Colorado Nurse - February 2022

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8 • Colorado Nurse | February 2022 The Official Publication of the Colorado Nurses Foundation in partnership with the Colorado Nurses Association Updates Colorado Nurses Association Nursing Continuing Professional Development Program Connie Pardee, PhD, RN Sayonara 2021 and Welcome 2022 As we approach the end of almost two years living with a pandemic, I want to take a few moments to offer thanks and gratitude for all nursing and healthcare colleagues. My heart is with you even if my body is not. You have all given one hundred and ten percent and continue to provide outstanding professional quality care even though you are Connie Pardee exhausted. I applaud you and hope you are able to provide some self-care to ease your stress in these challenging times. Here’s to a healthy less stressful 2022. AMAZING REMARKABLE AWESOME American Renal Associates Our Staff Make the Difference! Opportunities for dialysis nurses in the Denver Metro Area in Colorado. Please apply at americanrenal.com. RN: CAM1' NURSE GENEVA GLEN CAMP in INDIAN HILLS, Colorado, will hire two RN’s for the 2022 Summer season: May 27 th –August 6 th . GENEVA GLEN has an excellent reputation and rich heritage. ACA accredited. Compensation includes $7,750 salary, travel allowance up to $350, insurance, room and board, beautiful, modern health center facility, participation in camp life including horseback riding, swimming, hiking – ideal Colorado climate, healthful working environment (Indian Hills is near Red Rocks). RN graduates welcome! Contact: Reid McKnight, P.O.Box 248, Indian Hills, CO 80454, (303) 697-4621 x 14 Email: reid@genevaglen.org. Apply online at: www.genevaglen.org/nurse NursingALD.com can point you right to that perfect NURSING JOB! NursingALD.com Free to Nurses Privacy Assured Easy to Use E-mailed Job Leads Changes in Colorado Nurses Association (CNA) Accredited Approver Unit Please join me in welcoming Nan Morgan BSN, MS (Nursing Leadership & Education), RN, who will assume the Accredited Approver Program Director role on January 1, 2022. Connie Pardee PhD, RN, who has served in the role for almost five years, will be retiring. Nan brings extensive nursing education experience to the role, including Nursing Clinical Scholar, Clinical Nurse Education at Swedish Hospital for a decade and as a Quality specialist. She loves networking with nurses and is a long-time active member of Colorado Nurses Association, serving a third term as Secretary of the Association. She was honored with a Nightingale award in 2011 for starting the No One Dies Alone Program at Swedish Medical Center. She is the proud mother of a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner, one of two children and five grandchildren. In her spare time, she enjoys family, travel, fabric crafts and reading non-fiction. Nan will assume all responsibilities of the role on January 1, 2022 and can be reached at programdirector@coloradonurses.org or via phone 303-905-9906. Please welcome her and call her with any nursing continuing professional development needs. Thank you Connie Pardee, PhD, RN Colorado Nurses Association Board of Directors, members and staff offer our sincerest gratitude for Dr. Pardee’s leadership over the past five plus years. Connie, as we know and appreciate her, came to the role of program director of CNA accredited approver unit at a time when we had to rebuild our strong history and tradition of quality services. Dr. Pardee did that and more. Pardee led the reaccreditation process by the American Nurses Credentialing Center and re-established CNA’s role in assuring quality continuing education and ongoing nursing professional development for educational providers through-out Colorado and regionally. Thank you is not enough and yet, we are so grateful for her wisdom, good humor and competencies when we needed them most. We all look forward to working with Nan Morgan in this role in the new year! NOW HIRING CNAs, LPNs, and a DON for our nursing home RN Night positions available at our Critical Access Hospital $1,000 Sign on Bonus. Applications can be submitted on our website at www.schealth.org Nursing opportunities in hospital and clinic settings, surgery, rehab, long term care, homecare, hospice and dialysis. To view our openings and apply please visit our website at www.ubh.org 435.722.6188 | Roosevelt, Utah Childhood Shaped His Perspective Dana Brandorff Director of Marketing and Communication, University of Colorado College of Nursing Whether it’s learning to drive, graduating high school, or moving out, there’s a lot of freedom that comes with young adulthood. For Christopher Battelli, a 2021 graduate University of Colorado College of Nursing, the transition from child to young adult meant the ability to make his own medical decisions. “For Christopher Battelli my entire childhood, I was unvaccinated and part of the ‘exempt’ crowd.” Against his mother’s wishes, he chose to get vaccinated when he was 18. “I did a lot of soul searching and research and decided the science was too overwhelming not to get vaccinated. My mother was not happy. Battelli says his parents, especially his mother, have always been skeptical of vaccines and distrustful of the health care system. “I can’t fault them as their distrust was rooted in personal experience and a fear that any health issue could destroy their life savings. ”Lack of insurance, fear of the cost of health care, and not being listened to by providers when they did have appointments, compounded the negative impression they had of the system. “I grew up in a very generous household. My mother believes strongly in helping others and taking care of them and that it’s the right thing to do. She is fiercely independent and did not trust health care or vaccinations.” When Battelli’s sister was young, she was diagnosed with Lyme disease. “Early on my mother even suggested Lyme disease to the providers, which was ignored.” But after months of misdiagnoses, tests, and bills, the diagnosis came back. Recalling the incident, Battelli says, “Being disregarded and not heard is extremely frustrating and causes feelings of being marginalized.” Another encounter that shaped his family’s perceptions was when his father died during his senior year at Colorado State University. “I absolutely think our system failed him. It was baffling to see the number of times he went in and out of the hospital with untreated mental health issues.” According to Battelli, the nursing staff made it less painful. “I can remember the nurses’ names. I don’t recall a single doctor.” That was the seminal event that changed his outlook and pushed him into a nursing career through the University of Colorado College of Nursing Accelerated pathway (UCAN). After graduating from CSU with a degree in Anthropology, he worked in public health consulting for a few years. “My undergraduate degree helped me look through a different lens. I use it every day,” says Battelli. His childhood, life experiences, and education have shaped how he views people, patients, and situations. It helps him understand that we may have different values and don’t always have to agree. “Arguing with people who disagree with you, belittling them, and not understanding where they come from is not effective,” says Battelli. He suggests listening and trying to understand how they have come to their viewpoints. “Things aren’t always black and white. But there’s been this polarization when it comes to COVID and vaccinations.” For Battelli, the difference of opinion has become a lesson in acceptance and a roadmap for how he might handle similar situations in the future. He and his sister were even able to convince their mother into getting the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine by appealing to her travel bug. “She was resistant, but her strong desire to travel outweighed her reticence to get the vaccine,” says Battelli. Sometimes knowing your patient, empathizing with them, and providing them with data are the best ways to handle differences of opinions. Intending to grow his skills and technical expertise, Battelli has his eyes on working at a progressive care unit of a hospital post-graduation.
The Official Publication of the Colorado Nurses Foundation in partnership with the Colorado Nurses Association February 2022 | Colorado Nurse • 9 CU Nurse-Midwifery Student Dodges Boulders, Finds Route for Reaching Her Peak Debra Melani Science Writer, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus For Chantal Dengah, her master’s degree specializing in Nurse-Midwifery came with some “Indiana Jones moments.” Unexpected stressors arose for the University of Colorado College of Nursing student and single mother of three, especially as COVID crashed her entire graduate school experience, at times, turning her into “a ball of stress.” Yet as she accepts Chantal Dengah her MS degree during the Fall 2021 graduation ceremonies, marking the place she has always wanted to be, the standout student leader with a contagious laugh will reflect on the good things the past two years delivered and the possibilities her future holds. “My goal was always to be a midwife,” said Dengah, whose kids excitedly helped keep count of her 50 deliveries during the graduate program. “It has always been to get to this point.” Partly due to pandemic stressors, Dengah, whose undergraduate years at CU Nursing were loaded with volunteering and extracurricular activities, decided to ease up on the side work during her pandemic-cloaked graduate education. “There were definitely those Indiana Jones moments, where you are running, and the boulder is coming, and you are like (lets out a squeal), and you are trying to roll under the door coming down,” Dengah said, describing her time in the rigorous, nationally ranked midwifery program, that she called “well-paced” and “immersive.” Support from “amazing” faculty and preceptors guided her under that door every time, she said. “They are so wonderful and knowledgeable that, even with those moments, I really felt encouraged and supported,” Dengah said. She has also put PhD plans on hold to enjoy practicing midwifery and time with her family. But a reduced pace for Dengah would feel like warp speed for many people. During graduate school, Dengah volunteered with the American College of Nurse-Midwifery and the CU College of Nursing Alumni Association, mentoring students for the alumni association’s Student Success Committee. She also served as a teaching assistant in an undergraduate OB/ GYN course for two semesters. “It was really great,” she said of teaching new nursing students, noting that the benefits were reciprocal. “I think when you teach, you learn. Students helped me see some things from different perspectives,” Dengah said. “I also really find value in giving back to my community. When you are building up a robust community around you, you are building in this beautiful network of support for yourself and for others.” Of course, the pinnacle of her midwife training was her first delivery. “That birth was just really beautiful. It was like a way post, right? It marked a transition into now practicing the theories that I’ve been learning and been wanting to practice for the past decade.” Dengah’s post-graduation plans begin with passing the American Midwifery Certification Board exam, which she said, holding up crossed fingers, she hopes to take in December. “I’m feeling really good and prepared. We (CU’s midwifery program) have a very high pass rate.” (The certification rate within one year of graduation is 97%.) Once those MS/CNM letters become official behind her name, Dengah plans to launch her own birthing brand, starting with the publication of a cookbook she worked on during graduate school. “I’d been noticing that a lot of my patients had been coming in and saying: What should I eat? Or: I’ve been throwing up; is my baby OK?” So she conceived the cookbook idea to answer those questions and more. The book will look at dietary needs for each trimester, from calories to recommended percentage of nutrients, such as protein and fat. And it will offer “really accessible, easy recipes” that fulfill those needs, said Dengah, who hopes to publish this spring. Next up, Dengah wants to write a birthing book on the mind/body aspect of birthing and become an Instagram presence that educates the public about her profession, she said. “When you are called to midwifery, I feel like it’s, at least for me, a responsibility to leave the profession better than you found it.” Dengah’s active personal life also outpaces many people’s, with singing backup for local musicians, hosting a TV adventure show, rock-climbing for sport and working as a ring girl for the national MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) all on her résumé. Some of her stressrelieving outside gigs were taken away by pandemic shutdowns, including the MMA job, inspiring her to “hang up my bikini,” she said with a laugh.On a sad note, Dengah also lost her longtime climbing partner to a non-climbing tragic accident two years ago, stealing her main form of meditation during graduate school. “It’s been really hard during COVID to find any partners,” she said, adding that surviving without her meditative sport was not easy.“ I was pretty much a ball of stress. It was a big eye-opener for me, like: I do need this in my life. This is my big stress-reliever, and I wasn’t replenishing my cup. It was an important cautionary tale: Make sure you don’t neglect the things that make you feel centered and make you feel you.” She intends to get back to climbing and, eventually, pursue her PhD so that she can contribute to what she calls much-needed research in her chosen field. But for now, she’s ready for her next adventure – being the midwife she was called to be. That calling was cemented, she said, when a midwife controlled a dire situation – severe hemorrhaging during the birth of Dengah’s first child. Now, with four of Dengah’s 50 deliveries during graduate school involving significant blood loss, she’s come full-circle. “They all did fine,” she said of the four mothers and babies. “I always wanted to be that bad-ass midwife who knows what to do, and now I am. It’s really cool.”
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Colorado Nurse - February 2022

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