For Chantal Dengah (BSN ’19), her master’s degree specializing in Nurse-Midwifery came with some “Indiana Jones moments.” Unexpected stressors arose for the University of Colorado College of Nursing student and single mother of three, especially as COVID crashed her entire graduate school experience, at times, turning her into “a ball of stress.”
A 10-year-old girl smiles for the camera as she holds her artwork — a picture of a dangerous-looking creature — in front of her chest. Plastic tubes poke out from behind the masterpiece, covering her lap. Peach fuzz tops the little girl’s head as she beams up from her hospital chair.
Kristen Wessel (BSN, ’19) was 4 years old when her grandmother was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She couldn’t spell the word, let alone understand the gravity of the disease.
Note: A kickoff reception for the new donation site will be held at 10 a.m. on Feb. 14 at the Center for Midwifery Longmont, 2030 Mountain View Ave., Suite 400, Longmont. Press Release 2/10/2020
Like most of her classmates, Emma Bielfeldt struggled to finish her thought as she answered her fellow student’s question. She faltered, tried again and finally gave up, laughing at her inability to speak coherently. It’s hard to think straight when someone is whispering orders in your ear.
When a child is dealt too many ACEs, it is not a winning hand. Not for the child. Not for society. Not for the healthcare system.
She hails from Denver, not Atlantica. She swims in an encased pool, not an ocean. And although she maybe thinks he is, her dad is not a king.
Growing up in a rough Denver neighborhood, Crystal Santos chose forensics as her future profession early on. She wanted to help people find closure after losing loved ones, especially to violence.
Ask students what made University of Colorado College of Nursing Professor Paula Meek, PhD, stand out, and the memories flow with striking intensity:
Patients with substance-use or other mental health disorders at CU Nursing’s Sheridan Health Services clinics are bucking a national trend: They’re getting professional help.
While mental health issues strike one out of five U.S. adults each year, only half of those who seek treatment ever follow through on psychiatric referrals.
When College of Nursing student Elizabeth DePalma, (MSN, ’18), graduates with her DNP and takes off into the wild, blue yonder, she will leave behind a potentially life-saving legacy.
On Dec. 14, when Gurpreet Cheema accepts his nursing diploma on the stage in the Colorado Convention Center, it will be his second major life-changing ceremony this year.
She cannot quite put her finger on why, but Claire Donovan always knew she wanted to help the underserved.
Air Force scholarship recipient leaves mental health program behind
After 27 years with the University of Colorado working on all four campuses, Senior Vice President and Chief of Staff Leonard Dinegar told a group gathered for the College of Nursing Scholarship Luncheon on Nov. 22 that CU Nursing held a special place in his heart.
On April 22, David “Scott” Ferguson died after battling melanoma. Ferguson was 49 and loved life. For him, that revolved largely around skiing, hiking, his gym clients, his dogs, his wife, his son and Jerry Garcia. Ferguson grew so touched by his nursing care before he died that he left behind the Scott Ferguson Memorial Fund. More than $60,000 has been raised so far to support scholarships for University of Colorado College of Nursing students. Ferguson’s goal: to help ensure compassionate care for future patients. The first scholarship will be awarded this spring.
For Kim Paxton, it was the young father shot in the back of the head after opening the store safe for two masked men. The robbers left with $100.
Bonnie Gance-Cleveland, PhD, prolific researcher, child health advocate and champion of the underserved, recently received the eighth biennial Elisabeth H. Boeker Award for Faculty Excellence in Research.
Jennifer Franklin (BSN, ’07) knew a master’s degree would make her a better nurse. She just never thought it would happen so fast.
Only weeks into her College of Nursing Veteran and Military Health Care (VMHC) program, Franklin wrote a note thanking its creator, Professor Mona Pearl Treyball, PhD.
With new chapters focused on today’s changing healthcare issues, a recently released fifth edition of “Pharmacotherapeutics for Advanced Practice Nurse Prescribers” boasts strong ties to CU Nursing.
Allowing a boy’s dream of playing Friday night football, keeping an asthmatic preschooler out of the ER, and guiding a young woman back on track to graduation are all in a day’s work for the Sheridan Health Services staff.
Exquisite chocolate, stunning views and comprehensive reproductive health services colored a clinical experience in the lush lands of Ecuador, according to students who took part in the Global Health Nursing program last May. Combined with the intensive work, the cultural immersion made for a life-changing experience, they said.
Palliative care eases suffering in patients battling serious diseases, a population on the rise as Americans age and medical treatments advance. Yet despite the increased need, palliative care programs are dwindling — and it all circles back to money.
In a robust call for change, College of Nursing Dean Elias Provencio-Vasquez rallied his team on Oct. 14 in his first State of the College address with the University of Colorado.
Much like a mother’s belly in the ninth month of pregnancy, the use of nitrous oxide has ballooned since the University of Colorado Hospital joined a small number of U.S. hospitals offering “laughing gas” to its laboring patients in 2014.
For the next 10 months, University of Colorado College of Nursing alumna Heather Mena (MSN, ’18) will roam the jungles and traverse the hills of Ecuador, learning the tricks of her trade from native women intent on saving their ancestral tradition.
“This is the hardest thing I’ve done in years.”
Those were the words of one of four judges who had the task of perusing, paring and picking just three winners from two dozen posters lining the Education 2 North-South Bridge on Sept. 5.
Bachelor’s, master’s, DNP and PhD students were all represented at the event, which kicked off the first-ever College of Nursing’s Research and Scholarship Symposium on Sept. 6 and highlighted the level of scholarship among its students. CU Data Science to Patient Value (D2V) co-sponsored the symposium.
This summer, while two Lakota native high school women scoured research papers and roamed the lands of their Pine Ridge Reservation, two University of Colorado College of Nursing faculty members guided them from their offices on the Anschutz Medical Campus more than 350 miles away.
New and returning doctoral students were welcomed back Tuesday morning with a table of gold sunglasses, a buffet of steaming food and a playlist of eclectic songs, from Pharrell Williams to Kool & the Gang.
Hosted each year by the College of Nursing’s Office of Admissions and Student Affairs team, the breakfast kicks off a week of events focused on connecting new PhD students with returning students. This year, the Health Systems Leadership DNP students were also invited.
Two years ago this October, a mass murderer firing military-grade weapons showered a crowd of concertgoers in Las Vegas with bullets, striking hundreds of victims from 32 floors above. His act of terror created scenes of mayhem few people in this country have ever seen.
Growing up with two heroes — a firefighter dad and a nurse mom — Lindsey Tarasenko knew early on that she wanted a job focused on giving back.
For Martha Grubaugh, there were some early signs, including being the go-to girl in the neighborhood when the area kids got hurt.
During her 22 years as associate dean of Clinical and Community Affairs, Professor Amy Barton spearheaded the creation of the University of Colorado College of Nursing’s clinical enterprise. The string of health centers target everyone from Anschutz Medical Campus students to the Denver area’s most at-risk populations.
Barton also earned numerous prestigious appointments and awards, wrote a long list of scholarly articles and books and netted the university $8.5 million in grants during that time.
It appears she listened to her parents.
After explaining how economics drive their now value-based work industry, Assistant Professor Peggy Jenkins, PhD, RN, stumped her audience.
“So how do we measure the value of nurses?” she asked a classroom of College of Nursing faculty and staff at the Aug. 12 Grand Rounds.
Silence.
With an armed police officer and grocery cart stuffed with backpacks and suitcases behind him, Scott Harpin snapped on his latex gloves and fished out his supplies from a six-pack cooler.
“Which side?” Harpin asked, as he de-capped a needle. His patient tapped his left arm in response and rolled up his sleeve.
University of Colorado College of Nursing professors joined a 1,200-plus gathering of experts from across the country at the 2019 National Nurse Practitioner Symposium in Keystone this weekend, sharing their innovations and clinical knowledge in our Rocky Mountain backyard.
Mona Pearl Treyball, PhD, hoists a 20-plus-pound trophy up in the air for a guest to see. For the nursing professor, the bronze statue of a kneeling Florence Nightingale cradling a patient in her arms represents more than her recent win. It affirms her life’s work.
Millions of parents entrust the care of their most treasured possessions to other people, often near-strangers, almost every day. These infants and children — 11 million under age 5, according to Child Care Aware of America — spend an average of 35 hours a week in care outside of the home.
Amanda Repsher vividly recalls watching flight nurses load her husband on board a helicopter. Less than two hours earlier, his own crew’s helicopter had crashed during a failed takeoff, erupting into a ball of flames and scorching nearly all of Dave Repsher’s body.
As a wife, Amanda found the irony chilling. As a critical care nurse, she knew it could mean the difference between life and death.
What do you get when you put three alumni — all best friends in nursing school— together in the Nursing History Center? A trip down memory lane, of course.
In the 1960s, when Dorothy “Batton” Smith, Carol Campagna and Martha “Leahy” Staker were 20-something college students working toward MSN degrees, few nurses were continuing on to graduate school.
Issues challenging today’s nurse practitioners were unheard of when pioneer Loretta Ford co-founded the first-ever nurse practitioner program at the University of Colorado in 1965.
University of Colorado College of Nursing students displayed a slate of promising research at this year’s Western Institute of Nursing (WIN) Conference in San Diego in April, with topics ranging from halting the spread of HIV to easing the minds of kids with cancer.
A surprise guest showed up to June’s CU Nursing Grand Rounds, following an announcement that the featured speaker — Assistant Professor JoAnn Crownover, DNP, — was running late.
The University of Colorado College of Nursing honored 38 of its own faculty and staff for their years of service on May 20, including one professor who reached a major milestone: the half-century mark.
Vowing to serve with honor, CU Nursing’s newest group of 188 students was ceremonially launched down the path to becoming part of a “sacred practice” at the May 31 Nightingale Ceremony.
After graduating from CSU Pueblo’s accelerated nursing program in June 2013, Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) student Terra Share worked as a psych mental health nurse. “The experience really set the stage for me to pursue a graduate degree,” said Share.
After working with a medical team in the secluded villages of Guatemala, Rebecca Harmon finally listened to her mother. Seeing the sick, poverty-stricken people in such dire need of health care, she made the decision to follow in her mom’s footsteps and become a nurse.
No one can predict who will make a great nurse, but when it comes to Chantal Dengah, the cards are in her favor.
As with any medical professional, skill and accuracy are required for nursing success, two characteristics engrained in Dengah, set to graduate from the University of Colorado College of Nursing during the May 24 Spring Commencement.
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April 22, 2024
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Debra Melani
