These past few months have emphasized for me the rich legacy we have from those who founded our College and devoted years of service to our missions. Nowhere do we celebrate this more than at our Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Conference. The conference is held every two years and features relevant health care topics presented by and discussed with national speakers and experts in their fields.

This year’s event was timely and meaningful. Health disparities is an issue that is increasingly significant, and we know that nurses play pivotal roles in addressing disparities here and across the globe. The Dorothy M. Smith conference also allowed us to remember the legacy of our founding dean, to inspire those in attendance with her vision and to honor alumni who continue to exemplify her commitment through the work they do.

Celebrating the retirements of longtime faculty members Professors Jodi Irving and Faye Medley reminded me further of the powerful heritage of Dorothy Smith and the dedication of faculty members who followed her. I am inspired by those who choose to give back to the College through their philanthropic gifts, volunteer service, role modeling and just plain hard work. When I see our students and alumni who are honored with fellowships, grants and leadership positions, I know that they stand on the shoulders of our faculty. Care, Lead, Inspire is not our logo—it is who we are as Gator Nurses. I extend heartfelt thanks to the alumni, faculty members and students who inspire me every day.

Alumni Council representative Jodi Irving; Dr. David Guzick, Senior Vice President for Health Affairs and President, UF&Shands Health System; and Dean Kathleen Long with Dorothy M. Smith Leadership award winners Irene Alexaitis, Joseph Bertulfo and Sheryl Zwerski.

At this year’s Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Conference, the UF College of Nursing honored exceptional alumni who have demonstrated dedication to Founding Dean Dorothy Smith’s vision for nursing and health care. During this year’s conference, three alumni were awarded Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Awards for outstanding accomplishments in diverse areas of nursing. Dean Kathleen Long presented the alumni with their awards and together, fellow alumni, faculty, guests and students celebrated the honors. 

PRACTICE
Irene Alexaitis, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of South Florida in 1978. In 1997, she received her master’s degree in nursing administration from the University of Florida. She is currently a doctoral student at the University of South Alabama. In 1989, Alexaitis joined Shands at the University of Florida as a nurse manager and in2008 was named Vice President of Nursing and Patient Services. Today she continues to operate in this position and is responsible for coordinating and evaluating nursing services at Shands as well as participating in coordinating activities throughout Shands HealthCare.

POLICY
Joseph P. Bertulfo, MPH, MSN, NP-C, received his bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Florida and his master’s degrees in public health and nursing from the University of South Florida. Bertulfo is a Deputy Division Director at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is involved in the training of future public health leaders and scientists. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Bertulfo operated the CDC Emergency Operations Partners Desk in order to coordinate emergency response activities with the private sector. He has gained advanced training and field experience in emergency preparedness and mass casualty response from his years involved in public health emergencies. For this work he received the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service.

RESEARCH
Sheryl Zwerski, MSN, CRNP, earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Florida. She also anticipates receiving her Doctor of Nursing Practice from Catholic University of America in 2012. She is currently the Acting Program Director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (DAIDS) Prevention Sciences Program. In this position she is responsible for the strategic planning and prioritizing of current and future scientific works of the program. She is scientifically, logistically and fiscally responsible for a $206 million scientific portfolio of HIV prevention studies. This includes management of two large HIV prevention clinical trial networks that span 14 countries and four continents. She also oversees the development of new and more effective non-vaccine methods and strategies to prevent HIV infection and has established research branches for clinical microbicide, clinical prevention and preclinical microbicide and prevention.

The Fall BSN Class of 2011 after their Pinning Ceremony.

College Celebrates Fall BSN Graduates at Pinning Ceremony

The College of Nursing hosted its Fall Pinning Ceremony in December for Fall Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) graduates. Most of the 48 graduates who participated were part of the College’s Accelerated BSN class, which is comprised of students choosing nursing as a second career and who already possess a bachelor’s degree in another field.

Murielle Joseph, president of the UF Nursing Student Association, gave remarks to her fellow students about joining the ranks of esteemed Gator Nurses. To close the ceremony, graduate Durward Rackleff, a member of the UF Nursing Student Association, led his class in the recitation of the Pledge for Professional Nursing, a revised form of the original Florence Nightingale Pledge.

Another Pinning Ceremony will take place this Spring with this semester’s graduates.

Stechmiller

Associate Professor and Department Chair Joyce Stechmiller, PhD, ACNP, FAAN, was appointed as the U.S. representative to the National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel Board of Directors. The National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel is an independent not-for-profit organization dedicated to the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. The group, which also consists of the European and Pan Pacific Alliance, will update and author its guidelines.Dr. Stechmiller was also recently appointed to the SantaFe HealthCare Village Board of Directors representing nursing. SantaFe HealthCare is a Gainesville not-for-profit parent company that provides care options to Floridians at any stage of life.

Clinical Assistant Professor Cynthia Figueroa-Haas, PhD, APRN, had her article “Screening for Female Sexual Dysfunction in Primary Care Settings” published in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.

Clinical Assistant Professor Sandra Wolfe Citty, PhD, RN, ARNP, had her article titled “Empowering Nurses to Improve Patient Nutrition,” regarding the VA nutrition quality improvement project, published in the Nursing 2011 journal.

Dr. Dyal is shown here (left) with Dr. Fran Vlasses (center), expert faculty member, and Dr. Williams, at the Sigma Theta Tau International Convention in Grapevine, Texas, where Dr. Dyal presented a poster outlining her leadership development accomplishments.

 M. Dee Williams, PhD, RN, Executive Associate Dean and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs completed a mentorship program with alumna Brenda Dyal, DNP, ARNP, (DNP 2010) in the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Faculty Mentored Leadership Development Program this fall. Dr. Williams served as mentor to Dr. Dyal in this 18-month experimental leadership development opportunity for nurses committed to a career in nursing education. The program not only promotes faculty retention, but also cultivates high-performing, supportive work environments in academia.

Mercer (L) and Smith (R).

Two junior students in the Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) program were elected to the Florida Nursing Students Association Executive Board at the organization’s annual convention. Kara Mercer was elected Corresponding Secretary, and Samantha Smith was elected Region 2 Director and Chair of the Resolutions Committee.

Bumbach

Michael Bumbach, a doctoral student, was selected by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing to receive a scholarship to attend the 2012 AACN Student Policy Summit in Washington D.C. in March. He was one of only two recipients of the student scholarship and was selected based on his essay submission, which will be highlighted in the conference program.

Daniel

Carole Daniel, a doctoral student and a U.S. Navy commander, will receive funding for her TriService Nursing Research Program Grant, “Effect of Psychosocial Factors on Acute and Persistent Pain Following Childbirth.” The TriService Nursing Research Program is the only program funding and supporting rigorous scientific research in the field of military nursing.

Stacciarini after receiving her award at the Southern Nursing Research Society Annual Conference.

University of Florida College of Nursing Assistant Professor Jeanne- Marie Stacciarini, PhD, RN, was selected to receive the Southern Nursing Research Society (SNRS) Research in Minority Health Award. Stacciarini was honored for her research on the mental health of rural Latinos and her mentorship of minority students.

The SNRS governing board gives the Research in Minority Health Award to an individual or a group whose research has considerably improved the health care of minorities in the southern region of the United States. Stacciarini accepted the award at the SNRS Annual Conference in New Orleans in February.

“This is a great recognition of the work we have been doing with the underserved Latino population for the last 10 years,” Stacciarini said. “There are a number of individual and community-level implications that have not been well-explored regarding Latinos in rural ‘new destinations,’ such as North Florida, outside of traditional Latino gateways such as California and Miami.”

Stacciarini aims to find ways to unravel the complexities and alleviate the negative effects of social isolation and develop a community-based intervention to promote mental well-being. This requires involvement in areas that reflect the minority culture and are an integral part of daily life, such as churches, schools and health departments.

Stacciarini has received a diversity supplement grant from the National Institutes of Health to study depression in Latinas and promote diversity in health-related research. She also has mentored at least two minority students each year from various health professions majors. Stacciarini coordinates an undergraduate cross-cultural study program in Yucatan, Mexico, where UF nursing students travel and work with Yucatan nursing faculty and students.

Dean Long, Keynote Speaker Sally Lundeen and Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs Dee Williams.

There is a real and documented lack of affordable, accessible quality health care for many people in the U.S. and across the globe. The UF College of Nursing’s fifth biennial Dorothy M. Smith Nursing Leadership Conference, “Health Care for All: Addressing Health Care Disparities Locally and Globally,” in February focused on current issues in global health and the role that nursing plays in removing existing inequalities in the health care system. About 500 nurses, students and faculty members participated in this two-day conference.

Many studies have shown that nurses are committed to providing care for poor and otherwise underserved populations, and that advanced practice nurses are more likely than other providers to work with these groups.

Keynote speaker Marilyn “Lynn” Sawyer Sommers, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Lillian S. Brunner Professor of Medical-Surgical Nursing and Director of the Center for Global Women’s Health at the University of Pennsylvania, discussed the cultural challenges of providing high-quality health care.

“Health is a right and not a privilege; No one should be at a disadvantage to achieve health potential,” Dr. Sommers said. “Nursing science has a mandate to develop and test interventions and social policies that maximize people’s health potential through scientific inquiry.”

Following Dr. Sommers, an interactive panel addressed the existing challenges in global health. The panel featured Michael Perri, PhD, current Dean of UF College of Public Health and Health Professions; Sally Bethart, MSN, ARNP, a Clinical Assistant Professor in the College of Nursing; Esther Moring, MN, RN, an active participant with Doctors Without Borders and other global disaster response groups; and Sheryl Zwerski, MSN, CRNP, the Acting Program Director for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (DAIDS) Prevention Sciences Program.

Panelists noted how fragile health systems plague populations by providing health services that fail to meet their needs. Suggestions included increasing the number of basic nursing and medical education programs as well as improving the training for community health workers. Data from areas in Africa demonstrate that when physicians’ tasks are shifted to nurses, nurses produce the same outcomes as physicians in many areas of practice.

Audience members actively engaged in discussions with the conference’s keynote speakers.

The panel also discussed guiding principles for global health practice that focus on understanding the local culture and adapting medical techniques that would most profoundly improve the local health care system.

Role of Nurse-Managed Clinics in Addressing Health Disparities

During day two of the conference, keynote speaker Sally Lundeen, PhD, RN, FAAN, a Professor and Dean of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing, high-lighted the role and potential influence of nurses in addressing health disparities in the U.S.

The major influences of health disparities are not only social health determinants such as income and education level, but also discrepancies in health care delivery, Lundeen noted. Nurses can play a role in filling this gap, she said.

“Nurse practitioners provide care of equivalent quality to physicians at a lower cost, while achieving high levels of patient satisfaction and providing more disease prevention counseling, health education and health promotion activities than physicians,” Lundeen said.

Lundeen pointed out that nurse practitioners cared for 85,000 uninsured or underinsured patients in 2009, illustrating nurse-managed clinics’ impact on the most vulnerable populations in the United States.

Improving the Health of a Community

The final interactive panel featured the College’s own nurse-managed practice, Archer Family Health Care, as a model of how to improve the health of a community. The panel featured M. Dee Williams, PhD, RN, College of Nursing Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs; Denise Schentrup, DNP, ARNP, Clinical Assistant Professor and Lead Nurse Practitioner; and Jennifer Cassisi, MSN, ARNP, 2011 UF MSN graduate of the Family Nurse Practitioner program.

The panelists discussed the history of the practice, including the strong community partnerships as well as the public and private funding received through the years. The panel also focused on the center’s recent move to a state-of-the-art electronic health record system that was made possible through a collaborative agreement with the Alliance of Chicago and membership in a consortium of 30 safety-net health centers across the nation. They also illustrated the challenges of providing care to a mostly underserved population.

Brenda Barton-Wheaton (L) is pictured with her professor and friend Jodi Irving, for whom she and her husband, D. Richard Wheaton (R), established a scholarship in Irving’s honor.

When Brenda Barton-Wheaton (BSN 1971, MSN 1973) heard one of her favorite professors from the College of Nursing was retiring, she and her husband, Dr. Richard Wheaton (BSA ’56, MAG ’68), knew that the best way to honor her was by establishing a scholarship in her name.

After graduating, Barton-Wheaton kept in touch with Professor Jodi Irving, which resulted in an enduring friendship that continues today. In February, she and her husband, who is a retired program director with the United States Department of Agriculture, decided to come back to UF to celebrate Irving’s retirement. Moved by Irving’s legacy of service to the College, which spanned more than 45 years, the couple pledged $30,000 to endow The Jo Annalee “Jodi” Irving College of Nursing Scholarship/Fellowship Fund.

“Dick and I appreciate the opportunity to create a scholarship for UF College of Nursing students and are honored to have it named for Jodi Irving. We thought it was timely to give the scholarship at Jodi’s retirement celebration and to honor someone who has devoted herself to the education of great Gator Nurses, and so much more, through her career and life’s work,” Barton- Wheaton said.

The scholarship will be awarded to undergraduate nursing students, with a preference to those in the accelerated BSN program. Although she already had an RN, Barton-Wheaton pursued her bachelor’s degree in nursing at UF before accelerated programs existed, so she understands the importance of such a program for nontraditional students.

A highlight of her undergraduate studies were her experiences in the classroom and clinical settings with Irving, but many College of Nursing faculty were influential in her education. Dean Dorothy Smith was an early influence and played a significant role in retooling her thinking about nursing. While studying maternal/ infant health and psychiatric-mental health nursing at the graduate level, both Dr. Betty Hilliard and Dr. Jo Snider offered instruction and guidance. Along with mentoring from Irving, the faculty facilitated a depth of knowledge and understanding of the different specialty areas in nursing and offered an outlook of opportunity and possibility for her as a professional nurse, Barton-Wheaton said.

Now living in Kentucky and retired from a career in community mental-health management, Barton- Wheaton cannot pinpoint just one fond memory from her days at the College of Nursing. But she knows that many of those memories involved her favorite professor.

“When you talk to Jodi, you understand your own significance,” Barton-Wheaton said. “This translates for a student to a deeper belief in themselves and their potential.”

“The scholarship offers an opportunity for others to commit to the future of Gator Nursing. It is an embodiment of giving back in the name of someone with a great spirit of giving. Generosity is an aura that surrounds Jodi. ”

If you would like to contribute to The Jo Annalee “Jodi” Irving College of Nursing Scholarship/ Fellowship, donations may be sent to the Office of Development, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100197, Gainesville, FL 32610. Checks should be made payable to the UF Foundation. For more information on the scholarship fund, call Anna Harper, Director of Development, at 352-273-6360 or e-mail aemiller@ufl.edu.

Professor Jodi Irving (L) and Dr. Jo Snider (R) pictured with the bust of Founding Dean Dorothy Smith, which was dedicated in her honor in the College’s building.

It may be a cliché to some, but professors Jodi Irving and Jo Snider fully understand the creed “pay it forward.” Their recent gift to the College to establish the Dorothy M. Smith Endowed Scholarship/Fellowship will support undergraduate and graduate nursing students who have special financial need.

Professors Irving and Snider want to help to ensure the excellence in nursing education at UF that Dean Dorothy Smith established when she founded the college in 1956.

“We wanted to honor the legacy and recognize the impact that she had on both of our careers,” said Irving, who recently retired after over 45 years of service. “We also both recognize that we have a professional responsibility to help support this College that has given us both so much.”

Dean Smith helped to lay the foundation for many of the most important nursing advances over the past few decades, notably an emphasis on quality in nursing and health care.

“This fellowship in Dean Smith’s name will appropriately promote her ideals that are timeless in nursing and nursing education,” said Snider. “Dean Smith was not only a nursing administrator but was also very involved with the students—she taught at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Thus, it is fitting that this fellowship supports a student who desires to pursue his or her nursing education.”

Among the advances Dean Smith developed was the nursing rounds where students and faculty members visited clinical sites at Shands and discussed patient care. She also pioneered the nursing history that was an assessment tool to replicate the habits at home and add to patient recovery.

Perhaps what is most significant for both Snider and Irving was the ability to “close the circle” on recognizing and acknowledging the impact of both Dean Smith and the College of Nursing.

“The College of Nursing has given me my life,” Snider said. “What I have ended up with as a result of my association with this College is beyond my dreams. I felt indebted to pay that back somehow.”

Both Snider and Irving hope they inspire others to give back to the College.

“We hope we have created an opportunity for people to consider any amount to give back, big or small, every bit does help,” Irving said.

Irving in the History Alcove she helped create for the College during its 50th anniversary celebration.

It has been a busy few months for Jodi Irving. With her retirement from the College at the end of 2011, Irving established a fund connected to her passion for sustaining the College of Nursing’s history.

Irving gave $50,000 to create the The Jo Annalee “Jodi” Irving College of Nursing History Fund that will be used to support the preservation of the College of Nursing’s heritage.

“History is a way to honor the past, support the present and secure the future,” she said.

Irving was an instrumental part of the College’s 50th anniversary celebration and creation of the College’s history alcove on the third floor. The history alcove piqued her interest in formalizing the College’s history and led her to creating the fund.

Irving believes that there are many opportunities to make the history of the College come alive. Future plans include the creation of additional oral histories, development of a book about the history of the College and a possible museum devoted to the College’s history, which could display the 50th anniversary DVD, photos and other artifacts.

“History helps you see how incremental changes make a big impact over long periods of time,” she said.

If you are interested in giving to The Jo Annalee “Jodi” Irving College of Nursing History Fund, donations may be sent to the Office of Development, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100197, Gainesville, FL 32610. Checks should be made payable to the UF Foundation. For more information please email Anna Harper, at aemiller@ufl.edu or call 352-273-6360.

William Eells presents a check to Dean Long to establish a fund in honor of his wife.

Longtime friend and supporter William Eells recently made a $100,000 gift to support teaching and research programs within the College of Nursing. The gift established the Ellen Granberg Eells Excellence Fund in Nursing in honor of his late wife, Ellen Eells, (BSN 1964) a College of Nursing alumna and longtime supporter who passed away on April 17, 2008.

The couple had a strong tie to UF. The two met in the UF Health Science Center as students, she as a nursing student and he as a pharmacy student. This gift ensures that her legacy will continue its impact within the College for many years to come.

If you are interested in giving to The Ellen Granberg Eells Excellence Fund in Nursing, donations may be sent to the Office of Development, University of Florida, P.O. Box 100197, Gainesville, FL 32610. Checks should be made payable to the UF Foundation. For more information please email Anna Harper, at aemiller@ufl.edu or call 352-273-6360.