News and Events

Global Study Award Helps Students Gain World Experiences

April 29, 2011 | In Education, Global Health, Make Your Gift, News, Students Tags: , , ,
Linda H. Cronenwett (center) with Tina Evans (left) and Rebeca Moretto (right), the 2011 recipients of the Cronenwett Global Study Award.Linda H. Cronenwett (center) with Tina Evans (left) and Rebeca Moretto (right), the 2011 recipients of the Cronenwett Global Study Award.

The Cronenwett Global Study Award was created by a private gift from a SON alumna and her husband to honor the leadership of Linda H. Cronenwett, immediate past dean of the SON, and her passion for improving quality and safety in health care. This year’s recipients are BSN students Tina Evans and Rebeca Moretto. They will both be traveling internationally this summer as part of N489, SON’s Practicum in Nursing Global Health Experience.

Evans will spend four to five weeks in Antigua, Guatemala volunteering at Casa Jackson, an inpatient center for malnourished children. She then plans to spend six to seven weeks in Jutiapa, Guatemala, where she will work on the nursing staff in the maternity department of the Hospital Nacional de Jutiapa. She will also introduce the work of doulas to their maternity care in an effort to increase natural comfort measures in laboring women.

Moretto will be collaborating with two obstetric attending physicians in the high-risk OB/GYN department at the Antigua, Guatemala/Hospital Nacional. She will be assisting them by acting as a doula to the women and helping with deliveries. In addition, she will conduct public health education outreach for the traditional midwives in the area regarding topics including sterile technique and postpartum care of mother and newborn.

You can contribute to the Cronenwett Global Study Award at http://giving.unc.edu/gift/son.

Service Learning Trip to Honduras

April 7, 2011 | In Education, Faculty, Global Health, Students Tags: , ,

UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing students and faculty participated in a service learning trip to Honduras during Spring Break. Before the trip the Association of Student Nurses helped collect vitamin and over the counter medications for the group to take with them.

Clinical Assistant Professor Jean Davison was the SON Course Coordinator and Team Leader for the multidisciplinary group, which included 20 students and nine volunteers who included two doctors, three nurse practitioners and two pharmacists. Nine of the students were from the School of Nursing.

View a slide show of pictures from their trip here.

The group saw and treated over 1600 people with anti-parasitic treatment, vitamins, and medications. They gave pizza and gifts to children of a feeding program and fed over 30 families with a week’s worth of food. They also provided school supplies, book bags, clothes and toys to many children in the clinics and at the hospital.

Among the places they visited was Oropoli, a very isolated site that took four hours to reach and had no medical facility nearby. The group spent the night there in an open building on a cement floor.

Facts about Honduras:

  • Honduras is ranked 95th for mortality rate of children under 5
  • Diarrhea is one of the leading causes of mortality
  • 10% of infants are born with low birth weight
  • 26% of non-pregnant women and 32 % of pregnant women were anemic
  • Skilled attendant at 67 % of deliveries (2000-2006)
  • 54% of population uses adequate sanitation facilities in rural areas (2004)

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day

March 18, 2011 | In Faculty, Global Health, News Tags: , , , ,

March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day. If you are interested in learning about Worldwide activities designed to celebrate this day, check out: http://www.ds-int.org/events/wdsd.

On March 21st, you are encouraged to watch a video Down Syndrome International has developed called “Will You Let Us In.” The hope is that if people all over the world watch this video it will help create a single global voice advocating for the rights, inclusion and well-being of people with Down syndrome.

SON Associate Professor Dr. Marcia Van Riper has been doing research with families of children with Down syndrome for over 30 years. Currently, she is working on a study about adaptation and resilience that eventually will include families from at least 6-10 countries. So far, over 250 parents from the US have participated, and data collection with families in other countries is just getting started. Next week, she will be giving a presentation at a conference in Thailand and after the conference she will meet with a professor in Thailand who has expressed interest in helping her collect data from parents of children with Down syndrome in Thailand.

Watch the “I am a Carolina Nurse” Video

March 18, 2011 | In Faculty, Global Health, News Tags: , , , ,

Being a “Carolina Nurse” has many dimensions. This 7-minute video tells the story from the perspective of students, alumni, faculty, SON and hospital leaders who all experience the quality, energy and emotion of being connected to one of the leading Schools of Nursing in the United States.

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National Nursing Leader to Present Research on Migrant Children

December 16, 2010 | In Education, Events, Global Health, News, Research Tags: , ,

Nursing : News : Mary Lou de Leon Siantz Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, PhD, RN, FAAN

Mary Lou de Leon Siantz, (PhD, RN, FAAN) the assistant dean of diversity and cultural affairs at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, will present her research on immigrant and migrant children in “Children of the Road,” the 2011 UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing Ethnic Minority Visiting Scholar Lecture.

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Trip to Vietnam Lets Student Practice Nursing in the Real World

August 26, 2010 | In Education, Global Health, Students Tags: , , , , , ,
Minh Nguyen and Dr. Linda CronenwettMinh Nguyen and Dr. Linda Cronenwett

Minh Nguyen has just returned from a summer trip to Vietnam that was part of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Nursing’s Summer Global Experience.  He was the recipient of the Cronenwett Global Study Award, created by a private gift to honor Dean Emerita Linda H. Cronenwett.  Read about his experience:

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