ECU faculty member serves as Nurse of the Day at N.C. General Assembly

 College of Nursing  No Responses »
May 072013
 

Bagley, Becky-c23East Carolina University nurse faculty member Becky Bagley is serving as Nurse of the Day at the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh today.

Bagley, director of nurse-midwifery education in the ECU College of Nursing, will provide services such as taking vital signs, checking blood pressures, and dispensing over-the-counter drugs for headaches, upset stomachs, or allergies to legislators and legislative staff members.

The day is made possible by the North Carolina Nurses Association.

“I chose to serve as Nurse of the Day to broaden my horizons,” Bagley said. “I am a soon-to-be DNP graduate at Duke University and this is a great way to sit in on legislative sessions.”

Many NCNA members who previously served have said the experience has validated their choice of the nursing profession. The nurses enhance the positive image of nursing in the state of North Carolina, officials said.

The North Carolina Nurses Association

The North Carolina Nurses Association is the professional organization for all registered nurses in North Carolina. Through NCNA nurses become powerful advocates patients and the nursing profession. For more information please visit www.ncnurses.org.

New video-based learning resource provides virtual access into nursing world

 College of Nursing, Laupus Library  No Responses »
May 072013
 

There are some lessons you can’t learn from a book – like how to thrive in the fast-paced world of nursing.

For our students studying the complex procedural techniques demanded of today’s nurses, reading instructions out of a textbook is no substitute for the real thing. That’s why Laupus Library works with the Division of Health Sciences to provide learning resources that give our students hands-on, real-world exposure to their intended field.

On and off-campus, College of Nursing students have access to cutting-edge, interactive technological resources that complement the traditional curriculum they study hard to master. On campus, our students have access to the state of the art simulation lab, where they can practice scenarios that might take place in an everyday primary care setting. And at home, they can access step-by-step tutorials using our expanding video library, which now includes the Nursing Education in Video collection from Alexander St. Press.

Nursing Education in Video is an expansive collection of videos created specifically for the education and training of nurses, nursing assistants and other healthcare workers. All of the videos are regularly reviewed to ensure that they are accurate and contain the most up to date information. They also meet all OSHA and CMS regulations.

The collection is available now via the e-resources page: http://www.ecu.edu/laupuslibrary/research/erinfo.cfm?ID=337 . MARC records for individual video titles will be added when available.

For questions about this tool, or any of the other resources that we offer at Laupus, come by or contact us here. We look forward to learning with you.

–Kelly R. Dilda
Public Communications Specialist
Laupus Library

April is Counseling Awareness Month

 College of Allied Health Sciences  No Responses »
Apr 302013
 

kenwidmerApril is Counseling Awareness Month, a time when all counselors make an effort to help the public better understand their profession, the work they do, and the contributions they make to the communities they serve.

Ken Widmer, a student in the online substance abuse graduate certificate program, tells why he chose this field.

My name is Ken Widmer and I live in Wasilla, Alaska. I have a master’s degree in vocational rehabilitation counseling, but only worked in this field for a few years. I enjoyed the work, but I was young and looking for something more exciting.  I chose to become a firefighter for the Anchorage Fire Department where I worked for 31 years, before I was forced to retire because of a debilitating injury.

I have always had a desire to help people, which is one of the reasons I chose to be a firefighter and why I am currently enrolled in the substance abuse certificate program at ECU. Working as a firefighter, I had firsthand experience with the homeless, alcoholics and drug abusers in Anchorage. Over the years, I came to the realization that they were not that different from what society considers “normal people.” Many were quite intelligent and had skills that would provide them with all those things necessary to be a member in good standing in society except:  a few bad decisions, genetic factors, being born in the wrong place, a predisposition toward addiction, coming from a dysfunctional family, etc.

My plan is to return to work to see if I can help people like this make changes that will improve the quality of their life. The classes that I have taken through ECU have taught me that there is no simple solution to substance abuse, but I feel that whatever difference I can make will be worth the effort.

In my life time I have dealt with many people whose job it is to help the sick, the drug addicted and the mentally ill. Some are great while others make you wonder why they are in this line of work. My advice to those that are planning to enter this field is to go to an AA meeting or a NA meeting, volunteer with the homeless. Instead of passing the street person, stop and talk to them. If after doing this, you do not feel empathy for them, then, in my opinion, you have chosen the wrong field.

Hint: Nurse’s Week is coming up May 6˗12…

 College of Nursing  No Responses »
Apr 262013
 

Random acts of kindness go a long way toward putting a smile on someone’s face and reshaping a not-so-great day into a special memory that impacts not just the recipient but everyone that person comes in contact with that day.

Next week, imagine how many people you can touch by taking a moment to thank a nurse for a job well-done. First, you will bring a smile to the nurse. Then, the nurse will unknowingly share that smile with patients and colleagues throughout the day and those people will pass the gesture along to the people they interact with. In a busy clinic or hospital, your simple “thank you” to a nurse will touch hundreds of people.

We celebrate National Nurse’s Week in early May to coincide with Florence Nightingale’s birthday. Just as Nightingale tirelessly cared for soldiers during the Crimean War (1853-1856), our nurses care for all types of patients—some are very sick and others are generally healthy.

Make plans to surprise a nurse with a random act of kindness during Nurse’s Week and know that your thoughtful expression will not only make the nurse’s day, but you will share kindness with many people who may need a boost. You will never know it, but your actions may help a patient overcome a frightening diagnosis or help a young family cope with grief. What a terrific way to say thank you and honor our nurses!

Sylvia T. Brown, EdD, RN, CNE
Dean & Professor
ECU College of Nursing

Streaming Video Sources: Great for Cat Videos, Even Better for Learning

 Laupus Library  No Responses »
Apr 182013
 

Anyone who’s ever fired up Firefox is familiar with YouTube, Vimeo and other free – and often entertaining – sources of streaming videos. We know those sites are great for sneezing pandas and keyboard-typing cats, but what if you’re looking for an instructional video on an important topic in your area of research?

ECU libraries subscribe to a number of authoritative video sources that cover a huge variety of educational topics, including the health sciences. The sources below are particularly useful to our Division of Health Sciences community:

Laupus Library provides access to all of these video streaming services both on and off-campus; Health Sciences community members need only enter their PirateID. So, just like YouTube, members of the Health Sciences community can watch from their couches.

And because many of the links are sharable, it’s easy for students and faculty to link to the actual videos from within BlackBoard or a class website, making the learning experience more interactive. These videos are another example of how Laupus Library – and the entire ECU campus – continues adopting forward-thinking learning tools that meet our students where they already are: online.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to access and use these videos, please Contact Us at Laupus for more information.

–Beth Ketterman
Laupus Library

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