Pulse - Fall 2008

              Table of Contents
Visiting scholars........................................1
Nancy Lynch, a second term.....................2
New directions in nursing.........................2
Study Abroad opportunities......................3
Graduation and pinning.............................3
VA Nursing Academy faculty................. 4-5
Gifts and Grants........................................5
Faculty accomplishments ........................6
Student profile..........................................6
Hollywood in Fairfield...............................7
Message from the Dean............................8
Pulse The
www.fairfield.edu/nursing
Fall 2008
The year of distinguished visiting
scholars
There’s great excitement in the
halls and classrooms of the School
of Nursing these days, and much
of it comes from the energy generated
by a host of visiting scholars representing
many specialties within the field. “Each is
distinguished by his or her strong research
on weighty, and often diffi-cult,
topics,” said Dean Jeanne
Novotny, who noted the ben-efits
both faculty and students
will reap from spending time
with these seasoned profes-sionals
in small, casual settings
such as the classroom.
Marjorie Godfrey,
M.S., RN, adjunct instructor
for Community and Family
Medicine at Dartmouth
Medical School, director of
the Clinical Microsystem
Resource Group of Dartmouth
Hitchcock Medical Center, and associate
director of improvement, is on hand at
periods throughout the year to advise
faculty in the clinical nurse leader pro-gram.
Her research has been in patient
safety, and her passion is in getting
interdisciplinary teams of professionals to
work together. “If you had to sum up the
goals of a Clinical Nurse Leader graduate
in one phrase it would be ‘improving
healthcare outcomes for patients’,” says
Dr. Sally Gerard, track coordinator. “By
bringing in a national leader in the field
of patient outcomes, the possibilities
for this program are limitless.” At an
informal faculty meeting in September,
Godfrey shared some of her experiences
as a lead improvement facilitator, noting
the importance of getting senior leaders
involved and of having coaches for staff
members. “At the end of 18-24 months,
the staff can really see the
improvement in the quality
of care they are giving, and
they no longer perceive
their assessment work as a
burden,” she noted.
All sections of Dr. Joyce
Shea’s mental health nurs-ing
classes benefited from
lectures by Dr. Grayce M.
Sills, RN, FAAN, profes-sor
emeritus at Ohio State
University, and a leader
in the field of psychiatric
mental health nursing for over
40 years. A past president of the American
Psychiatric Nurses Association, she was
the winner in 2000 of the Hildegard
Peplau Award from the American Nurses
Association. In her talks with faculty and
students, Dr. Sills stressed the importance
of trauma-informed care, noting that just
about all patients have had some form of
trauma in their lives, and this can impact
the way they heal. Dr. Sills conducted
an informal session with faculty, during
which she spoke of the impact of trauma
on a patient’s well-being, and emphasized
Fairfield University
a publication of the school of nursing
Marjorie Godfrey
Jean Santopatre photo
continued on page 7