WCSU Alumni Nursing Society
WESTERN CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY SPRING 2009 NEWSLETTER
Call to All MS
Graduates
Interested in
Teaching
The Nursing
Department continues
to try to address the
nursing shortage by
admitting as many
qualified nursing
students as possible.
This has created a
need to find MS
prepared nurses to
adjunct clinical groups
on the undergraduate
level. If you are
interested in a one or
two day assignment
adjuncting and
teaching a small group
of nursing students,
please contact Dr.
Karen Crouse
.
We would need you to
send in a resume and
letter outlining your
experience. Adjuncting
is a great way to
explore a career in
teaching. And who is
better to prepare our
new nurses than our
own wonderful
graduates!!???
Also we are in need to
qualified preceptors for
the graduate program.
If you or a friend of
yours is an APRN and
would like to precept a
graduate student in
your clinical setting
please contact Dr.
Karen Daley at
.
Distinguished Alumni:
Leah H. Turner '71, '91 Receives the Distinguished
Alumni Award for Nursing
Leah Turner was born and raised in Hartford, CT. In 1971,
she earned a B.S. in Nursing, graduating in WCSU's second
Nursing class. She worked as a staff nurse in Fairfield County
until 1979, when she took a position in the Norwalk Public
School system as a staff nurse for Head Start. In 1989 she
became the Coordinator of School Health Services for the
Norwalk Public School system.
In 1991, Turner earned an M.S. in Nursing from WCSU.
Pursuing this degree was a goal she'd set for herself as an
undergraduate. Turner chose WCSU because of the quality of
the program and its affordability. Turner has been a NCSN,
Nationally Certified School Nurse, since 1990. She was awarded the 2003
School Nurse Supervisor of the Year from Association of School Nurses of
Connecticut. In September 2002, she received the WCSU Centennial Award
for Excellence. Turner has also been recognized as the Carver Community
Center Woman of the Year in 2007. She continues to serve the WCSU
community as a member of the Board of the WCSU Nursing Alumni Society
and is active in planning and advising on the society’s events and programs.
Come Join Us for Our Spring Event with Guest Speaker
Terry Tavella Quell PhD, RN President of the Connecticut
Nurses Association
May 6, 2009 at 4:00 in the
Westside Campus Center Ballroom
Terry Quell PhD, RN is the Director for Undergraduate Student Services in the
School of Nursing at Fairfield University. A graduated of Fairfield University in
1979, she then completed her Masters degree at WCSU in 1994. She received her
PhD (2005) in Education Leadership at UCONN. Her research areas include
Nursing Image, Job Satisfaction and Health Policy and Leadership. She currently
teaches Introduction to Nursing, Public Health Leadership and Transition to
Professional Nursing at Fairfield University. She is President of the Connecticut
Nurses Association, Vice Chair of South Western CT Area Health Education
Committee, and member of Norwalk Board of Health. She is also a member of
Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, American Nurses Association and
CT League for Nurses. She has done numerous presentations and publications.
Terry has also received many grants and awards throughout her nursing career.
We are much honored to have Terry Quell back on campus to speak at our event.
Annual
Membership
Dues
Annual membership
dues for the Alumni
Nursing Society are
due each year on May
1
st
. Please continue to
support your Society.
In the past we had
asked members for one
time membership due.
However we would like
to continue to provide
you with, special
events and
newsletters. We need
your help. We have
had about 2 events per
year, along with 2
newsletters each year,
keeping you informed
on the exciting events
that are happening in
the nursing department
and WCSU.
Membership dues help
with expenses such as
materials, mailings,
scholarships and
events. Please see
Membership and Pledge
form enclosed. We
thank you for your
support.
How can we
help you?
We want you to get the
most of out of your
membership to the
WCSU Alumni Nursing
Society. Please let us
know if you have any
ideas or concerns. You
can email Monica
Sousa, RN BSN at
Monissa28@sbcglobal.n
et.
Notes from the Chair, Dr. Karen Crouse
We are busy this academic year with 150 undergraduate, 50 RN-BS students and
35 graduate students. Our programs are growing! This is due to the success of our
programs and the success of our alumni. Although the current job market is probably
the tightest since the late 1970’s or early 1990’s our graduates continue to be offered
positions.
It is evident that with this continued growth that we need new faculty. We are
currently searching for three faculty lines. We hope to have the contracts signed
before May 30, 2009.
Early this academic year, we had an accreditation visit from the CCNE. We had an
excellent visit and we met all of the objectives. We are awaiting the decision of CCNE
board regarding accreditation for 10 years. We will know by the end of March.
Our department received a federally funded Nursing Initiative Grant through the
hard work of Dr. Karen Daley and Professor Debra Lajoie. This grant allowed us to
award scholarships to qualified nursing students in each of our programs. The
purpose of the grant was to improve retention and remediation of nursing students.
The faculty at WCSU’s Department o f Nursing continues to be active in many
nursing organizations. Dr. Joseph Aina is a member of the Board of Directors of the
Families Network of Western CT. Dr. Karen Crouse continues as the vice president of
the CT Nurses Association. Dr. Daryle Brown serves on the Editorial Board of the CT
Nurses Association while Professor Joan Palladino is the Chair of the Political Action
Committee and active member of the Government Relations Committee. Professor Pat
Geraci continues as an active member of the National Organization of Nurse
Practitioner Faculty.
Dr. Ellen Abate is working on “Parental Perceptions of Nursing Services for at Risk
Infants and Children: An Outcome Analysis. Dr. Joseph Aina is investigating
homelessness and mental illness. At the Association for the Advancement of
Educational Research Conference, Dr. Carol Avery, Dr. Ellen Abate and Dr. Karen
Crouse presented “Shared governance in higher education: Fact or fiction”, Dr. Karen
Crouse, Professor Mary Ann Riley and Dr. Ellen Abate presented “Cheating in
academe: not just for students”. Dr. Karen Daley and Professor Jeanette Lupinacci
presented “Mentoring new nursing faculty- current trends” while Dr. Daryle Brown and
Professor Joan Palladino presented “Mentoring new nursing faculty”. Dr. Mary Ellen
Doherty continues her research examining the lived experience of widowhood in
pregnancy. She is actively interviewing participants this spring for this research
study.
Dr. Laurel Halloran recently published two articles, “Wrestling injuries in high
school athletes” and “Connecting to your tribe: Professional peer groups”. Dr.
Catherine Rice’s work on “Supporting faculty needs in an age of transformation” has
been accepted for publication in the near future.
Prof. Dr. Karen Daley co-wrote the book, Simulation Scenarios for Nurse
Educators: Making it Real with Sue Campbell. This book is available from Springer
and was published December 2009.
Check out
our Web site
Please visit the WCSU
Alumni Nursing Society
web site at
http://www.wcsu.edu/
nursingalumni/ for lots
of great information!
You can view past and
current newsletters,
getting information on
upcoming events, see
the photo gallery of
past events and get
nursing window decal
information. Alumni
membership
applications are also
available online.
Nursing Society.
Thank you for your
support!
Nursing Window Decals
The Alumni Nursing Society is selling nursing window decals as our
fundraiser. The size of the sticker is four by six inches. The colors are black
and white. The cost of the bumper sticker is $5.00. Below is a sample. See
Kathy Barber, nursing department secretary to purchase these window decals
or go to the WCSU bookstore located in the Student Center on the main
campus. You can also purchase them by contacting Monica Sousa at
. Thank you for your support!!!
UPDATE:
Funding for Nursing Education Secured in the
Stimulus Package
From Laura Guettner at the AACN February 2009: “American Association of
Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is thrilled to report that $500 million of the original $600
million for nursing and health professions training was included in the final stimulus
package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1). Of that $500 million,
$300 million will be awarded to the National Health Service Corps and the remaining
$200 million will be divided between the Title VII Health Professions Training Programs
and the Title VIII Nursing Workforce Development Programs. The conference report
further noted that the funding for Titles VII and VIII should focus on such programs as
primary care and dentistry, public health and preventive medicine, loan repayment
and scholarships, as well as grants for training program equipment.
In November 2008, AACN’s Board of Directors approved a special expenditure to
specifically secure funding for nursing education in the stimulus package. In this
difficult economic time for schools of nursing, the Board recognized this unique
opportunity to potentially infuse additional funding into Title VIII. However, this
important investment in nursing education would not have been possible without your
significant efforts as well as the Nursing Community at large. According to our current
data, you, your faculty, and students sent over 1,000 messages to Congress
explaining the importance of supporting nursing education and imploring them to
include funding for our Title VIII programs. Congratulations, it worked!
Securing this funding is a tremendous feat for nursing education. AACN is grateful
that our membership acted quickly to encourage Members of Congress to include the
House provision for nursing and health professions training in the final bill.” For more
detail on AACN advocacy effort on behalf of nursing education and research, see
http://www.aacn.nche.edu/Government/index.htm
.
Changed Your
Name or
Address Since
Graduating
WestConn???
Please Let us know
if you have changed
your name address
etc. Contact the
WCSU Alumni office
at
https://www.wcsu.
edu/ia/update.asp.
We would love to
get everyone’s
information
updated.
For more
information on
what is going
on at
WestConn go
to
www.wcsu.edu/
alumni
Here they are!! Look who Dr. Daley found working
hard at Danbury Hospital:
Andrew Hull ' 04 (Andy) is has been Assistant Nurse Manager on 8West for
2 years.
Working with Andy on 8 West you will also find: Lynne Seng '08, Monica
Perry '04, Sadhvi Mehta '07, Monica Hill '05 among several other alumni
grads!!
Tammy Higgins graduated with her BS in 1986 and MS in '01. She is now
the APRN in the Interventional Cardiology Cath Lab coordinating the pre-
and post care of cardiac catherization patients.
John Semenetz '07 is working on 12 West. He has 2 kids in college now
and is precepting one of our Senior Nursing students in Practicum!
Matthew Regan is working on 10 Tower. In addition to being a staff RN, he
helps with admission, teaching and discharge as the "flex" nurse. He is
excited to be buying a house and happy to be working as an RN and not
worrying about unemployment!!
Carol Norieka (Yakacki) 1980 is working also on 12 West. She lives New
Fairfield and is married with 3 daughters.
Helen McKenna graduated from our MS program in '01. She is Nurse
Manager of 12 West. She has also worked with WCSU for the last 2
springs and is currently an adjunct in the BS program teaching a clinical
group for the seniors in practicum.
MIA: Mody Varghese ’05 and Ailie Montague ‘05: Last seen at
homecoming. We hear they did some time as travel nurses and have
settled somewhere in the Chicago area!!???
Monica Perry ’04 is now Monica Sousa. She got married in October, 2008.
Please let us know where you work and anything going on with you so we can
include your information here!!
Volunteers needed
We are looking for people to help with the Alumni Nursing Society. It
does not require a lot of time. We meet about 3 times a year for no
more than an hour each time. We plan two events each year and would
appreciate any help anyone can give us. Some of the areas we need
help in are; recruiting members, developing the newsletter, planning and
setting up for events and providing ideas for activities etc. If you would
like to help please contact Monica Sousa [email protected]
.
Hope to hear from you soon!!!
