Nurses Week 2021: May 6 – 12

Nurses Week 2021 Reflection from the Northeastern School of Nursing

The COVID-19 crisis has transformed the healthcare system and the nursing profession, shining a light on the integral role nurses play, and their significant contributions to society.

The brave nurses fighting the virus on the front lines are experiencing the extremes of the Pandemic. They are holding patients in their final moments, providing emotional support to families, and shouldering enormous pressures through resilience, thought-leadership, and innovative approaches.

Now more than ever, our healthcare systems need to create new policies and models of care centered on our nurses, who comprise the largest sector of the healthcare profession.

In recognition of these healthcare heroes, we celebrated International Nurses Week by focusing on how the impact of COVID-19 will shape the future of healthcare and the nursing profession in the years to come.

Watch our virtual celebration webinar on The Spirit of Nursing: Innovation, Leadership and Resilience below.

Northeastern University celebrates those that serve, those with a vision, those with a passion to help their community. We celebrate all current and future nurses during this National Nurses Week.

To those on the front lines every day, we recognize the hard work and determination that goes into your passion. A passion for helping those in need.

A leader in experiential learning, Bouvé’s School of Nursing prepares students for a lifetime of achievement. Learn more about our nursing programs and how you can affect change on a global scale.

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Virtual Celebration
The Spirit of Nursing: Innovation, Leadership, and Resilience

MAY 11, 2021

KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Kathy Davidson, BSN ‘79, MSN, MBA
Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Operating Officer
Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Needham, MA

Maria van Pelt, PhD, CRNA, FAAN
Dean of the School of Nursing

Message from the School of Nursing Dean

All this 2021 is the year to celebrate the accomplishments, advancements and amazing work that nurses do to make the world a better place! The Year of the Nurse 2021 comes at an interesting time. The current global challenges and an ever-changing new normal shape our lives and nursing profession daily. Every day in 2021, nurses continue to work on the front lines of health care with kindness, courage, and strong determination despite the ongoing Pandemic. I wish to thank my nursing colleagues for all that they do. Four million resilient and innovative nurses are the backbone of U.S. healthcare system. It is because of their advancement of the science of nursing through research, exemplary care, innovation, leadership, advocacy, ability to inspire others and determination that nurses are considered healthcare heroes.

The mentors and instructors I have had at Northeastern throughout my pre-licensure Nursing Education were phenomenal and instrumental to my current success as a professional Registered Nurse. Thanks to their support and the classroom resources I had at the university, I have secured a position as a Labor and Delivery RN before continuing on with my MSN at Northeastern to become a certified Nurse Practitioner.

— Rashod Blades, BHS’19 , BSN’20, Direct-Entry Masters of Science in Nursing Student

So many of my fellow nursing students began their co-op January 2020, never expecting the pandemic that arrived just a few months later. Despite the immense challenges faced during this time, that even the most seasoned nurses had not experienced, my peers handled working in settings such as Covid ICU’s with perseverance and grace. This is not a situation nursing students expected to find themselves in, yet, we continued to show up and put 110% into our jobs and have come out stronger and so much more experienced.

— Julia Shon, BSN’22

As an entrepreneur, I credit Northeastern with my early exposure working with at-risk patient populations, as well as my career experience in tech-enabled care solutions. Both of these led to my entrepreneurial dreams becoming a reality when I launched Pair Team, which provides technology and automates clinical operations for clinics in underserved communities.

— Cassie Choi, RN, BSN’13, Co-Founder, Pair Team

Not all nursing is about patient care at the bedside. Learn about how our nurse-researchers pivoted from research about serious neurological disorders to focusing on COVID and it’s effects.

Dr. Janet A. Dewan travels to Africa every year for her Africa Global Grand Rounds in Nurses Anesthesia Program. She represents the Spirit of Nursing During the COVID-19 Pandemic because even though she was not able to travel to Africa this year, she pivoted by participating in remote rounds with colleagues in Liberia and Rwanda. Her leadership, innovation, and resiliency lead her to continue playing a prominent role in this 5-year long program in a novel and extremely impactful format.

“We discussed both covid best practices and anesthesia case management. We also raised donations that helped our Liberian and Rwandan colleagues upgrade their connectivity. This past week we had 45 active anesthetist participants discussing obstetric anesthesia complications.

— Dr. Janet A. Dewan PhD, MS CRNA, Associate Nurse Anesthesia Program Director

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Two Northeastern Nursing Alumni, Ann Corcoran RN BSN’86, Corporate President AMC Healthcare Solutions Inc. and Rebecca Love, MSN’08, RN, BA, FIEL, Principal Clinical Innovation, OptimizeRX & President SONSIEL, along with two nursing partners created the SHARE Program in March 2020. Through the Society of Nurse Scientists, Innovators Entrepreneurs and Leaders (SONSIEL), Ann and Rebecca coordinated and distributed 250,000 pieces of donated protective equipment and more than 30,000 purchased and sources respirator masks to our fellow nurses at over 30 healthcare facilities in the hardest hit states.

TIME STAMP: 8:13

Listen to the message from Jenny Gormley and Kathy Hassey for School Nurses Day.

Our People

Nightingale Award

Northeastern assistant professor and nurse practitioner at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Lisa Duffy, is honored with the prestigious Nightingale Award for her innovative work assisting adolescents with MS make informed treatment choices with their families.

Watch

Leadership and Innovation During COVID-19 and the Need for PPE.

Rebecca Love, RN, MSN’94, nurse, entrepreneur, and co-founder of SONSEIL, and Hannah Rosenblatt, BHS’20, and co-founder of Masks for Massachusetts, share how they responded to the critical need for PPE.

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The patients are digital. The nursing students are real.

Full Code, developed by Michael McLinn, a 2003 graduate of Northeastern, is an online application that gives medical professionals access to a simulated emergency room in a virtual hospital…

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Homeless populations have been hit hard by COVID-19. She’s stepping in to help.

Nursing student Sarah Calnan is working at the Boston Hope Medical Center, which is running a medical treatment facility out of the Boston Convention Center for homeless people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2…

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They chose to stay and help fight COVID-19

Third-year nursing students Hannah Terry, Yuchen Zhang, and Susan Dawson are serving co-ops at Massachusetts General Hospital during the pandemic. They are among the 50 Northeastern students who are on co-op at Boston-area hospitals…

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Listen to alumna Amanda Weathers talk about her experience on the front lines

You can hear Amanda’s discussion of community and what it’s like on the front lines of the COVID-19 outbreak from time 13:45 to 30:30 on the radio show…

Listen

People who might have COVID-19 are benefiting from virtual healthcare

The rapid and widespread adaptation of telemedicine may help patients during the pandemic, and will almost certainly help other people down the road, says Janet Rico, assistant dean of nursing graduate programs at Northeastern…

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From the classroom to the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic

At the end of Alyson Dahlberg’s shift, which wraps up around 7 a.m., she can be found sitting, balancing on the driver’s seat of her car with her feet in a bucket. She’s removing her hospital shoes, which she just wore for the past 12 hours, and changing into her “normal” shoes before they ever touch the interior…

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Nurses are taking care of COVID-19 patients. Who’s taking care of the nurses?

Twenty deep breaths. It’s a reminder that appears on Maria van Pelt’s list almost every morning. And some days, 20 breaths is all she has time for in the midst of a bustling 12-hour shift at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston…

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More Sheep than Sleep?

Dr. Lichan Ye, Associate Professor of the School of Nursing, shares the science and ways to calm your thoughts and get better sleep…

Listen

Community Nurses Caring for Our Most Vulnerable Through COVID-19

The Assistant Dean of Graduate Programs, School of Nursing, Dr. Janet Rico, and Clinical Professor Dr. Laura Mylott highlight the work of nurses caring for the most vulnerable in community settings during the COVID-19 pandemic…

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Women Who Inspire at the Forefront of Healthcare Webinar Series

Join us on July 16, 2020, for the Leadership and Innovation during COVID-19 webinar with nursing alumna Rebecca Love, MSN’08, and Hannah Rosenblatt HS’20…

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