Pulse - Spring 2007

              TABLE OF CONTENTS
School of Nursing welcomes
nurse anesthesia students ............................1
Message from Nancy Lynch ..........................2
Addressing the needs of teen
cancer survivors ............................................2
Lauren Peyton ’09 ........................................3
Faculty learning together ..............................3
Gifts, Grants, Partnerships ............................4
A very special suturing class..........................5
The dream team ..........................................6
Development for deans conference ..............6
Diabetes educator to deliver
School of Nursing lecture..............................7
Message from the Dean................................8
PULSE The
www.fairfield.edu/nursing
S P R I N G 2 0 07
Fairfield University
A P U B L I C AT I O N O F T H E S C H O O L O F N U R S I N G
School of Nursing welcomes Nurse
Anesthesia students
Appearing eager to begin their
studies as the University’s first-ever
class of future nurse anesthetists,
Fairfield’s 11 new nurse anesthesia stu-dents
gathered at Alumni House on Jan.
12 for a welcome reception held in their
honor.The 29-month, fulltime program is
a collaborative effort between Fairfield
University, Bridgeport Hospital, and
Bridgeport Anesthesia Associates. Upon
graduation, these nurses will be in
demand and among the highest paid in
the nursing field.
Unlike most graduate students, this
group will go through the program as a
cohort, and Nancy Moriber, CRNA,
MSN,APRN, director of Bridgeport
Hospital’s Nurse Anesthesia program,
noted that their energy, humor, and cama-raderie
was already in evidence after just
three days of orientation.That’s a plus,
since all have left their jobs and many
have moved across the country to enroll
in the program. Clementine Mainsah, for
example, had been working in Michigan
as a cardiac intensive care nurse for two
years when she left to join the program;
recently, she moved into a dorm at
Bridgeport Hospital. Drew Brown had
been a surgical ICU nurse and moved
from Missouri with his wife and two
young children. His motivation? “Every
CRNA [certified registered nurse anes-thetist]
I spoke to loves their job—not
likes it, they love it. I’m attracted to the
autonomy,” he says.
Despite the daunting curriculum,
admission into the program was highly
competitive, says Dean Jeanne Novotny.
Students will split their time between
class work at Fairfield University, where
they will take master’s in nursing science
core and specialty courses, and clinical
time at Bridgeport Hospital.
CRNAs can work in a hospital set-ting
or can open their own practices,
working in collaboration with a physi-cian.
The Fairfield University program
graduates nurses with a master’s of science
in nursing (MSN).“That’s important to
me. It will help further my career,” said
Manuel Falcon, who had been working as
an ICU nurse at Hartford Hospital.A
master’s in nursing science is necessary for
anyone planning to go on for a doctoral
degree, he explains.
B.K. Angeletti
The Pulse, a newsletter published twice a year
by the Fairfield University School of Nursing, is
written for and distributed to all alumni of the
School of Nursing, as well as area nursing
schools, local hospitals, healthcare facilities,
friends and benefactors of the School of
Nursing. Its primary mission is to keep alumni
and friends informed about what is going on
in the School and to highlight the impact of
gifts and partnerships, focusing on the people
behind them and the people – both students
and faculty – benefiting from them.