Nursing majors give oral presentations of their research at the Population Health and Leadership Colloquium. The students will showcase their population-based leadership projects in which they advocated for the elimination of health disparities to promote and maintain health with diverse populations, communities, and cultures.
Partners in Health and Safety / Companeros en Salud y Seguridad is a Senior Community Health and Leadership Course in which students travel to large dairies in Western Wisconsin to deliver health screenings and health education to mostly immigrant dairy workers. Students learn about rural life, agricultural health and safety and Latino culture. This Domestic Intercultural Immersion is a partnership between UWEC, Pepin and Buffalo County Public Health, Puentes/Bridges, and Chippewa Valley Free Clinic.
For this clinical immersion, nursing students traveled ten hours to South Dakota to the Rosebud Indian Reservation, the second poorest region in the entire United States. They provided health education on topics that included Gestational Diabetes, Positivity in the Workplace, Compassion Fatigue, Postpartum care, and Postpartum Depression. In addition, they provided activities to address caring for the caregiver by teaching relaxation techniques and offering hand massages. Their leadership skills were evident in the public service announcements they recorded at the local tribal radio station, and in the professional brochures they distributed at community events. This partnership in Rosebud has spanned 20 years and evolved from a maternal rotation to a leadership-management clinical with the community as the client. Students are challenged to examine their preconceived ideas and assumptions about indigenous peoples and compare it to their lived experience in Rosebud. Many students have shared how this was a life-altering experience.
Wood County Healthy Smiles is a school-based oral health program run by the Wood County Health Department. Students will showcase their work to boost program participation and educate students, parents, and school staff about the benefits of fluoride, dental sealants, and other oral health practices. Students will share their experiences in public health emergency preparedness. They will discuss their involvement in a county-wide sheltering exercise and collaboration with various agencies to assess the risk of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in Wood County. They will present their experiences evaluating potential mitigation strategies and planning for and responding to current public health threats.
Eau Claire County identifies mental health as one of the top 5 concerns which impact the community's health. Through partnership and collaboration with a local peer-run facility as well as a social justice organization, the students will showcase their project aimed at addressing mental health needs in the Eau Claire community. Uniquely, the project aims at advocating for Trauma-Informed Care practices and reducing mental health stigma.
Life Without Limits (LWL) is an Eau Claire Area School District program that assists high school graduates with IEPs and disabilities to transition from high school to a more independent adulthood. UWEC nursing partners with LWL and the Eau Claire City-County Health Department to help teach various health topics. The students will showcase their project by discussing their population health and leadership approach to designing interventions for the LWL learners, specifically Healthy Relationships, Mental Health, and Navigating Health Insurance & Telehealth.
Chippewa County has identified gaps in access to care across multiple at-risk populations. One of the most notable gaps is lack of community awareness and education on services offered. Through partnership and collaboration with the Chippewa County Department of Public Health, the students will showcase their project aimed at addressing the access to care gaps, uniquely focusing on harm reduction campaigning and school-based outreach.
Background: Nursing and packaging professionals play a central role in patient safety. Little is known about how undergraduate students learn about the respective disciplines. Objective: The project aims to promote cross-industry education between packaging and nursing students to contribute to patient safety and improve medical device usability. Nursing student researchers created educational videos for packaging students to be included in a medical packaging course. The videos focused on 1) Nursing competencies, ethics, and principles related to medical packaging in the acute care setting; and 2) Demonstration of nursing sterile and clean procedures. Methods: The Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice, guided the project (World Health Organization, 2010). The videos will be presented in a medical packaging course. Voluntary and anonymous pre and post survey design will be used to determine if changes in packaging student knowledge and confidence occurred. The instrument includes 9 Likert scale questions and one additional open-ended question on the post-test. Likert scale questions will be analyzed with paired samples t-test. Qualitative analysis will be used for the open-ended question. Results: Results will be analyzed in spring 2025. Conclusions: Preliminary work has been promising. It is anticipated that results will show an increase in knowledge and confidence. References: World Health Organization (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice.
The research question guiding this review is, in adults with heart failure, how does the use of SGLT-2 inhibitors (Canagliflozin, Dapagliflozin, Empagliflozin, Ertugliflozin) impact nursing care, disease management, and patient education? Heart failure (HF) is a complex disease, with treatments evolving continuously to improve patient outcomes. One such treatment approved in 2022 is SGLT-2 inhibitors, originally used for type 2 diabetes; these drugs have been found to reduce the risk of hospitalization and death of patients with HF. With changes in practice, nurses and healthcare teams need to be updated on information regarding the provision of effective and safe patient care. An integrative literature review was conducted through the EBSCO databases and PubMed using identified key terms. Inclusion criteria were human population, English language, and publication within the last 5 years ensuring inclusion of relevant information. This search strategy identified 136 results with 47 duplicates, resulting in the screening of 89 titles/abstracts. The review is ongoing, and characteristics of included publications will be extracted. Results will provide guidance to nurses on education. We expect topics related to additional monitoring for kidney disease and management in the context of multiple chronic conditions.
This scoping review explores the concept of self-care and its implications to baccalaureate nursing students, importantly: barriers to, the importance of, and interventions of self-care. To direct this review a definition of self-care was developed as follows: Intentional lifestyle behaviors that promote physical and mental health, decrease stress levels, enhance well-being, and nurture mindfulness. This topic is of importance to nursing students undergoing a rigorous nursing program where stressors are increased, and self-care can be neglected. Nurses are helpers, and students join the profession to do just that while often not helping themselves first. This scoping review provided evidence to support initial efforts to promote self-care among baccalaureate nursing students in their program. A scoping review was performed utilizing EBSCOhost databases, using primarily search terms "self-care" and "nursing students" in which 23 articles were found to inform this work during summer 2024. Five areas of self-care (professional, mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual), and interventions within each area were identified. Managing these stressors through self-care was shown to be effective and productive. Self-care reduces the negative effects of stress, including, for example: burnout, mental illness, isolation, and substance abuse.
Background: Advance care planning (ACP) is critically important to providing consistent patient care. Registered nurses (RN) and Nurse Practitioners (NP) are relied upon to lead ACP discussions with patients; however, they often struggle due to lack of confidence in their abilities to have these discussions, lack of time, and concerns that ACP is outside their scope of practice. Incorporating ACP training into school curriculum would bolster preparedness in leading ACP discussions. Methods: A literature review examined 16 articles that addressed the roles, confidence levels, and training needs of NSs, RNs, NPs in ACP. Key words searched included: ACPs, ACP training programs. The databases CINAHL, MEDLINE, UpToDate, Web of Science, and PubMed were searched. Results: Sixteen articles were identified as eligible for the subject matter. The core theme of improving ACP education was highlighted throughout these articles. Conclusion: Current attitudes of NSs, RNs, and NPs reflect feelings of uncertainty about their role within ACP, how to initiate conversations, and improving confidence in leading these conversations. It was found that ACP training programs have been effective in increasing the number of ACP conversations as they help train NSs and NPs to facilitate these conversations. Keywords: Advance care planning; ACP training; RNs; NPs;
This study aims to investigate the vaping habits and effectiveness of practicing mindfulness techniques and weekly positive framed text messages on vaping behaviors of UW-Eau Claire students. Various studies completed in this realm of mindfulness, stress, and vaping have discovered a correlation between stress and vaping. Researchers utilized direct advertising (referrals, campus resources, recruitment table, and email) to recruit subjects for this study. Participants received an incentive upon completion of the study. 4 participants who currently vape were asked to describe their habits and stress level with a pre-test questionnaire. Next, participants were assigned to an experimental or control group. For privacy, the primary investigator had an identification key. During a 4-week period, the experimental group will be provided vaping pamphlets, mindfulness techniques (4-square breathing, coloring books, meditation, journaling, etc.), and weekly positive text message, while the control group will continue with their normal behaviors. Six weeks after the initial pre-test, participants received questionnaires about their vaping habits and stress levels. From the data collection, we determined mindfulness techniques reduced stress levels but minimal reduction in participants' vaping habits. However, upon completion of the six-week questionnaire, participants reported a 31% decrease in spending on vape products after this study.
Public Health Nursing Experiences in Clark CountyTo explore public health concerns in rural communities with large Plain Community populations. Students will provide public health updates that will be shared in various formats, including public service announcements, newsletters, and in person meetings. Low health literacy and education levels within the Plain Community are addressed by providing research-based materials in formats that are appropriate for their community. Public service announcements were recorded covering severe weather, water safety, and sun safety. Plain Community newsletter topics were created covering oral care, general vaccinations, the measles outbreak and the MMR vaccine, and the HPV vaccine. Social media content was created for Public Health Week covering healthy eating, water intake, exercise at home, meditation and mindfulness, and selfcare. To promote work culture, a coloring contest and human BINGO activity were created for Clark County Public Health staff.
During our clinical experience we noticed that there is a lack of knowledge about how to properly photograph a wound, which can cause the hospital to take responsibility for wounds from both a financial and reputation standpoint. For our group project we are planning to make a PowerPoint for the Essential Health skills day training. In this PowerPoint we will do an overview of the Essentia Health Pressure Injury Prevention policy and emphasis on the proper photography needed when a wound is present. We will also discuss the ways that AI can be used to help with wound intervention and prevention.
Caring for a swing bed patient differs significantly from caring for an acutely ill patient, requiring a shift in nursing goals and approaches. Our project focuses on developing an orientation tool to help nurses understand the unique aspects of swing bed care, including recovery-focused interventions, discharge planning, and the transition from acute illness to rehabilitation. By equipping nurses with clear guidelines and expectations, this resource aims to enhance patient outcomes, streamline care processes, and improve nurse confidence when managing swing bed patients.
