Dean's Monthly Communication: August 2007

Message from Dean Woods
This past week all SoN staff got a refresher course on what it takes to build successful teams. The Staff Advisory Council retreat provided a fun and useful day of training and socializing.

I appreciated the invitation to participate in an exercise that Laurie Rossnagel led about how to work effectively with the multiple generations in our current workplace. From participating in this exercise (as the oldest baby boomer in the room, I think), I learned that the traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation Xers and millenials all have different orientations to work. One of the most striking things I learned during the exercise was that everyone seemed to share an interest and commitment to worthy goals -- but that we all get there in slightly different ways. The principle of equifinality in some academic theories suggests that there are many pathways to the same end. I now have an enlarged appreciation for the different paths we take. Thanks for including me!

And if you missed the opportunity to participate in this exercise, perhaps we can arrange another time for you to hear about the different generations in our workplace and how their unique attributes result in important contributions to our school. Continuing to learn about different workstyles and values makes coming to work each day an opportunity to grow!
—Nancy Fugate Woods, PhD, RN, FAAN


Campaign UW: Creating Futures Update
Group Health Professor Named
Marie-Annette Brown, prof., Dept. of FCN, is the first recipient of the new Group Health Endowed Nursing Professorship in Chronic Illness Care. Brown, a UW SoN faculty member since 1983 and practicing family nurse practitioner, is an expert in grief and loss, sub-syndromal depression, women's health and chronic menstrual cycle problems. In her study on families dealing with HIV/AIDS and cancer, she provided caregiving information and group support via telephone to lay caregivers in outlying areas of the Pacific Northwest. She has also studied pioneer nurse practitioners (NPs), novice NPs and practice issues such as prescribing barriers faced by Washington state NPs. To learn more about Brown's appointment, read the press release.


Honors and Awards
Carolyn Chow, dir. of admissions and multicultural student affairs, is the recipient of the UW's 2007 Diversity Award for Community Building. The award will be presented at this year's Multicultural Alumni Partnership breakfast on Oct. 27, 2007. Learn more about the award.


New Grant Awards
Please join me in congratulating the following faculty members for receiving new grant awards.

Kathryn Barnard, prof. emeritus, Dept. of FCN
Project: First Steps Perinatal Depression Training Project
Sponsor: Washington State Department of Health

Yoriko Kozuki, asst. prof., Dept. of PCH
Project: Affiliations and Operations Agreement Between Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic and University of Washington
Sponsor: Providence Everett Healthcare Clinic

Maggie Baker, asst. prof., Dept. of BNHS
Project: Pressure Ulcers Despite Good Care
Sponsor: University of California

Teresa Ward, postdoc student, Dept. of BNHS
Project: Objective and Self-Reported Sleep and Behavioral Emotional Functioning in 9- to 11-Year-Old Children with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis
Sponsor: SoN Research and Intramural Funding Program


Faculty
Noel Chrisman, prof., Dept of PCH spent mid-April to mid-May with the Dept. of Nursing at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Tainan, Taiwan. NCKU faculty want to increase teaching and research skills in transcultural nursing—one of Chrisman's areas of focus—because of the large increase in immigrants to Taiwan. While at NCKU, Chrisman taught weekly graduate and undergraduate classes, helped faculty prepare research articles for publication and attended workshops. Some of the students Chrisman taught will visit the SoN this summer and give a presentation in NURS 407.

Linda Teri, prof., Dept of PCH, was appointed as interim vice chair of PCH for the 2007-08 academic year.

Hilaire Thompson, asst. prof., Dept. of BNHS, and her research were featured in Sigma Theta Tau's quarterly magazine, Reflections on Nursing Leadership, in "When Big Is Small," an article about small grants. Read the full article.


Staff
Kimberly Sims, administrator for the SoN, has announced her retirement, effective Oct. 5, 2007. We thank her for 24 years of service to the UW, especially those spent at the SoN.


International Scholars
August is a popular time for short-term visits to the School of Nursing:

Natsuko Harada and Eiko Nishiike, lecturers from Keio University in Japan, will be hosted by Yoriko Kozuki, asst. prof., Dept. of PCH, in early August. They are here to pursue their interests in psychiatric care and community mental health.

Carol Leppa, prof., UW Bothell School of Nursing, will co-host leaders from our partner site in Taiwan: Fooyin University School of Nursing. Vice President Sheila Sheu, Dean Kuei-Yun Lu and two alumnae of UW SoN, Hsiu-Fang Hsieh and Peng-Ping Lee, visited Aug. 13–16.

Leaders from Oita University of Nursing and Health Sciences in Japan will visit on Aug. 21. President Tomoko Kusama, Michiaki Kai and Shinji Miyauchi plan to establish a nurse practitioner graduate-level program at Oita and hope to gather ideas by observing our program.

We bid farewell to visiting graduate student Kunlayanee Tantranont from Chiang Mai University in Thailand. She worked with faculty sponsor Noel Chrisman, prof., Dept. of PCH, from Dec. 2006 until July 20.

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