School of nursing news
Student spotlight: Medvec Nursing Innovation Award goes to DNP student focused on maternal health
Mar 26, 2019Jessica Fladger, winner of a respected University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) award, is creating new opportunities to support women preparing for childbirth. This aspiration is at the forefront of her enduring calling to care for mothers and babies.
“I think I was born with it,” she said. “A lot of midwives will say they don’t know exactly why but it’s just something that is inside of us.”
Engraining a new optionWhile Fladger’s focus came as naturally as the births midwives aspire to facilitate, her professional objectives are far from easy.
“I would love... Read more
Student spotlight: From unsure about nursing to outspoken advocate
Mar 20, 2019Andrea Matsumoto didn’t expect a graduate program to change her core professional values.
“I went from the kid that sat in the back of the class, did my work and went home, to a person who feels such a responsibility to make sure nursing is seen at its best and that we’re practicing at the highest level,” said Matsumoto.
It’s a surprising shift for a student who originally picked nursing as the safe career choice. As the seventh nurse in her family, she knew a nursing degree would give her many professional options. She enrolled in the University of Michigan School of... Read more
Attacking ‘invisible threat’ that affects cancer care workers
Mar 20, 2019Exposure to chemotherapy can create hazards for nurses, pharmacists as they deliver lifesaving care to patients, but use of protective devices remains low.
Chemotherapy drugs are lifesaving to cancer patients, but these toxic drugs are hazardous to the health care workers who come into contact with them. Despite the risks, many health care workers do not use recommended personal protective equipment such as gloves or gowns when handling chemotherapy. A study from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center sought to improve nurses’ handling of chemotherapy by... Read more
UMSN Proud to Uphold Top Ten Ranking
Mar 11, 2019The University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) continues to be recognized by U.S. News & World Report as one of the nation's best graduate schools.
For the second year in a row, UMSN is ranked as the 8th best master’s program in the country for 2020, tied with Rush and Vanderbilt Universities. In addition, four specific UMSN graduate programs are ranked in the top 20:
DNP #14Adult-Gerontology Primary Care #10Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner #9Nursing Administration #9The DNP ranking is noteworthy as it moved up four spots from #18... Read more
Student spotlight: Veteran’s promise about to be fulfilled
Feb 22, 2019Terence Thompson made a bold choice when he was 17 years old. He got a special waiver so he could join the military as a minor and he became an Army medic. It was the quickest path to getting the hands-on medical training he wanted.
Now a University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) student, Thompson spent 12 years in the military including a 2008 deployment to Iraq where he put his training to work in a war zone.
Deployment“I was a medic for convoy security,” he said. “We would help move contractors from one place to another in a big... Read more
Student spotlight: Former mechanic gearing up for nursing leadership
Feb 14, 2019Julia Morrissey’s road to nursing came with several detours, pun intended.
Like many college students just out of high school, Julia Morrissey wasn’t quite sure of her end goal when she began attending college at a university in Ohio. She was interested in pursuing engineering and physics, but said because of her gender she was discouraged by advisors.
Instead, Morrissey tried landscape architecture. It wasn’t the right fit and that manifested in her grades. After more than two years of classes, she decided to take a step back.
“Had I not asked the college to leave... Read more
Student spotlight: First-gen student tees up success
Feb 01, 2019Many nursing students have a health care experience that inspired their decision to be a nurse. Bailey Forde has dozens.
“All of the kids in my family had medical issues growing up,” said Forde, a University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) junior from Illinois. “I have four siblings and we all had kidney disease when we were born. I had to have surgery when I was three years old. I also had seizures so I was in the hospital a lot. One brother has a really rare bone disease in his hip. He’s had three surgeries to remove tumors and fix the bone.”
Those experiences... Read more
U-M weather alert
Jan 28, 2019Due to extreme low temperatures and wind chill, the Ann Arbor campus has issued an emergency reduction in operations beginning tonight at 12 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 30 and ending 7 a.m. Friday, Feb. 1. University officials will continue to monitor the weather conditions and make adjustments if needed. Learn more.
Student spotlight: On active duty in nursing school
Jan 25, 2019Christina Collazo is determined to be one of the first Navy nurses in a new role aimed at improving health care for the children of military service members.
“There are only a few acute care pediatric nurse practitioners (PNP) in the whole Navy,” she explained. “The rest are all primary care. I think nurses are more than capable of taking on new roles and the military needs more nurses to care for acutely ill children. The Navy said yes, so here I am.”
Collazo is at the University of Michigan School of Nursing (UMSN) representing a distinctive type of graduate student.... Read more
READI or not: structured assessment of patient readiness for hospital discharge can lower readmission rates according to new research from UMSN faculty
Jan 23, 2019Hospital readmissions are one of the most frustrating and potentially expensive complications that patients may face. A team of nurse and economist researchers, including University of Michigan School of Nursing Associate Professor Olga Yakusheva, Ph.D., tested whether nurses can reduce readmissions by adding a structured assessment of patient discharge readiness.
The Readiness Evaluation and Discharge Interventions (READI) study showed readmission rates were reduced by up to 1.79 percentage points when nurses conducted discharge assessments that included direct input from the... Read more
