School of nursing news
Q&A with Dean Hurn
Jul 13, 2020In this special digital edition of Panacea, we focus on the COVID-19 pandemic and the multifaceted response from the U-M School of Nursing community. We begin our coverage with a Q&A featuring Dean Patricia D. Hurn to hear her thoughts on the pandemic and how nursing is specially equipped to lead our health care system through this historic public health crisis and beyond. She also takes a closer look at our community’s collaborative efforts to move the U-M School of Nursing’s mission forward in the midst of the pandemic, and explains why she believes nurses are well-positioned... Read more
We Dare...
Jan 30, 2020Eddie and Tamara Villavicencio’s 12-year marriage has been anything but ordinary, but things got even more interesting when the husband and wife became classmates at the U-M School of Nursing.
The two met in Ensenada, Mexico, while working with a Christian missionary group. Eddie, who was born and raised in Mexico, was already working as a nurse when he met Tamara, who grew up in Williamston, Michigan. The two became close during their missionary work, fell in love and got married.
They remained in Mexico for the next few years and had two children. In 2015, they... Read more
Changing the Innovation Conversation
Jan 30, 2020Innovation is often accompanied by thoughts of venture capitalists, “Shark Tanks” and Silicon Valley startups. In the health care field, nurses are often overlooked as innovators — even among themselves. But at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, the Healthcare Innovation Impact Program (HiiP) can provide a pathway to a different perspective.
“Innovation is usually carried out by those who are deeply immersed in their work — the people who are in the trenches,” said Dean Patricia Hurn, Ph.D., RN. “That’s why nurses are so primed to be innovators. They are in the center of... Read more
Support for Survivor Moms
Jan 30, 2020One in five women has a history of abuse and neglect in childhood and youth, making them 12 times more likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during pregnancy. PTSD during pregnancy leads to a host of negative outcomes, including lower birth weight. It’s also a strong predictor of cross-generational abuse and psychiatric problems.
“Women have worried about this in the past, but it was taboo to talk about,” said Professor and Associate Dean for Strategic Affairs Julia Seng, Ph.D., CNM, RN, FAAN. “Nobody had applied knowledge from the field of PTSD to... Read more
Teaching the ABCs of Prescription Drug Safety
Jan 30, 2020Over six million people in the United States misuse addictive medications. Carol Boyd, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, spent years trying to develop the ABCs of Prescription Drug Safety to address this public health crisis, but she struggled to get her idea off the ground. The Healthcare Innovation Impact Program helped her find a new way to get this educational intervention into the right hands.
When patients are prescribed a potentially addictive medication, they often receive an assortment of papers filled with complex language and unnecessary information. The ABCs break this dense and... Read more
My Beginnings
Jan 30, 2020When I dreamed about what I wanted to do in life, it never involved being a nurse. As a high school freshman, my mother — a retired nurse of 30 years — was in a car accident. She broke both her legs and was bedridden for an entire summer. It was my responsibility to take care of her, and I distinctly remember saying, “I could never be a nurse. I don’t see how you do it.” But that was the start of my journey, when I learned about selflessness and sacrifice.
As a student at the University of Michigan, I absolutely loved my pediatric nursing course. Taking care of sick children... Read more
Q&A with Dean Hurn
Jan 30, 2020The rollout of the U-M School of Nursing “We Dare” branding was one of the first major initiatives you implemented in 2020. Why was it such a priority for you to start the new year?
Dean Patricia Hurn: There are more than 900 nursing schools in the country, so for the U-M School of Nursing to attract the diverse and talented students, faculty and staff necessary to sustain the level of excellence we have worked very hard to achieve, it was clear to me that we needed to develop unified branding. Prospective nursing students have more educational choices than ever before, so it’s imperative... Read more
We Dare to Shape the Future
Jan 30, 2020For Lauren Underwood (BSN ’08), health care and politics were always part of the same conversation. At 33, she is the youngest African American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. She is the first woman, first person of color and first millennial to represent Illinois’ 14th District. She’s been called a rising star in the Democratic Party and was recently listed on Time magazine’s “100 Next” list of influential people who are shaping the future. But at the heart of it all, Lauren Underwood is a nurse.
The politics of the professionIn fall 2018, Underwood... Read more
We Dare to immerse students in clinical learning
Jan 20, 2020How do you create a culture around clinical simulation?
In 2015, when the University of Michigan School of Nursing opened its new building at 426 N. Ingalls St., it also unveiled the state-of-the art Clinical Learning Center (CLC). The center would be a high-tech hub for clinical simulation, boasting advanced training technologies and skills labs that bring students directly into a real-world clinical setting.
The CLC was designed to help nursing students at every level hone their clinical skills in an environment that replicates what they will encounter in the... Read more
We Dare to reimagine nursing education
Jan 15, 2020How do we bring a top-ranked nursing education into the digital space and make the Michigan difference more accessible?
The University of Michigan School of Nursing’s new online master’s programs are student-centered and faculty-driven, distinguished by an enhanced focus on connectivity. Students now have the opportunity to earn their MSN in the Primary Care Family Nurse Practitioner, Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and Leadership, Analytics and Innovation specialties through a newly developed digital education curriculum.
These specialty programs were... Read more
