RN-BSN and Women’s Health NP Options Suspended as of August

Friday, March 25, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing will suspend admissions into the Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-BSN) option of the BSN program and the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner option in the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program after August 2011.

These programmatic changes are necessary because of ongoing state budget cuts. In January, Chancellor Holden Thorp instituted campus-wide cuts equal to a 5 percent permanent state budget reduction to take effect July 1. That move anticipated expected reductions to the University’s state appropriations that could reach as high as 15 percent for fiscal 2011-2012. These anticipated cuts come on top of almost 10 percent in permanent cuts that the School of Nursing has absorbed over the last two years.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, Nursing Education, Students. Tags: , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day

Friday, March 18, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day. If you are interested in learning about Worldwide activities designed to celebrate this day, check out: http://www.ds-int.org/events/wdsd.

On March 21st, you are encouraged to watch a video Down Syndrome International has developed called “Will You Let Us In.” The hope is that if people all over the world watch this video it will help create a single global voice advocating for the rights, inclusion and well-being of people with Down syndrome.

SON Associate Professor Dr. Marcia Van Riper has been doing research with families of children with Down syndrome for over 30 years. Currently, she is working on a study about adaptation and resilience that eventually will include families from at least 6-10 countries. So far, over 250 parents from the US have participated, and data collection with families in other countries is just getting started. Next week, she will be giving a presentation at a conference in Thailand  and  after the conference she will meet with a professor in Thailand who has expressed interest in helping her collect data from parents of children with Down syndrome in Thailand. 

Posted in Faculty, Global Health, News. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Medical Spanish App Free Until April 7th

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

The Polyglot Med Spanish app can help bridge the communication gap between health care providers and Spanish-speaking patients. It offers immediate audio translation of over 3,000 common words, phrases and assessment questions from English to Spanish and from Spanish to English. From February 28th to April 7th the app will be available for FREE.

The original Polyglot: Multimedia Medical Spanish Translator was developed in 1999 by a Duke University medical student, BJ Lawson. Since 1999, the Duke AHEC Program has distributed CD-ROM versions of Polyglot to healthcare providers and health professions students across North Carolina with the support of the NC AHEC Program. One past user of Polyglot stated, “The program helped me tremendously in learning certain phrases.” Polyglot Med Spanish is available for use on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the iPad.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Global Health, News, Nursing Practice. Tags: , , , . Leave a Comment »

Watch the “I am a Carolina Nurse” Video

Friday, February 25, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

Share the link to the video with your friends: http://wp.me/pb6Ou-oS.

Being a “Carolina Nurse” has many dimensions.  This 7-minute video tells the story from the perspective of students, alumni, faculty, SON and hospital leaders who all experience the quality, energy and emotion of being connected to one of the leading Schools of Nursing in the United States.  Unrestricted private gifts made this video possible and we are grateful to our alumni and friends who provide on-going support to the School.  For giving opportunities, please contact Director of Advancement Norma_Hawthorne@unc.edu

Posted in Advancement, Alumni, Dean Kristen Swanson, Faculty, News, Nursing Education, Nursing Practice, Nursing Research. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

The Dollars and Sense Behind the Cuts

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

In response to your questions and reactions to the cuts in undergraduate enrollment announced in February (see press release), we wanted to share with you some of the budget numbers as well as the process that led to the decision.

The UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing allocates 95% of the funds we receive from the state to support faculty and staff salaries. We have absorbed nearly 10% in budget cuts from the state over the last two years. Thus far we have dealt with those cuts without affecting academics. Early on we cut non-personnel items by decreasing supplies, delaying replacement of computers, and other means. As cuts continued we eliminated some vacant staff positions, reduced support services, eliminated most T.A. positions supported by state funding, reduced staff, and moved some full-time employees to part-time.

Thus when we received communication to permanently cut 5% more ($483,407) for the 2011-2012 fiscal year – with the possibility that those cuts could reach as high as 10 or 15% – we had very few places left to trim. The School of Nursing takes seriously its commitment to deliver high-quality undergraduate nursing education, and we will not compromise that quality.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, Nursing Education. Tags: , , , , . 1 Comment »

Budget Cuts Mean Fewer Nursing Undergraduates at UNC

Monday, February 14, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

UNC School of Nursing News Release
For immediate release: February 14, 2011
 
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing will reduce overall undergraduate enrollments by about 25 percent because of ongoing state budget cuts. The enrollment reductions begin with admissions for the summer semester, which starts on May 9, 2011.

In January, Chancellor Holden Thorp instituted campus-wide cuts equal to a 5 percent permanent state budget reduction to take effect July 1. That move anticipated expected reductions to the University’s state appropriations that could reach as high as 15 percent for fiscal 2011-2012. These anticipated cuts come on top of almost 10 percent in permanent cuts that the School of Nursing has absorbed over the last two years.

“We are committed to offering high-quality, rigorous and safe programs for entry into nursing practice at the baccalaureate and advanced practice levels,” said School of Nursing Dean Kristen M. Swanson, also Distinguished Alumni Professor. “The budget challenges have left us little alternative but to reduce the number of students we enroll.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Faculty, News, Nursing Education. Tags: , , , , . 9 Comments »

Meet Micah McCanna, Nursing Student and Winter Sports Athlete

Thursday, January 13, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

Senior ABSN student Micah McCanna balances nursing school with serious training for Olympic winter sports in Lake Placid, N.Y.

Micah McCanna is a skeleton slider. He experiences forces up to 5 g while riding face down a frozen track on a small sled.

Micah McCanna says he likes to stay busy, and he certainly does that. The senior accelerated BSN student has figured out how to balance training for bobsled and skeleton winter sports with class, clinical, studying, an honors project, spending time with his fiancé, and working at UNC Hospitals.

McCanna is part of the USA Olympic Elite Developmental Skeleton team. Skeleton is a fast winter sliding sport where the competitor rides face down on a small sled down a frozen track.  People are quite surprised to hear that this North Carolina native who played on the East Carolina University baseball team is competing in winter sports. Ironically, McCanna says he doesn’t even like cold weather. It is the competition he craves.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, Students. Tags: , , , . 4 Comments »

LeVine Wellness Spot Opens at SON

Wednesday, January 5, 2011 — Nancy Lamontagne

Melissa LeVine and Gail Johnson in the LeVine Wellness Spot

School of Nursing employees now have a dedicated room in which to exercise and learn healthy habits. The LeVine Wellness Spot on the third floor of Carrington Hall officially opened with a kick-off luncheon and ribbon cutting on January 4.

Gail Johnson, an administrative support associate in the Family Health Faculty Division, had the idea for the Wellness Spot and was able to bring her idea to fruition thanks to funds that remained from a gift to the SON from Melissa LeVine in 2000. LeVine received her BSN from SON in 1977 and her MSN in 1981.

LeVine did not designate the specifics of the gift’s use as long it was applied to faculty and staff wellness. “As advocates of health care and of good health, we cannot ask our patients to do healthy things if we’re not doing it ourselves,” LeVine said. “My long range vision was that as the faculty and staff improve their healthy behaviors and health status it would make them more effective in communicating healthy behaviors with patients and that this would ripple out to the whole state of North Carolina.”

Video: Watch as Gail Johnson talks about activities for the Wellness Spot and Melissa Levine gives somes words of wisdom about exercising.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Make Your Gift, News. Tags: , , . 1 Comment »

2010 in review

Monday, January 3, 2011 — Oaxaca Cultural Navigator

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Healthy blog!

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in News, SON Media Coverage. Tags: . Leave a Comment »

National Nursing Leader to Present Research on Migrant Children

Thursday, December 16, 2010 — Nancy Lamontagne

Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, PhD, RN, FAAN

Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, (PhD, RN, FAAN) the assistant dean of diversity and cultural affairs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will present her research on immigrant and migrant children in “Children of the Road,” the 2011 UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing Ethnic Minority Visiting Scholar Lecture. This free lecture is open to the public and will take place from 3:00-5:00 pm on February 21, 2011 at the School of Nursing.

de Leon Siantz was born in Los Angeles of Mexican immigrant parents. She has spent her career in community health nursing advancing immigrant mental health through research, education and national leadership. “One of the fastest growing populations in the United States is children of immigrants, yet very little is known about them,” she said. “So I studied the children and continue to do research and provide consultation in this area.”

For example, she is currently investigating how to reduce pregnancy and promote reproductive health among Latina girls in work supported by the Office of Minority Health, Department of Health and Human Service. “The risk for premature birth is greatly increased because of the teen’s developmental stage and lack of access to prenatal care in this group. Pregnancy is one of the top reasons that Latina girls drop out of school,” she said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Global Health, News, Nursing Education, Nursing Practice, Nursing Research, Upcoming Events. Tags: , , . 3 Comments »
« Older posts
Newer posts »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 67 other followers