2000 SoN network, f-w - School of Nursing - University of Minnesota

Outreach Update
By Sharon Vegoe, Director of Outreach
Advanced practice nurses and faculty colleagues
from throughout the United States
and across the world participated in professional
education programs offered by the School
of Nursing (SoN) Outreach Office this summer.
Ira Byock, Director of the Palliative Care Service
in Missoula, MT, presented the Wald
Lectureship, June 7 to over 200 nurses, physicians, chaplains
and social workers providing care for patients at the end of life.
The lectureship is sponsored by the Densford Center for Nursing
Leadership and was held in collaboration with the Center for
Spirituality and Healing, the Center for Bioethics, and the
Frederick R. Weisman Museum. Participants also had an
opportunity to view “Hospice: A Photographic Inquiry,” an
exhibit at the Weisman Art Museum featuring the work of contemporary
photographers and filmmakers who documented
the experience of living and working in hospice environments.
On June 9 –10, 2000, nurse researchers from 18 states, five
Canadian provinces, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Japan, Taiwan
and New Zealand shared perspectives on using phenomenological
or hermeneutic inquiry to study nursing. The
conference was convened by Cynthia Peden-McAlpine, Ph.D.,
R.N., Assistant Professor and featured a major paper presented
by Professor Emeritus Margaret A. Newman. Newman also
hosted an informal gathering of doctoral alumni who completed
dissertations under her advisement. Over 40 research
presentations were made and nine research posters were displayed
during the two-day conference.
Linda H. Bearinger, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.A.N. and Barbara
Leonard, Ph.D., R.N., directed summer leadership institutes as
part of their U.S. Maternal Child Health Bureau center grants.
Family-Centered Care Coordination for Children with Special
Health Care Needs was held June 12 with an optional half-day
hands-on computer session on Internet resources for children
and their families. Over 80 nurses attended the conference
with representation from 16 states. Clinical Assessment and
Interventions for Adolescent Health, held June 13–16 focused on
adolescent violent behaviors and health-related outcomes.
Panels included adolescent, parent and community perspectives
on violence. Adolescent actors provided a unique
opportunity for participants to refine interviewing skills
through simulated patient encounters. Institute participants
joined with Community-University Youth Violence Prevention
Partnership advisory committee members for a dialogue with
Gary Slutkin, M.D., founder and director of Chicago Project, a
community-wide violence prevention program that has effectively
reduced gun violence in that city.
Celebration toasts, class photographs, certificates and gifts
were given to and from faculty and participants at a dinner held
at Eastcliff, the home of University of Minnesota President, as
part of a week-long summer institute on International Infection
Ira R. Byock, M.D.
End of Life Care continued from page 7
Control, June 12–16. Carol O’Boyle, Ph.D., R.N., adjunct faculty
member at the SoN and Supervisor, Institutional Infection
Control Unit, Minnesota Department of Health, directed and
taught major content sessions for the course. Colleagues from
the Association of Professionals in Infection Control assisted
with instruction and hosted tours of clinical facilities in the
Twin Cities. Enrollment for this year’s institute included participants
from Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, the Republic of
Georgia, Hungary, The United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan,
India, Thailand, Mexico and Canada as well as Minnesota,
California, Washington, Maryland and Washington, D.C.
On June 23–24, clinical nurse specialists and nurse practiour
experiences influence our work with patients—positive or
negative.
“We may be more empathetic with families and patients
because of the experiences we’ve had. Or we may shy away
from it, being afraid to deal with it because we haven’t dealt
with our own issues with loss and death.”
McSteen’s commitment to improving end of life care came
from her own work in oncology, bone marrow transplants and
ICU nursing. “I saw how poorly we took care of people who
were dying. We didn’t talk to people and their families well
about what was actually happening to them,” said McSteen.
“I really felt that people weren’t having the opportunity to put
closure on things and say what they needed to say because
nobody was telling them what was going on.” •
Jack Breslin first wrote about the nursing shortage as a daily newspaper
journalist in 1979. The author of the book, America’s Most Wanted,
he is currently a doctoral student in the School of Journalism and Mass
Communications at the University of Minnesota.
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