursing, Boston College140 Commonwealth AvenueChestnut Hill, MA 02467

On the cover: Sampson Samuel, a patient at Boston Health Care for the Homeless Project’s McInness House, is examined by Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07. Photograph: Justin Knight

Top: Pinnacle Lecturer Angela Barron McBride with Marina Iturralde ’15 and Carol Iturralde ’80, M.A. ’83. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

Middle left: Preceptor Claire Schneckenberger consults with Richard McCartney, M.S. ’13. Photograph: Justin Knight

Middle right: Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

Bottom: “Haitian culture dictates that everyone must pay for health care,” said Erin Dromgoole ’13 (left). But her patient had spent all her savings on her husband’s care and couldn’t afford the modest fee, so “we paid for her clinic visit as a group,” said Dromgoole. Photograph: Lexey Swall

Photograph: Gary Wayne Gilbert

16

6 10

4 5Voice Spring 2013

News

Angela Barron McBride. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham

Assistant Professor Holly Fontenot. Courtesy Visions by Baker Photography

pinnacle lecture“The demand for nurse leadership has never been

greater,” Angela Barron McBride told an audience gath-

ered for her fall 2012 Pinnacle lecture in the Murray

Room in Yawkey Center. But McBride, a distinguished

professor and university dean emerita at the Indiana

University School of Nursing, cautioned against equat-

ing leadership with an administrative title.

“Nurse leaders will play an important role in trans-

forming the medical profession to match the needs of

future generations, including the specific challenges

that will arise as more people live into very old age,”

said McBride. She laid out strategies for becoming an

effective nurse leader and mentor at various career

stages—and noted the need to have mentors along

the way.

McBride also offered suggestions on how to remain

optimistic on the job, such as learning not to take the

positive aspects of nursing for granted. “It’s only when

you celebrate lots of little goodies that you actually have

the energy for the big ones,” she said.

the march of dimes applaudsThe March of Dimes Foundation’s Massachusetts

chapter named Assistant Professor Holly Fontenot one

of its 2012 Nurses of the Year, recognizing her work in

administration and research. Fontenot was one of nine

Bay State nurses honored by the organization.

marn recognizes cson profsThe Massachusetts Association of Registered Nurses

(MARN) honored Assistant Professor Kelly Stamp

and Professor Barbara Wolfe, CSON’s associate dean

for research, at its April awards. MARN presented

Stamp with its Excellence in Nursing Education

Award, and Wolfe received the Mary A. Manning Nurse

Mentoring Award.

aan welcomes seven from connell schoolThe American Academy of Nurses recently inducted

doctoral candidate Rachel DiFazio, a pediatric nurse

practitioner at Boston Children’s Hospital, and added

eight Connell School alumnae to its roster of nearly

2,000 fellows. They are:

Michelle Beauchesne, M.S. ’79, an associate profes-

sor and coordinator of the Doctor of Nursing Practice

Program at Northeastern University;

Susan Chapman, M.S. ’77, assistant adjunct professor

at the University of California, San Francisco’s School

of Nursing;

Elizabeth Burgess Dowdell, M.S. ’87, a professor of

pediatric nursing at Villanova University and daughter

of Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess;

Jean D’Meza Leuner, M.S. ’79, Ph.D. ’94, founding

dean and professor at the University of Central Flori-

da’s College of Nursing;

Sara Looby, Ph.D. ’08, a nurse practitioner at Massa-

chusetts General Hospital;

Kris McLoughlin ’82, director of nursing education,

performance improvement, and research at UCLA’s

Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital;

Kathleen Miller, M.S. ’80, associate dean for advanced

practice programs and director of the Doctor of

Nursing Practice Program at the University of Massa-

chusetts Medical School’s Graduate School of Nursing

in Worcester; and

Jeannine Rivet ’72, an executive vice president at

UnitedHealth Group.

cson turns out for eastern nursing research society conferenceProfessors June Horowitz and Dorothy Jones were rec-

ognized for their leadership promoting health through

nursing science at the Eastern Nursing Research

Society’s annual conference, held this April in Boston.

Also at the conference, Mara Renold ’13 presented a

research poster, “The Effects of Socioeconomic Status on

Cardiovascular Health of Mexican-American Women,”

and Ph.D. students Stacy Hutton Johnson and Katherine

Phillips illustrated and discussed their research projects.

Connell School faculty Dorothy Jones, Jane Flanagan,

and Danny Willis worked behind the scenes on the

planning committee for the conference. Associate

Professor Rosanna DeMarco sits on the society’s board

of directors.

Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski and Phyllis Shanley Hansell, dean of Seton Hall University College of Nursing. Photograph: Laurie McCoy Foster

an honor and appointmentAssociate Professor Patricia Tabloski, who was

recently inducted into the Hall of Honor at her alma

mater, Seton Hall University College of Nursing, was

also appointed to the advisory committee for the Doc-

toral Advancement in Nursing project, co-sponsored

by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing

and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

by Alex SpAnko

6 7Voice Spring 2013Left: Maureen Gehlenborg, M.S. ’13, (center) and her preceptor Cynthia Tefft, M.S. ’82, examine Jennifer Caldwell at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates.

preceptors is on the rise, according to nursing experts. But many nurses choose not to teach in the field. Nurs-ing journals describe a “shortage” of preceptors, and a 2009 online poll conducted by the National Association of Pediatric Nurse Associates and Practitioners found that just three percent of respondents planned to “pre-cept” in the coming year. In an age of health care cost containment, when nurses are expected to handle more patients and paperwork in less time than in the past, teaching on the job strikes some as more of a burden than an opportunity. While Boston College preceptors receive benefits—including partial tuition for course work, reimbursement for continuing education, or conference fees—they are not paid.

But for nurse practitioners like Tefft, who has been working with students for 30 years, the rewards of pre-cepting significantly outweigh its drawbacks. As she and several other veteran nurse-teachers see it, precepting isn’t just an added responsibility—it’s an integral part of being a nurse practitioner (NP). What’s more, they say, it’s as crucial to their success in a fast-changing field as it is to that of trainees.

“I precept for the love of the job,” says Tefft, “and for the love of teaching. But I also do it to keep me on my toes.”

Managing the matchAs a nursing student, Tefft found her own preceptor, and there was a time when nursing schools left it to students to do so. “I went begging for someone to precept me,” recalls Associate Professor Jane Flanagan, who lines up students and preceptors for the CSON adult gerontological health track.

The Connell School places a premium on what it calls “the match”: the highly individualized process of pairing student and preceptor to meet learning goals. “Making sure we get the right placements for students is huge,” says Flanagan. “We want to give students the clinical transition they need based on their experience.”

CSON faculty members actively recruit new precep-tors, often from the school’s alumni ranks. They also work closely with clinics to assess students’ progress, through both written evaluations and on-site visits.

“We’re looking for excellent clinicians who are commit-ted to the profession,” says Flanagan. “But they also must be able to balance, in a very artful way, recognizing when to push a student and when to give gentle direction.”

Preceptors, she adds, have to be “patient with the process of translating textbook knowledge to a clinical setting.”

The clinical skills preceptors teach—the exams, tests, therapies, and procedures—vary by specialty and site. But one learning goal is universal: engaging the patient. Says Claire Schneckenberger, a psychiatric nurse practitioner and preceptor at Cambridge Health Alliance, “Knowing how to interact with a patient is the foundation for a suc-cessful evaluation.”

Only experience can teach that. For instance, a wom-en’s health student may leave the classroom knowing the mechanics of a pelvic exam but not how to ease the psy-chological discomfort that accompanies it. Such “softer skills,” says Tefft, are developed mainly through repeated exposure to patients. Even watching how an NP greets a patient can be educational, she adds. Schneckenberger, who cares for patients struggling with schizophrenia, mood disorders, trauma, and addiction, has her students sit in on evaluations and case meetings to sharpen their patient communication skills. Students learn, she says, just by listening.

But as trainees move on to more direct patient con-tact, Schneckenberger finds that the preceptor’s biggest challenge becomes managing the students’ anxiety. “A good preceptor must be able to settle students down,” she explains. That means “helping them to develop the judgment to determine when a situation is an emergency versus when a situation is making them really nervous.”

Gehlenborg agrees that the transition to hands-on learn-ing can be stressful. “But having [Tefft] tell me that I can handle something makes a major difference,” she says.

It’s a december morning at harvard vanguard Medical Associates in Somerville, and Maureen Gehlenborg, M.S. ’13, is giving a pregnant woman an

ultrasound. “You have a busy baby!” she tells her. Cynthia Tefft, M.S. ’82, looks up from her notes and agrees. “Have you been seeing a lot of movement?” she asks. The woman laughs and relays her toddler son’s amazement at how much the baby kicks.

Tefft takes the lead for the rest of the appointment, gently interviewing the woman about her birth plan, while Gehlenborg mostly listens. However, when the woman inquires about exercising post-C-section, Tefft turns to Geh lenborg for the answer. “Maureen has five years’ expe-rience in labor and delivery,” she explains, and steps aside.

Tefft is Gehlenborg’s preceptor, a clinician-teacher who transforms routine exams such as this into opportunities

for learning. During their academic year together, she supervises Gehlenborg as she performs Pap smears, breast exams, HPV tests, and other aspects of pre- and post-natal care. She also guides the younger nurse as she further hones a critical skill: interacting with patients.

Skilled nurses have played a role in educating students in clinical settings since the time of Florence Nightingale, and preceptors have augmented nursing education at Bos-ton College since it opened its school of nursing in 1947. Today, approximately 300 preceptors each semester help train Connell School of Nursing (CSON) graduate stu-dents as they make the transition from classroom to clinic. They work in internationally renowned hospitals, public school systems, hospices, prisons, and homeless shelters.

As advanced practice nursing programs attract more students, particularly in the Boston area, the demand for

Nurse preceptors ease the transition from classroom to clinic

by AliciA potter

photogrAphS by JuStin knight

Advancing education

Associate Professor Jane Flanagan pairs preceptors and students. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham


Re-defining “nurse practitioner”Although some fast-paced developments in health care have added pressure to precepting, others are enhanc-ing the experience. Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07, a preceptor and nurse practitioner at the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, believes that today’s preceptors have a unique opportunity to represent the expanding role of the nurse practitioner.

“Nurse practitioners’ responsibilities differ from setting to setting,” says Otenti, who handles many of the same primary care duties as a doctor. “By getting a firsthand example of what NPs do, students can see the limita-tions and the possibilities—and how they might push the boundaries of what it means to be a nurse practitioner.”

Jesica Pagano-Therrien, a preceptor in the Pediatric Immunology and Infectious Disease units at UMass Me-morial Medical Center in Worcester, hoped to widen NP students’ view of the field when, three years ago, she and two colleagues proposed a rotational program for the Con-nell School. Students, they reasoned, would benefit from partnering with NPs in a range of pediatric specialties and roles, “from clinicians to case managers.” The program now provides students with two- and three-week place-ments on medical teams in infectious disease, cardiology, surgery, nephrology, pulmonary medicine, and other areas.

Preceptors at smaller, community-based sites are also exposing students to a collaborative model of care. At Cambridge Health Alliance, Schneckenberger’s students work on a team alongside social workers, psychologists, and physicians. In this case, the interdisciplinary ap-proach significantly broadens Schneckenberger’s role as preceptor: in addition to overseeing three nursing stu-dents, she helps train medical residents and social work and psychology interns.

Preceptor Claire Schneckenberger (center) meets with Christian Dangremond, M.S. ’13; Somatra Simpson, M.S. ’13; Richard McCartney, M.S. ’13, and Mary Jepsen at Cambridge Health Alliance.

A reciprocal relationshipThere is no denying that the extra responsibility of teach-ing makes for a busier day. As Pagano-Therrien puts it, “It can slow me down.”

When it does, she says, she reminds herself why she chose to precept in the first place. “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t have a preceptor who worked with me,” she explains. “If I’m running behind and feeling frustrated, I always return to the idea that my student deserves the same time and effort that I received from my preceptor.”

The rewards of the relationship are readily evident: by the end of the academic year, students who had previously never laid hands on a patient are working independently, even running clinics under supervision. They take histo-ries, conduct physicals, and make assessments and plans. As Schneckenberger observes, they “find their voice,” and interact confidently with patients and colleagues.

Yet the students aren’t the only ones who grow. Teach-ing pushes veteran nurses to stay current, says Pagano-Therrien, who often brushes up before explaining certain disease processes to a student. Schneckenberger looks to her trainees to help her stay abreast of new research. Tefft says that she is now more technology-savvy because of her students.

As preceptors, says Tefft, “We get back as much as we give.”

CSON preceptors and students frequently stay in touch, sometimes for years, and many say the experience makes them feel part of a community. For Otenti, the potential to build a nursing network prompted her to precept immediately after graduation—and to return every year. As she keeps up with former students through Facebook, e-mail, and dinners, she is convinced that pre-cepting can improve relations between older and younger nurses. “It’s really important for our profession that we stick together and build each other up,” she explains. “There’s a saying that ‘nurses eat their young.’ But if more nurses became preceptors, it could change nursing culture.”

Back at Harvard Vanguard, Gehlenborg reports that she hopes to precept early in her NP career. Tefft quickly adds, “She’ll be good.”

During their last appointment of the morning, a patient shares her plan for how she’ll handle her second pregnancy differently. Tefft nods in approval. “Experience is a wonderful teacher,” she says. ✹

Desiree Otenti, M.S. ’07, and Sampson Samuel at Boston Health Care for the Homeless.

are you Interested In preceptIng Boston college students?

Contact Clinical Placement Specialist Erica Crawford at [email protected] or 617–552–1558.Preceptors Susan Ferraro, Jennifer Kremer, Jesica Pagano-Therrien,

Kate Bailey, and Jennifer Costa at UMass Memorial Medical Center.


Atiny puncture 15 years ago changed life forever for Karen Daley, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’10. Daley was a veteran staff nurse in the Brigham

and Women’s Hospital Emergency Department in July 1998 when she drew a patient’s blood, reached to discard the needle, and brushed her gloved hand on a used needle protruding from a sharps box. A few months later she began feeling tired and nauseated, and tests confirmed that she’d been infected with both HIV and hepatitis C.

Facing an uncertain future, Daley gave up her 26-year bedside nursing career and channeled her energy into lobbying for needlestick prevention laws and poli-cies that have made the workplace safer for caregivers around the country.

“I see the fruits of this when I go in for my blood work now,” said Daley, who is serving her second two-year term as president of the American Nurses Associa-tion (ANA).

She is part of a growing cadre of nurse leaders, includ-ing Connell School graduates and faculty members, who are influencing public health policy as lawmakers, heads of public health departments, researchers, educa-tors, and in other roles. Good listeners, advocates, and problem solvers by trade, nurses—who make up the largest share of the country’s health care workforce—are parlaying their expertise in care delivery, prevention, and health promotion to help improve health on the local, state, and national levels.

Beyond the bedsideNurse advocates make a mark

in public policy arenas

by DebrA brADley ruDer

The trend seems certain to continue: In a 2010 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation–Gallup survey of 1,500 opin-ion leaders in insurance, health services, government, and industry, a majority said that nurses should play a greater role than they currently do in health policy plan-ning and management.

One of the most visible public policy advocates is Daley. As ANA president, she regularly speaks, testifies, and sits for interviews about public health issues, from gun violence to nursing staffing levels to care coordina-tion to health care reform. But no topic compels her more than needlestick safety.

Daley, who was leading the Massachusetts Nurses Association at the time of her accident, began pressing almost immediately for a statewide needlestick safety bill. “I had a great career. I loved what I did, and it made no sense to me why this had happened,” recalled Daley, who publicly revealed her infection during her Beacon Hill testimony in April 1999. “Now I had a mechanism for helping some necessary change occur, and that became my focus.”

Over the next year—while undergoing grueling antivi-ral treatment—Daley traveled to more than 24 states to raise awareness among legislators, hospital executives, and nurses about the need for more protective devices, such as syringes with retractable needles.

She championed proposed federal legislation requiring employers to use safer equipment and systems to reduce exposure to viruses and infections from needlesticks. Daley visited skeptical legislators and testified before Con-gress on behalf of nurses and health care workers, who sustain an estimated 600,000 sharps injuries a year.

The late Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy called Daley himself to congratulate her when the Needle-stick Safety and Prevention Act passed in 2000. And she attended the White House ceremony when President Bill Clinton signed it into law.

These laws have made a difference, notes Daley. In Massachusetts, sharps injuries among acute care hospital workers dropped by 32 percent between 2002 and 2009, according to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Yet hazards remain for caregivers everywhere.

“Little by little, it’s getting better,” explained Daley. “Where safety devices are being used, we’re seeing many fewer injuries occur. But we aren’t where we need to be.”

Expanding accessLike Daley, Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76, knows that crafting legislation requires perseverance. During her eight years as a Massachusetts state legislator—in-cluding two as vice chair of the health care financing committee—Grant played a role in shaping the state’s landmark 2006 health care insurance reform law. The statute, which expanded coverage to nearly all Bay State residents, served as a model for the 2010 federal Afford-able Care Act.

Grant represented Beverly, a small city on Boston’s North Shore, from 2003 to 2011. One of four nurse lawmakers in the State House at the time, she shared her expertise from 30 years as a child and adolescent psychiatric nurse with fellow legislators who were developing the massive law. Among other things, she Karen Daley, M.S. ’04, Ph.D. ’10. Photograph: Aaron Clamage

Mary O’Connell Grant ’74, M.S. ’76. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo


wanted to make sure that clinicians were involved in important decisions about containing health care costs and improving care.

Grant also knew from experience about the value of preventive services such as patient checkups and certain diagnostic tests. As part of ongoing reform, she helped launch a legislative prevention caucus to educate Mas-sachusetts lawmakers.

Grant found her fellow lawmakers receptive to the nursing perspective. “Every legislator has a mother, a sister, a neighbor, or somebody who’s a nurse,” she noted during an interview on Beacon Hill. “The public trusts nurses. So nurses have a very powerful voice in a legislative arena.”

Contributing to civic life comes naturally to Grant, who served as president of her class and the student senate at the Connell School. But she decided not to seek a fifth legislative term, and in 2011 joined the state’s executive branch to help implement the health care law. As clinical director of long-term services and supports at MassHealth (responsible for maintaining the safety net for vulnerable residents that is a centerpiece of the state’s health program), she oversees hundreds of facilities and community programs that serve elderly and disabled residents on Medicaid—working to ensure that people are well served and public money is well spent. Grant says she pushed buttons to vote on health issues in the legislature, and now she’s part of the effort to implement those legislative efforts.

When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitution-ality of the Affordable Care Act last summer, Grant made a beeline to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s press conference applauding the decision. “I was grinning ear to ear,” she remembered. “This is one of those bills of the century, and we created a framework for it.”

Grant is convinced that nurses’ political strength comes when they speak with a collective voice while working to change health care policy. “As a profession, we have to operate with a helicopter view, and then we’ll always be at the table,” she observed.

In Daley’s opinion, advocacy and public policy engage-ment are part of nurses’ “social contract” to serve society beyond the bedside. Nurses should learn early on, she says, that activism “is part of what we do as nurses. This is part of how we make the system better for patients.” ✹

Judith A. Vessey, the Lelia Holden Carroll Professor

in Nursing, studies and writes about the “pervasive

malignancy” of bullying among children and adults,

an interest inspired by her work as a developmental

pediatric nurse practitioner.

She helped develop the federal government’s anti-

bullying social marketing campaign (now part of stop-

bullying.gov) and drafted early policies on bullying for

the National Association of School Nurses.

At Boston College, Vessey teaches undergraduates

and graduate students about health care policy. In

one course, her students compare and analyze health

insurance plans that reveal how similar coverage that

costs one family more than $20,000 a year can cost

another almost nothing. The assignment reminds

students that “they need to read their own paperwork,

that there are tremendous inequities in the system,

and that having insurance will not necessarily protect

you from financial hardship,” Vessey explained. “The

bigger message is, from a social justice perspective,

about the haves and the have nots.”

Judith A. Vessey, the Lelia Holden Carroll Professor in Nursing. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess has devoted her

career to improving treatment for victims of violence

and abuse—and understanding the behavior of crimi-

nals. A pioneer in forensic nursing, Burgess in the

early 1970s cofounded one of the first hospital-based

crisis counseling programs with Lynda Lytle Holm-

strom (now sociology professor emerita). The two

introduced “rape trauma syndrome” into the medical

and legal lexicons.

Burgess has worked with the FBI to develop crimi-

nal profiles, given expert courtroom testimony, and

studied such topics as child molesters, cyber crimes,

elder abuse, and murder-suicides. At the Connell

School, she has taught courses in victimology and

forensics. She also helped establish a master’s

specialty in forensic nursing that trains students in

caring for victims and perpetrators of violence, col-

lecting evidence, developing policy, and influencing

legislation. ✹

Research for the public arenaAs alumni make their mark, Connell School faculty are researchers, activists, and teachers helping inf luence public policy on vital issues.

Due out this spring, the latest edition of the Diagnos-

tic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM),

the U.S. “bible” for mental health care, will recognize

binge eating disorder as an illness, rather than as a

condition in need of further study.

Barbara Wolfe, associate dean for research and professor. Photograph: Tony Rinaldo

The change was a victory for many, including

Barbara Wolfe, CSON’s associate dean for research.

She contributed to the new guidelines when she

served for five years on an American Psychiatric

Association work group that revisited the DSM’s

eating disorders section. The manual influences both

policy and practice, notes Wolfe, a psychiatric nurse

who studies the psychobiology of eating disorders

and was the only nurse on the 12-member commit-

tee. “It defines the disorders, the criteria for diag-

nosing them, and how people get reimbursed for

treating them—basing it on the science.”

Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess. Photograph: Josh Levine


T iffany maxwell, m.s. ’14, was working as an electrical engineer, weary of spending most of her days sitting in front of a computer, when she

decided to switch careers. She settled on nursing because “every nurse I talked to loved her job,” she says. She chose the Connell School of Nursing (CSON) based on the reputation of its master’s entry program for students with degrees in non-nursing fields.

Fortunately for Maxwell, a first-generation university student from a multicultural Florida family, she was also able to take advantage of Keys to Inclusive Leader-ship (KILN), a four-year-old program that recruits and prepares students from nursing backgrounds that are traditionally underrepresented in the profession to be-come future nurse leaders. The Price Family Foundation last year pledged $540,000 to help CSON expand and

Flourishing in its fourth yearwith price foundation help, kiln expands

by MichAel prAger

enhance KILN—and open it up to 10 graduate students as well as 40 undergraduates. Each student works with one of 20 faculty mentors, who play a critical role in KILN’s program of services and supports. Those include intense tutoring and mentoring, stipends, scholarships, and grants for expenses such as exam review courses and conference registration fees.

KILN mentors meet with students, guide them in cur-ricular decisions, encourage their involvement in faculty research, and link them with resources. They introduce students to professional organizations, activities, and other opportunities in which they can meet and engage with nurse leaders.

Maxwell, who speaks Spanish and hopes to work in underserved communities, was eager for guidance from an experienced professional. She found that and more in her mentor, Colleen Simonelli, a clinical associate professor and as-sistant department chair. Simonelli was drawn to KILN because of her own experience as a student with influential mentors. She meets with each of her charges individually, and has brought them together, she says, “so they can develop their relation-ships as well.”

“She has been very encouraging to me to seek out other opportuni-ties in the field, to attend lectures and conferences,” says Maxwell. Simonelli, she adds, is “a real moti-vating force. It’s been nice to have regular meetings, to really get into how the program’s doing for me, what I need to focus on, what I want after graduation—helping me to think ahead and plan for my future.”

KILN’s goal is to help diminish obstacles that its stu-dents encounter in nursing school, according to CSON Associate Dean Catherine Read, who spearheaded the program in 2009. Its overarching ambition is to reduce health-care disparities by educating and encouraging nurses who are “culturally competent,” and capable of caring for patients in diverse communities. That involves more than recruiting students whose racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic backgrounds reflect those of underserved patient populations, Read observes. It means making

sure students are prepared to take advantage of programs and services they need to pursue professional careers.

Maxwell, who left the workforce to pursue her nursing degree, supports herself and relies on loans to finance her education. She has taken advantage of the advanced study grants KILN provides students who participate in workshops and seminars on topics such as congeni-tal heart disease, which she attended at Massachusetts General Hospital in February. She is appreciative, she says, that the KILN program sponsored her membership in the International Society of Nurses in Genetics, whose national conference she hopes to attend in October.

Sustaining and expanding KILN fits securely within the mission of the New York-based Price Foundation, whose priorities include trying to reach underresourced populations in need of better health care, and providing

opportunities to economically disad-vantaged young people in New Jersey and New York, said Joanne Duhl, executive director.

The foundation’s firsthand involve-ment with young people gave it strong motivation to support KILN, said Duhl, who noted, “It’s always good to continue something that’s working.”

KILN certainly seems to be do-ing that. The program calendar of activities is jam-packed. A KILN blog is replete with upbeat, newsy posts from undergraduates who’ve trave-led to professional conferences such as the National Association of His-panic Nurses Conference in San Juan,

Puerto Rico, and taken part in events such as last fall’s Training for Advanced Leadership in a KILN weekend retreat at Boston College’s Connors Family Retreat Center in Dover.

Meanwhile, KILN appears to be making progress in nurturing a new generation of nurse leaders. This year, for example, the Massachusetts Student Nurses Asso-ciation has a particularly strong Boston College flavor: Andrea Lopez ’14 is president-elect, Yesenia Japa ’14 is treasurer, Chenille Morrison ’14 is secretary, and Yvonne Shih ’15 is legislative chair. All four are part of KILN.So was Anna Diané ’12, who is now a consultant to the student association. ✹

Faculty mentors play a critical role

in KILN’s program of services and

supports.

Left: Clinical Associate Professor and Department Assistant Chair Colleen Simonelli and Tiffany Maxwell, M.S. ’14, work with a computer-programmable mannequin in one of the Connell School’s simulation labs. Photograph: Caitlin Cunningham


Kirsten Grueter ’13 took charge of enter-taining the youngest children while the nurse practitioners examined others at a Port-au-Prince orphanage.

chronicle a cson parent films her journey to haiti photogrAphS by lexey SwAll

Katie Farrell ’13 (right) gets help from a Haitian translator (center) as she takes the health histories of a mother and her baby. When family members asked to be evaluated together, as many did, “it could take a good deal of time and patience to understand why a person had come to the clinic that day.”

Because so many young children in Haiti suffer from croup and asthma, “it was important for us to listen carefully to each patient’s lungs to properly assess their breathing capacity,” said Julia Cambria, M.S. ’13. The Connell School team provided inhalers they brought to Haiti, but only had enough for patients who were wheezing badly or had “uncontrollable coughs.”

“The clinic was crowded, and patients had to wait a long time in lengthy lines the day this photo was taken,” said Diana Paris, M.S. ’13. “People tried to get closer to the providers, which made patient privacy difficult to maintain.”

Liz Thibodeau (left, with camera) films women’s health nurse practitioner Sophie Thibodeau (center) and Clinical Assistant Professor Donna Cullinan (right) as they show Shelby Kaubris ’13 (with purple pack) and Lindsay Lachky ’13 (left) how to perform a prenatal exam on Margalie Auguste (lying down).

The little girl in this photo with Annie Harrington ’13 (left) and Katie Farrell ’13 (right) had contracted scabies, a highly contagious skin disease that can be spread through bedding and clothing. “We treated these small children by covering them head-to-toe with Permethrin cream, which needed to be left on for 24 hours,” said Farrell.

Video producer liz thibodeau signed on to the Connell School’s third clinical service trip to Haiti as a documentarian who would “witness” the

week-long mission through her lens. She expected to bring back footage that would show “what it felt like to be there” as she traveled to orphanages and makeshift mobile clinics in five villages, observing the work of 21 CSON faculty, students, and alumni—including her daughter, Sophie Thibodeau ’07, M.S. ’12—as they saw upwards of 200 patients each day.

“Everything changed once we went to our first clinic,” says Thibodeau, who produces nursing and medical videos at Take One Digital Media in Annapolis, Maryland. “I quickly became immersed in the mission of the nurses themselves.”

Thibodeau was both participant and witness on the last day of the medical mission, when the team cared for Margalie Auguste, a 39-year-old pregnant woman from a local village, to the clinic (see photo above). The nurses examined the patient, learned she was about to deliver, and let her listen to her baby’s heartbeat. They showed her some exercises to help ease labor and delivery, and gave her a birthing kit, some clothes, and money. Thibodeau, Lindsay Lachky ’13, and Shelby Kaubris ’13 then walked Margalie home to the small, one-room shack she shared with seven—soon to be eight—family members.

To Kaubris, the experience distilled the essence of com-munity health nursing. She said, “We found Margalie out in the Haitian community, brought her back to our clinic to examine her, provided teaching and resources, and brought her home.” ✹

View Liz Thibodeau’s video at www.bc.edu/haitivideo

18 Voice

Faculty publications

18 Voice

nancy allen

Stamp, K.D., N.A. Allen, S. Lehrer, S.E. Zagarins, G. Welch, “Telehealth Program for Medicaid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Lowers Hemoglobin A1c,” Journal of Managed Care Medicine 15, no. 4 (2012): 39–46.

stacey barone

Barone, S.H., K. Waters, “Coping and Adaptation in Adults Living with Spinal Cord Injury,” Journal of Neuroscience Nursing 44, no. 5 (2012): 271–283.

viola benavente

Sherry, D., M.M. Fennessy, V. Benavente, T.M. Ruppar, E.G. Collins, “Important Considerations When Applying for a Postdoctoral Fellowship,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12012

ann burgess

Victimology: Theories and Applications, 2nd ed., eds. A.W. Burgess, C. Regehr, A.R. Roberts (Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013).

Burgess, A.W., G. Aragon, “False Confession vs. Investigative Logic,” The Forensic Examiner 21, no. 1 (2012): 10–17.

Burgess, A.W., C.M. Carretta, A.G. Burgess, “Patterns of Federal Internet Offenders,” Journal of Forensic Nursing 8, no. 3 (2012): 112–121.

donna cullinan

Read, C.Y., J.A. Vessey, A.F. Amar, D.M. Cullinan, “The Challenges of Inclusivity in Baccalaureate Nursing Programs,” Journal of Nursing Education (2013). DOI: 10.3928/01484834-20130225-01

susan desanto-madeya

Contemporary Nursing Knowledge: Analysis and Evaluation of Nursing Models and Theories, 3rd ed., eds. J. Fawcett, S.A. DeSanto-Madeya (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2012).

joyce edmonds

Edmonds, J.K., E.J. Jones, “Intrapartum Nurses’ Perceived Influence on Delivery Mode Decisions and Outcomes,” Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing 42, no. 1 (2013): 3–11.

jane flanagan

Flanagan, J.M., A.L. Harris, D.A. Jones, “Advanced Practice Registered Nurses: Accomplishments, Trends and Future Development,” in Advanced Practice Nursing: Essentials for Role Development, 3rd ed., ed. L.A. Joel (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2013), 429–439.

Jones, D.A., M.E. Duffy, J.M. Flanagan, F. Foster, “Psychometric Evaluation of the Functional Health Pattern Assessment Screening Tool (FHPAST),” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 140–145.

Flanagan, J.M., “Authentic and Original,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 117.

Flanagan, J.M., “Relics Going Green,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 118.

Flanagan, J.M., “The Depth of Language,” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 24, no. 1 (2013): 1.

holly fontenot

LaCoursiere Zucchero, T., H.B. Fontenot, “A Second Look: The Impact of Running Away on Teen Girls’ Sexual Health,” Nursing for Women’s Health 16, no. 5 (2012): 411–417.

Sutherland, M.A., H.C. Fantasia, H.B. Fontenot, A.L. Harris, “Safer Sex and Partner Violence in a Sample of Women,” The Journal for Nurse Practitioners 8, no. 9 (2012): 717–724.

susan gennaro

Gennaro, S., H.C. Fantasia, T. Keshinover, D. Garry, W. Wilcox, E. Uppal, “Racial and Ethnic Identity in Nursing Research,” Nursing Outlook (2013). DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2012.07.009

Banister, G., S. Gennaro, “Mentorship and Best Practices for Mentorship,” in Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012), 197–215.

Simonelli, M.C., S. Gennaro, “Innovative Strategies for 21st Century Perinatal Nursing Education,” MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing 37, no. 6 (2012): 373–378.

pamela grace

Grace, P.J., E. Robinson, “Nursing’s Moral Imperative,” in Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012), 123–159.

Zunner, B.P., P.J. Grace, “The Ethical Nursing Care of Transgender Patients,” American Journal of Nursing 112, no. 12 (2012): 61–64.

katherine gregory

Gregory, K.E., S.S. Bird, V.S. Gross, V.R. Marur, A.V. Lazarev, W.A. Walker, B.S. Kristal, “Method Development for Fecal Lipidomics Profiling,” Analytical Chemistry 85, no. 2 (2012): 1114–1123.

Gregory, K.E., “Microbiome Aspects of Perinatal and Neonatal Health,” Journal of Perinatal and Neonatal Nursing 25, no. 2 (2011): 158–162.

sandra hannon-engel

Hannon-Engel, S.L., “Regulating Satiety in Bulimia Nervosa: The Role of Cholecystokinin,” Perspectives in Psychiatric Care 48, no. 1 (2012): 34–40.

Wolfe, B.E., S.L. Hannon-Engel, J.E. Mitchell, “Bulimia Nervosa in DSM-5,” Psychiatric Annals 42, no. 11 (2012): 406–409.

19Spring 2013

allyssa harris



Harris, A.L., M.A. Sutherland, M.K. Hutchinson, “Parental Influences of Sexual Risk Among Urban African American Adolescent Males,” Journal of Nursing Scholarship (2013). DOI: 10.1111/jnu.12016

m. katherine hutchinson


dorothy jones

Fostering Nurse-Led Care: Professional Practice for the Bedside Leader from Massachusetts General Hospital, eds. J.I. Erickson, D.A. Jones, M. DiTomassi (Indianapolis, IN: Sigma Theta Tau International, 2012).


Jones, D.A., M.E. Duffy, J.M. Flanagan, F. Foster, “Psychometric Evaluation of the Functional Health Pattern Assessment Screening Tool (FHPAST),” International Journal of Nursing Knowledge 23, no. 3 (2012): 140–145.

susan kelly-weeder

Kelly-Weeder, S.S., K.M. Jennings, B.E. Wolfe, “Gender Differences in Binge Eating and Behavioral Correlates Among College Students,” Eating and Weight Disorders 17, no. 3 (2012): e200–e202.

catherine read


judith shindul-rothschild

Shindul-Rothschild, J., “Collective Bargaining in Nursing,” in Policy and Politics in Nursing and Health Care, 6th ed., eds. D.J. Mason, J.K. Leavitt, M.W. Chaffee (St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Saunders, 2012), 455–460.

m. colleen simonelli

Simonelli, M.C., S. Gennaro, “Innovative Strategies for 21st Century Perinatal Nursing Education,” MCN: The American Journal of Maternal/Child Nursing 37, no. 6 (2012): 373–378.

kelly stamp

Stamp, K.D., “A Second Look: Diastolic Heart Failure in Women,” Nursing for Women’s Health 16, no. 6 (2012): 495–500.

Stamp, K.D., N.A. Allen, S. Lehrer, S.E. Zagarins, G. Welch, “Telehealth Program for Medicaid Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Lowers Hemoglobin A1c,” Journal of Managed Care Medicine 15, no. 4 (2012): 39–46.

melissa sutherland


Amar, A.F., M.A. Sutherland, K. Laughon, R. Bess, J. Stockbridge, “Peer Influences within the Campus Environment on Help Seeking Related to Violence,” Journal of National Black Nurses’ Association 23, no. 1 (2012): 1–7.


judith vessey

Selekman, J., J.A. Vessey, M.D. Bergren, “The School Nurse’s Role in Research and the Development of Evidence-Based Practice,” in School Nursing: A Comprehensive Text, 2nd ed., ed. J. Selekman (Philadelphia, PA: F.A. Davis Company, 2013), 142–162.


Vessey, J.A., “Yin and Yang,” Nursing Research 61, no. 6 (2012): 379.

Vessey, J.A., “Bullying: A Pervasive Malignancy,” Journal of Pediatric Oncology Nursing 29, no. 5 (2012): 245.

barbara wolfe

Wolfe, B.E., S.L. Hannon-Engel, J.E. Mitchell, “Bulimia Nervosa in DSM-5,” Psychiatric Annals 42, no. 11 (2012): 406–409.

Kelly-Weeder, S.S., K.M. Jennings, B.E. Wolfe, “Gender Differences in Binge Eating and Behavioral Correlates Among College Students,” Eating and Weight Disorders 17, no. 3 (2012): e200–e202.

voice

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Recognize this paper?Written and first published by nursing students in 1947, the Boston College Co-Edition covered the School of Nursing in the days students commuted to their classes at Boston College’s Intown College in Back Bay. The University Archives is searching for issues of this paper. If you have any tucked away and would be willing to donate them, please contact the University Archives staff at the John J. Burns Library, 617–552–3282 or [email protected].

Save the datesaturday, june 1, 2013, 2:00–3:30 p.m.higgins hall, room 310

At this year’s Connell School of Nursing reunion, Dean Susan Gennaro will present the fifth annual Dean Rita P. Kelleher Award to Mimi Pomerleau, M.S. ’95, president of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses. Pomerleau will take part in a panel discussion on best obstetric practices from around the world immediately after the award presentation. A reception will follow. The reunion event is open and free of charge to all School of Nursing alumni. Read more and register at www.bc.edu/csonreunion.

Documents

Voice, Spring 2013