UNews - Shannon Vandenberg

Local nurses create scholarship for registered nurses

caroline.zentner — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:01:11 +0000

In keeping with this year’s theme for National Nursing Week from May 6 to 12 — Changing Lives. Shaping Tomorrow. — the efforts of a group of local nurses continue to change lives and shape the future of registered nurses who want to pursue graduate studies at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge.

The Dr. Shannon Spenceley Legacy of Nursing Scholarship, named after professor emerita and former dean of the ULethbridge Faculty of Health Sciences, is intended for registered nurses or nurse practitioners members in good standing with the College of Registered Nurses of Alberta (CRNA) who are pursuing a graduate degree in any faculty at ULethbridge. Fundraising began in 2016 when the Lethbridge Legacy of Nursing Committee was formed. It coincided with the 100th anniversary of registered nursing in Alberta.

Professor Emerita Dr. Shannon Spenceley (right) poses with scholarship recipient, Shannon Vandenberg.

“We discussed the future of the profession and how that future is supported by enabling registered nurses to advance their education,” says Spenceley, adding that the committee wanted to raise funds to support advanced nursing education focused on addressing local health and health-care issues. “That was how we came up with the notion of a scholarship specifically for registered nurses who want to pursue graduate studies at ULethbridge.”

The committee held an annual nursing gala for several years to raise funds, although the pandemic resulted in one cancellation and one virtual event.

“Our local business community and local donors and sponsors were incredibly generous,” says Spenceley. “We set a goal to raise enough money to endow the scholarship so it could be awarded every year just from the interest earned on the invested principal. We reached that goal in 2022.”

The scholarship has been awarded to seven recipients so far. One of those recipients, Shannon Vandenberg (BN ’08, MSc Nursing ’13), is an RN and instructor in the ULethbridge nursing program. She is pursuing a PhD in Population Studies in Health.

“This award has enabled me to continue with my PhD studies and develop a research program of my own,” says Vandenberg. “My research aims to understand practice preparedness of Canadian RNs in emerging vector-borne diseases, and I hope this knowledge will promote improved patient outcomes.”

The scholarship is administered by the Alberta Registered Nurses Educational Trust (ARNET).

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing students promote health in the community

caroline.zentner — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 22:24:34 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing students have been engaged in health promotion across the community as part of their clinical training this past semester. They partnered with a wide range of community organizations serving Lethbridge citizens from school-aged children to seniors.

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing students help prepare food at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

Students in Dr. Shannon Vandenberg’s and Morgan Magnuson’s, nursing instructors, Praxis in Health Promotion classes partnered with several community organizations, including Streets Alive, McMan Youth, Family and Community Services Association and River House, that serve unhoused people, those with lived or living experience of substance use, and those recovering from substance use.

“This is a remarkable and eye-opening experience for our students, where they had many opportunities to provide empathetic care for unhoused people exposed to an unregulated drug supply that is increasingly toxic and unpredictable,” says Vandenberg. “Their enhanced knowledge of harm reduction, trauma-informed care, healthy public policy, and appreciating the importance of lived experiences, empathy, and implicit bias will benefit students as they enter nursing practice.”

Their activities included collecting warm winter clothing, sharing information about preventing and treating frostbite, creating first-aid and wound-care kits, and distributing harm reduction and hygiene supplies, clothing and snacks. Students also volunteered at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

Hannah Mallette and her fellow nursing students don aprons and use their cooking skills at the Lethbridge Soup Kitchen.

“My semester working in the community has been an incredible learning experience,” says Hannah Mallette, a nursing student. “I have learned that it is vital to maintain a genuine, non-judgmental approach to care for each client because this approach goes a long way when building relationships and trust with clients. During this community placement, I have also learned the importance of self-reflection and accountability, how these practices aid in my growth as a student nurse, and how they will be an active part of my practice as a registered nurse. The street-involved population in Lethbridge displays an inspiring amount of resilience, and I am grateful to have gotten the opportunity to provide these individuals with care in the community setting.”

Trenna Devoy’s students worked with the ULethbridge Health Centre to educate students about Human Papillomavirus (HPV) and the importance of consent to eliminate gender-based violence. They created educational resources and used social marketing strategies, such as an Instagram takeover, digital screens, posters and a health booth, to reach as many students as possible.

“They also focused on the primary prevention of influenza and vaccinated over 350 employees and students at ULethbridge,” says Devoy, an instructor in the nursing program.

“This experience has been very eye-opening!” says Elizabeth Hill, a nursing student. “The feedback we have gotten from students regarding the different sexual health promotion strategies we have implemented has shown us that sexual health needs to be talked about more amongst the student body and needs to be de-stigmatized for everyone’s health and safety.”

Another group of Devoy’s students partnered with the ULethbridge Housing department and students living in residence. They focused on stress management and life skills like time management, budgeting, nutrition and cooking. The students provided one-to-one health coaching for stress management and hosted a cooking and budgeting session.

“This experience really helped open my eyes to a number of health issues impacting university students,” says Mitchell Gruber, a nursing student. “The manner in which difficulties with proper nutrition and mental health cause a detrimental effect on people was something I was very aware of prior to this experience, but I was not truly in tune with the sheer amount of people affected. Reading some of the responses we got from participants in our stress management workshop and cooking class gave my groupmates and me a sense of pride and satisfaction that we were able to provide something that participants not only enjoyed but also found helpful. I know that mental health and community health are something that my groupmates and I are very passionate about, and being able to positively affect even just a small number of people was a fantastic experience for all of us.”

Other groups of students worked with the Nordbridge Seniors Centre, Lethbridge College’s health centre, Lethbridge Immigrant Services, as well as several schools.

Graduate students honoured with research awards

trevor.kenney — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:34:27 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge celebrated the achievements of 21 graduate students last night at the 2012 Graduate Student Research Awards reception.

"These graduate students are exemplars of academic achievement," says Dr. Robert Wood, dean of the School of Graduate Studies. "The exciting academic work that they do is advancing the frontiers of knowledge and creativity, and it cultivates and builds an essential foundation for our growing reputation as a comprehensive university. Indeed, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ community is immensely proud of these accomplished graduate student scholars."

Following is a list of the 2012 award winners.

Alberta Innovates Health Solutions
Erin Zelinski
(Robert Sutherland)
Neuroscience

Corinne Sidler
(Olga Kovalchuk)
Biological Sciences

Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures
Aaron Mullin
(Craig Coburn)
Geography

Alberta Cancer Foundation
Lidiya Luzhna
(Olga Kovalchuk)
Biological Sciences

Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship Doctoral (NSERC)
Patrick Barks
(Robert Laird)
Biological Sciences

Andrew Hudson
(Camron Goater & Tony Russell)
Biological Sciences

Jenni Karl
(Ian Whishaw)
Neuroscience

Alexander Graham Bell Canada Graduate Scholarship Master (NSERC)
Kathryn Kuchapski
(Joseph Rasmussen)
Biological Sciences

Kirsten Rosler
(Hans-Joachim Wieden)
Chemistry and Biochemistry

Aaron Mullin
(Craig Coburn)
Geography

Natalie Freeman
(Louise Barrett & Peter Henzi)
Psychology

Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship Master's (SSHRC)
Gillian Ayers
(Claudia Malacrida)
Sociology

Leslie Bush
(Robbin Derry)
Management

Stacey Leavitt
(Michelle Helstein & Sean Brayton)
Kinesiology & Physical Education

Daniel Rutledge
(Sameer Deshpande)
Management

Rachel Shields
(Jason Laurendeau)
Sociology

Mark Bruce
(Dawn McBride)
Education

School of Graduate Studies Fellowship
Darcy Best
(Hadi Kharaghani)
Mathmatics & Computer Science

Health Quality Council of Alberta
Shannon Vandenberg
(Judith Kulig)
Health Sciences

endMS
Brietta Gerrard
(Artur Luczak)
Neuroscience

Alberta Gambling Research Institute
Scott Oberg
(Matthew Tata)
Neuroscience

UNews - Shannon Vandenberg

Local nurses create scholarship for registered nurses

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��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing students promote health in the community

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Graduate students honoured with research awards

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��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge nursing students promote health in the community