ASU Nursing

Spring 2007

In no v ati o n s i n C l i n ic a l Pr act ice and C ommunit y P ar tn ersh ips
New DNP Program Launched
Community Partnerships
and Outreach: ASU’s
Academic Nursing Centers
Implementing
Evidence-Based Practice
in Work Environments
Center for Healthcare
Innovation & Clinical Trials
is Launched
Community Outreach:
Student Clinical Practice
at CASS
The Importance of
Patient Personalities in
Clinical Education/Simulation
DNS changes to PhD Program

ASU Academic Nursing
Centers Serve the Community
and Provide Valuable Clinical
Practice for Students

D r e a m

•

D i s c o v e r

•

D e l i v e r

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

ASU Nursing

16 Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials Launch

ASU Nursing is published in the spring
and fall by the College of Nursing and
Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State
University for alumni, friends of the
college, national nursing leadership,
students, faculty, and the media.
Direct comments and inquiries to:
ASU College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation
R. Terry Olbrysh
Director of Marketing and Communications
500 N. 3rd Street
Phoenix, AZ 85004-0698
Terry.Olbrysh@asu.edu
602-496-0877

19 The Feel of Real: Student Clinical Practice Class at Phoenix Homeless Shelter

WEB SITE

21 Personality Plus: Clinical Simulation Patients Bring Important Dimension

http://nursing.asu.edu

Inside this Issue
Features
1

Dean’s Message

Clinical Practice and Community Partnership Initiatives
2

Profile: Denise Link, Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Community Partnerships

3

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Program Launch

6

Community Partnerships and Outreach: ASU’s Academic Nursing Centers

13 Implementing Evidence-Based Practice in Work Environments

DEAN
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/
NPP, FAAN, FNAP

ASU Nursing News
24 Profile: Julie Fleury, Associate Dean for Research
25 Doctor of Nursing Service Program Changes to PhD Program
27 ASU College of Nursing 50th Anniversary Celebration Kickoff
29 Child-Adolescent Mental Health Intervention Specialist Graduate Certificate Program
30 Evidence-Based Practice News Report
34 Achievements: Honors and Awards, Grants and Contracts, Publications/Presentations
40 Appointments
41 Moving Forward: Development Opportunities and Milestones
Clarification: An article in the fall 2006 issue of ASU Nursing incorrectly reported the research findings by Manal
Al-Zadjali, a graduate student and Fulbright Scholar at the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation.The correct
total of obese and overweight clients in her study at Breaking the Cycle Community Healthcare Clinic is 63 percent.

EDITOR
R. Terry Olbrysh, MA, APR
DESIGN
Juliana Murphy Campbell
Juliana.Campbell@asu.edu
PRODUCTION ASSISTANT
Kathy Wood
The College of Nursing & Healthcare at
Arizona State University operates under
a 10-year accreditation through June
2014 granted by the Commission on
Collegiate Nursing Education for its baccalaureate and master’s degree programs
and also is approved by the Arizona
Board of Nursing.
On the cover:

The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation connects with its community
through its five nurse-managed academic
health centers as shown in the cover photo.
At the centers, nurse practitioners provide
primary and wellness care to underserved
populations of children and families and
older adults while students receive essential clinical practice experience.

Nursing students at ASU
encounter many interesting
personalities among their
simulation patients in clinical
course scenarios. See story,
page 21.

© 2007 Arizona Board of Regents. All rights
reserved. The sunburst logo is a registered
trademark, and the word mark is a trademark
of Arizona Board of Regents. All other brands,
product names, company names, trademarks
and service marks used herein are the property
of their respective owners. Information in this
document is for informational purposes only and
is subject to change without notice.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Dean’s Message
Innovation, Risk-Taking
and Partnerships:
A Key Triad
for Healthcare
Transformation

T

his edition of ASU Nursing is focused on innovations in
clinical practice as well as community and interdisciplinary
partnerships. The healthcare system is undergoing unprecedented change and nursing is sure to provide key solutions to the
most complex and pervasive problems, but it will take continued “out of the box” thinking, leaders who are willing to take
risks and garner resources to make their visions come to reality,
and strong community and interdisciplinary partnerships.
Visioning is a key aspect of innovation—being able to see and
implement solutions to healthcare and educational challenges
ahead of the curve. In this edition of ASU Nursing, we highlight
our innovative new Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical
Trials (CHI&CT) recently funded by the Kauffmann Foundation,
which will become a state and national hub for the design, development and testing of new healthcare products and medical
devices in order to improve healthcare delivery systems.
The CHI&CT will attract scientists and healthcare practitioners (e.g., physicians, nurses, allied health professionals)
who have innovative ideas for products to improve healthcare,
but who need assistance in actualizing their ideas. Unique to
this center is the clinical trials component, which will allow
gathering of solid evidence to support product use for sustained
solutions in healthcare institutions. Partnerships are core to
the success of our new CHI&CT, which is a collaborative effort
among Innovation Space in the School of Design, the Ira A. Fulton School of Engineering, the School of Health Management
and Policy, AzTechnology, and Sky Song, all components of our
“University as Entrepreneur” initiative.
The Center also will soon launch new educational programs
in clinical trials research management, where students will
gain expertise in clinical trials management and acquire unique
entrepreneurial skills. The CHI&CT will be a linchpin among
ASU and biotechnical organizations, healthcare institutions, and
clinical researchers.
In December, we launched our fifth Academic Nursing Center
on the ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus, which is providing
healthcare services to ASU students, faculty and staff as well as

people who live and work in downtown Phoenix. It is the first
time in the history of ASU that student health is being provided
by our nurse practitioner faculty. Unique to this practice is the
full integration of mental and physical healthcare services. All of
our ANCs are socially embedded with strong community partners, and are outstanding models of the integration of clinical
practice and research to provide the highest quality of care and
cutting-edge education to our students.
Launching soon is our child and adolescent mental health
intervention specialist post-master’s/graduate online distance
educational certificate program. Designed for physicians, nurse
practitioners, and other interdisciplinary professionals, this program is the first in the country. With approximately 70 percent
of the 15 million children and adolescents who have mental
health disorders in the U.S. not receiving any treatment due to
a major shortage of child psychiatrists, the burden of screening
and management is falling upon primary care providers who
typically do not have adequate knowledge and skills in this area.
This publication also highlights our innovative DNP and PhD
programs, which were just approved by the Arizona Board of
Regents. The DNP program is creatively designed to allow
flexibility in course scheduling that is matched to students’
interests as well as to prepare highly competent evidence-based
advanced practice nurses and mentors. Our exciting, rigorous
PhD program in nursing and healthcare innovation will prepare
outstanding clinical researchers, academicians and healthcare
leaders who will generate evidence that has a positive impact on
clinical practice and health policy. Consistent with the broadening of our College to include interdisciplinary programs and initiatives, our PhD will admit nursing and interdisciplinary health
professional students, enriching their preparation and enhancing
their ability to solve complex problems through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Muriel Chen once said, “We cannot discover new oceans until
we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” So often, people
do not see their dreams come to fruition because they are afraid
to take risks. In a study done at Harvard, the number one regret
of older adults was that they did not take more risks throughout their career, leading to many unfulfilled dreams. At ASU,
we mentor our students and faculty in how to be dreamers and
innovative thinkers, how to take calculated risks on the road to
discovery, and how to establish interdisciplinary and community
partnerships to make their dreams come to fruition, a key triad
for healthcare transformation and their own personal success.
With our landmark 50th anniversary this year, it is my hope
that you will come back to ASU for our upcoming events and
join us as we reminisce about our great foundational past and
dream about fulfilling our exciting innovative future ahead.
Warm regards,
Bernadette Mazurek Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN, FNAP
Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing
Spring 2007

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Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Profile

Denise Link, DNS, RNP, FNAP
Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Community Partnerships

D

enise Link did not aspire to be Associate Dean for Clinical Practice and Community Partnerships, a position she assumes July
1, 2007. That aside, it is difficult to find a senior nursing leader more
prepared for the challenge.
“When I came to ASU from New Jersey in 2002, I wanted to have
the job I have now, director of a nurse-managed health center and
clinical associate professor,” Link said. “After 32 years as a nurse, including 28 as a nurse practitioner in Women’s Health, I achieved that
goal in late 2006.” The ASU Health Center at the Downtown Phoenix
Campus opened in December 2006 under the administration of the
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. It is the first ASU nursemanaged center to provide on-campus healthcare for students, faculty
and staff, and Link is the Center’s first Director.
Link is well prepared for her new responsibilities. She has served as a hospital staff nurse, and
as a nurse practitioner in a staff model HMO, an
interdisciplinary state-funded obstetrics center,
a private multidisciplinary group practice and
a federally funded family planning clinic. “My
time in these multidisciplinary/interdisciplinary practices and as a faculty member in a health
sciences university environment also made me
realize the enormous need for an increase in
interdisciplinary healthcare education and practice, Link said. She also notes that her present job
taught her the meaning of “competing alliances”
in the constantly changing healthcare industry.

funding sources; I would like to diversify our ‘business’ revenues to
provide stability and predictability.”
Link’s second major responsibility is to develop partnerships within
ASU and the outside community. Link plans to take a broad approach
in defining partnerships that will benefit the college and serve as
catalysts. “I always will take an interdisciplinary approach to this part
of my job and hopefully increase the scope and scale of partnerships
with the local and state healthcare community,” she noted. “If that
produces more clinical sites for our students, then I will have helped
our college, its students, our partners, ASU and the community.”
Denise Link’s activities in Arizona health policy issues provide a
solid base of relationships with city, state and federal elected officials
to form critical partnerships. As an indication of
her success, she recently was appointed by Arizona
Governor Janet Napolitano to the Arizona Board of
Nursing. Link described her liaison activities as an
important part of her professional role as a patient
and nursing profession advocate, role model to students, and good community citizen.
Link looks realistically at the challenges ahead and
recognizes needs that must be met to achieve her
goals. “My plan requires an infusion of an investment
in marketing resources to strengthen the ANCs
financially,” she stressed. “We also need to build a
centralized infrastructure that lifts the administrative burden off the centers so they can do what they
do best – education, research, clinical practice, and
community outreach.”

Denise Link, Associate Dean for
“After a competitive national search, I am delighted to appoint Denise Link as our first associate Clinical Practice and Community
Dean Melnyk and Denise Link’s shared vision of
dean for clinical practice and community partner- Partnerships, Director, ASU Health that infrastructure includes an Institute for Commuships,” said Bernadette Melnyk, Dean of the College Center Downtown Phoenix Campus
nity Health & Wellness. Their vision not only would
of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at ASU. “She
provide infrastructure to support ANCs and other clinical programs
has a great handle on the current healthcare climate and what it will
but also extend outreach to remote areas of the state through an intertake for our college to rapidly grow our clinical practice initiatives.”
disciplinary mobile healthcare network.
The first responsibility of the newly created position of associate
dean for clinical practice and community partnerships is to effectively
manage and advance the five Academic Nursing Centers (ANCs) of
the College. The centers provide nursing students with clinical practice, educational experience, and opportunities to conduct research
on what works to enhance patient outcomes, and help fulfill the college and university’s social responsibility to the community.
Describing the centers as the “pearls of the College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation,” Link sees her goal as helping them reach their
full potential. “My plan is to make the ANCs financially stronger by
developing new revenue streams, establishing a standard fee schedule,
and targeting businesses in the communities surrounding each location and their employees as clients,” Link declared. “Three of our five
centers rely on grant and annual contract funding, which are uncertain

2

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

“My husband Dennis and I are part of a monthly mobile healthcare
group that consists of professionals from most parts of healthcare
– physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, dentists, pharmacists,
psychologists, optometrists and others, as well as laypersons,” Link
explained. “The group travels to a small town in Mexico one weekend
a month to bring the residents of a small village the only healthcare
some of them ever receive. As a team we accomplish so much more,
which I believe is the healthcare delivery system of the future.”
The goals for the Institute are lofty, as is the cost. “We are seeking
$5 million from a private donor to help us build the next generation
of healthcare,” Link said. “It is a high price but with an exponential
return to the community, the state, and even the nation.”
Denise Link has found the perfect job, or perhaps more accurately,
the perfect job has found her. 				
n

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Innovative Flexible DNP Program Added to
Meet Student and Healthcare Needs
Keeping pace with the demands of today’s changing healthcare industry,
this new program fuses technology with face-to-face learning.

T

he College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State
University is launching a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)
Program in January 2008 with initial enrollment set at 100 students in
the post-baccalaureate to DNP entry option.

The hybrid online program format fuses internet technology with
face-to-face time to create a mobile learning environment, according
to Renee McLeod, DNSc, APRN, BC, CPNP, director of Graduate Education and Advanced Practice Programs. This online hybrid
format with multiple entry pathways is designed to allow many options for nontraditional, older, and part-time students. The goal is to
increase accessibility to the program by applicants who live in rural
areas, as they are the students most likely to continue to work in these
underserved areas that lack healthcare resources.

“I am very excited about our new cutting-edge DNP program,” said
Dean Bernadette Melnyk. “Students will gain in-depth knowledge

“Students will gain in-depth knowledge
and skills to provide the highest quality of
evidence-based care.”
and skills to provide the highest quality of evidence-based care and
generate innovative solutions to the most challenging healthcare
problems from a cadre of outstanding, nationally recognized advanced practice faculty.”
Spring 2007

3

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

professional nurses to assume leadership positions in
healthcare institutions and nursing education.
Overview of DNP

To transform healthcare delivery, clinicians must design, evaluate,
and continually improve the context within which care is delivered.
Based upon the growing complexity of healthcare compounded by
an escalating demand for services, burgeoning growth in scientific
knowledge, and the accelerating advance in technology, the nursing
profession’s current convention of preparing advanced practice nurses
in master’s degree programs is no longer adequate. According to
McLeod, “Our program is designed to prepare the advanced practice nurse of the future, an ‘out-of-the-box’ thinker who anticipates
healthcare problems, is prepared to find affordable, practical solutions, and is willing to mentor others to assist them in reaching
evidence-based solutions.”
The DNP is focused on clinical practice and the application of
research to practice. The move to the DNP as the entry into practice
is comparable to other professions that now offer professional degrees
(e.g., Doctor of Pharmacy [PharmD], Doctor of Audiology [AuD]
and Doctor of Psychology or
[PsyD]) as the expected entry
into practice.
Nurses prepared in practice
doctoral programs have a blend
of evidence-based practice
clinical, organizational, economic, and leadership skills
to enable them to critically
appraise nursing and other
clinical scientific findings and
design programs of care delivery that are locally acceptable,
economically feasible, and have
significant impact on healthcare outcomes.
Of the nearly 3,000,000
nurses in the U.S., fewer than
one percent have a doctoral
degree in nursing. The DNP
program will facilitate the
preparation of more doctorally
prepared nurses and increase
the numbers of well-prepared
4

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at
ASU has offered master’s degrees since 1969 to prepare
nurse practitioners and advanced practice nurses. The
recommendation of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is to change the entry into advanced practice from the Masters degree to the DNP by
2015. The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
is one of the first universities in the nation to offer this
new terminal degree as a post-baccalaureate option with
eight advanced practice specialty options. This early entry option was designed to address the critical need for
advanced practice nurses and nurse practitioner 		
faculty and preceptors in Arizona and the nation.

“Our new DNP curriculum focuses on the
learner rather than on content and provides
students with skills to access information
and become lifelong learners.”
Program of Study
The minimum number of credit hours for the degree for
the post-baccalaureate entry student is 84 hours, including 1020
hours of clinical as recommended by AACN. The curriculum is
designed to meet the competencies currently required
for each specialty for certification and has added
the competencies established by the AACN and the
National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculty
(NONPF) for the DNP degree. Students will be
awarded a pass-through Master of Science degree and
will sit for National Certification and licensure in their
chosen specialty after completing 49 credits.
“We have created a flexible DNP curriculum in combination with our advanced practice specialty tracks,”
McLeod said. “Our new DNP curriculum focuses
on the learner rather than on content and provides
students with skills to access information and become
lifelong learners.”
The ASU DNP will have multiple entry point options for students. A student may enter with either (a)
a Bachelor’s degree in Nursing, (b) a Master of Science
degree in Nursing with advanced practice certification
as a nurse practitioner or clinical nurse specialist, or (c)
a Master of Science degree in Nursing either without
advanced practice (e.g., nursing administration) or
with advanced practice adding an additional specialty
(for example, FNP who wants to add a Psychiatric
Mental Health NP).

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

The BSN to DNP curriculum includes the following eight specialty concentrations:
• Advanced Practice Nursing of Adults
• Advanced Practice Nursing of Neonates
• Child/Family Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
• Community Health Advanced Practice Nursing
• Family Nurse Practitioner
• Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
• Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner
• Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner
This program of study is designed to be completed in seven
semesters of full-time, year-round study. Students with a master’s
degree who are already advanced practice nurses and are not adding
a specialty may complete the program in three semesters of full-time
study, starting with the spring semester with graduation in December of the entry year. The option to complete a certificate as a nurse
educator will be available to all students in the DNP. This is designed
to assist with our mission to increase the number of doctorally
prepared nursing faculty and clinical preceptors during this time of
acute nursing faculty shortage.
The roll-out plan for this new degree is to admit 100 students
with a baccalaureate in nursing degree to begin in fall 2008 and 40
post-master’s advanced practice nurses who do not want to change
specialty to begin in the spring. Part-time programs of study will be
available for both entry points in later admission cycles. The program
is designed to accept applicants once a year.
Market for Nurses
Based on data from the
Bureau of Health Professions, the shortage of advanced practice nurses is
projected to grow from 11
to 17 percent for the years
2008 through 2012.
The market of
master’s-prepared
students consists of
currently practicing nurse
practitioners who will be
expected to move to
the doctoral level
of education,
producing

a large demand
for the DNP.
In addition,
hospitals in the
greater Phoenix
area, such as
the Veteran’s
Administration
and Banner
Healthcare have
recognized the
benefit of having all their advanced practice
nurses educated
at this level, and
are exploring
options such
Renee McLeod, Director of Graduate Education and
as flexible work
Advanced Practice Programs, was instrumental in
hours and tuition shaping the new Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
reimbursement as at ASU.
incentives for all
of their advanced practice nurses to attend this program. According to
McLeod, one of the main reasons for the high level of interest is due to
the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation’s focus of the DNP on
evidence-based practice (EBP) and mentorship and its Center for the
Advancement of EBP.
Graduates of other DNP programs already are assuming positions
such as chief executive officer, vice president for nursing and clinical
services, vice president for patient care, health officer, commissioner
of health, quality improvement director, clinical information technology specialist, faculty and direct care clinician. It is expected that
graduates from the DNP program at ASU will assume comparable
high-level positions in healthcare as well.
Dean Melnyk said the program will graduate clinical experts who
have the knowledge and skills to transform healthcare. “The graduates
of this program will be prepared to handle the changing healthcare
needs of the population with fewer resources and meet patients’ expectation of better services,” she added. “These experts
will be prepared to take healthcare leadership and
educational roles locally, regionally, and internationally
to meet the identified demand for graduates prepared at
this level.”
The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation also
offers a PhD Program to prepare cutting-edge clinical researchers, with specialization opportunities in the area of interventions
to improve health outcomes in diverse populations of children,
adolescents and families as well as older adults. (See article on
page 25.)
For additional information on the Doctor of Nursing Practice
Program, send an e-mail to Graduate Academic Program Advisor Pamela Kulikowski at Pamela.Kulikowski@asu.edu, call
602-496-0857, or go to http://nursing.asu.
edu/graduate/dnp/.
n
Spring 2007

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Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Community Partnerships and Outreach

ASU’s Academic Nursing Centers
Working from a range
of locations, including a
storefront, mobile van and
local church, ASU’s various
community partnerships and
outreach programs meet a
wide spectrum of needs in the
community and provide a
wealth of practical experience
for students.

Community Health Services Clinic Marks 30th Anniversary
Continuing a tradition of excellence in serving a community’s changing healthcare needs

I

n May of 1977, Community Health Services Clinic (CHSC),
sponsored by the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation,
began delivering health services as the first federally funded, nursemanaged community health center in the country. While CHSC has
experienced many changes in the past 30 years, its core mission as an
Academic Nursing Center remains to provide educational experiences
for students and quality health services for the community, and a clinical site for faculty practice and research.
CHSC’s accomplishments in fulfilling its mission are remarkable:
•

180,000 client visits

•

1,250 nursing students educated in Community Health

•

61,200 hours of student education and practical experience

•

40 conference presentations

•

9 article publications.

Clinic director Chris Lyons, RN, MS, believes that creativity and
flexibility are the keys to CHSC achievements and longevity. “The
community’s healthcare needs have changed over the years and the
6

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

clinic has had to adapt,” Lyons said. “We identify what services the
community needs and wants, then we act as quickly as possible to
address them. The students get the opportunity to see first-hand how
nurses impact the health of a community,” she added.
The evolution of the CHSC is a story in itself. It started as a
volunteer-run demonstration project in partnership with the City
of Scottsdale and Maricopa County Health Department to serve the
needs of the nearby Native American community. The center became
a permanent nurse-managed organization when a student community assessment project served as the foundation for a grant proposal
submitted by Dr. Ellamae Branstetter, a professor at the college. The
Division of Nursing within the U.S. Department of Public Health
awarded Dr. Branstetter a five-year grant, which required the clinic to
serve a broad base of underserved populations in the area.

Above: Nurse Practitioner Maureen Harrison of the ASU Community
Health Services Center greets a student client, Nick Hare, at the
mobile healthcare services van at Scottsdale Community College.

Michael Campbell

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Turton said. “It was the forerunner of the 250 nurse-managed clinics
nationwide now.”

Lyons’ career path to the CHSC is indicative of the influence it
has had on lives. By 1989, Lyons had worked as an RN for 15 years in
hospitals when she first talked to Dr. Branstetter, then Chairperson of
the Graduate Program at the college. “In 1989, I was burned out and
actually considering a career change when I talked with Dr. Branstetter,” Lyons explained. “She convinced me that there were many new
opportunities in nursing, but I needed to continue my nursing education to realize them.”
Lyons said Branstetter directed her to visit CHSC where she later
began working part-time while pursuing her degree. “I remember being so impressed with how nurses with different academic preparation
played various roles in the clinic’s operation and did so as a team. The
result was a unique clinical experience for students and a high-quality
service for the community,” she said. “I saw nursing practice from an
entirely new perspective. After nearly 18 years, I still believe the nursing model delivers the highest quality of care.”
Students have been similarly impacted through their clinical education at CHSC. Senior II Cherie Ianucci describes her work at the clinic
as a unique healthcare experience. “The staff takes the time to assess
patient options and educates them on how and where they can get help
when they do not have insurance,” Ianucci said. “Being at the clinic
didn’t seem interesting to me until I worked there. It taught me what
preventive care is and how satisfying it
is to teach people what they can do to
prevent illness. I have enjoyed CHSC
so much that now I hope to work there
someday after I graduate.”

Despite its many successes, CHSC continues to face challenges to
its financial stability. Grant funding or “soft money” supported the
clinic for the first five years. Since then, the academic nursing center
has sought revenue opportunities in the both the private and public
sectors. Community outreach activities have become a significant
source of clients and revenues. For example, CHSC staff made 2,500
community outreach contacts through screenings and immunization
clinics. Additionally, 900 off-site new admission physicals for a local
hospital contributed to the 2006 revenues. Revenues from client fees
and contracted services now account for nearly three-quarters of the
clinic’s funding, but more is needed. Changing demographics, increasing costs, and increased competition from for-profit walk-in clinics are
always challenges to overcome.
The client or patient mix at CHSC has changed dramatically over
three decades. Fifty-eight percent of more than 8,000 client visits in
2006 still were onsite at the small shopping center in south Scottsdale.
However, the patient mix now includes few children due to the state of
Arizona’s Kids Care program, and the adult patients are more transient
and from further outside the neighborhood.
The clinic’s entrepreneurial spirit continues to help it meet financial
challenges. For example, the clinic discovered that Maricopa County
Community College District does not provide on-site health services
for students at its 10 colleges. With the support of the College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, the clinic formed a partnership with
Scottsdale Community College and Scottsdale Healthcare last fall to
offer basic health services and resource information on a fee-for-service basis on the campus of Scottsdale Community College. CHSC
Nurse Practitioner Maureen Harrison, who staffs the fully equipped,
two-room, licensed mobile van, reports that the pilot project is going
well. She hopes that services can be expanded, perhaps to other community colleges in the county.
Virginia Stahl, vice president of student affairs at Scottsdale Community College, agrees that the pilot is going very well. “The mobile
van enabled us to overcome space issues and work together to make health
services available to those of our
12,000 students who need them.”

Senior I student Michelle Kastner
has found a different value in her
seven-week Community Health clinical
experience at CHSC. “I go to the clinic
for my own healthcare and encourage
others to do the same,” Kastner said.
“The clinic fills the gap for people in
our community who otherwise would
have no healthcare.”
Bonnie Bergstrom, clinic nurse at Community Health Services

CHSC Director Lyons and her staff
remain optimistic about the future.
Their wish list includes a larger, more
modern space; more advanced clinic
software; and expanded services
through the addition of other health
professionals.

Looking to the future, Lyons said,
“I can see a community site where
CHSC and other university services
According to Tine Hansen-Turton, Clinic in Scottsdale, takes the blood pressure reading of a client. such as speech, hearing, and nutrition
are adjacent and offer the community an
executive director, National Nursing
array of services at the same location — a sort of Complex of Care.”
Centers Consortium, CHSC has had an impact far beyond its local
community. “Community Health Services Clinic is an important pioThe clinic’s commitment to nursing education, research, and service
neer that laid the foundation for other nurses to advance their mission
to the community gives its staff the confidence that it will continue for
of community service under the umbrella of universities,” Hansenmany more years. 					
n
Spring 2007

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Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Breaking the Cycle		
		

– One of a Kind

This unique clinic provides outreach healthcare services
to high-risk, underserved women.

M

ost academic nursing centers in the country take the conventional approach to providing basic healthcare services to
underserved community populations, serving as research sites and
providing community clinical experiences for nursing students. However, Breaking the Cycle Community Health Care is unique in many
ways. To paraphrase a car television commercial of a few years ago, “It
is not your mother’s (or your father’s) academic nursing center.”
Breaking the Cycle (BTC), administered by the ASU College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, was founded in 1991. Its inspiration
grew out of a community assessment of homeless children in central
Phoenix conducted by Phyllis Kraus Primas, PhD, RN, and a group of
ASU graduate students. First operating out of Trinity Cathedral and
the Salvation Army Family Shelter, the clinic provided mobile healthcare services to children. The initial name of the center, Breaking the
Cycle of Disadvantage, aptly summed up its mission. An average of 96
percent of its clients over the years lives below the poverty line.
8

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

“The program developed as a partial response to increasing concern
for the deplorable state of Arizona’s children and the belief that all
children have a fundamental right to the opportunity to achieve their
individual potential for health and well-being,” Primas said. “The mission was to provide free, comprehensive, accessible, culturally acceptable outreach primary healthcare services to high-risk, underserved
children and youth.”
Healthcare on the Move
In the beginning, the BTC staff consisted of a nurse practitioner,
community health nurse, bilingual outreach worker, an administrative
assistant, and a pool of nurses and volunteers, including a volunteer

Above: ASU graduate nursing student Susan Ludwig discusses preventive care with a client at Breaking the Cycle Health Care near downtown Phoenix.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

dentist. Primas, who retired in 2002, said supplies and equipment
were carried to the various sites in staff members’ private vehicles,
until funding was obtained to purchase a van.

social and health issues. “Research indicates that every $1 spent on
family planning services saves $16 in public healthcare, education and
social service costs,” Petersen noted.

The program operated entirely on “soft monies” that Primas raised
as director. Funding came through various contracts, the largest of
which was from the Arizona Department of Health Services tobacco
tax funds, plus a number of gifts and grants from local foundations,
organizations, the Krause Memorial Children’s Fund maintained by
the ASU Foundation, and many individuals. In 2000, the clinic also
received a grant from the Healthcare Resource Services Administration that it enabled it to expand services. Total funding over the
10-year period was just under $3 million, with which the clinic served
more than 3,000 children, seeing many of them multiple times.

BTC clinic provides undergraduate and graduate nursing students
with a rich experience. Because they work with many of the 1,200
clients who visit the clinic an average of twice each year, approximately 100 students per year receive outstanding clinical and research
experiences. The typical client who visits BTC is a Spanish-speaking
woman, aged 19-40, who lives in poverty and does not have health
insurance. The students also gain experience working with interpreters employed by the clinic, a valuable skill in their future workplaces.

The year 2001 saw a major change to the BTC mission and its
approach to delivering healthcare service to the community. BTC
initiated family planning services as a federal Title X delegate agency
in partnership with Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church of Phoenix.
With the change, BTC became the only family planning clinic housed
in a church in the United States. The partnership has
proven fertile ground for nursing students
and pastoral interns who obtain “lived”
experience. In addition to clinical
work, nursing students participate in
the church’s outreach to the homeless
on Sundays, serving breakfast to the
250 men and women who come for
a meal and are invited on a voluntary basis to attend a contemporary worship service. Pastoral
interns have regular contact with
the primarily Hispanic population BTC serves, leading one
intern to initiate English classes
for clinic clients.

After many years as a labor and delivery nurse, Denise Craig, a
graduate student in the Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner (WHNP)
track, started her clinical rotation this year at BTC. The clinic is far
busier than the ASU student imagined it would be, serving mostly
uninsured Spanish-speaking women and reaching new patients primarily by word-of-mouth.

“Community outreach is a
major focus of our ministry at
Grace,” Rev. Roger Thompson, Pastor of Grace Lutheran
Church, said. “The various
ministries we have to the homeless population in our neighborhood are testimony to that. Our
partnership with Breaking the
Cycle is a perfect fit, as their
mission is providing healthcare
to the underserved…We support
that approach to family planning..”
The BTC approach to family planning also is unique. “We focus on
women’s health since a healthy mother is central to a healthy family,”
Gail Petersen, MS, RN and clinic director, explained. “Our wellwoman physicals often diagnose health problems such as diabetes,
obesity, and other illnesses, and we are able to refer the women for
further care through other safety net providers.”
Access to family planning also helps reduce poverty, malnutrition,
poor living conditions, emergency room visits, and a host of other

Powerful Impact on Students

Craig has been able to use her previous skills and knowledge and
expand upon them with guidance from Eileen
Doench, Family Nurse Practitioner at BTC.
“Eileen gives to and cares so deeply for the
community that Breaking the Cycle serves
and has been an amazing mentor,” Craig
said. “I have always wished to work with an
underserved population since it is so gratifying interacting with a population
that is genuinely grateful for and
appreciative of the care provided.
Working with Eileen at Breaking
the Cycle has reinforced this desire
in me and I look forward to each
clinical day.”
Craig added that women from all
over the valley come to receive care
at Breaking the Cycle and not just
from the surrounding community, as
she had expected. “This has opened
my eyes to the great need for more
clinics such as BTC in our communities to help fill this very large gap in
our healthcare system, and improve
the health and lives of women,” the
ASU graduate student remarked.
Excited about her future career as a WHNP, Craig believes nurses
approach healthcare in a truly holistic and preventive way that is different from other providers. She looks forward to the day when she
can give those women that need the caring touch of a nurse practitioner, and in return, feel completely fulfilled doing so.
Managing Safety Net Cuts
The educational mission of the clinic adds financial pressures in
times when safety net funding is cut. Petersen explained that when
Spring 2007

9

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

productivity is the driving force to meet contracts and generate
revenues, it is difficult to provide as many student clinical slots as
desired. She said that 25 percent of the budget, or $140,000, is
devoted to student education and that those costs are not reimbursed for nurses as they are for medical residents.
The path that brought Gail Petersen to BTC is another part of
the clinic’s unique story. She worked as a school nurse at a Phoenix
elementary school that her children attended. One Monday morning, she opened her office door to find an eight-year-old boy named
Luis leaning against it in pain. When she asked what had happened,
Luis said he had injured his arm in an accident on
Friday after school and was
waiting to see her because
his parents could not afford
to send him to the emergency room. “His arm
clearly was fractured. I
realized at that moment
that I had to do more,”
Petersen related. “When
my mentor, Dr. Primas, offered me a position at BTC,
I jumped at the chance to
help develop and sustain a
program that reaches those
in need.”
In addition to Petersen’s

ASU’s Breaking the Cycle Health Care is the only nurse-managed family
planning clinic housed in a church in the United States.

leadership and 18 years of nursing experience, she also brings unique
fund-raising skills that are critical to the clinic. She has developed an
extensive network of community contacts, including state legislators,
business executives, and community leaders. Since 2004, she and the
congregation of Grace have held the annual “Art for Health” exhibition and sale of work of student artists from the Herberger College
of Art and artists from the community that raises funds for BTC.
Petersen also founded Friends/Amigos of BTC through the ASU
Foundation to raise funds from corporations and foundations.
Different in so many ways from other university-based community
health clinics, BTC shares in their continual financial struggles. Until
2003, BTC was completely funded by external sources. Today, it
relies on ASU and the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
for 11 percent of its budget, a total that has increased annually.
The financial challenges do not daunt BTC’s enthusiasm for the
future. Outreach health counseling is provided twice a month to the
women living at Crossroads, a network of drug and alcohol recovery
shelters, with hopes for increased involvement in this recovery community for student nurses.
Petersen’s personal goal for the future is to nurture passionate
protégés to be the next generation of nurses and nurse practitioners
to bring healthcare to the underserved and who will help shift the
paradigm of social responsibility to eliminate disparities among
people. “In 10 years, I want to see a system of healthcare clinics that
are sustained by diverse revenue streams in which the public, private
and philanthropic sectors come together to serve while educating
tomorrow’s healthcare providers.”
Given the unique successes of BTC’s first 16 years, it is certainly a
safe bet. 					
n

New North Tempe Health Center Open
Partnering with the City of Tempe

T

he College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation opened the North
Tempe Health Center in late August 2006 – its fourth academic
nursing center (ANC). The center occupies space within a new 30,000square-foot multi-generational, multiple-use facility built by the city that
houses various city services.
The new facility includes a senior service area, a library resource
center, Head Start preschool classrooms, community classrooms, a
fitness center, a gymnasium, a teen center, and a youth center.
Charlotte Armbruster, director of the North Tempe ANC, said the
goal of the center is to provide children and their families who live in the
immediate area with accessible healthcare and quality service on a par to
that available to persons with more resources. The center also serves its
traditional mission of providing nursing students with clinical practice
experience in the community.
High rates of poverty and lack of access to healthcare are prevalent in
the north Tempe area. Services are provided independent of the client’s
ability to pay.
10

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Clinic services include well child exams, illness care, physical
exams, prescriptions, pregnancy tests, education, and preventive
care. In addition to offering primary care services, various educational
classes at the Tempe center are provided through the Escalante Senior
Wellness Program. 					
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D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Escalante
Focuses on
Senior
Healthcare
Center assists older adults
maintain good health and
live independently longer.

T

“Our premise is that keeping seniors healthier longer keeps them out
of emergency rooms and living independently,” Armbruster noted.

Charlotte Armbruster, MS, RN, CS, clinical associate professor
and director of Escalante since 2000, said the senior wellness program
has been perhaps her most rewarding career experience. “My heart
has been in senior wellness,” Armbruster said. “It is like working with
friends since seniors tend to stay in the program for longer periods and
you have a chance to really know them.”

Escalante provides senior residents in the east Tempe community a
variety of ways in which to participate in the program. Group workshops on nutrition and weight management, diabetes care, arthritis/
chronic disease self-help, healthcare consumer education, health promotion and disease prevention are offered throughout the year. Senior
health also is promoted through fitness sessions, including falls prevention, arthritis exercise, walking, strength training, and nutrition. The
sessions are offered at set times during which participants work out
individually under supervision. The most popular fitness session is
strength training, with 1,500 individual workouts in 150 sessions.

he focus was on senior wellness when the Escalante Healthcare
Center opened in 1991 as an academic nursing center (ANC) of
the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. The Escalante
center has built an impressive record during its existence of helping
older adult community residents maintain good health and live independently longer.

In 2005-2006,
the most current
operating year for
which records are
available, Escalante had more
than 3,900 client
encounters or visits.
The center also added 272 new senior
participants in its
wellness program,
exceeding its goal by
eight percent.
Since its inception, objectives of the wellness program have been to promote and improve the health of senior residents of the community. However, the
program has other objectives that are far-reaching in terms of social
impact, such as maintaining the self-reliance of older adults to live independently longer, empowering them to know how to obtain and use
other healthcare resources, and reducing community healthcare costs.

Multidisciplinary Healthcare
The senior wellness program at Escalante takes a multidisciplinary
healthcare approach, according to Diane Nuñez, MS, RN, ANP-C,
clinical associate professor and wellness coordinator. Various healthcare agencies and other ASU colleges, such as Wellness and Nutrition, Social Work and Psychology, partner with Nursing to provide
comprehensive services to the older adults.
John Barton, PhD, director of the ASU Department of Psychology’s
Clinical Psychology Center, coordinates the doctoral students who
work with seniors with arthritis in Escalante’s wellness program. “By
providing this program, our students are getting exposure in working
with a population we do not frequently see in our clinic, collaboration
with the nursing discipline, providing service in a group format, an
introduction to treatment of a common health problem, and experience in working with manualized therapy,” Barton said. “The counseling program that we use was developed at Stanford for arthritis but
is now used with a broader range of health complaints. The beauty of
the program is that the students learn skills that can generally apply to
many patients with health psychology needs.”

Spring 2007

11

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Positive Research Findings
The program for seniors also provides research opportunities at
Escalante. The research enables the center’s staff to measure their efforts on a long-term basis and apply the findings to improve the wellness program. In the most recent research study in 2006, the sample
included 185 community-residing older adults who attend a senior
center. Of the initial cohort, 103 reassessments were for participants
who have been in the wellness program for at least three years.
According to Wellness Coordinator Diane Nuñez, participants
aged 65-74 had all scales at or above the mean, with the exception of
role-emotional, which was slightly lower than the national peer group.
For participants 75 years and older, all areas were well above national
norms. Nuñez listed the most important outcomes that the research
findings indicated as:
• Program participants spent fewer days in the hospital and
visited physicians about half as much as the national norm
peer group;
• Health-related quality of life and general health scores of
wellness program participants were above the national
norm;
• Physical and social functioning and mental health scores
were above the norm; and
• Social functioning, mental health, and bodily pain improved
over time when participating in the program.
Educational Impact
Knowing that such results are possible energizes students who have
taken their clinical courses at Escalante. Senior Janet Hodakievic described her experience as “incredible, working with seniors who truly
cared about their health.” Junior Michelle Medchill from Lake Orion,
Mich., said the Escalante wellness program “let me enter a world of so
many stories and backgrounds of the older adult, while helping them
stay healthy.”
Shiloh Kimmel spoke of an experience at a community health fair
with a grateful woman to whom he administered a retest of a DEXA
screening for bone density. “Even though disappointed when the second reading indicated even lower density, she was so grateful for our
help,” the junior nursing student from Phoenix said. “I was personally
touched by this woman’s strength, dignity and gratefulness. It is a
memory I hope to keep with me for a while.”
Meagan Quarterly also was deeply
affected by her experience at the
health fair. “We all really enjoyed
explaining the results of the screenings and educating them on ways
they could maintain their bone
density levels,” the junior nursing
student from Bridgewater, Mass.,
said. “Leaving the fair, I really felt
my group was able to affect the seniors’ lives in a positive way and give
them some important information
about their health.”
12

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Feedback from Seniors
Dale Sexton, a participant in the program for two years, said the
weight conditioning has helped his breathing. “I used to get winded
when I had to bend down to wash the bottom of my truck, but the
weight conditioning has helped me to breathe deeper,” Sexton said.
“The camaraderie of the wellness sessions is equally as important as
the physical exercise. We know each other and socialize as we work
out, which helps our mental health.”
John De Allaume has taken part in the program for five years and
said it has added years to lives. “I am able to lift more weight and walk
more because of the wellness program,” De Allaume said.
Multiple Services
While perhaps better known due to awards from the federal government and ASU, the senior wellness program represents only part
of the services that the Escalante Health Center offers. In 1996, the
center received a grant from the St. Luke’s Hospital Trust to provide
care for uninsured children and added these outpatient services starting in 1997.
The primary care services provided by the center today include
physicals, episodic care, pregnancy tests, diabetes detection and care,
and outreach activities. In 2005-2006, the most recent year for which
records are available, 848 client visits were made to the center by 617
unduplicated clients, representing 506 households in the community.
More than 900 immunizations also were provided. The clinic provides
child care with only one Family Nurse Practitioner and a translator
working 20 hours per week.
Tyke Hanisch, RN, MS, FNP-C, who serves as the nurse practitioner at Escalante for primary care, said that providing healthcare to individuals regardless of their financial status is a right and lived dream.
According to Armbruster, Escalante and the
services it provides to the neediest populations
are evolving and will continue to evolve. “With
the same level of resources, we have been successful because of staff productivity, multidisciplinary collaboration with other parts of ASU
and community agencies, and our own ability
to change.”
Diane Nuñez sums up her Escalante experience this way. “I know I make a difference in
the life of our senior clients,” she said. “This job
affords me the opportunity to see the results
and to be very creative.”		
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D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Implementing
		 Evidence-Based Practice In
Work Environments
Effective Mentorship Is Key to
EBP Implementation

E

vidence-based Practice (EBP) principles are followed by only
about 15 percent of providers nationally today, despite data
indicating a 28 percent improvement in quality healthcare outcomes
when EBP is utilized. The College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation’s approach to communicating the value and efficacy of
EBP to the remaining 85 percent of healthcare providers is, in part,
through its EBP Mentorship program that began in late 2005.
“Our college has dedicated considerable resources to EBP and is
highly committed to advancing EBP locally in Phoenix, throughout

“A key strategy is to develop EBP mentors
and give them the tools to advance
evidence-based practice in their own
healthcare settings.”
the State of Arizona, along with nationally and globally,” Dean
Bernadette Melnyk remarked. “A key strategy is to develop EBP
mentors and give them the tools to advance evidence-based practice
in their own healthcare settings. These mentors are essential for the
sustainability of EBP in healthcare institutions.”

The ASU program is
administered by the Center for
the Advancement of Evidencebased Practice (CAEP), directed
by Ellen Fineout-Overholt,
PhD, RN. The more than 90
EBP mentors who have attended
the one-week immersion
program come from 16 states
and Ireland. Three programs
have been offered to date, with
two scheduled during 2007 (see
inside back cover for details).

Ellen Fineout-Overholt, Director of

“We are very encouraged by the Center for the Advancement of
the fact that the majority of EBP Evidence-based Practice.
mentors who have attended the
first three sessions are implementing EBP projects in their healthcare
environment,” Fineout-Overholt stated. “Our strategic partnership
with the College of Nursing at Dublin City University to advance EBP
is having similar results.”
A look at ongoing implementation programs at Mayo Clinic in
Scottsdale, Ariz., Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in Ohio, and Barnes
Spring 2007

13

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Jewish Hospital in
St. Louis, Missouri
gives evidence of the
first fruits of the EBP
mentorship program.
Discussions with
former EBP mentorship
program participants
confirmed that the
programs implemented
by the EBP mentors
must be tailored to fit
each work setting.

enabled us to appreciate the full process of evidence-based practice.”
Caruso agreed and added, “We needed a forum to work together,
and the EBP mentor workgroup has enabled us to keep focused and
continue to improve in our efforts to diffuse EBP throughout the
entire organization.”

EBP Mentorship:
Mayo Clinic

As for the future, Caruso shares a positive vision for EBP at Mayo
Clinic as facilitated by the EBP mentors. “By 2015, I believe EBP
will be an integral part of nursing care at Mayo Clinic,” Caruso said.
“Implementation and sustainability are challenges but I believe we will
get there.”

At Mayo Clinic, five
attendees at the first
three EBP sessions at
ASU have spearheaded
the mentorship effort
in their organization.
The leadership group and their units include Carol Blake, MSN, RN,
CNS, Perioperative Services/OR; Eva Caruso, MSN, RN, unitbased educator, Cardiology; Jocelyn Pearson, MSN, RN, unit-based
educator, Ortho/Uro; Rebecca Wilson, MSN, M.Ed, RN, BC,
nursing education specialist; and Cynthia Young, MSN, RN, CGRN,
unit-based educator, GI/Endo.

Eva Caruso, unit-based educator, Cardiology at Mayo Clinic of Arizona, meets
weekly with other mentor workgroup leaders
to foster EBP in their work setting.

The Mayo Clinic EBP mentor workgroup meets weekly to create
and support an environment of evidence-based practice. Most
recently, the group has worked closely with CAEP faculty and Colleen
Keller, PhD, RN, ASU
professor of nursing and
principal investigator of a
DHHS Bureau of Health
Professions Comprehensive
Geriatric Education grant
to ASU that facilitates
the application of “best
practice” in geriatric
nursing. Nurses at Mayo
Clinic are receiving
education by the CAEP
faculty as directed by the
grant. Mayo Clinic nurses
attend the educational
sessions with the CAEP
faculty, and the members of
the EBP mentor workgroup
guide the nurses as they
Jocelyn Pearson, unit-based educator,
implement their individual
Orthopedics/Urology at Mayo Clinic
projects in their respective
of Arizona, believes the mentorship
clinical areas.
According to Pearson,
“The ASU EBP mentorship
immersion program has
14

immersion program she attended at
ASU provided an appreciation of the
complete EBP process.

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

“We have to infuse EBP and break down
barriers to change the culture to one in
which care is consistently based on the
best evidence.”

EBP Mentorship: Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Medical Center
The vision for EBP
mentorship at Cincinnati
Children’s Hospital
Medical Center,
Cincinnati, Ohio came
from administration,
according to Lisa Long,
MSN, RN, CNS, director
of the EBP program. With
the encouragement of Myra
Huth, PhD, RN, assistant
vice president, Center for
Professional Excellence,
Research and EBP, Long
joined Karen Burkett, MS,
RN, CPNP, and Susan
Lisa Long, of Cincinnati Children’s HosMcGee, MSN, RN, CNS, pital Medical Center, is one of the leaders
who were among the 40
of “Point of Care,” a unit-focused EBP
attendees at the first EBP implementation program.
mentorship program at
ASU in December 2005. Since then, the three leaders meet weekly
to discuss strategy and tactics of implementing EBP throughout their
work setting.
The focus of the EBP mentorship effort has been on the individual
units at Cincinnati Children’s. The General Pediatric Medical,
Perioperative, and Neuroscience Units have adopted the program.
“Our ‘Point of Care’ approach focuses on units one at a time and
provides tools appropriate to their needs,” Long said. “We want to
develop more mentors and staff nurses who make care decisions from
an EBP basis. In addition, each of the units that the EBP mentors
are responsible for have had staff engaged in the EBP process, with
an example of an outcome being the development of a policy and
procedure based on the best evidence.”

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

The Cincinnati Children’s mentorship effort also has enabled
discussions with the medical center physicians about evidence-based
practice. Long added, “Our doctors and nurses may take different
approaches to implementing evidence-based nursing or medicine,
but we share the same goal of better quality care.”
Looking 5 to 10 years out, Long envisions an increase of
EBP content in college of nursing curriculums and educational
programs within the practice settings. “We have to infuse EBP and
break down barriers to change the culture to one in which care is
consistently based on the best evidence,” she concluded.
EBP Mentorship: Barnes Jewish Hospital
At Barnes Jewish Hospital, part of the Washington University
Medical Center in St. Louis, Missouri, the EBP mentor group
conducts two-day mini-immersion sessions, according to Pat Potter,
PhD, RN, FAAN, research scientist at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, who
attended the EBP mentor program in December 2005. The program
titled “Evidence Equals Excellence” (EEE) is held quarterly for
clinicians, educators and managers to become EBP mentors for
their nursing units. The team of EBP mentor leaders involved
in this effort at Barnes-Jewish Hospital also includes Karen
Balakas, PhD, RN, CNE; Gail Rae, PhD, RN, CNE; and Jennifer
Williams, MSN, CNS-BC, CERN, CCRN.

Lisa Long (second from right) joins a team she mentored in Evidence-Based Practice
at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center. The team includes (left to right) Maureen
Switzer, BSN, RN; Carol Tierney, MSN, RN; Karla Johnson, BSN, RN; Long,
director of the EBP program; and Michelle Beiting, MSN, RN.

“Most importantly, we have a lot of people
talking about EBP and it is becoming a part
of our practice culture.”
According to Potter, the program covers explanation of EBP,
the five steps of EBP, and a thorough review of skills for conducting
literature searches. “We spend considerable time with the attendees
on PICO question development and encourage the mentors to become
involved in projects on their units,” Potter, who has been an educator,
nurse administrator, and author of a major text for nurses entitled
Fundamentals for Nursing (Elsevier), explained. “Those of us who
teach the seminar are assigned to the
mentors to guide them through EBP
applications in practice.”

undergraduate and graduate curriculums to advance implementation
of EBP nationally.
Potter cited several units that are doing an excellent job with EBP
projects. “Our emergency department is instituting family presence
during resuscitation, and an oncology unit has adapted EBP fall risk
factors into an hourly nursing rounds protocol,” she noted.

“Our hope is that by 2010, the national network
of EBP mentors will reach all 50 states.”
“Most importantly, we have a LOT of people talking about EBP
and it is becoming a part of our practice culture,” Potter said. “In
oncology, we will be awarding an oncology nursing EBP award in the
amount of $1,000 to the most worthy
EBP project.”

Balakas, associate professor at
Barnes Jewish College of Nursing and
Allied Health, said the fourth EBP
seminar was held in May for 15 to 20
staff nurses. “We provide the ‘Evidence
Equals Excellence’ curriculum online
and personal copies of Dean Melnyk
and Dr. Fineout-Overholt’s book on
EBP to help prepare our students
thoroughly,” Balakas said. “Our
program has tremendous support from
our top administration leaders to be
able to offer EEE.”
As a nurse educator, Balakas said
she hopes to see evidence-based
practice integrated into all nursing

Overall Perspective

Mayo Clinic of Arizona EBP mentorship workgroup leaders include
(left to right) Carol Blake, Rebecca Wilson, Eva Caruso, Jocelyn
Pearson, and Cynthia Young.

“We have evidence to support that
mentorship is what will sustain EBP,
and that is why we are committed
to building a national network of
EBP mentors who will transform
healthcare from the inside out, in their
agencies and beyond,” CAEP Director
Fineout-Overholt said. “Our hope is
that by 2010, the national network of
EBP mentors will reach all 50 states.
The network already is global with
the Irish mentors and we hope to add
EBP mentors in Latin America in the
coming year.”
n
Spring 2007

15

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Center for Healthcare
Innovation & Clinical Trials
Launched
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Plays Integral Part in ASU’s
“University as Entrepreneur” Initiative

T

he College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation has
embarked on the most extensive interdisciplinary initiative in its 50-year history with the formation of the Center
for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials (CHI&CT). The
center, which is in the initial stages of formation, is partnering with Innovation Space, an ASU entrepreneurial joint
venture with the College of Design; the Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering; the W.P. Carey School of Business; and
AZ Technology.
Innovation Space in the School of Design is the key component of the ASU Entrepreneur Initiative. Its purpose is to
teach students how to develop products that create market
value while serving real societal needs and minimizing impact on the environment.
The initiative is funded by the Kauffman Foundation
“University as Entrepreneur” five-year grant to Arizona State

University. Linda Mottle, MSM-HSA, RN, CCRP, clinical
associate professor at the college has been named director of
the center. (See bio story on the following page.)

“This center will attract scientists
and healthcare practitioners who
have innovative ideas for products to
improve healthcare, but who need
assistance in actualizing their ideas.”
“This innovative center will serve as the focal point among
biotechnical organizations, healthcare institutions and clinical researchers,” Dean Melnyk said. “It will attract scientists
and healthcare practitioners who have innovative ideas for
products to improve healthcare, but who need assistance in
actualizing their ideas through design, clinical
trial testing, and taking their product to market. Unique to this center is the clinical trials
component, which will allow gathering of solid
evidence to support product use for sustained
solutions in healthcare institutions.”

Dean Melnyk said the center also will have
an educational component in which interdisciplinary students can learn the process of
translating innovative ideas into the design
Daniel Weberg, a student in the Master’s of Healthcare Innovation (MHI)
and testing of new healthcare products and apProgram asks a question of Prasad Boradkar (far right), director of Innovation
proaches. Specifically, students in the Master
Space. The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation is one of five colleges
of Healthcare Innovation Program, offered
and departments partnering in the ASU entrepreneurial joint venture funded
by the College of Nursing & Healthcare Inby the Kauffman Foundation. Phyllis Zeno and Linda Mottle, coordinator and
novation in collaboration with the School of
director respectively of the new Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical TriHealth Management and Policy at ASU, will

als and Kathy Malloch, MHI director, also took part in the discussion.
16

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

receive experiential learning opportunities in this center. The solving
of clinical problems through new healthcare products and educational
approaches through the center could have a significant impact on the
quality of healthcare delivery and patient outcomes in Arizona and
throughout the country, Dean Melnyk added.

“It will create a national hub for clinicians,
scientists, and collaborating healthcare
institutions/community partners … and create
a cadre of interdisciplinary innovators that the

ASU Entrepreneur Initiative
“This initiative advances the ASU Entrepreneur Initiative by launching an innovative center, which to our knowledge, is the first of its
kind in the country,” Center Director Linda Mottle said. “It will create a national hub for clinicians, scientists, and collaborating healthcare institutions/community partners to advance healthcare through
the creation of evidence-based, innovative products and approaches
that improve the healthcare system and create a cadre of interdisciplinary innovators that the field urgently needs.”
The CHI&CT is located in the Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Building at the ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus. The collaborating
ASU colleges and programs will establish liaisons to the CHI&CT
within their individual administrative structures.
Although the center is just in its start-up phase, it already has
started to conduct low-risk clinical trials centering on innovative
healthcare product and device development, clinical research process

field urgently needs.”
adaptive design and evaluation, as well as interdisciplinary
collaboration among multiple ASU departments and colleges,
community healthcare institutional partners, and biotechnical
companies. Mottle said a clinical trial on a cardio-graphic impedance device is in process, and a second trial of a product will
begin in about three months.
The center is developing a new Graduate Certificate in Clinical
Trial Management to be offered in January 2008. Mottle said the
center will also offer an interdisciplinary Master of Science for
Clinical Trials Management and pre- and post-doctoral mentor
programs for research students at a later date. There is strong
demand for formally trained clinical research team personnel
in Arizona and other states to support the translation of basic
science product development through the development phase to
bring products to market, noted Mottle.

Mottle Joins ASU
as Director of New
Center for Clinical Trials

helped develop new hospital-based research
departments, and was senior manager at
large home health and hospice agencies. She
is a board member of the Phoenix Chapter Board for the Association of Clinical
Research Professionals and the Arizona
Bio-industry Association. She also is on the
Arizona Bioscience Roadmap Committee,
helping develop the state’s research infrastructure. Mottle is on the Clinical Trial
Center Advisory Board at Inje University in
Busan, South Korea, where she has taught
advanced CRC workshops.

Linda Mottle, MSM, RN, CCRP, has
been named director of the Center for
Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials and
will also serve as a clinical associate professor in the College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation.
Mottle has 30 years experience in the
health and clinical research fields as an administrative manager, nursing clinician, and
organizational leader, specializing in health
program and clinical research development
and in intensive cardiac care. An RN who
has a University of New Mexico BS degree
in Health Planning and Administration with
an econometrics concentration, Mottle received her MS in Health Management with
a minor in Health Information Systems,
from Lesley University in Cambridge,
Mass.and is certified nationally as a clinical research professional. She has been a
manager, analyst, and consultant in federal
and state health planning agencies as well as
private health systems, initiating, designing,
implementing, and managing new health
service delivery models, products, and
departments.

Linda Mottle, director, Center for Healthcare Innovation & Clinical Trials
Mottle served previously as operational
manager for the newly formed Telemedicine
Research Department at Partners Health
System, the parent company of Massachusetts General Hospital, developing new
remote clinical sensor technologies. She

In early 2003, Mottle designed, secured
grant funding, and implemented the second
community college–based clinical research
coordinator training program in the United
States at Gateway Community College
from which she joined ASU. Mottle was
director and faculty for the program, which
was recently adopted by Mayo Hospital
and Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She also
currently serves as the national consumer
representative on the FDA Center for Devices and Radiological Health Circulatory
System Medical Device Advisory Panel. In
her spare time, Mottle continues to consult,
train, and present in the clinical research
operational and administrative arenas. n

Spring 2007

17

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

Center for Healthcare Innovation
& Clinical Trials

Purpose Statement
•

Conduct interdisciplinary healthcare-related research that
extends biomedical product and device development

•

Translate product development into viable business
products that have a positive impact on society and the  
environment

		
•

Expand nursing research opportunities into product and  
device development processes

•

Educate nursing, physician, and allied health professionals  
for device and product clinical trials spanning the
healthcare delivery spectrum

•

Mentor interdisciplinary pre- and post-doctoral fellows  
and junior investigators in experiential learning
opportunities for developing and testing biomedical  
product innovations

		
•

•
		

Develop a viable vehicle for interdisciplinary research  
among ASU-related entities to develop, test, and market
innovative products and clinical research processes
Attract scientists and healthcare practitioners who have  
innovative ideas for products to improve  healthcare  
delivery but need assistance in actualizing their ideas.

Center Looks at Healthcare Needs
One of the challenges in the medical technology industry is that
most new technologies do not result in obvious gains in mortality or
morbidity, so it is important to demonstrate improvements in quality
of life and economic advantages, according to Dean Melnyk. More
healthcare providers and payers want to see evidence of effectiveness in community settings rather than just efficacy in the carefully
controlled settings that characterize data gathering for purposes of
regulatory approval. The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
has the internal infrastructure in place to conduct these specific types
of trials and product assessments in collaboration with its healthcare
institutional partners.
The new center plans to work with interdisciplinary ASU scientists and community healthcare institutions and practitioners, and
biomedical and biotechnical professionals to deliver breakthrough
medical inventions that can eliminate the potential for errors, improve
the quality of healthcare delivery and save lives. Equally important,
the next wave of medical technology innovation will address the
cost-effectiveness concerns that pervade government and society and
will seek to meet the growing needs of an increasingly well informed
patient population that demands more effective, more efficient, and
less invasive treatment options.
Healthcare Networks and 					
Community Biotechnical Partners
The ASU nursing faculty and the college’s new Master of Healthcare Innovation Program provide existing collaborations with
18

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

numerous healthcare institutions and medical product developers and
a foundation of substantive research in healthcare process, evidencebased practice, nursing process, and clinical research. Current clinical
research projects generally evaluate already developed and FDA-approved products.
The College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation operates five
community-based health centers and an advanced student clinical
simulation lab that provide an extensive internal network of clinical
trial sites. The health centers include the Downtown Phoenix Campus
Health Center that provides services for 6,800 ASU students and employees, thus giving the college direct access to potential test subjects.
The college will expand the types of clinical trials and clinical
research opportunities with many of the 400 healthcare institutions
in Arizona that are contracted clinical educational sites for nursing
students and also provide additional external clinical research sites
and cooperative efforts for clinical trials through extensive healthcare
institutional and clinical research networks.
Potential CHI & CT Benefits
CHI&CT product innovations offer potential benefits, such as
•
•
•
•
•
•

Medical equipment that improves safety and sterility
Healthcare solutions that prevent/control infection
Reduced recovery time (in days)
Better utilization of specialists’ time
Medical technology that provides labor savings
Medical innovations that reduce potential for
preventable errors
• Medical products that reduce risk
• Medical products with improved patient convenience
• Lower-cost treatment settings, such as home healthcare
solutions
• Self-monitoring medical equipment with high quality
and ease of use
• Product uniqueness/originality/patent readiness
• Products targeted for middle-aged/senior non-invasive
diagnostics, preventive wellness, and self-care
management.
The innovative collaborations among the major ASU entities,
community healthcare partners and medical product development
companies for entrepreneurial product development initiatives will
produce a new paradigm in product design by incorporating end
users (medical, nursing, and allied health professionals and patients
and consumers) into the development, testing and evaluation phases
for new medical products. The implications for the ASU collaborators are significant for synergy towards implementing a culture of
clinical research and entrepreneurship, interdisciplinary research, and
community partnering to spur solution-based approaches that generate products, services and programs for addressing local, state and
national healthcare product and clinical research goals.
Other ASU departments and colleges are expected to join the collaborative with additional sponsor and financial support and broadening of innovative product development areas.		
n

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

The Feel of Real
Clinical Students Are
Touched by Reality as They
Serve Their Community At
This Inner-city
Homeless Shelter.

C

linical experience … In nursing, it is learning the skills you
will need in your career, but it is so much more! It is learning
about life through the people you serve. According to two Senior I
students doing their Community Health NUR 481 clinical rotation
at the Central Arizona Shelter System (CASS) adult shelter in central
Phoenix, they are learning a lot about both and being unexpectedly
changed by the experience.
The students are not taking their clinicals at just any shelter. The
CASS shelter
downtown
is the largest
in Arizona
and serves
6,000 clients
annually —
400 women
and men on a
given night.
Community
Health
Faculty
Kay Jarrell
and Judy
Hightower
arranged for

the clinical site in 2002. Jarrell takes her students there in fall and
spring while Hightower brings her ASU West nursing students in the
summer. Few leave without being moved by the experience.
Students enter the rotation with varying experiences and
expectations. Judy Sirkis was familiar with the homeless and poor
from growing up in metropolitan Phoenix. Aaron Dorcy, on the other
hand, grew up in a small town in rural Washington State and had
never encountered homeless people.
“Several in our group of 10 viewed our future clients
as ‘unhelpable’ when we started the rotation,” Dorcy,
a native of Shelton, Wash., said. “I have to admit I was
one of them. However, it did not take long to see how
resilient these people are and that there is not any one
type of person who ends up in a homeless shelter.”
Expectations Based on Life Experiences
Judy Sirkis started her rotation with different
expectations based on life experiences. “I was a child of
the 60s and early 70s and had a natural affinity to helping
people in need,” she explained. “When I first graduated
from school, I worked as a VISTA volunteer in southern

Judy Sirkis talks to a client at the CASS homeless shelter in
Phoenix after a diabetes screening.
Spring 2007

19

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

“When you learn the problems the homeless
face, it makes you feel badly about complaining
and appreciate what you have.”
Georgia, giving impoverished people legal services advice.” Working
with the homeless at the shelter, Judy said she rediscovered her
comfort zone and the excitement she has in serving a population for
which she has a great empathy.
The shelter is a setting that is open to developing personal styles
in caring for clients. Aaron encourages clients to take part in the
healthcare screenings he conducts. “I ask the clients to hold the blood
pressure gauge as I take their pressures,” he said. “It helps them to see
that good health is their responsibility, too. It is the experience that
you do not often get in clinical rotations in hospitals.”
The students follow a set routine during their six-week rotation.
Working from 2 to 7 p.m., they start with a conference session with
Kay Jarrell, who advises them of the chronic illnesses and social
problems faced by the homeless and the need to listen and respect
their views. Following the hour conference meeting, the students
spend the rest of the time conducting blood-pressure and diabetes
screenings, treating wounds, or giving vaccine shots.
When you deal with the clients on a weekly basis, you get to know
them and form a bond, Dorcy said. “When you learn the problems
the homeless face, it makes you feel badly about complaining and
appreciate what you have,” the student noted.

Senior ASU nursing student Jill Williams checks a client’s throat
during her clinical course at the largest homeless shelter in Arizona.
to nursing,” Sirkis said. “The change process took several years
because I had a child at home when my husband died, but now I am
nearing the start of an exciting new career of helping more people.”
Impact on Students and Community
Both students have been impacted by their experience in the
community. Dorcy notes the insights his clinical rotation at the shelter
have given him in the realities of life. Sirkis puts it more strongly.
Despite the enormous, endless need Sirkis has seen, she takes heart
in something from the Talmud. “He who saves one life … It is as if he
saves the whole world.”

“The ASU nurses have been able to positively
impact our clients’ physical and emotional
well-being through their professional, caring
and compassionate efforts.”

ASU nursing student Aaron Dorcy (left) encourages clients to take part
in their healthcare screens at the homeless shelter at which he took a
clinical course.
The students themselves bring their own stories and life experiences
to the clinical setting. Judy Sirkis, for example, was an attorney with
a large Phoenix law firm. When her husband died at a young age, she
experienced a sense of vulnerability from not knowing enough about
his condition to help to the extent she desired.
“My husband’s long terminal illness drove me to learn about
medical knowledge and bring my legal advocacy skills and experience
20

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Chief Executive Officer Mark Holleran said CASS measures the
impact of all service program collaborations against the question, “Is
this good for those we serve?” Holleran explained, “Our partnership
with the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation has assisted
us in addressing many unmet needs of our homeless men and women
clients. Most importantly though, the ASU nurses, however briefly,
have been able to positively impact our clients’ physical and emotional
well-being through their professional, caring, and compassionate
efforts. We believe this not only helps our clients but will ultimately
provide our community with better caregivers.”
Perhaps the best long-term measure of the impact of the clinical
rotation comes from the faculty who observe the results over time.
Kay Jarrell feels the commitment of the students to vulnerable
populations continues long after their rotation is completed. “The
students become advocates for people who are vulnerable and often
ask to be assigned to their care in hospitals in their careers,” Jarrell
observed. “They also educate others about the unique needs of the
homeless. After working with the shelter residents, I often them hear
them say, ‘This is why I became a nurse.’”		
n

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Personality
Plus
Clinical Simulation
“Patients” Bring
Important Dimension
to Student Experience
knee amputation. Did we mention she also has diabetes and hypertension? Post-operative care includes her managing pain, dealing with
her family’s questions about phantom pain, and calling the nurse
practitioner or doctor about her elevated or decreased blood sugar
level. As discharge time nears, her daughter worries about how to
provide care at home. Students learn about clinical decision making
and working as a team. Marilee is sure to thank them for taking such
good care of her.
Isabelle Capstone is a six-month old who comes to the emergency
department with Respiratory Syncytial Virus. She was admitted to
the hospital for further care, which included responding to her seizure
and dehydration. The students in Pediatrics deal with her mother’s
concerns and also learn about medications for the baby. They might
find themselves challenged by a wrong medication order and advocating for Isabelle’s safety.

G

eri Elder is a winter visitor to Phoenix. At 82, she is spry
despite injuries from a car accident. Her clothing is stylish. She
never misses noticing a good-looking male nurse. She may even mention her beautiful niece to him! A tactful visitor would refrain from
blurting out, “But you are not real! You are just plastic and electronics.” Her answer is, “So? What’s your point?!” Geri Elder’s job in
the Educational Simulation Program (ESP) is to help first-semester
students make the transition from doing health assessments on each
other to interviewing and examining actual elders.
Second-semester students take care of a quite different person.
Marilee Sweetwater is a Native American who has had a below-the-

Becca Perez had her baby just this morning. The baby got off to a
rocky start and needed newborn resuscitation. Later, it is Becca who
is having a problem, postpartum hemorrhage. Becca needs assessment
and close observation as the students identify the problem and activate
care orders. Both mother and baby are fine by the end of the day.
Coder Johnson is the most experienced ESP patient. He has a variety of cardiac and respiratory difficulties requiring adult resuscitation
techniques. He challenges final-semester students to assess and act
quickly to save his life. Sometimes, though, students learn to help the
family deal with his death.
These patients are not real people, but they could be. They are a
few of the personalities given to simulation patients in scripted scenarios created by senior students, faculty, and clinical lab coordinators. The simulated clinical situations guide experiences for all levels
of learners.
Spring 2007

21

Innovations in Clinical Practice and Partnerships

“We have been using simulation in the
undergraduate curriculum for the last
two years. Coder Johnson was our first
patient,” Ruth Brooks, RN, MS, BC,
manager of the Learning Resources Center
and ESP said. “Corey Columbo, our newest patient, is learning to deal with a new
cancer diagnosis and a colostomy. Our
simulated patients serve across semesters
and provide different opportunities for different students as their stories develop. The
learning objectives of the various courses
guide the events of each scenario.”
Multiple Personalities
When simulations go live, students
are assigned roles such as primary nurse,
charge nurse, other healthcare team members, spouses, or other family members,
and, sometimes, a nurse practitioner or
physician. The manikin patients come
to life full of personality and attitude.
They speak through the magic of faculty or staff in the control room,
respond appropriately to questions, and challenge with questions
and responses during students’ assessment and care. Students in the
supporting roles also take on a personality that often adds challenge
and chaos to the case. Other students in the group of 10 watch from a
nearby viewing room so they can be ready to provide observations and
suggestions for improvement. Faculty members guide the students to
reflect on and learn from the simulation. All of the students have the
opportunity to explore alternatives to the challenges they encountered. Sometimes the scenario is repeated. The simulation patients are
always willing to help the students try a different approach.
Kim Murray, MSN, RN, WHNPC, clinical associate professor of
nursing at ASU, is the faculty member who instructs the Baby Boy
Perez newborn resuscitation and Mother Becca Perez post-partum
hemorrhage simulations for NUR 481 Obstetrics students. The
purpose of
the simulation
is to increase
students’
comfort level
with newborns.
“Students often
have a tendency
to regard newborns as aliens
and have a fear
of handling
babies,” Murray
noted. “As vital
signs such as
the baby’s heart
beat increases, it
becomes harder for the students to perform an accurate assessment.
All the while they may be contending with a panicked family member
22

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

and sometimes a difficult independent
healthcare provider.”
Mother Becca’s postpartum hemorrhage scenario helps students to recognize
changes in their assessment findings, Murray
explained. “When the report from the labor
nurse indicates the mother’s readings are
now off the chart, the students must recognize the cause of hemorrhage and stabilize
the patient while diffusing the stress of an
out-of-control spouse.”
Simulation Technology
Technology is making clinical simulation
cases amazingly realistic and thus a much
more powerful learning tool. “Anyone who
remembers the functionless ‘Mrs. Chase’
or ‘Pablo’ from our vintage student lab
days knows that technology is the answer,”
quipped ESP coordinator Beatrice Kastenbaum, MSN, RN, CNE.
SimMan™, for example, is a full-body, speaking, and anatomically
accurate manikin and monitor with programmable physiological vital
sign indicators that allow students to detect serious complications.
The manikin interacts verbally, breathes and has a blood pressure,
heart and breath sounds, and a pulse. He can be changed to a she but

in either gender helps students gain clinical, decision-making, and
communication skills during realistic patient care scenarios.
Each simulated patient’s stories, charts and programming files are
shared in order to be consistent across the three ASU campus sites.
Kastenbaum explained, “Our manikins are important for setting
the stage for patient care, but charts, actual medical equipment, and
props, like realistic blood clots, all add to reality for student learning.”
Kastenbaum said there have been changes in the undergraduate
curriculum since the welcome recent arrival of SimBaby™. The baby
manikin enabled the addition of pediatric and OB simulations. More

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

simulations for beginning and adult health students also have been
introduced in the past year. “With students, faculty and our college
administration all requesting more simulation, it is safe to say that additions to the simulation family will continue,” she noted.

key take-home points of the experience, according to the
senior student. “Educating through simulation is a kind of “one stop
shop” for student learning while also providing it in a realistic environment,” Ranalli observed.

Students focus on learning the best clinical care practices but also
have fun in the simulations. Kastenbaum tells of the time when a stu-

Manager Ruth Brooks said the move last summer to the downtown
campus enabled the LRC to grow to nearly 12,500 square feet. The
expansion was required because of increased emphasis on simulation
lab practice that is driven by the doubling of student enrollments,
shortage of clinical placements and increasing severity of patient
health needs today.
At the Downtown Phoenix Campus, improvements in the new clinical lab compared to the former facility at the Tempe Campus include
four fully mediated simulation rooms compared to one, 22 hospital
beds compared to 7 situated in 4 different rooms to allow flexibility in
use, and 12 health assessment lab beds compared to 8. These additions
provide realistic clinical practice for 240 undergraduate and more
than 50 graduate students a semester.
Brooks and Kastenbaum see more changes on the horizon for
clinical simulation. “Students will be caring for multiple simulated
patients, there will be more simulation hours in each semester, and
we will be using simulation for missed clinical experiences,” they said.
“Also, we will be collaborating with a variety of organizations to do
multidisciplinary simulations, for example, the medical school, and
using the simulation center for testing safety devices and for other
healthcare research.”				
Geri Elder can hardly wait. She is not getting any younger!

n

dent playing the role of the significant other to the hilt “coded” and
collapsed on the floor. The team then was faced with caring for the
significant other along with the patient. The threat of a defibrillation shock brought quick return of vitality!
“SimMan™ is a great way for us to be put into acute situations where we have to make quick decisions,” senior Krystle
Turner said. “Unfortunately, a great way to learn is by messing
up—so once you let one of our simulation patients expire, you
will NEVER make that mistake again,” Turner said. “I definitely
have learned from my mistakes and now am writing an acute GI
bleeding scenario because I think they are such great experiences
for students.”
Lee Ranalli, another senior student explained, “Prior to simulation, most of our hands-on skills developed from being in the
clinical setting with actual patients or practicing on each other in
lab settings. However, simulation has provided the ultimate experience of great hands-on learning in the safest
of environments.”
Ranalli said different patient scenarios and patient personalities require students to act quickly and accordingly to unexpected
events. Critical thinking is the major key to making your way
through the patient scenario, and even if it does not go as well as
you had hoped, in the end there is a team debriefing to go over the
Spring 2007

23

ASU Nursing News

Profile

Julie Fleury, PhD, RN, FAAN  
Associate Dean for Research
Director, PhD in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation Program

J

ulie Fleury joined the College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation at ASU in August
2001 because of her perception that the faculty was dynamic, the opportunity to pursue
her focus on community-based research, and
mentorship opportunities. As the recently
appointed Associate Dean for Research,
Fleury’s vision for the research mission to
make those opportunities to become realized
by supporting those she came to join nearly
six years ago.
Fleury is not new to leading research initiatives at the college. She previously served
as interim associate dean while a nationwide
search was conducted. She was named to the
position permanently early this year. Since
2005, she has served as Director of the Doctor of Nursing Science Program, a position
she will continue to hold in addition to her
new responsibilities. (See next page for an
article on the transition of the DNS degree
to a PhD program.)
A cardiovascular nurse at the start of her
career, Fleury has PhDs from the University of Arizona (1990) and North Carolina
Julie Fleury
State University (2001) in Clinical Nursing
Research and Community Psychology respectively. Her research focus has been on the prevention and management
of cardiovascular disease, especially in underserved minority women.
Fleury co-authored Health Promotion in the Elderly with Colleen Keller
(2000) Sage Publications. In recognition of her outstanding contributions to gerontological nursing, Fleury received the Western Institute
of Nursing Senior Geriatric Researcher Award last year.
Indicative of her collaborative leadership style, Fleury is quick to
credit others for their accomplishments. “Leadership and faculty here
have done a remarkable job in increasing grant applications by more
than 200 percent,” Fleury said. “My role is to continue that momentum by working with faculty, putting resources together, and operating the Office of Research and Scholarship as a partnership.”
Fleury points to the Centers for Healthy Outcomes in Aging and
Improving Health Outcomes for Children, Teens & Families as particular strengths of the college’s research area. The research centers
provide an intensive forum to cultivate interchanges among faculty
and interdisciplinary colleagues that extend the science and improve
outcomes in focused research areas, Fleury said.

Associate Dean for Research Julie Fleury discusses a research point with
ASU nursing colleague Nelma Shearer in the ASU College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation.
24

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Fleury takes personal pride in her
work with the doctoral students. “The
program is one of my most satisfying career achievements,” Fleury
remarked. “The students grow professionally every day which is so exciting
to witness.”
Despite her assured but unassuming
demeanor, Fleury has set some high
standards for ASU nursing research.
“Our goal is to be in the Top 10 of
NIH funded colleges of nursing within
five years,” she stated. “I believe in
our faculty and know it is a goal we
can achieve.” Fleury is focusing on
infrastructure improvements in grant
support to attain the goal.
Julie Fleury came to the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation because of her perception of its
faculty as top-quality researchers and
people. “I certainly found my perception to be true since the faculty is very
flexible and accepting,” the new associate dean said. “It is the reason that
I came and the reason I stay.”
n

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

ASU PhD Program
in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

On-site and on Track for Fall

Program Changes Reflect Emphasis on Preparing Rigorous Researchers and Academic Leaders.

T

he College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State
University is transitioning its Doctor of Nursing Science degree
to a PhD in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation. This change comes,
as the Doctor of Nursing Practice is launched, in order to clearly
distinguish the clinical doctorate from the research-intensive degree
designed to prepare rigorous researchers/scientists. The PhD is
designed for persons, including interdisciplinary health professionals,
who wish to pursue careers as leaders in nursing and healthcare
innovation research and education, consistent with scientific and
academic roles. With a PhD, graduates are prepared to assume
leadership positions in academic, research and healthcare institutions,
giving direction on issues that will optimize quality of life and health
resources across populations and settings. The PhD program is
intended to be the primary research degree offered by the College.
The transition will be effective Fall 2007.
“The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is
strongly encouraging colleges of nursing to move to two doctoral
programs: one emphasizing advanced clinical practice (DNP), and
one emphasizing research and scholarship (PhD),” Dean Bernadette
Melnyk said. “Furthermore, the move to the PhD at this time is

consistent with transformational changes in the focus of our College
of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and ASU as an institution.”
The PhD program at ASU is an on-site program with use of webenhanced courses. It builds upon the already successful researchintensive DNS, which emphasizes extensive student mentorship
and socialization through interaction with faculty members and
involvement in faculty research. Given the worsening faculty shortage
in nursing due to the lack of PhD-prepared nurses in Arizona and
most other states, the program meets an essential need.
Since 2005, the ASU college of nursing has placed strong emphasis
on strengthening its research mission with a focus on improving
research infrastructure and providing outstanding research support
and mentorship for its faculty. As part of its bold strategic plan, the
College launched two new centers of research excellence, the Center
for Healthy Outcomes in Aging and the Center for Improving Health
Outcomes in Children, Teens & Families. These centers provide
strong mentorship and support from nationally and internationally
known scholars, interdisciplinary collaboration, and educational
resources. Students are actively involved in center faculty research
and monthly research seminars, designed to prepare cutting-edge
researchers who will tackle the most complex health problems
Spring 2007

25

ASU Nursing News

for older adults and children, teens & families. The Center for the
Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice also was launched in 2005 in
order to assist clinicians and researchers to translate research findings
into practice at a faster speed in order to improve the quality of
healthcare. In addition, the college established the Office of Research
& Scholarship, the Office of International Health, Scientific
and Educational Affairs, and the Southwest Borderlands
Initiative. Since 2005, the college has hired 16 research
faculty who, with existing researchers, are tackling some of
the most pressing health problems today.

distinguished by its multilevel nature, and supports faculty expertise
and the unique role of nursing and healthcare innovation intervention
across multiple levels of influence (See figure directly below, “Social
Ecological Framework for Optimizing Health”).
Students will be able to choose from 27 other graduate courses

The current Doctor of Nursing Science (DNS) program
at the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation has been
admitting students since Fall 2005. The program currently
has seven students enrolled and will enroll another cohort
of five students for 2007. Funded by the federal Health
Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the
current program has a heavy research intensive focus
and the courses/requirements currently in place are
comparable to other PhD programs in top schools of
nursing across the country.
Curriculum Description
The PhD in Nursing & Healthcare Innovation degree requires
the completion of 84 credit hours, including 30 credit hours from a
previously awarded master’s degree. This program is a post-master’s
degree program and requires a master’s degree in nursing or related
field in order to be eligible to apply for admission. The PhD degree
program will require the student to develop competencies in three
core areas: scholarly citizenship, societal leadership, and collaborative
inquiry (see table below). Students will be required to complete six
credits in each of the three core areas (total 18 credits) and will then
build a specialization within one of the core areas from graduate level
coursework both within the ASU graduate nursing program and
related coursework in other colleges. Within that program, some
combination of 24 credits of research experience and dissertation
credit will be included.

in their program of study as electives specific to student interest.
Fleury said six new courses will be added to the PhD program as it
transitions from DNS.
Demand for the Program
The plan is to limit enrollment to 25 in increments of five over a
five-year period. The number of admissions per year would be based
on the number graduated to balance the total of 25 students per
year. Current DNS students will be given the option of continuing to
complete the DNS degree or to complete the required courses to earn
the PhD.
Affiliated faculty from 11 other departments/schools across the
university will be actively engaged in offering classes to PhD nursing
students and sitting as members of their dissertation committees.

Curricular Structure
Core courses in three areas of
competency
Electives or other related
research credits
Research/Dissertation
Credit hours from a previously
awarded master’s degree
TOTAL

18 credits
12 credits
24 credits
30 credits
84 credits

The ASU nursing PhD program takes a social ecological
perspective. The social ecological model acknowledges the importance
of the connections between people and their environments as
well as the influence of the social context on behavior, including
institutional and cultural variables. The social ecological framework is
26

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Faculty Practice and Partnerships
Faculty participate in the community in a variety of roles: as
providers of health services; members of advisory committees,
community coalitions, and boards of directors; providers of healthrelated community education; and advocates for consumers through
political action. Partnerships through approximately 471 agency
contracts support research and student learning. Such partnerships
provide excellent resources for doctoral student research, leadership,
and science-based intensives. Most recently, the college has forged
new contractual partnerships with Phoenix Children’s Hospital,
Barrow Neurological Institute, Scottsdale Healthcare, and Mayo
Clinic for faculty to assist these healthcare institutions in advancing
research and evidence-based practice.			
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D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

ASU Kicks Off
Golden Anniversary
Celebration

50 Years of
• Dreaming
• Discovering
• Delivering

I

t was September 1957 … Dwight Eisenhower was President of
the United States … Barry Goldwater was a U.S. Senator for
Arizona… In hospitals, the only oxygen available came from large
cylinders … All intravenous solutions came in glass bottles with a
glass drip chamber where the infusion rate was controlled by a metal
clip … Rubber gloves were considered extravagant and only used
in operating rooms … ICU/CCU had not yet been invented, and if
a patient arrested on the ward, he was dragged out of the bed and
placed face down on the floor … and on September 22, 1957, six
students attended the first nursing class at ASU.
All the preceding facts are history except for the last. The history of
ASU nursing continues to be made today!
Alumni, faculty, emeriti, staff, students, and friends of the college
have joined to kick off the celebration of the Golden 50th Anniversary
that small nursing college which has grown into one of the largest
in the United States. The theme of the celebration is 50 Years of
Dreaming, Discovering, and Delivering.
Since that day in 1957, more than 7,600 nurses have graduated
from the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation educational
programs. More than 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students
completed the 2006-2007 academic year.

“It is a privilege to be Dean at ASU as our college marks 50 years
of remarkable achievements that have contributed so positively to the
health of five decades of patients as well as the nursing profession,”
Dean Bernadette Melnyk said. “It is because of the wonderful
foundation that was built by the faculty and staff in the College
over the past decades that we have been able to make so many
transformational innovations during the past two years.”
Colleen Keller PhD, BSN (1975) RN, FNP and Joey Ridenour,
MS, BSN (1969), RN are serving as co-chairs of the 50th
Anniversary Steering Committee. Keller is currently a professor of
nursing at ASU and director of the Center for Healthy Outcomes in
Aging at the College. Ridenour is executive director of the Arizona
State Board of Nursing.
Golden Goals
Keller and Ridenour said the goals of the 50th anniversary
celebration at ASU are threefold. “We want to remember and
celebrate the past and present achievements of our colleagues,
reconnect alumni across the country with our college and university,
and go forward together to accomplish even more over the next 50
years,” the co-chairs stated.
Spring 2007

27

ASU Nursing News

The 50th Anniversary
leadership has provided
varied and easy-touse tools for alumni
and others to become
involved in the
celebration. For example,
the college web site
http://nursing.asu.edu/
anniversary/ features
the anniversary and
offers alumni interactive
opportunities to help
construct a “living
history” of the college by contributing individual stories of educational
and career experiences and completing the college’s history timeline.
The Outstanding Nurse Awards and Candle Lighting Ceremony are
the most recent additions to the anniversary celebration agenda.
ASU alumni can nominate a graduate of the College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation for their service, professional dedication,
and personal commitment to quality healthcare. To spread the word
about the anniversary, ASU alumni are being encouraged to give their
nominees or nominators a 50th anniversary commemorative pin that
will be sent next month by direct mail.
“Each of us has worked with a nursing colleague who has made a
significant difference in patient care, taught us kindness by example,
and benchmarked the importance of our nursing profession in their
daily work,” Professor Keller said. “Many of us, and our families, have
received care from nurses who are testaments to what our profession
believes. A nomination of one of these individuals to honor them will
highlight the mark they have made on nursing in our communities.”
To be eligible for nomination, a nurse must be a licensed RN and:
•
•
•
•

Advance the scope and practice of nursing
Committed to learning to increase understanding
of issues related to nursing
Exhibit personal qualities of integrity, enthusiasm,
consistency and perseverance
Value creative approaches to nursing practice.

The nomination can be accessed through our Anniversary Web
page: http://nursing.asu.edu/anniversary/.

Please write a few sentences about the professional you wish to see
honored, and tell about his/her accomplishments, professionalism,
expertise, and contributions to professional nursing.
Light Up the Night on October 19
All Outstanding Nurse nominees will be honored at the 50th
Golden Anniversary Alumni Reception on Friday evening October
19, 2007, sponsored by the ASU Alumni Association, Mayo Clinic
Hospital, Scottsdale Healthcare System, and the College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation. The event will be held at 6 p.m. on the
patio of the Nursing & Healthcare Innovation Building in downtown
Phoenix. The Anniversary Steering Committee is asking all
nominators to attend the October 19 ceremony to light a candle to
honor their nominee and acknowledge colleagues. Co-chairs Keller
and Ridenour hope to light up the Phoenix evening sky through this
honor to nurses and the nursing profession.
Other Activities in Process
Several other activities are planned to celebrate the Golden
anniversary, including two endowed professorships to honor Nancy
Melvin and B Steffl, commemorative pins, a DVD of highlights and
developments in the
College history, and
other commemorative
items. A request
is being made to
Arizona Governor
Janet Napolitano to
declare September
22nd as “ASU Nursing
Day.” A special
anniversary reception
also is being planned
in conjunction with
the 9th annual EBP
National/International
Conference scheduled
for February 21-22 in
Phoenix.
Co-chair Ridenour
said more alumni volunteers are needed to work on the above
activities. “These projects are a great way to give back to the college
and to become closer to the institution which helped determine your
career,” Ridenour said.
Grand Finale
A 50th Anniversary Golden Gala Dinner on Friday, April 25,
2008 at the Arizona Biltmore will conclude the celebration. Special
presentations, awards and entertainment will highlight the event.
Entertainment will be provided by Capitol Steps, a nationally
recognized comedy team that has recorded 27 albums and been
featured on NBC, CBS, ABC, and PBS.

28

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

“Our achievements in the past 50 years belong to all of us,” Dean
Melnyk noted. “However, our history lives on in today’s alumni,
faculty and students which makes the next 50 years of tomorrows
truly exciting.”
			
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D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Innovative Online
Graduate Certificate
Child and Adolescent
Mental Health Intervention Specialist
Offering Designed

fectively treat mild mental health problems and stabilize the more
seriously mentally ill child until referrals can be obtained. The
tool kit is comprised of directed interviewing strategies, advanced
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) skills, differential diagnostic
strategies, and advanced psychopharmacological management.”

F

ifteen million or one in four children and adolescents in the
United States have mental or behavioral health problems that
interfere with how they function at home or school. According to
the American Psychological Association, only 20 to 25 percent of
these children receive any treatment for these disorders. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry,
there are approximately 6,300 child and adolescent psychiatrists
in this country with a need at 32,000.
To help address this growing public health problem, the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at Arizona State University (ASU) is announcing the nation’s first Child & Adolescent
Mental Health Intervention Specialist Graduate Certificate Program. This innovative 15-credit program is designed specifically
for pediatric and family nurse practitioners and pediatricians who
want to enhance their knowledge and skills in the assessment and
management of common mental and behavioral health problems
in children and adolescents.
“This program offers a psychiatric tool kit drawn from several
model programs and designed to help primary care providers in
their daily practices,” Ann Guthery, MS, RN, PsyMHNP and
co-director of the program said. “The tool kit will help them ef-

The new certificate will be predominantly an online distance education program with two immersion visits to the ASU
Downtown Phoenix Campus for more intensive learning. Nine
credit hours of this certificate program can be transferred into
the College’s online post-master’s child/family psychiatric mental
health nurse practitioner program for those students desiring
more depth in assessing and treating child and adolescent mental
health problems as a child/family psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Co-directors of the new certificate program are Dean Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN and Guthery, both
of whom are child and adolescent psychiatric mental health nurse
practitioners. Faculty for the program have more than 120 years
of nursing education and advanced practice experience.
Applicants must either have a Master of Science in Nursing and
work as a pediatric/family nurse practitioner or pediatric clinical
nurse specialist, or be a health-related professional (e.g., social
worker, physician assistant, physician) with experience in child
and adolescent behavioral and mental health. Current healthcare
licensure in the applicant’s state of residence is needed to complete clinical requirements for the certificate.
For more information and application, go to http://nursing.
asu.edu/.				
		
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Spring 2007

29

ASU Nursing News

EBP News Report

8th National/International
Evidence-Based Practice Conference
a Record Success

T

he 8th National/International Evidence-Based Practice
Conference in February proved a record success in several
ways. The conference titled Translating Research into Best Practice with
Vulnerable Populations featured prominent speakers from 21 states,
including seven from outside the U.S., an all-time total of 67 posters,
and record attendance of 340.
“The enthusiasm and energy was palpable among the conference
participants,” Ellen Fineout-Overholt, director of the Center for the
Advancement of Evidence-based Practice at Arizona State University
said. “No matter the discipline, the specialty, their country or state
where they practice, or their experience with EBP, they were eager to
learn and contribute to others’ learning about how to improve health
outcomes through evidence-based care. Our call for abstracts is out
for February 2008. We look forward to hearing from clinicians and
healthcare professions faculty about how they are advancing EBP as
they showcase their work at next year’s conference.”
30

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

The Center for the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice and
the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation sponsored the
conference held for the first time in Phoenix. Co-sponsors included
Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Banner Health, Mayo Clinic, Sun Health
Corporation, Sigma Theta Tau International, Cerner Corporation, as
well as the Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging and the Academy
for Continuing Education at the ASU nursing college.
The theme of this year’s conference was Interdisciplinary Collaboration
for Influencing Outcomes through Evidence-Based Practice. Nancy
Donaldson, DNSc, RN, FAAN and director, University of California
at San Francisco Center for Research & Innovation in Patient Care
delivered the conference keynote address “From Here to Eternity:
The Link Between Outcomes and EBP.”
The conference focused on four specialty track areas: aging;
children, teens and families; psychiatric mental health; and acute/
critical care.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Keynote speakers for the specialty track areas were:
Acute/Critical Care
Tom Ahrens, DNS, RN, CCRN, CS
Research Scientist, Barnes-Jewish Hospital
Aging
Barbara Resnick, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, FAANP
Professor of Nursing, University of Maryland School
of Nursing
Children, Teens & Families
Marilyn Hockenberry, PhD, PNP, RN-CS, FAAN
Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Center for
Clinical Practice; Director of Research & EBP, Texas
Children’s Hospital
Psychiatric Mental Health
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN,
FNAP
Dean, College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation,
Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing at
Arizona State University.
A new track, EBP Implementation, was piloted this year at
the conference. It was well attended and will be offered again
in 2008.
The conference concluded with a reflective endnote
presentation on the renewal of the spirit of nursing. Alyce A.
Schultz, RN, PhD, FAAN, Associate Director of the Center for
the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice at Arizona State
University and two of her nurse colleagues, Paulette Gallant,
RNC, BSN and Kathleen Keane, RN, BSN, CCRN from
Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME delivered individual
presentations on the endnote topic. The speakers reflected on
the role that knowledge will play in the
future for all nurses and how translating
the use of knowledge in daily clinical
care renews the spirit of nursing and
creates an intellectual curiosity that
promotes nursing excellence.
An independent panel of judges
representing a cross section of
conference attendees presented podium
and poster awards as follows:

Aging
Improving Patient Care in New Zealand;
Clinical Indicators Benchmarking Project
Deborah Ann Gillon, RN, nurse
practitioner candidate
MHealthSC (Nursing)

EBP Implementation Strategies
Discipline-Specific Evidence-Based Education Promotes Knowledge,
Skills and a Culture of Evidence-Based Making
Eduardo Mendez, MPH, RN
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Psychiatric Mental Health
Recognizing and Treating Underserved Women with Sub-Threshold
Depression
Sheela Choppala, PhD, RN
Washington State University
Poster Awards
Evidence to Guide Practice
Comparison of a RN or Promotora-delivered Intervention Study
with Monolingual Clients
Sherry Garrett Hendrickson, PhD, APRN
Jacquelyn C. Williams, DSN, APRN, BC
University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing
Moving from Evidence to Action			
Evidence-Based Practice Project: Subcutaneous Aspiration
Karla Johnson, BSN, RN
Lisa English Long, MSN, RN
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
EBP Makes a Difference
Hop into Evidence-based Practice to
Promote Quality Care: Kangaroo Care in
the Healthy Newborn
Inga Zadvinskis, MSN, APRN,
BC
Jane Lamp, MS, RNC, CNS
Riverside Methodist Hospital
Evidence to Guide Practice
Comparison of a RN or Promotoradelivered Intervention Study with
Monolingual Clients
Sherry Garrett Hendrickson,
PhD, APRN
Jacquelyn C. Williams, 		
DSN, APRN, BC
University of Texas at Austin
School of Nursing

Podium Presentation Awards
Acute/Critical Care
Managing Growth: Improving Throughput
Using Process Redesign to Align with Best
Practice
Noreen Vanca, BSN, RN
Sun Health Del E. Webb Hospital

Children, Teens & Family
Pediatric Asthma Clinical Pathway: Acute Care Meets Chronic Care
Traci Arney, MN, RN, CFNP, AE-C
Banner Children’s Hospital and Banner Desert Medical
Center

The 9th EBP National/International
EBP Conference will be held February 2122, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona. Please visit
Nancy Donaldson, director, University of California at San the conference website (http://nursing.
Francisco Center for Research & Innovation in Patient Care, asu.edu/caep/conference/index.htm) for
delivers the keynote address at the 8th Annual National/ more information on the conference and
the 2008 call for abstracts.
n

International EBP Conference.

Spring 2007

31

ASU Nursing News

EBP News Report
Call for Abstracts for 2008 National/International EBP Conference
The 9th Annual EBP Conference,
Translating Research into Best Practice with
Vulnerable Populations, has been scheduled for
February 21-22, 2008. This is a national/
international interdisciplinary conference
in advancing evidence-based practice to
improve patient outcomes in:
• Aging
• Children, Teens & Families
• EBP Implementation
• Psychiatric/Mental Health
• Acute/Critical Care.
This two-day conference will provide
a wealth of opportunities to interact with
colleagues and hear from clinicians across
the country and the globe about how they
are improving outcomes for patients and
care providers. There also will be a full preconference day of workshops for those who
want a more in-depth learning experience.
A call for abstracts for the conference has
been issued. Abstracts are being accepted
for oral and poster presentations in the
following categories:

Moving from Evidence to Action
(Works in progress that are applying evidence to
practice)
Abstracts should include:
• Search strategy and evidence found
• Critical appraisal and synthesis of the
evidence
• Recommendations for best practice
based upon the evidence
• Plan for implementing best evidence
and progress to date, including
proposed outcome evaluation.
EBP Makes a Difference
(Completed projects with evaluation of applying
evidence to practice)
Abstracts should include:
• Synthesis of evidence leading to
practice change
• Process of practice change (baseline data, key stakeholders, approvals obtained)
• Results of practice change (describe
results, evaluation of outcomes [e.g.,
cost], new questions generated).

Evidence to Guide Practice
(Research that informs practice; outcomes
management projects that generate internal
evidence; evidence reviews; evidence-based
clinical practice guidelines)
Abstracts should include:
• Purpose of the research project,
evidence review, clinical practice
guideline
• Methods (what was done and why)
• Results (outcomes, goals achieved,
limitations, why goals not met)
• Conclusions (supported by data,
explanation for what happened,
meaningful results)
• Specific implications for practice.
Check the CAEP website (http://nursing.
asu.edu/caep) for details on abstract
submission. Send questions by e-mail
to Debbie Relph at the Center for the
Advancement of Evidence-Based Practice,
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation: Deborah.Relph@asu.edu.

National Consortium for Pediatric and Adolescent
Evidence-Based Practice Launched
Nursing leaders representing 18
children’s hospitals and colleges of
nursing across the country met in a
leadership summit in Phoenix, Ariz., the
day before the opening of the National/
International Evidence-Based Practice
Conference Translating Research into Best
Practice with Vulnerable Populations.
The purpose of the 23 leaders who
attended the summit was to launch a new
National Consortium for Pediatric &
Adolescent EBP (NCPAEP). The effort,
funded by a grant from the Agency for
Healthcare Research & Quality (AHRQ),
was spearheaded by Bernadette Melnyk,
32

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Dean of ASU’s College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation.
The mission of NCPAEP is to promote
interdisciplinary EBP and collaborative
research for improving child and
adolescent health outcomes across the
care continuum.
“Despite extensive research, it takes an
average of 17 years to translate research
findings into practice to treat high-risk
children and adolescents,” Dean Melnyk
explained. “Our vision is that EBP must
be accelerated to provide the highest
quality of healthcare for this vulnerable
population.”

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

The NCPAEP working group formulated its strategic plan and
reported it to the 340 attendees of the National EBP Conference in
Phoenix. National priorities and recommendations for advancing
pediatric and adolescent EBP include:
• Standardize and define best practices for care of 		
		 children, teens and families			
•
		
		
		

Infuse EBP expertise into nursing education, 		
professional organizations, policy development, state
boards of nursing, certification exams, and other 		
pediatric organizations

• Provide evidence-based education tools, guidelines
		 and resources
• Change the practice paradigm and strengthen the 		
		 value of EBP
• Engage participation from all healthcare facilities to
		 participate in the effort
•
		
		
		

Formulate a website for sharing preliminary 		
research findings and EBP implementation proposals
along with strategies that are highly effective so that
other institutions can benefit from them.

NCPAEP encourages other organizations to participate in the effort
by contacting Dean Melnyk at Bernadette.Melnyk@asu.edu or
calling 602-496-2200.

EBP Consortium Meets
Sheila Hofstetter (above, left), MLS, AHIP, Health Sciences
Librarian at Arizona State University, discusses the website
that the Arizona Consortium for the Advancement of Evidence
Based Practice (AzCAEP) plans to launch later this year. Beverly
Dunson, BA, a student in the School of Information Resources
and Library Sciences University of Arizona, is working with
Hofstetter to build the site. Other AzCAEP initiatives and
teams include Vision & Leadership, Mentorship, and Assessment of EBP in Arizona.
AzCAEP, an interdisciplinary group of more than 50
healthcare providers across Arizona, is the first state-wide EBP
consortium to be formed in the United States. The purpose of
the group is to advance EBP to improve the quality of healthcare and patient outcomes in the state. Ellen Fineout-Overholt
(second from left), director of the ASU Center for the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice, and other CAEP staff
helped facilitate its formation in 2005.

ARCC Scholarship Recipients Welcomed

The first cohort of Advancing Research
and Clinical Practice through Close
Collaboration (ARCC) Scholarship
recipients participated recently in the
8th Annual Evidence-Based Practice
Conference in Phoenix.The opportunity
was offered through the ASU College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and Pan
American Health Organization technical
cooperation agreements. The purpose
of the scholarships for nursing faculty
throughout Latin America is to help them

advance evidence-based practice in their
respective organizations.
The scholarship recipients and several
of their hosts include (from left to right):
Carol Baldwin, PhD, RN, CHTP, AHNBC, director, Office of International
Health, Scientific and Educational Affairs,
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation and Southwest Borderlands
Scholar for Nursing; Graciela Silva, PhD,
MPH, MT, assistant professor, ASU College
of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and

Southwest
Borderlands Scholar for Nursing;
		
Genoveva Elizabeth Ávila, MS, BSN,
professor, School of Nursing, Universidad
Nacional de Córdoba, Ministry of Health
of Córdoba, Córdoba, Argentina; Laura
Morán Peña, PhD, RN, professor, School
of Nursing and Obstetrics, Universidad
Nacional Autónoma de México, Vice
President for the Caribbean Region &
Mexico (2004-2007), México D.F.,
México; Luxana Reynaga Ornelas, MS,
BSN, professor, College of Nursing and
Obstetrics of León, Universidad Autónoma
de Nuevo León, León Guanajuato, México;
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/
NPP, FAAN, FNAP, Dean, ASU College
of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation and
Distinguished Foundation Professor in
Nursing; Lourdes del Carmen Carrera
Sosa, MED, RN, Dean, College of Nursing
Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador
(PUCE), Quito, Ecuador; María Cristina
Cometo, PhD, RN, professor, College of
Nursing, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba,
Argentina, Vice President, ALADEFE del
Cono Sur Córdoba, Argentina; and Norma
A. Valenzuela, MA, Interpreter/Translator,
Administrative Assistant, ASU College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation.
Spring 2007

33

ASU Nursing News

Achievements
Honors and Awards
The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation ranked 32 out of 396 Graduate
Nursing Programs on the U.S. News & World
Report 2007 Ranking. The ASU ranking improved seven positions compared to the previous rankings and moved the college into the
top 8 percent of graduate nursing programs.
The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation’s Neonatal Nurse Practitioner
students recently achieved a 100 percent pass
rate on their 2007 national certification exam.
The students were graduates of the hybrid
online program. Kimberly Horns, PhD, NNP,
RNC, is the coordinator of the program.
For the tenth year in a row, ASU’s Pediatric
Nurse Practitioner students have achieved a
100 percent pass rate on their national certification exam. ASU’s pass rate is significantly
higher than the 78 percent national pass rate,
and is indicative of the quality education ASU
provides through long distance education.
Leigh Small, PhD directs the program.
ASU Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner
students achieved a 100 percent pass rate on

their 2007 national certification exam. This
is the fifth year in a row the students in this
program have achieved a 100% passing rate.
Program coordinator is Cristi Coursen,
PhD, RN, BSN, MSN.

was the recipient of the Travel Award of
the Spokane Washington’s Family Research
Consortium’s 3rd Annual Summer Institute.
Cristi Coursen, PhD, RN, BSN, MSN recently

earned her PhD. The doctorate was in Public
Administration and her dissertation title
was “Theory to Practice: The Application of
John Rawls’ Theory of Justice as Fairness to
Medicaid.”
Bronwynne Evans, PhD, MN, FNGNA has

been appointed First Vice-President of the
National Organization for Nurses with Disabilities. Evans also has been named a Fellow
of the National Gerontological Nursing Association.
Ellen Fineout-Overholt, PhD, MSN has been
elected to the National Academies of Practice.
Fineout-Overholt is a Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of the Center for the
Advancement of Evidence-based Practice.
David Hrabe, PhD, RN and Karen Saewert,
PhD, RN, CPHQ, CNE were elected to nation-

al office with the National League for Nursing.
Hrabe is serving through 2009 as a member of
the Nurse Educator Workforce Development
Advisory Council, which works to provide
the leadership to advance the learning goals
of nurses whose primary role is education in

at ASU for the study of “Identity Impairment:
The Cognitive Foundation of Risk Behaviors
in Hispanic Women.” This study, for which
Keller serves as one of the co-investigators,
was designed by Karen Stein, PhD, RN,
FAAN, editor for the Journal of the American
Psychiatric Nursing Association, and is a four-year
longitudinal descriptive investigation, funded
by the National Institute of Nursing Research.
elected to the National Council of State
Boards of Nursing Board of Directors.

Dean for Finance and Business Support
Services, has been appointed to the Debt
Oversight Commission by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano.

Susan Mattson,
PhD, RNC,
CTN, FAAN

The American Nurses Foundation honored

was competitively
selected for
the American
Association
of Colleges
of Nursing
Leadership
Academy.

Maureen Campesino, PhD, RN, PsyNP

as the 2006 President’s Award Scholar
for her research project titled “Exploring
Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination
in Cancer Care Delivery among Elderly
Mexican Americans.”

34

Colleen Keller, PhD will be overseeing a site

Kathy Malloch, PhD, MBA, RN has been

Jacalyn Askin, PhD, CGFM, Assistant

ASU’s College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation honored Angela Chia-Chen
Chen, PhD, RN, with the Outstanding
Researcher Award in 2006. Chen also

academic,
practice
or other
service
settings.
Saewert,
also serving
through
2009, is a
member
of the
Measurement and
Evaluation
Advisory
Council
(MEAC). David Hrabe
The purpose of the council is to provide leadership
that transforms the state of measurement and
evaluation in nursing education, particularly
in the areas of evaluation and testing that
predict and monitor student success.

Angela Chia-Chen Chen

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Susan Mattson

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP,
FAAN, FNAP and Mary Killeen, PhD, RN

were among nurses from across Arizona
honored at the third annual March of Dimes
Arizona Nurses of the Year Awards Gala
presented by Health Net. Melnyk and Killeen
received the Research Nurse of the Year
Award and the Education Nurse of the Year
Award respectively.

Ellen Poole, PhD, RN, CCRN, CPAN, recently
earned her doctorate, having successfully
defended her dissertation titled “The Relationship of Preoperative Teaching Received,
Preoperative Teaching Valued, and Selected
Conditioning Factors to Postoperative Recovery in Ambulatory Laparoscopic Abdominal
Surgery Patients” from the Catholic University of America.

Bernadette Melnyk, Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor in Nursing,

clinical professor.

was honored as a 2006 Edge-Runner award by
the American Academy of Nursing. The EdgeRunner award recognizes innovative programming leading to healthcare solutions. Melnyk
also was appointed to the Nursing Science:
Children and Families Study Section of the
Center for Scientific Review for the National
Institutes of Health (July 2007 to June 2011).

Rebecca Peinhardt

Adriana Rivera Perez, a student in the DNS

program, has been honored as a John A.
Hartford Foundation
Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity
Predoctoral Scholar.
Perez is working with
Colleen Keller, PhD and
Julie Fleury, PhD on the
development, implementation and evaluation of
a theory-based physical
activity intervention for
older Hispanic women.

Adriana Rivera Perez

Barbara Wilson, RNC, MSN served as an
expert reviewer for Lippincott, Williams, &
Wilkins’ first edition of the important new

Sue Roe, DPA, RN has been appointed as

Judy Sayles,
MS, PsyMHNP, received

the outstanding teacher
award,
while Susan

Stillwell, RN,
MSN, CNE

Rebecca Peinhardt, RN, MSN has recently

completed the ASU
Nurse Educator
Certificate Program
and achieved NLN
Certified Nurse
Educator status as an
Advanced Practice
RN. Peinhardt becomes only the 28th
CNE in the State
of Arizona, eight
of whom are ASU
faculty. She joins the
ranks of 481 CNEs
across the U.S.

Department of Languages and Literature, an
honor that recognizes outstanding scholarship,
research and leadership in ASU students.

garnered the
outstanding
mentor award
and Barbara

Judy Sayles

Wilson, RNC,
MSN the

outstanding leadership award at the May 2006
Sigma Theta Tau induction event.

Barbara Wilson
obstetrical textbook titled Essential Maternal
and Child Nursing.
Ken Wysocki, MS, RN, FNP-C has been

competitively selected by the National Institute for Nursing Research (NINR), a division
of the National Institutes of Health, to attend
a Summer Genetics Institute (SGI), which
includes two months of classroom, research,
and laboratory time to prime advancing nurses
towards research in genetics. Wysocki, who

Nelma Shearer, PhD, RN has been promoted

to the rank of associate professor with tenure.
Shearer also was presented the 2006 regional
Geriatric Nursing Research Award from the
Western Institute of Nursing.
Susan Stillwell, RN, MSN, CNE was named as

the first National League for Nursing Ambassador at the College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation and a member of the
first cohort of NLN Ambassadors. This program is an important NLN initiative to help the
nursing education community
advance excellence and transform nursing education.
Norma Valenzuela, MA, Col-

lege of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation Administrative Assistant, has received the FWA
Distinguished Achievement
Award as a Doctoral Candidate,

Ken Wysocki
teaches in the NP program at ASU and works
in the DPC Health Center, also was awarded
a contract to teach a course for nurse practitioner students at Otago Polytechnic, in
Dunedin, New Zealand. The course, Prescribing for Nurses in Specialty Practice, involves treatment of disease and application of pharmacology in the management of patient disease.
Spring 2007

35

ASU Nursing News

Grants Newly Funded, Contracts Recently Awarded
Michael Belyea, PhD recently received
NIH/NINR funding for “A Model of Patient
and Nursing Administration Outcomes,” for
which he served as a co-investigator.
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation has received $100,000 from

United Health Care (UHC) to fund the
acquisition and renovation of a mobile
health van by the ASU College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation. This is the
initial investment of UHC in a Mobile
Health Network with the goal of providing
healthcare to underserved communities in
Arizona. The funds will cover start-up costs
for a van (already donated to the college)
that will be converted to reception and
exam-room space and dispatched with the
healthcare providers and supplies needed to
provide basic, affordable primary care as well
as important preventive screening services.
The van will be equipped with a computer
so that electronic health records and practice
data can be maintained. These records will be
uploaded to a primary database at the College

of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation to allow
incorporation into other programs and
databases as appropriate and in compliance
with HIPAA regulations. The providers
in the mobile home will have access to the
latest evidence-based practice standards and
guidelines via searchable research databases.
Maureen Campesino, PhD, RN, PsyNP

has been awarded a 2006 Seed Grant from
the ASU North
American Center for
Transborder Studies
(NACTS) for her
research project
titled “Refinement of
the Latino Spiritual
Perspective Scale.”
The Arizona Family Maureen Campesino
Planning Council
Board approved $255,242 in Title X base
funding for ASU’s Breaking the Cycle
Clinic for calendar year 2007, and $25,741
to support the ASU HIV testing program.

An additional $10,000 in one-time funds
was appropriated for the installation of
a new phone system and a high-density
filing system, with a total contract award
of $290,983. The contract is for 1,625
unduplicated clients and represents ASU’s
seventh year as a Title X Delegate agency.
The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation is the only college of nursing
in the United States that serves as a Title
X Delegate agency, and Breaking the
Cycle is the only federally funded family
planning clinic that provides family planning
healthcare in collaboration with, and on the
grounds of, a church in the United States.
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP,
FAAN, FNAP has received funding from the

Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality
for the Evidence-Based Practice Leadership
Summit: Improving Clinical Care and Health
Outcomes for High-Risk Children & Adolescents.
Melnyk is Principal Investigator as well as
Project Director.

National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases of NIH Awards R15 Grant to
ASU for Child Obesity and Overweight Research
The National Institute for Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases
(NIDDK), a unit of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a
two-year grant to the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation at
ASU to study prevention and intervention in child obesity.
Leigh Small, PhD, RN, CPNP, assistant professor at the ASU
nursing college, is the Principal Investigator for the interdisciplinary
research team. Small is also coordinator for the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at the college. Co-investigators for this grant include
Dean Bernadette Melnyk and Dr. Mary
Mays, and interdisciplinary collaborators Dr. Catrine Tudor-Locke and Dr.
Jeffery Hampl.
A recent report from the Institute of
Medicine revealed that rates of obesity
in the preschool child population have
doubled and that 3-5 year olds whose
Body Mass Index (BMI) is >85 percent
have a greater than 40 percent chance of
later-life obesity.

Leigh Small
36

Limited information exists regarding intervention strategies that have

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

been tested with young children who are overweight or obese. The
pilot study, the first theoretically based randomized controlled trial
conducted in a primary care setting, is designed to test the effects of a
theoretically based intervention on the physical and mental health outcomes of 50 overweight/obese preschool/young school-aged children,
or those at risk for later-life obesity and their parents.
The intervention program to be used in the study is named PLAY
(Parents Leading Active Youth). Its goal is to reduce the risk for negative health outcomes (e.g., physical and mental health outcomes) in 4-7
year-old children who are overweight or obese, or at risk for later-life
obesity and its adverse co-morbidities (e.g., cardiovascular disease).
Emphasizing healthy weight and weight control by educational information and behavioral skills training, PLAY also includes a strong mental health/positive parenting component.
The three-month, four-session program has been carefully designed
to be easily replicated and fit realistically within the time constraints of
a busy pediatric office schedule and a parent’s challenging work schedule. Minimizing subject attrition during the intervention program and
the 12-month follow-up to ensure quality study data is a top priority.
Therefore, intervention sessions are brief, subject burden has been kept
to a minimum, and reminder phone calls have been planned.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

NICHD Awards ASU Grant for Spanish Translation of Sleep Measures
The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) awarded a two-year grant to the ASU College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation. The grant is an R03 titled “Spanish Translation
and Validation of Sleep Measures.” Carol Baldwin, PhD, RN, AHNBC, associate professor, Southwest Borderlands Scholar, and Director
of the Office of International Health, Scientific and Educational Affairs
for nursing at ASU is the principal investigator. She is a research faculty
member of the Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children,
Teens & Families and the Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging.
Arizona ranks fourth in the nation in percent of Mexican Americans,
who comprise nearly 23 percent of the state’s population. It is
projected that by 2025, approximately one in three Arizona residents
will be Mexican American. As a group, Mexican Americans have
disproportionately high rates of certain chronic conditions compared
to non-Hispanic whites, including Type 2 diabetes, hypertension,
and obesity. These conditions have been strongly associated with
sleep problems, such as sleep apnea, insomnia and excessive daytime
sleepiness. A focus was placed on assessing sleep disorders in Latinos
for Healthy People 2010. The FY 2005 Omnibus Appropriations bill
included language that instructed the Centers for Disease Control
and the National Center on Sleep Disorders Research at NIH to
partner with the National Sleep Foundation to develop sleep education
and public awareness initiatives. Little to nothing is known about
relationships between sleep disorders and chronic illnesses in Spanishspeaking Mexican Americans on which to base these initiatives,
however, due to the lack of a rigorously translated Spanish-language
sleep assessment questionnaire.
The purpose of the research is to translate (English to Spanish),
back translate (Spanish to English), cross-language validate and test
the reliability and validity of the translated Sleep Heart Health Study
(SHHS) Sleep Habits Questionnaire for use with Spanish-speaking
Mexican Americans in clinical and research settings. The SHHS
was a 10-year long NHLBI-funded multi-center, multi-ethnic study
that examined relationships between sleep apnea and cardiovascular
disease. Dr. Baldwin was a co-investigator on the study.
Bilingual team members are being trained to recruit and retain
participants for the study, and translation activities are underway. The
research team is working with the Las Fuentes Clinic in Guadalupe,
Ariz. John Molina, MD, founder and executive medical director of
the clinic is a consultant on the grant. Stuart F. Quan, MD, University
of Arizona Professor Emeritus of Medicine and an internationally
recognized sleep researcher, and Kate Lorig, DrPH, RN, whose
arthritis self-management programs at the Stanford University Patient
Education Research Center have been translated into Spanish are also
consultants.
Ultimately, the translated measure will be used to characterize
sleep disorders of Mexican Americans and examine associations
between sleep problems and other chronic health conditions. From this
information, culturally responsive sleep education and intervention
materials can be developed to improve health outcomes and reduce
health disparities of Spanish-speaking Mexican Americans.

Since 2005, the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
has placed strong emphasis on strengthening its research mission with a
focus on improving research infrastructure and providing outstanding
research support and mentorship for its faculty. As part of its strategic
plan, the College launched the centers for aging and for children,
teens & families. These centers provide strong mentorship and support
from nationally and internationally known scholars, interdisciplinary
collaboration, and cutting edge educational resources.

NINR Awards ASU Grant for Health
Empowerment Intervention
The National Institute of Nursing
Research (NINR) of NIH has awarded a
two-year grant to the College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation at ASU. The grant is
an Academic Research Enhancement Award
(AREA), or R-15, entitled “Health Empowerment Intervention with Homebound
Older Adults.” Nelma Shearer, PhD, RN
and assistant professor of nursing at ASU
is the Principal Investigator and a research
faculty member of the Center for Healthy
Outcomes in Aging.

Nelma Shearer

According to the U.S. Administration
on Aging, the U.S. adult population 65 and older was 36.3 million in
2004 and is projected to increase to 71.5 million by 2030. Many older
adults live alone, suffer from chronic illness, spend a greater portion
of their lives disabled, and live in poverty. Knowledge concerning the
potential role for health promotion efforts to manage chronic illness
and promote well-being among this older population is limited. Often,
the needs of these older women and men are not being met because
they lack the skills to identify and obtain key resources.
The purpose of the study is to pilot test the theory-based Health
Empowerment Intervention (HEI) with the intent of optimizing the
intervention protocol and exploring its impact on the health outcome
of well-being and theoretical mediators of health empowerment and
goal attainment. The HEI is designed to facilitate health empowerment in older homebound adults by fostering awareness of and access
to personal resources, specifically, self-capacity and social contextual
resources, including social networks and social service utilization.
Emerging from the health empowerment process is a transformation in
which the older adult recognizes his/her ability to purposefully participate in goal attainment and facilitates his/her awareness of and access
to needed resources, thereby promoting well-being.
Study team members are currently being trained with the study
scheduled to begin in late spring. The research team is working with
the Tempe Community Action Agency Home-Delivered Meal program
to invite the involvement of homebound participants.
By building on older adult awareness of personal resources and access to social contextual resources, as well as promoting purposeful
participation in their health, HEI may reduce healthcare costs by keeping homebound women and men in their homes, possibly preventing or
delaying the need for institutionalization.		
n
Spring 2007

37

ASU Nursing News

Publications and Representative Presentations
An article on NAPNAP’s KySS (Keep your
children/yourself Safe and Secure) program
was published in Nursing Spectrum newspaper’s
Pennsylvania regional edition. The article,
“KySS and Tell,” detailed the work being
implemented by the program toward the
prevention of mental health disorders in
children and teens. The KySS program was
founded and is directed by Dean Bernadette
Melnyk.
Baldwin, C. M., Mays, M. Z., Fleury, J.,
Keller, C. S. (2006, August). Health disparities

of Mexican American veterans with Type 2 diabetes.
Paper presented at the National Association
of Hispanic Nurses 31st Annual Meeting and
Conference, Nursing and Health Care for
Hispanics: The State of the Art and Science of
Caring, Phoenix, AZ.
Baldwin, C. M., Vital, M., Silva, G.
E., Fineout-Overholt, E., Melnyk, B.,
Valenzuela, N. A. (2006). Práctica Basada

en la Evidencia (PBE): Una Introducción a
la Revisión de la Evidencia para Mejorar el
Resultado en los Pacientes (Evidence-based
practice [EBP]: An introduction to reviewing
the evidence to improve patient outcomes).
[Abstract]. In Office of Pan American Health
Organization (Washington, DC), Proceedings
of the 10th Coloquio Panamericano de Investigacion
en Enfermeria, 41.
Baldwin, C. M., Wendel, C., Grant, M.,
Rawl, S., Schmidt, C. M., Ko, C., Krouse,
R. (2006, June). Influence of intestinal stoma
on spiritual dimensions of quality of life in military
veterans. Paper presented at the Joint American
Holistic Nurses and Medical Association
Conference, St. Paul, MN.

Bartlett, R., Holditch-Davis, D., Belyea, M.,
Halpern, C., Beeber, L. (2006). Risk and
protection in the development of problem
behaviors in adolescents. Research in Nursing
and Health, 29(6), 607–621.
Beck, C.T., Records, K., Rice, M. (2006).
Further development of the Predictors of
Postpartum Depression Inventory - Revised.
Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal
Nursing, 35(6), 735–745.
38

Bond, S., Neelon, V., Belyea, M. (2006).
Delirium in hospitalized older cancer patients.
Oncology Nursing Forum, 33(6), 1075–1083.
Campesino, M. (2007). Homicide

bereavement: Reflections on the therapeutic
relationship in trauma research. Qualitative
Inquiry, 13(4), 541–553.
Campesino, M., Schwartz, G.E. (2006).

Spirituality among Latinas/os: Implications
of culture in conceptualization and
measurement. Advances in Nursing Science,
29(1), 69–81.
Chen, A.C.C. (2006). Voices from the storm:

Katrina evacuee students at ASU. Transcultural
Nursing Society of Arizona Newsletter, 2(2), 4–6.
Chen, A.C.C., Thompson, E. A. (2007).

Preventing adolescent risky sexual behaviors:
Parents matter! Journal of Specialists in Pediatric
Nursing, 12(2), 119–122.
Clayton, M. F., Mishel, M. H., Belyea,
M. (2006). Testing a model of symptoms,
communication, uncertainty, and well-being,
in older breast cancer survivors. Research in
Nursing and Health, 29(1), 18–39.

Gil, K. M., Mishel, M. H., Germino, B.,
Porter, L. S., Carlton-Laney, I., Belyea,
M. (2006). Uncertainty management
intervention for older African American and
Caucasian long-term breast cancer survivors.
Journal of Psychosocial Oncology, 23(2-3), 3–21.
Gil, K. M., Mishel, M. H., Belyea M.,
Germino, B., Porter, L. S., Clayton,
M. (2006). Benefits of the uncertainty
management intervention for African
American and white older breast cancer
survivors: 20-Month outcomes. International
Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 13(4), 286–294.
Gottlieb, D. J., Redline, S., Nieto, F.J.,
Baldwin, C. M., Newman, A. B., Resnick,
H. E., Punjabi, N.M. (2006). Association
of usual sleep duration with hypertension:
The Sleep Heart Health Study. Sleep, 29,
1009–1012.
Grant, M., Baldwin, C. M., McCorkle, R.,
Rawl, S., Schmidt, M., Ko, C., Wendel, C.,
Krouse, R. (2007, February). Applying a mixed
methods approach to a multi-site study of patients
with ostomies. Paper presented at the Oncology
Nursing Society Advanced Practice Nursing
Conference, Hollywood, CA.

Crogan, N.L., Evans, B.C. (2006). The
shortened Food Expectations-Long term
Care Questionnaire: Assessing nursing
home residents’ satisfaction with food and
food service. Journal of Gerontological Nursing,
32(10), 50–59.

Hagler, D. (2006). Evidence and expertise at the
bedside: Credibility in nursing discourse. Poster
presented at the Western Institute of Nursing,
Albuquerque, NM.

Dirksen, S. R., O’Brien, P., Lewis, S.,

reference (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.

Heitkemper, M., Bucher, L. (2007). Clinical
companion to medical-surgical nursing (7th ed.).
St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.

Hagler, D. (2006). Pulmonary modalities. In
Stillwell, S. (Ed.), Mosby’s critical care nursing

Hagler, D. (2006). Pulmonary disorders. In
Stillwell, S. (Ed.), Mosby’s critical care nursing

reference (4th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Mosby.
Evans, B.C., Greenberg, E. (2006).

Atmosphere, tolerance and cultural
competence in a baccalaureate nursing
program. Journal of Transcultural Nursing,
17(3), 298–305.
Evans, B.C. (2006). The multicultural
research process. Journal of Nursing Education,
45(7), 275–279.

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Hagler, D. and Brem, S. (2006). Nurses’

informal argument: Learning to justify the claim
and reach agreement. Paper presented at the
International Conference of the Learning
Sciences, Bloomington, IN.
Hightower, J., Jarrell, K. (2007). A nursing

clinic at CASS. A partnership between the Arizona
State University College of Nursing & Healthcare

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Innovation and Central Arizona Shelter Services.
Association of Community Health Nursing
Educators Annual Meeting, Kansas City, MO.
Hornbrook, M. C., Krouse, R. S., McMullen,
C., Grant, M., Baldwin, C. M., Herrinton,
L., Ramirez, M., Altschuler, A., Mohler, M.
J. (2007, March). Qualitative analysis of quality
of life of colorectal cancer survivors with stomas.
Paper presented at the 2007 HMO Research
Network Annual Meeting, Portland, OR.

McLeod, R. (2006). Educational preparation,

certification requirements and scope of practice
for specialty areas of nurse practitioner practice.
Invited keynote presented at Arizona BRN
Nurse Practitioner Summit, Phoenix, AZ.
McLeod, R. (2006). Skin. In K. Dudeerstadt

(Ed.), Pediatric physical examination: An
illustrated handbook (1st ed., chapter 6).
Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier Science.
McLeod, R. (2006). Wouldn’t it be great to

Hrabe, D. P., Gazda, R., Berg, B. (2006).

Igniting the SPARK: Supporting the
technology needs of online learners. Distance
Learning, 2(5), 13–17.

have a brain in your pocket when you teach?
17th Annual International Nurse Educators
Conference. Breckenridge, CO.
Melnyk, B.M. (2006). Calling all educators

Hrabe, D. P., Kulikowski, K. Preceptor-

Educator Program (PEP): A hybrid approach to
preceptor preparation. Poster presentation at
the 40th Annual Communicating Nursing
Research Conference/21st Annual WIN
Assembly, “50 Years of Advancing Nursing in
the West, 1957-2007,” Portland, OR.
Johns, B., Gance-Cleveland, B. (2006). Care
partners and patient care technicians: Impact
on orientation, retention, & promotion.
Journal of Pediatric Nursing: Nursing Care of
Children and Families, 21(2), 130.
Leong, K. J., Airriess, C., Chen, A.C.C.,
Keith, V., Li, W., & Adams, K. (2007).
From invisibility to hypervisibility: The
complexity of race, survival, and resiliency
for the Vietnamese-American community in
New Orleans. In K. Bates & R. Swan (Eds.),
Through the eye of Katrina: Social justice in the
United States (chapter 9). Durham, North
Carolina: Carolina Academic Press.
Lewis, S., Heitkemper, M., Dirksen, S. R.,
O’Brien, P., Bucher, L. (Eds.) (2007).
Medical-surgical nursing: Assessment & management
of clinical problems (7th ed.). St. Louis, MO:
Elsevier Mosby.
McLeod, R. (2006). A palm full of possibilities:

“Just in Time” information at the point of care.
Invited presentation at Toward an Electronic
Patient Record (TEPR) National Conference
and Exhibition, Baltimore, MD.
McLeod, R. (2006). Clinical effectiveness of

handheld technology. Invited presentation at 31st
National Primary Care Nurse Practitioner
Symposium, Keystone, CO.

to teach and model evidence-based practice
in academic settings [editorial]. Worldviews on
Evidence-Based Nursing, 3(3), 93–94.
Melnyk, B.M. (2006). Evidence Digest. The

latest evidence on restraint use across ages and
clinical settings. Worldviews on Evidence-Based
Nursing, 3 (1), 40–43.
Melnyk, B.M., Crean, H.F., Feinstein,
N.F., Alpert-Gillis, L. (2007). Testing the
theoretical framework of the COPE program
for mothers of critically ill children: An
integrative model of young children’s posthospital adjustment behaviors. Journal of
Pediatric Psychology, 32(4), 463–474.

Quan, S.F., Wright, R., Baldwin, C. M.,
Kaemingk, K. L., Goodwin, J. L., Kuo, T.
F., Kaszniak, A., Boland, L., Caccappolo,
E., Bootzin, R. R. (2006). Sleep disordered
breathing and neurocognitive functioning in
the Sleep Heart Health Study. Sleep Medicine,
7, 498–507.
Records, K. (2007). A critical review
of maternal abuse and infant outcomes:
Implications for newborn nurses. Newborn and
Infant Nursing Reviews, 7(1), 7–13.
Records, K., Rice, M. (2006). Enhancing

participant recruitment in studies of sensitive
topics. Journal of the American Psychiatric Nurses
Association, 12(1), 1–9.
Reed, P.G., Shearer, N.B. (2006). Peplau’s
theoretical model. In J. Fitzpatrick and M.
Wallace (Eds.), Encyclopedia of nursing research
(2nd ed., pp. 459–461). New York: Springer.
Shearer, N.B.C., Fleury, J. (2006). Social
support promoting health in older women.
Journal of Women & Aging, 18(4) 3–17.
Shearer, N.B.C. (2006). Development
and evaluation of the health empowerment
intervention: Challenges in health
management by community-dwelling older
adults. The Gerontologist, 46 (Special Issue 1),
570.

Melnyk, B.M., Feinstein, N.F., Alpert-Gillis,
L., Fairbanks, E., Crean, H.F., Sinkin, R.,
Stone, P.W., Small, L., Tu, X., Gross, S.J.
(2006). Reducing premature infants length
of stay and improving parents’ mental health
outcomes with the COPE NICU program: A
randomized clinical trial. Pediatrics, 118(5),
1414–1427.

Shearer, N.B.C. (2006). Hair and hands and
oxygen tank: The embodiment of homebound
older women. Arizona Nurse, 59(5), 7.

Melnyk, B.M., Moldenhauer, Z. (2007).
Mental health promotion and mental health
screening for children and adolescents. In N.
Ryan-Wenger (Ed.), Core curriculum for primary
care pediatric nurse practitioners (pp. 300–314).
St. Louis, MO: Mosby Elsevier.

Weberg, D., Hagler, D. (2007). Debriefing:
When too much information is too much. Poster
presented at American Association of Colleges
of Nursing Hot Issues Conference, Denver,
CO.

Small, L. Melnyk, B. (2006). Early predictors

of post-hospitalization adjustment problems in
critically ill young children. Research in Nursing
& Health, 29(6), 622–35.

Wilson, B. (2007). Perinatal risk and litigation:
Melnyk, B.M., Small, L., Morrison-Beedy,

D., Strasser, A., Spath, L., Kreipe, R., Crean,
H.F., Jacobson, D., Van Blankenstein, S.
(2006). Mental health correlates of healthy
lifestyle attitudes, beliefs, choices & behaviors
in overweight teens. Journal of Pediatric Health
Care, 20(6), 401–406.

Creating a culture of patient safety. Paper
presented at the Arizona Association of
Legal Nurse Consultants Spring Conference,
Phoenix, AZ.
				

Spring 2007

n

39

ASU Nursing News

Appointments
Stevens Named Project Coordinator
Carol Stevens, MS, RN, BSN,
has joined the College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation as Nurses-toNurses Project Coordinator and an
Assistant Director of the Academy
for Continuing Education.

from Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colo. She also worked as
Project Manager for Sarpy County Economic Development Corporation in Omaha, Neb., and developed partnerships with the programs
and staff of the Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce.

Funded by a $1.3 million grant
from the Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA) to
the Arizona State University College
of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation,
the goal of the Nurses-to-Nurses
project (David Hrabe, project director) is to implement a working
model for creating and sustaining a healthy and effective nursing work
environment that can be adapted by health organizations across the
United States. The college is partnering with Abrazo Health Care
(AHC) of Arizona on the five-year initiative.

Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and
Researcher Joins ASU College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation

Stevens has 30 years of management and nursing leadership experience, mostly in acute care settings. Prior to joining ASU, she served
as Nurse Recruiter of St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center in
Phoenix. Stevens previously served as a charge nurse and Director of
Pediatrics for Carondelet St. Mary’s Hospital in Tucson, Arizona.
A graduate of the University of Arizona with a Master’s in Nursing
degree, Stevens earned her BSN at the University of St. Louis.

Business Support Services Adds 		
Accounting Specialist
Kristi Kappes has joined the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation as an Accounting Specialist in the Business Support Services office. Kappes reports directly to Dr. Jacalyn Askin, Assistant
Dean for Finance & Business Support Services. In her new assignment, Kappes is responsible for payroll, P-Card review, E-commerce
monitoring, general account reconciliation, and ADR (grant)
effort reporting.
Most recently, Kappes served
as Payroll & Accounting Associate for the University of
Sioux Falls (USF) in Sioux Falls,
South Dakota. Shortly before
relocating to Phoenix, Kappes
was honored as the University
of Sioux Falls’ Support Staff Employee of the Year.
A native of South Dakota,
Kappes earned a BBA in Management and AA in Computer
Information Systems-Business

40

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation

Michael Rice, PhD, ARNP, FAAN, has joined the ASU College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation as an associate professor, coordinator of the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Program, and a researcher in
the Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens
& Families.
Rice is a licensed Psychiatric ARNP and board certified by the
American Nurses Credentialing Center. He is active in the American
Psychiatric Nurses Association on issues of national board certification. His research focus is on the effects of intimate partner violence
on maternal and infant health outcomes.
An advocate for the use of technology to meet healthcare needs of rural
America, Rice’s HRSA-funded Medically Indigent Rural Area (MIRA)
project is a model for rural Psychiatric NPs distance education, which
enables graduate nursing students in
rural areas to obtain supervised hours
for NP licensure through internetbased videoconferencing and PDAs
without relocating. It won the prestigious 2002 EDUCAUSE Award for
Excellence in Application of Technology for the Benefit of Humanity
and 2003 award for Best Paper in Industry and Corporate Training:
EISTA, International Institute of Informatics.
The model is now being replicated in other states where Rice is a
consultant and addresses a national need for access to graduate psychiatric nursing programs for underserved and rural areas. He provides
national and international consultation and serves on editorial review
boards on healthcare technology. He also serves on the National Board
of Advisors for Spyglass Consulting, a firm focused on emerging
healthcare technology, whose clients include Microsoft, Intel, Cisco
and Sun Microsystems.
Rice received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 1974 from Mount
Marty College, Yankton, South Dakota; a Master’s in Psychiatric
Nursing from the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center in 1976; and a PhD in Clinical Nursing Research from
the University of Arizona College of Nursing in 1988. He served on
the faculty of Washington State University College of Nursing before
joining ASU.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Moving Forward – Development Opportunites and Milestones
50th Anniversary Brings New Development
Goals: Raising Funds for Two Professorships
The college is pleased to announce that fundraising is underway to
establish two new endowed professorships ($500,000 each): one in
memory of Nancy Melvin to be dedicated to pediatric nursing and one
in honor of Bernita “B” Steffl to be dedicated for geriatric nursing. Both
Nancy Melvin and B Steffl were pioneers in their respective fields of
nursing, which have become academic strengths for the college.
Nancy Melvin is believed to have been the first pediatric nurse practitioner in the Valley and had a huge passion for children. She earned
a baccalaureate nursing degree at the University of Nebraska and a
doctorate in higher education at the University of Arizona. Nancy was
a career nurse who set high goals, focused her work to achieve them,
and was a wonderful mentor to graduate students as a result. She was
the first ASU nursing professor to receive a $1 million research grant.
Nancy was loved and is missed by many.
B Steffl is a true clinician, respected for identifying what needs to
be done in healthcare and then leading the way to address the issues.
She first studied nursing at the Anker Hospital of Nursing in St. Paul,
Minn. Then, following her service in the Army Nursing Corps during
WWII at stations in the United States, Italy and Iran, B continued her
education with a baccalaureate degree at the University of Minnesota
and a master’s degree in public health. Over time, she developed a keen
interest in the unique health issues facing the elderly in the emerging
field of geriatric nursing, at which time she earned a Certificate in Gerontology at the University of Southern California. During B’s academic
career, she developed curriculum dedicated to gerontology including a
certificate program at ASU. Among her many activities beyond ASU,
B established the Geriatric Nurses Interest Group of the Gerontological Society of America and worked for the passage of state and federal
policies and legislation on aging. B’s warm personality is adored by her
colleagues, friends and extended family.
A report on the college’s fundraising progress for these professorships
will be included in upcoming issues of ASU Nursing. These professorships will help to build and sustain the college’s strategic priorities in
healthy aging and pediatrics (including adolescence) by enabling the college to recruit ASU talented faculty early in their mid-academic careers.
Please join us in making contributions to these valuable professorships
by check (made payable to ASU Foundation), transfer of stocks and
securities, and/or inclusion in estate plans. (See the end of this column
for more details.)

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation Supports
New Center for Healthcare Innovation &
Clinical Trials
The Kauffman Foundation pledged $5 million in December 2006
to ASU for its “University as Entrepreneur” proposal. ASU was the

only competing university that included its nursing school as a key
component in its grant proposal. The college will receive seed money
totaling $527,810 over five years to launch the Center for Healthcare
Innovation & Clinical Trials. This center will work with other ASU
units, such as Innovation Space in the College of Design, to help
design and test healthcare devices. The center plans to become a
national clearinghouse to assist innovative nurses, NPs, physicians
and others to take their healthcare ideas to market. (Please see pages
16–18 for more information.)

It’s a Girl! — “Baby Delivered” to ASU at the
Polytechnic Campus
ASU Foundation’s Women & Philanthropy approved a grant
request (in excess of $50,000) in spring 2007 to purchase a
SimBaby™ and related equipment to benefit ASU nursing students
and improve their
clinical simulation
experiences. “Baby
Jane” will be delivered
this summer to the
Polytechnic campus.
This vital gift will
enable the nursing
students to receive
pediatric clinical
practice experiences
that may not be
available at community
sites due to increasing
competition for
clinical placements.
In addition, having a SimBaby™ on the Polytechnic campus will
help create important parity for the Polytechnic’s students’ current
clinical simulation experiences. “Baby Jane” is named in honor of
Jane Jozoff, outgoing Women & Philanthropy co-chair, who helped
lead the organization for two fast-growing years.

Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure Supports
Breaking the Cycle
The Phoenix Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure awarded
$10,755 to the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation’s
project “Favor de Tocar (Please Touch),” a breast health education
program to be delivered at Breaking the Cycle (BTC) Community
Health Care. This breast health education program will be provided
to all clients receiving full physical exams at BTC, and builds upon a
current marketing campaign in Mexico with a similar name, “Toque
por Favor,” designed to increase awareness of the importance of
breast self exam.
Spring 2007

41

ASU Nursing News

Donor Reception
Approximately 75 scholarship recipients, parents and donors
gathered to meet one another and enjoy a beautiful, warm evening in
early February this year at the Mercado on the Downtown Phoenix
campus. Tours of the adjacent Learning Resource Center featured
SimMan™ and SimBaby™. During the program, Dean Melnyk
thanked the donors and business advisory group members for their
support, congratulated student award recipients for their dedication
to school and profession, reported on development achievements in
her first two years, and outlined fundraising priorities for the future.
In sharing a moving and recent personal life experience, Dean Melnyk
concluded her remarks by reminding everyone of the importance of
showing each other our appreciation for one another.

Support the Exciting Initiatives of
the College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation
If you wish to make a charitable contribution to the
college, please make a gift online by visiting www.
asufoundation.org and clicking on “Invest in ASU.” Or,
please make your check payable to “ASU Foundation,” and in
the check’s memo line indicate your preferred designation,
such as,
• Dean’s Investment Fund (where the need is greatest)

First Helene Fuld Nursing Innovation
Scholars Named
The first two recipients of the Helene Fuld Nursing Innovation
Scholar scholarships are
Catherine Brooks and
Armida Cisneros-Silva.
Cisneros-Silva is an RN with
an Associate Degree who
works as an emergency room
nurse at a local hospital.
Brooks hopes to work in
labor and delivery with
underserved populations and
ultimately become a certified
nurse midwife.
The Helene Fuld Health
Trust, HSBC Bank USA,
N.A. Trustee, awarded
a $550,000 grant for the
baccalaureate nursing
scholarships to the ASU

Above: Scholarship recipient Armida
Cisneros-Silva.

Catherine Brooks accepts her scholarship award
from Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Mary
Killeen, PhD, RN.

College of Nursing
& Healthcare
Innovation.
Scholarships are
awarded for the
senior year on a
competitive basis
to a select group
of nursing students
with the greatest
potential for impact
on the field of
nursing. Recipients
are recognized as the
Helene Fuld Nursing
Innovation Scholars.

42

• Nursing Professorship:
		 1. Nancy Melvin Professorship in Pediatric Nursing,
		 2. Bernita (B.) Steffl Professorship in Geriatric
			 Nursing.
Please mail your gift to:
Laurel Van Dromme, Director of Development
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation,
MC 3020
500 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004.*
If you have any questions or wish to designate your
gift elsewhere in the College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation, please contact Laurel at 602-496-0879, laurel.
vandromme@asu.edu, or at the above address.
*Note: The ASU Foundation reaches out to alumni and

donors via mail, professionally trained ASU student callers,
and directors of development. If you have any questions or
comments about solicitations that you receive on behalf of
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, please
contact Laurel Van Dromme, director of development, at
602-496-0879, laurel.vandromme@asu.edu, or 500 N.
3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004. All funds will be deposited
with the ASU Foundation, a separate nonprofit organization
that exists to support ASU.

In 1935, Dr Leonhard Felix Fuld and his sister, Florentine, created
a foundation in honor of their mother, Helene Shwab Fuld. Dr. Fuld
developed his interest in supporting student nurses at a time when
most nursing education was given in hospital-based diploma programs.
The Helene Fuld Health Trust is the nation’s largest private funder
devoted exclusively to nursing students and nursing education.
The Fuld Trust awards grants to leading nursing organizations and
academic institutions which undertake innovative programs designed
to develop and expand the profession and leadership skills of nursing
students, faculty and administrators.

ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Alumni News
Bobby Denaro, BSN, 1993 was graduated with honors from
Columbia University’s Nurse Anesthesia Program in 2002. He
recently completed the first of four semesters in the Doctor of
Nursing Practice (DNP) Program at Columbia and hopes to be the
first CRNA in the nation with a DNP. Denaro plans to apply the
degree at his current work in doing acute/chronic pain management.
He credits ASU faculty Beatrice (Bunny) Kastenbaum, Deb Hull and
Anita Thorne for cultivating his interest in nursing. “My experience at
ASU’s College of Nursing was life fulfilling,” Denaro said.
In Memoriam
Victoria Beleski Harris, BSN, 1959
Rosemarie Card Sandling, BSN, 1966

NINDS Stroke Health Services
Recommendations Made
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
(NINDS) has issued recommendations for health services implementation. Anne Wojner-Alexandrov, assistant director for outcomes
management in the Center for the Advancement of Evidence-based
Practice at the ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation,
First Mayo Campus Cohort Graduates

served as cochairperson of the
NINDS subcommittee and is the only
representative from
the nursing field.
The group’s
recommendations
included:
• Development
of data dictionarAnne Wojner-Alexandrov, assistant clinical
ies endorsed by
professor of nursing at ASU, co-chairs a
key stakeholders
National Institute of Neurological Disorders
supported by easily
and Stroke subcommittee.
adopted, clinically
integrated, prospective data storage/shuttling systems;
• Provider and system payment incentives (e.g., pay for performance) and availability of cost-effective technology strategies;
• Use of practice/professional organizations to support local
development of cross-continuum relationships among providers of stroke care (e.g., reduce market competition and increase
cooperation);
• Comprehensive Stroke Center certification with development
of “hub” and “spoke” (Primary Stroke Centers) services; and
• Increase expectations
among certified/designated stroke centers for
demonstrating community engagement.
The foremost recommendation of the subcommittee
is to understand the contribution of evidence-based,
stroke-care systems to the
reduction of stroke burden
within the U.S. population.
The publication of evidencebased practice guidelines
already has formed the
foundation of certification
processes that have been
implemented by government
and accreditation agencies,
such as the Joint Commission on Accreditation of
Healthcare Organizations.

Above: Members of the first graduating class from the Mayo Campus of the ASU College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation are: ( front row from left) Dawn Duncan, Krystal Greeson, Victoria Murray, Nancy
Morales, Ed Runyon, Michele Mintz, Jodi Heisey, and Rachel Samely; (back row from left) Virginia Helmer, Staci Quinn, Melissa Bowden, Shelley Beltz, Katie Blechman, Kevin Wherry, Stephanie Pettit, Kristin Leedy, Alison Frankley, Alison Cole, and Michelle Meler. The campus is part of a strategic partnership
between Mayo Clinic in Arizona and the college.

More than 700,000
Americans have strokes
annually, which result in 15
percent deaths, 10 percent
requiring long-term care,
and 40 percent with moderate to severe impairments.
		
Spring 2007

n
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ASU College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
The ASU College
of Nursing &
Healthcare
Innovation
announces a
national search
for an Associate
Dean for Academic
Affairs. Join a team
of researchers,
educators, and
evidence-based
practitioners
committed to
optimizing health
across a variety of
clinical settings
and building the
healthiest university
in America.

The Arizona State University College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation has embarked on a bold
new strategy that centers on the development of innovative educational programs, cutting-edge
research to improve health outcomes in culturally diverse high-risk populations, and the Centers for
the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice, Healthy Outcomes in Aging, and Healthy Outcomes
in Children, Teens, & Families. Our college is an inclusive world-class enterprise of discovery that
prepares innovative, evidence-based healthcare providers, educators, leaders and researchers to
optimize health in a culturally diverse global community. The ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare
Innovation is the state’s largest producer of nurses with Bachelor of Science, Master of Science,
and Doctoral degrees in nursing, a Master’s degree in Healthcare Innovation, and certification in
evidence-based practice, community health/public health, nursing education, child and adolescent
psychiatric mental health intervention specialist.
Under the guidance of President Michael M. Crow, ASU is building the New American University.
Arizona State University is one of the premier metropolitan research universities in the nation and
enrolls more than 63,000 students on four campuses in vibrant metropolitan Phoenix. With more
than 325 days of annual sunshine, Arizona’s near-perfect weather goes hand-in-hand with year-round
cultural activities.
The Associate Dean is accountable for the overall integrity, leadership, management and evaluation
of the baccalaureate and graduate degree programs, certificate programs, and related support services in the College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation across four sites. Additional responsibilities
include advancing strategic educational initiatives, creating innovative academic and clinical partnerships, developing and implementing new programs, promoting retention and graduation, advancing
faculty development, and mobilizing educational resources to achieve excellence in education.
Applicants must have strong leadership and management skills; demonstrated leadership in nursing education; demonstrated expertise in successful entrepreneurial initiatives and partnership development; and demonstrated experience in successful funding of large grant applications and awards
management. An earned doctorate in nursing or related field and eligibility for tenure as an associate
or full professor are required.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Electronic
applications are encouraged. A criminal and employment history background check will be performed prior to the employment offer. Apply with a letter of interest, curriculum vitae, and the
names of three references. Please include a postal address, e-mail address, or telephone number for
each reference. Send application materials to:
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN, FNAP
Dean and Distinguished Foundation Professor
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
Arizona State University, 500 N. 3rd Street,
Phoenix, AZ  85004-0698
http://nursing.asu.edu
E-mail contact: Julie.Fleury@asu.edu
Chair, Search Committee

Arizona State University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.

D RE AM

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DI SCOV E R

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ASU College of Nursing &
Healthcare Innovation
P R E S E NT S

Two Innovative Offerings
Educational innovation in an evidence-based practice environment is a core principle of Arizona State University
College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation strategy. As part of the implementation of this strategy, the college
is pleased to offer the following two programs that can make a difference in your work and career:

EBP Mentorship Program
June 18-22, 2007
September 10-14, 2007
A 5-day immersion program held on the ASU Downtown
Phoenix Campus to prepare staff nurse teams and advanced
practice nurses as leaders and mentors in changing organizational cultures through the promotion, implementation, and
sustainability of evidence-based practice.
Faculty
The following nationally recognized experts in Evidence-based
Practice and outcomes management will conduct the program:
*Contact Hours: To be determined
Ellen Fineout-Overholt, PhD, RN
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN, FNAP
Alyce Schultz, PhD, RN, FAAN
Anne Wojner-Alexandrov, PhD, RN, FAAN
APPLY TO:

The Center for the Advancement of Evidence-based Practice
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
500 N. 3rd Street • Phoenix, AZ 85004-0698
Phone: 602-496-0932
E-mail: Deborah.Relph@asu.edu
Web:
http://nursing.asu.edu/ebp

* Contact hours will be provided by the Arizona State University College of
Nursing & Healthcare Innovation, Academy of Continuing Education (ACE).
ACE is an approved provider of continuing nursing education by the Arizona
Nurses Association, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

D R E A M • D I S C OV E R • D E L I V E R

Intervention Studies:
A Research Intensive Workshop
November 28-30, 2007
A 3-day workshop at the ASU Downtown Phoenix Campus
to prepare doctorally prepared nurses, advanced practice
nurses, doctoral students, and professionals from other health
disciplines who seek to acquire or enhance their knowledge and
critical skills to design, conduct, analyze, and fund intervention
studies.
Faculty
Expert faculty in theory-based intervention studies who will
present at the workshop:
*AzNA-ASU-5397-07 Contact Hours: 18.7
Bernadette Melnyk, PhD, RN, CPNP/NPP, FAAN, FNAP
Michael Belyea, PhD
Julie Fleury, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA
Bonnie Gance-Cleveland, PhD, RNC, PNP
Colleen Keller, PhD, RN-C, FNP
Mary Mays, PhD
Diane Morrison-Beedy, PhD, RN,WHNP, FNAP
APPLY TO:

The Academy for Continuing Education
ASU College of Nursing & Healthcare Innovation
PO Box 873008 • Tempe, AZ 85287-3008
Phone: 480-965-7431
E-mail: ACE@asu.edu
Web:
http://nursing.edu.edu/ace

SUPPORT
NURSING
STUDENTS,
SUPPORT
YOURSELF
A charitable gift annuity is an excellent
way to ensure a bright future for
students in ASU’s College of Nursing
& Healthcare Innovation. It can be a
part of your bright future, too.
For more information about taxadvantaged giving opportunities,
contact Tim Gartland, associate
director of gift planning for the
ASU Foundation, at 480.965.2038.

Non Profit Org.
U.S. Postage
PAID
Arizona State
University

500 N. 3rd Street, Phoenix, AZ 85004-0698