School of Nursing: Connections

Headlines

Information literacy: a changing mosaic of skills, knowledge and attitude
Three nurse executives eye the current job market and its impact on the School’s graduates
Faces of lifelong learning at the UW School of Nursing
Scholarship support makes lifelong learning possible for many
Cross-cultural teaching goes both ways
Two students are Hegyvary Scholars

Faces of lifelong learning at the UW School of Nursing

"I am interested in the future. I plan on spending the rest of my life there."

This is C.F. Kettering’s answer to why we are here. It is also the reason that many individuals are making sometimes dramatic changes in their lifestyles or careers to pursue a future in nursing. For some, it means returning to university studies after a 20-year absence. For others, it means finally seeing the achievement of a dream after years of effort in bits and pieces. In each case, however, obtaining the competency to work as a nurse in one or more of the hundreds of careers now available to nursing graduates is a marriage of heart and mind, the fulfillment of a dream.

Profiled below are some of the remarkable women and men who are working on their dreams through various nursing education resources at the University of Washington, including the Bothell and Tacoma campuses.

	Hien Hoang, R.N. to B.S.N. student, UW Tacoma Since spending a year in a Vietnamese refugee camp, Hien Hoang has respected people from developed countries who helped refugees like her. "I wanted to do something like that once I was established in a career," she explains. Fourteen years after leaving Vietnam, she returned with a nursing degree to work for several humanitarian organizations. "I did my job well, but wished I had more education." Today, she’s earning a B.S.N. at UW Tacoma with a goal of earning master’s degrees in nursing and public health to help people here and in developing countries. "What is most valuable about UWT’s program is they treat me as an intelligent individual, and teach me to think for myself and to get information to make good decisions."

	Brian Guvenir, B.S.N student Guvenir came to nursing from a Ph.D. in chemical engineering and 12 years working for a large corporation. Moved by the experience of helping to care for a critically ill infant born to two close friends, Guvenir started volunteering at Denver Children’s Hospital, eventually giving over 40 hours a week to their intermediate critical care unit. Now a senior in the B.S.N. program, Guvenir hopes to do pediatric nursing, especially oncology, because he loves working with parents and other health professionals in crisis situations. Being able to apply his knowledge directly to people "brings out the best in me," he observes. "No matter how many hours I work, I always walk away feeling hungry for more."

	Connie Stromberg, B.S.N student With a daughter new to college and four teenage sons at home, Stromberg is clear about her most important life work: "being a wife and mother and raising my kids." Stromberg quit college after one year to put her husband through school, and going back after 20 years was a daunting experience at first. She avoided "mother panic attacks" by becoming familiar with technology, such as a pager and e-mail, and she has been surprised at how much more independent her children have become without her being home full-time. Stromberg has found the B.S.N. course work "fascinating" because of its relevance to "real life."

	Barbara Gooding, M.N student A high school drop-out who had her first child at 16, Gooding was inspired by her R.N. mother to study nursing at a junior college. After working in a neonatal intensive care unit in California, she eventually entered the R.N. to B.S.N. program at UW Bothell and began working with homeless Native Americans in downtown Seattle as a public health nurse. Developing good rapport with this population because of her own Hispanic and Native American background, Gooding helped to establish an on-going clinical nursing site at Chief Seattle Club to better serve their needs. This experience inspired her to return to school for a family nurse practitioner degree to enable her to work with all ages, from newborns to the elderly. Today Gooding’s daughter has also returned to school to become a nurse practitioner specializing in cardiology.

	Betty Westfall, M.N. student Westfall has worked as a nurse since obtaining her B.S.N. in 1972, mainly in the emergency room but also as the manager of a small medical practice in Seattle. Frustrated over not having enough control over her career, she worked briefly on obtaining an M.B.A. before deciding to pursue her nurse practitioner credential. A single parent, Westfall had to give up her job to cope with the demands of being a full-time nursing student with a 1-1/2 hour commute from home. But the sacrifices have been worth it, she says, and she looks forward to an independent career in home care that will allow her to achieve a better balance between family life and work.

	Cheryl Cooke, Ph.D. student After 14 years as an R.N., Cooke decided she was tired of the "glass ceiling." While continuing to work full-time, she completed a B.S.N. degree at UW Bothell and was inspired by that experience to go on for her master’s at the Seattle campus. Accepted into the doctoral program in 1997, she now works as student outreach coordinator for the School in addition to "as many as three other jobs at times." Cooke believes such a course is "very doable" if you have the willingness to "downscale" your life short-term. She considers the Ph.D. program an "enormous opportunity" and "the most rewarding thing I have ever done." Cooke was recently named a Magnuson Scholar.

	Anna Scott, Ph.D. student During the last few years of her 20-year career at Nordstrom’s department store, Scott worked in the risk-management department, helping people with occupational injuries. This experience and a life-long interest in medicine led her to begin taking pre-requisites at night to enter the B.S.N. program at the UW, something she finally achieved at age 45. Going directly from her B.S.N. to a M.N. degree, Scott became fascinated by the interaction between addiction and mental illness and realized she could not satisfy this interest unless she went on to a Ph.D. Helped by a supportive husband and the belief that "you get older whether you do what you want or not," Scott has been most struck by the ability nursing provides to "carve out your own niche."

	JoAnn Petersen, CNE student Certified as a nurse practitioner, Petersen has been working for the past 19 years as a consulting nurse for Group Health of Puget Sound. She has been taking continuing education courses since 1980, both to maintain her credentials and to keep up with the vast amount of information that she needs to stay current for her job, particularly in the area of pharmacologics. Peterson has been able to fit CNE courses in around her job and the demands of her family, including a set of twins. She says her consulting work is "very challenging," requiring lots of independent problem solving for patients, and that she would never be able to do it without "keeping up" through continuing nursing education.

	Cydne Marckmann, M.N. distance learning student Because she lives in Puyallup, taking courses through the distance learning program for her M.N. degree in women’s primary care has been "a matter of survival." Since it requires her to be on campus only one day a week, and because she can carpool with other students, the time spent commuting has been "greatly reduced," allowing her to better juggle child care with her husband. Marckmann is a "major fan" of distance learning, noting that all but two of her practicums have been arranged close to home, and she credits the program for allowing her to reach her goal much faster and with more time for studying. "For older students with busy lives, it really opens doors."

	Barbara Habermann, postdoctoral fellow Habermann obtained her B.S.N. immediately after graduating from high school and has held various positions in nursing for the past 20 years. Completing her master’s at the UW, she obtained a doctorate in 1993 and is now refining and expanding her research skills through a postdoctoral fellowship. Her commitment has involved a family relocation but, says Habermann, "It’s truly an investment in your future. Postdoctoral studies give you an opportunity to really focus on research without other demands on your time. It allows you time to publish and develop grants, thereby positioning you better for the future."

Continuing Nursing Education

Nursing education does not end with the completion of a degree. Lifelong learning through continuing nursing education (CNE) is a continuum that can prepare nurses for advanced research or practice or that can assist them in maintaining currency and integrity as a nurse. Some CNE classes provide credit toward a degree or certification, while others are designed to meet immediate and specific needs within the professional community. CNE courses can also test creative approaches to content that can then be incorporated into academic curricula or a certificate course program. The retraining of nurses throughout their career trajectories is an essential component of lifelong learning and the foundation of the CNE program, which is anchored in solid academics and built on the unique strengths of the School of Nursing and its constituent groups. For information about Continuing Nursing Education courses, call 206/543-1047.

Distance Learning

Evolving from the correspondence course or from faculty members traveling to remote sites to provide instruction, distance learning now uses information technology and digital communication networks to provide nursing education to a changing student body of part-time students, time- and place-bound students, and students with more outside responsibilities. The school strives to create a program for off-campus students which accomplishes the same educational objectives as those for on-campus students. For information about Distance Learning courses, contact Penny Vielma, Program Manager, Educational Outreach, at 206/616-1397.