October Highlights
The fall season brings major research funding, new faculty and student publications, and media attention.
-- Nearly 200 students and job seekers attended the University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) Career Fair on October 3. The annual event gives students an opportunity to interact with employee recruiters from various hospitals, clinics, government agencies and non-profit organizations. “It’s highly beneficial for both the students and the organizations,” says Michele Thompson, director of UMSN’s Office of Student, Academic and Multicultural Services. “The health care recruiters were particularly impressed with our students’ communication skills and personal presentation during the Career Fair this year. Also, many of our students made professional connections so that they can pursue opportunities this summer as well as full-time positions after graduation.”
--UMSN welcomes Nonyaniso Nkutu as part of the U-M African Presidential Scholars program. Each year, a small group of African faculty spends 4-6 months at U-M conducting research, taking classes, giving lectures and working with mentors. Nkutu is an Associate Lecturer and Clinical Facilitator at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. Her PhD research focus is "Best practices for retention of undergraduate nursing students in the universities of the Eastern Cape: South Africa.” UMSN Assistant Professor Patricia W. Coleman-Burns, PhD, MA, and Associate Professor Jody R. Lori, PhD, CNM, FACNM, FAAN, will serve as co-mentors for Nkutu.--UMSN Associate Professor Ivo Dinov, Ph.D., will co-lead the biostatistical and data management efforts of a new $11.5 million grant focused on Parkinson’s disease and associated falls. With the funding from the National Institute of Neurological Diseases and Stroke, U-M will create a Udall Center of Excellence for Parkinson’s Disease Research, one of only nine in the country. Named for Morris K. Udall, a Congressman who battled the disease, Udall Centers focus on research and serve as a resource for patients. Dr. Dinov, Dr. Spino, and colleagues at U-M School of Public Health and Department of Neurology will develop and test advanced digital tools to design and analyze large-scale heterogeneous Parkinson’s Disease data.
--A new paper highlights UMSN’s commitment to encouraging student involvement in scholarly publications. Cancer Treatment-Related Neuropathic Pain Syndromes, published in Current Pain and Headache Reports, features the work of UMSN Assistant Professor Ellen Lavoie Smith, PhD, APN-BC, AOCN®, and six University of Michigan students: UMSN doctoral student Celia Bridges, Hillman Scholars Grace Kanzawa and Robert Knoerl, and undergraduate students Charis Woo (Nursing), James P. Kelly IV (Kinesiology) and Anna Berezovsky (LSA). "Having the opportunity to collaborate with Dr. Smith and our research team was an enriching experience that I feel so fortunate to have received, especially as an undergraduate student,” says Kanzawa. “I realized the importance of having a team of individuals that take accountability for their own contribution and meet their personal deadlines, while also assisting other team members. I'm so thankful to Dr. Smith for giving me and my fellow students the opportunity to be involved in writing this publication, and I look forward to our next team project."
--Nurse opinion leaders can become a resource for uncertain colleagues, depending on their strength of beliefs, consistency and perceived credibility, according to new findings from Clinical Assistant Professor Christine A. Anderson, PhD, RN, and Associate Dean of Clinical Scholarship and Practice Development Marita G. Titler, PhD, RN, FAAN. “Development and verification of an agent-based model of opinion leadership” is published in the October 2014 issue of Implementation Science. Opinion leaders are considered one way to expedite translating research into practice but not much is known about the attributes, activities and context in which opinion leaders are most effective. Drs. Anderson and Titler used a statistical analysis of nearly 300 possible simulation scenarios.
--Dr. Titler served as a co-editor on the September 2014 issue of Nursing Clinics of North America entitled Integrating Evidence into Practice for Impact. Dr. Titler contributed the article “Overview of Evidence-based Practice and Translation Science” and co-wrote “A Simulation Model for Improving Learner and Health Outcomes” with UMSN Clinical Assistant Professor Michelle L. Aebersold, PhD, RN.
-- UMSN’s new $1.6 million grant focused on physician and nurse communication is receiving local (MLive.com) and national media coverage (including HealthLeaders). Milisa Manojlovich, PhD, RN, CCRN, a UMSN associate professor will lead a team of researchers to investigate how communication technologies such as electronic health records, email, and pagers are being used and where common failures occur.
--U-M’s Vice-President for Global and Engaged Education, James Paul Holloway, highlights UMSN student 
Magdalene Kuznia in the Institute of International Education Networker magazine. “There’s Plenty of Room in the Co-Curricular” shares U-M successes in increasing global experiences for students, such as Kuznia’s fellowship at Salokaya College of Nursing in India. Holloway and co-author Amy Conger, U-M Assistant Vice-Provost for Global and Engaged Education, stress that co-curricular experiences provide unique learning opportunities and have the potential to grow academic programs. They say universities, including U-M, must continue to look for new co-curricular opportunities, re-evaluate programs with global experiences in mind, and explore financial structures that will assist students.
Magdalene Kuznia in the Institute of International Education Networker magazine. “There’s Plenty of Room in the Co-Curricular” shares U-M successes in increasing global experiences for students, such as Kuznia’s fellowship at Salokaya College of Nursing in India. Holloway and co-author Amy Conger, U-M Assistant Vice-Provost for Global and Engaged Education, stress that co-curricular experiences provide unique learning opportunities and have the potential to grow academic programs. They say universities, including U-M, must continue to look for new co-curricular opportunities, re-evaluate programs with global experiences in mind, and explore financial structures that will assist students.--“Preparing Facilitators From Community-Based Organizations for Evidence-Based Intervention Training in Second Life,” written by UMSN’s Michelle Aebersold, RN, PhD; Dana Tschannen, RN, PhD; and Angel Felix Valladares, MPH; and Antonia Maria Villarruel, RN, FAAN, PhD was published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. The paper is the result of a study to examine the feasibility of using Second Life, a virtual environment, to train facilitators to use an intervention with the goal of reducing sexual risk behaviors in Latino youths. Using nearly three dozen participants, the researchers found the training to be successful and a feasible, cost-effective option.
