News Coverage of the School of Nursing
Summer 2021 OnWisconsin
Inject and Protect: Student helpers provide a shot in the arm for vaccination efforts.
“The students have been really engaged with the community. They’re so happy to be part of the pandemic recovery. It’s been kind of a profound experience for them. … It really embodies what they pictured being a nurse would be like.” —Jessica Coburn, clinical assistant professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
5/09/2021 Wisconsin State Journal
UW-Madison commencement returns thousands of graduates to Camp Randall Stadium
Representing the School of Nursing at UW-Madison’s commencement ceremony Saturday, Noor Bontz carried the school’s flag into Camp Randall Stadium. The past year has been rough, Bontz said, as she cared for vulnerable people, continued her education and supported her children learning from home. But when Provost Karl Scholz told the graduating crowd that “Noor helped treat the first and subsequent waves of COVID-19 cases,” her efforts were met with thousands of peers cheering in support.
5/04/2021 The Black Voice
Miracle Students
“The lack of representation in healthcare, the distrust between the Black community and healthcare providers is real. The lack of representation of Black women, especially, has definitely sparked my interest in just being able to increase the amount of positive interactions between providers and the Black community.” —Samone Hall, BSN student
4/20/2021 Wisconsin State Journal
Kevin Reilly: UW students delivering shots is practical patriotism
“The person who had given me my shot was an undergraduate nursing student at UW-Madison. She was competent and caring. More important, she was donating her time to address the largest, deadliest public health challenge facing Wisconsin and the nation in a hundred years. She was contributing her energy and expertise to a vital national effort to protect the health and lives of her fellow citizens.” —Kevin Reilly, former president, University of Wisconsin System
3/1/2021 Health
Burned Out by COVID Caregiving, Health Care Workers Say It’s Time to Fix the System. Is Anyone Listening?
“What we are asking of health care professionals, in many contexts, is just not sustainable.” —Linsey Steege, PhD, Assoc. Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
2/22/2021 Morgridge Center for Public Service
Celebrating CARDS 10-Year Anniversary Elevating the Community Voice
The Community Advisors on Research Design and Strategies (CARDS®) recently celebrated a major milestone: their 10-year anniversary. CARDS is one of the stakeholder engagement services offered by the Wisconsin Network for Research Support (WINRS), based at the UW–Madison School of Nursing.
2/11/2021 WORT FM Madison
Nursing Homes And COVID-19
Why were nursing homes hit so hard by COVID-19? Our guest Barbara Bowers, professor and associate dean for research in the School of Nursing at UW–Madison. Dr. Bowers describes the essence of nursing homes, what services they provide, why they didn’t anticipate and have contingencies for infectious outbreaks, and why nursing homes were so vulnerable when COVID first hit.
Winter 2021 The Diversity Digest
Inclusive Excellence Plan is Key to Fulfilling Higher Purpose
“As academic nurse leaders educating the next generation of nurse scientists, clinicians, policy makers, and educators, we share an urgent goal that requires strategy and planning to realize sustained progress.” —Linda Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
1/23/2021 Wisconsin State Journal
Know Your Madisonian: School district’s head nurse tackles COVID-19 with decades of experience
“I always knew, from being a young person, I wanted to be a nurse and I wanted to work with children.” —Sally Zirbel-Donisch MSN ’87, head nurse, Madison School District
12/30/2020 MissingLogic
Episode #77: Insights on Nurse Fatigue, the Impact on Nursing and Patient Safety, and What You Can Do with Dr. Linda D. Scott
“Just like water and food we need sleep, and so every time we lose it we jeopardize our own health and the health of others.” —Linda Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
12/21/2020 Wisconsin Examiner
Nursing students across the state asked to fill holes in healthcare system created by COVID-19
“This initiative is to help support the workforce…. During the recess, we’re trying to give our UW students an opportunity and reward the ones already working in healthcare or incentivize the ones who aren’t.” —Linda Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
11/18/2020 Forbes
About That ‘Breakthrough’ Blood Test For Alzheimer’s Disease
“People that live with dementia are actually alive, they are human beings, and they are worthy of so much more than our systems are able to give them.” — Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, Asst. Professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
11/11/2020 MissingLogic
Episode #70: Health Information Technology: Measuring and Monitoring the Impact on Clinical Practice and Patient Outcomes with Nancy Beale
“You can’t monitor what you don’t measure.” —Nancy Beale, MSN, RN, RN-BC, PhD candidate, UW–Madison School of Nursing
11/10/2020 The Rural Monitor
Nursing Preparedness: Words from Researchers and Rural Nurses
“I’m working on educational content that promotes an understanding of what influences rural health disparities, why those influences impact rural health outcome measures, and how training registered nurses to meet the demands of caring for rural populations can help decrease those disparities.” — Jennifer Kowalkowsi, MSN, MPH, RN, PhD candidate, UW–Madison School of Nursing
10/7/2020 Respite Care Association of Wisconsin
State of Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) awarded 3-year Federal Lifespan Respite Grant totaling $664,271
“We are excited for the opportunity to collaborate with the Respite Care Association of Wisconsin to develop a sustainable system for assessing the ongoing respite needs across the State. Building this important infrastructure will help us better support family caregivers and promote access to high quality respite services.” — Dr. Kim Whitmore, assistant professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
10/6/2020 The American Association of Colleges of Nursing
AACN Members Endorse Resolution Calling for Action to Address Nurse Well-Being, Resilience, and Suicide Prevention
10/6/2020 Wisconsin State Journal
Flu shot clinic opens Tuesday at Alliant Energy Center
9/21/2020 KOLD News13 Tucson
Could healthcare worker burnout be the next COVID-19 crisis?
On collecting stories from healthcare providers working during the pandemic: “[A friend] was just talking about working on a COVID unit, and I realized that we really need to be capturing these experiences because we’re going to forget about them…and we can actually fix the system.” — Jessica Rainbow, PhD ’19
9/17/2020 NBC15
Young nurse inspired by personal experience to care for others
“I was in that bed, lying there getting chemotherapy. I was downstairs getting radiation. You know, I had the worst day of my life here too. It means a lot to be able to look at somebody or hold somebody’s hand, or take care of somebody and genuinely say, I know what you’re going through.”— Hannah Dreischmeier ’19
9/14/2020 Institute for Healthcare Improvement
New National Action Plan Seeks to Re-energize Patient Safety Improvement and Accelerate Change
Professor Linsey Steege studies workforce safety, focusing on fatigue, stress, and burnout in nurses. She recently served on a national committee that created a new national action plan to advance patient safety.
9/9/2020 All in Wisconsin
UW–Eau Claire Dean Linda Young inducted into American Academy of Nursing class of 2020 fellows
“There are 3.8 million nurses in the United States, and only 2,700 are Fellows in the American Academy of Nursing. I am deeply honored to now have the initials FAAN after my name.” — Dr. Linda Young, PhD, RN, CNE, CFLE, dean, College of Nursing and Health Sciences, UW–Eau Claire
9/1/2020 On Wisconsin Magazine
Badgers vs. the Pandemic | A Nurse Back in Action
“The frontline nurses are the real heroes in all this. I think of them as humanitarian rock stars. They are willing to put their lives on the line for a disease we know very little about.”— Beth Sommerfeldt ’81
7/9/2020 FOX 47
Pandemic further bottlenecks nursing students’ path to frontlines
“If you don’t have sufficient faculty, you can’t maintain or increase your class size and it’s critically important that Wisconsin has enough nurses to care for the citizens of Wisconsin.” — Barbara Pinekenstein, professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
6/9/2020 UWM Report
New grant funds programs to address sexual assault among Native Americans
“It’s necessary to really understand the legacy of historical trauma that has happened. There’s a lot of stigma and assumptions.” — Jeneile Luebke, MSN, UW–Madison School of Nursing
6/7/2020 Deseret News
Will long-term care be the same after COVID-19?
“It’s a crisis on top of a crisis.” —Barbara Bowers, PhD, RN, FAAN, professor and associate dean for research, UW–Madison School of Nursing
5/15/2020 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Wisconsin medical students are graduating onto the front lines of coronavirus
Geoffrey Watters earned his doctorate in nursing practice from UW–Madison this spring. He’s feeling confident about job prospects, but others in his specialty of psychiatric nursing are struggling, especially in outpatient care.
5/10/2020 Movement is Life Podcast
Celebrating National Nurses Week 2020 – Special Round Table Episode
Marking National Nurses Week 2020 and the bicentenary of Florence Nightingale’s birth, nurse advocates and leaders from across the U.S. meet to celebrate the nursing profession and discuss many topics, including its diversity, future aspirations, and their nursing heroes. Panelists include Mary Behrens ’64, member, Board of Visitors
5/7/2020 Wisconsin Alumni Assoc.
The UW Now Livestream Recap
From hospitals to nursing homes, health care workers are delivering exceptional physical and emotional care during the coronavirus outbreak. However, many of those workers, including nurses, are facing extreme fatigue, which may lead to a wave of retirements and a near-term nursing shortage. That was the message from Barbara Pinekenstein, a clinical professor in UW–Madison’s School of Nursing, during a recent UW Now Livestream.
5/6/2020 WMTV nbc15.com
National Nurses Week honoring retired nurses called back to work
UW Health called on retired nurses to help answer the phones of the new COVID-19 hotline, including Beth Sommerfeldt ’81.
4/23/2020 News – School of Medicine and Public Health
Maps provide zip code-level detail on risk of COVID-19 complications across Wisconsin
“Linking public health professionals and researchers is what we strive to do through WPHRN. Providing information to our members about this rich new resource developed by researchers and tailored to answering questions public health professionals have is one way we are trying to support the public health community during this pandemic and beyond.” —Susan Zahner, Wisconsin Public Health Research Network co-chair and associate dean for faculty affairs in the School of Nursing
April 2020 American Journal of Nursing
Going the Extra Mile for Seniors
Fifty years ago, Dwayne Dobschuetz earned his BSN from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, just a few years after the school opened its nursing program to men. But his path to nursing took a few detours, and he didn’t join the profession until 19 years later.
3/26/2020 The Badger Herald
Wisconsin Nursing Board discusses possibilities to combat nursing shortage problem during pandemic
Due to the large inflow of patients infected with COVID-19, the Wisconsin Nursing Board took emergency measures to add retired nurses, nursing students close to graduation and nurses licensed in other states to hospitals. Dean of the University of Wisconsin Nursing School Linda Scott said in an email to the Herald, while these measures might help during the pandemic, they won’t solve Wisconsin’s nursing shortage — a persisting problem.
3/26/2020 Wisconsin State Journal
Wisconsin’s nursing shortage in the spotlight as hospitals face influx of COVID-19 cases
The nursing shortage has been a historic problem, said Linda Scott, dean of UW–Madison’s School of Nursing. What’s particularly problematic in this case is that there aren’t enough nurses nor are there enough educators to train future nurses. And many of those educators will soon retire. Add in an aging society and the pandemic and it’s a new crisis for the nursing field.
3/25/2020 DailyNurse
Nurse of the Week: UW-Madison Nursing Student Marcela Hanson Crowdsources Childcare Help For Local Healthcare Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic
Our Nurse of the Week is Marcela Hanson, a senior nursing student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison who used her time during the COVID-19 pandemic to help others. After being barred from all in-person healthcare settings, Hanson and other UW–Madison nursing students found a way to help their local healthcare professionals through crowdsourcing.
3/20/2020 Wisconsin Public Radio
Barred From Clinic During The Pandemic, Nursing Students Find A Way To Help
“This has been something that they have worked hard for, and they want to be able to deliver the care that they’ve had the education for. We’re going to do everything possible to make sure that that happens.” —Linda Scott, PhD, RN, NEA-BC, FNAP, FAAN, dean and professor, UW–Madison School of Nursing
2/14/2020 Green Bay Press Gazette
Only 1 in 5 board members are women at Wisconsin’s top 50 public companies, despite evidence that female leaders perform better
“The nursing lens has great relevancy in the board room because nurses are trained and expert at accepting the environment, working in teams, collaborating with others, and solving problems amid complexity.” —Laurie Benson, BSN, UW–Madison School of Nursing
2/11/2020 NCAA.org
NCAA awards $100,000 in research grants
Five research teams will receive a total of $100,000 through the NCAA Innovations in Research and Practice Grant Program, designed to enhance college athletes’ psychosocial well-being and mental health. Among the five is Data-driven “return to learn” support for concussed athletes, co-directed by Traci Snedden, PhD
1/23/2020 Peninsula Pulse/Door County Pulse
An Education in Rural Health Care
“The collaborative spirit in the county and how people up here know each other—they just approach how they do things from that perspective.” —Peggy Zimdars, board of visitors, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
1/22/2020 DailyNurse
Nurse of the Week: Cassie Dietrick, Mother of Two, Overcomes Deployment to Afghanistan While Working Toward Nursing Degree
12/14/2019 Wisconsin State Journal
2 kids, 2 jobs, a deployment to Afghanistan. That didn’t keep her from a UW-Madison degree
The flexibility of the school’s online nursing program is ideal for nontraditional students such as Dietrick, who came to UW-Madison last spring with an associate’s nursing degree, a full-time job at St. Mary’s Hospital, a part-time job with the Wisconsin Air National Guard and two young children in tow.
12/10/19 News.wisc.edu
Notable grads: winter commencement 2019
Cassie Dietrick, of DeForest, Wisconsin, kept her schooling going through challenging circumstances. While deployed to Afghanistan as a tech sergeant in the Wisconsin Air National Guard from July to November of this year, Dietrick completed five courses through BSN@Home. … While studying in Afghanistan, Dietrick performed maintenance on a flight line seven days a week for 12-hour shifts. Back home, she’s the mother of two young children and volunteers as a Basic Life Support instructor for the Air Force Base at Truax Field in Madison. After graduation, Dietrick will continue working as a nurse at St. Mary’s Hospital in Madison.
11/29/19 Movement is Life Podcast
The increasing role of nurse practitioners in reducing health disparities. Featuring Mary Behrens, SoN alumna and member, Board of Visitors.
Working in Wyoming where there are only two humans per square mile (on average), nurse practitioner Mary Behrens, MS, FNP-BC, FAANP provides vital health care capacity to mainly rural populations. In this podcast she describes the role of the nurse practitioner, a discipline that is growing rapidly.
11/27/19 JournalStandard.com
Monroe Clinic hosts UW–Madison chancellor, Wisconsin Legislature
The trip to Monroe Clinic’s main campus was an opportunity to celebrate Monroe Clinic’s collaboration with UW-Madison on the Rural Placement Program for nurse practitioner and doctor of nursing practice students. … The number of former Rural Placement Program students working at Monroe Clinic accounts for 25% of Monroe Clinic’s total APP [advanced practice providers] workforce.
11/26/19 News 8 Lacrosse
University symposium highlights jobs in rural healthcare
11/24/19 The Washington Post
Hospital alarms prove a noisy misery for patients: ‘I feel like I’m in jail.’
“They’re loud. For some patients, it’s frightening. They don’t know where it’s coming from. It’s a source of irritation.” —Barbara King, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, FAAN, Assoc. Professor and Center for Aging Research & Education Director, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
11/8/19 On Wisconsin
Why I Became a Nurse
“I was always interested in health science, but there was a moment in the hospital where I looked at what the nurses were doing and how they were caring for my son and our family.” —Elizabeth Arth ’19, BSN, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
10/13/19 The Washington Post
Overzealous in preventing falls, hospitals are producing an ‘epidemic of immobility’ in elderly patients
“If we think that a patient walking is a patient who will fall, we have to shift that culture.” —Barbara King, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, FAAN, Assoc. Professor and Center for Aging Research & Education Director, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
10/7/19 UW News
UW–Madison merits silver rating in first sustainability assessment
“The School of Nursing, for example, regularly engages the students in discussions about climate justice and environmental stewardship. I know that Linda Scott, who is dean of the Nursing School, has been particularly proud to hear from clinical sites that our students are coming in and educating the professionals at those sites about sustainable practices.” — Chancellor Rebecca Blank, UW–Madison
8/17/19 Wisconsin State Journal
Know Your Madisonian: Singing nurse meets patients where they are emotionally
“I think I’ve gotten a lot more out of my job than I’ve ever given to any of my patients. I see some of the strongest, most beautiful people in the entire world every single day, and I get to take care of them.” —Bridget Ravis, BSN UW–Madison
8/15/19 Antigo Times
Building a Healthier Langlade County has recently received a 2.5 year grant
8/12/19 Madison365
Catalyst for Change: Rachel Azanleko-Akouete on a Mission to Eliminate Racial Health Disparities
“As a black woman, college-educated, and middle-income, the birth outcomes are still comparable to a white woman who is not college-educated and who is low-income. That disparity is really sad.”—Rachel Azanleko-Akouete, MPH, BSN UW–Madison
7/19/19 Quartz
Excluding minorities from Alzheimer’s research is wrong—and it’s keeping us from finding a cure
“We see if we can connect people to existing resources that may put them in a better social situation.”—Andrea Gilmore-Bykovskyi, PhD, RN, Asst. Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
7/12/19 WPR
How Early Trauma Can Affect Youth Later in Life
With Pam McGranahan, DNP, RN, Clinical Asst. Professor & DNP Program Director, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
7/8/19 WPR
Shedding Light on Concussions in Women’s Soccer
With Traci Snedden, PHD, RN, CPNP, CNE, Asst. Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
6/28/19 USA Today Opinion
For real equity in women’s soccer, let’s talk about concussion injury
By Traci Snedden, PHD, RN, CPNP, CNE, Asst. Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
6/3/19 Wisconsin Nurses Association
Future Nursing Leader Award – Elizabeth Alleman
5/21/19 The Swaddle
Stressed Parents Make Unhealthy Food Choices for Children
5/20/19 WPR
‘I Needed a Drink When I Got Home’ Nurses turn to alcohol to cope with stress of the job
“We’re nurses, we are like the postal service, we’re here no matter what for you at your time of need. And they are and that’s great, but it’s a double-edged sword.”—Linsey Steege, PhD, Assoc. Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
5/13/19 Poynter
There are three nurses for every doctor in the U.S. But nurses appear as sources in only 2% of health care stories
“There’s no way to have this conversation without calling out the elephant in the room — that this is a female-dominated profession.” —Gina Bryan, DNP, RN, Clinical Professor, UW–Madison, School of Nursing
5/3/19 NBC15
Making a Difference: Students provide “A Moment of Magic” for critically ill kids