Resolutions Committee: SNAP encourages Nursing students to vote

By Teresa Murphy, Class of 2017

As seen in the spring 2016 issue of SNAPshots, The Newletter of the Villanova Chapter of the Student Nurses Association of Pennsylvania

Class of 2017 Legislative Committee Members at the SNAP State Convention in Harrisburg
  (left to right) author Teresa Murphy, Kristina Terzakis, and Kate Freudenberg

This year, Villanova's chapter of SNAP wrote a resolution to empower nursing students to vote. Our resolution was passed at state convention and will be presented at national convention in Orlando.  Nursing students as voters have great power.  The NSNA’s membership is over 60,000.  A goal of the resolution is to increase nursing students' awareness of the impact of their votes and to encourage nursing students to become aware of issues and candidates from national to local levels.  The resolution does not support any particular political candidate or party.

One in every 45 voters is a nurse. That number makes nurses a powerful force in elections. Nurses see firsthand the impact of health care on the patients, families and the healthcare profession. Preparing nursing students to be involved in public policy and to be active advocates for all patients starts with voting. Many nursing students have recently become of voting age and are not yet registered to vote.   SNAP-Villanova organized a voter registration information table in the student center, where students could come to start the voting application process and receive information about frequently asked questions. Through this table we helped numerous students start the registration process and answered questions about absentee ballots. Our information table effectively raised awareness about the importance of voting. This election year make sure your voice is heard! Register and vote!

The Delaplaine McDaniel Elementary School

By Meghan Long VU CON '16

As seen in the spring 2016 issue of SNAPshots, The Newletter of the Villanova Chapter of the Student Nurses Association of Pennsylvania

Author Meghan Long (right) at  McDaniel School.

If there was one word to describe Villanova’s chapter of the Student Nurses Association of Pennsylvania (SNAP), it would be opportunity; one that allows nursing students to make life-long friendships in service to others and grow into successful leaders.  

I believe that Villanova’s semester trips to the Delaplaine McDaniel Elementary School exemplify SNAP-Villanova’s opportunity for success.  The children attending this school reside in South Philadelphia, one of the financially poorest sections of the city.  With many families living below the poverty level, the children attending the McDaniel School have limited access to healthcare and active lifestyles.  

Villanova Nursing students await the children they will screen. 

Every year through special projects, SNAP-Villanovans perform eye screenings for hundreds of children, kindergarten through eighth grade.  The Villanova nurses identify the children who do not pass the eye exam and may need vision correction to be successful in school.  Through this

experience, SNAP-Villanovans create friendships in service to the children in this community.  Leadership development is also seen in this trip, through Villanovans who lead their fellow members through eye screenings and work with school nurse Nurse Rodney Abary.  Nurse Abary exemplifies the values of advocacy, independence and compassion for all the students at the McDaniel School.

As we end another semester trip at the McDaniel School, we SNAP-Villanovans remember that service, friendship and leadership together create the special opportunity for success in the student nurses association.

Nursing students present papers at research conference

Faculty Dr. Carol Weingarten and Dr. Amy McKeever are seen here at the conference with two of the College of Nursing students who presented, Brian Hartmann and Jennifer Warren. Brian is the recipient of the first health paper award.

Congratulations to our College of Nursing faculty and students who contributed to the 25th Annual  Elizabeth Cady Stanton Student Research Conference on April 4, 2014. Dr. Linda Copel, professor, was part of the Program Committee for this now regional conference presented by The Greater Philadelphia Women's Studies Consortium and Villanova University's Gender & Women's Studies Program. The event was held in Connelly Center.

Five junior nursing students presented at the conference. 

• Brian Hartmann: Female circumcision: healthcare implications. Brian was also the recipient of the first health paper award.
• Jennifer Warren: Parental control: ethical implications of preconception self-selection
• Rachelle Dambman: Gender and climbing the ladder
• Michaela Sclafani and Karli Miller: Shame and blame: adolescent pregnancy and prevention.

Poem "For a nurse"

At our May 17, 2014 Convocation, Dr. Gale Robinson-Smith used a poem as part of her invocation.  Many people have asked for it so we thought we'd share it more broadly.

This invocation comes from a prose-poem, called For A Nurse by John O’Donohue in a book entitled – To Bless the Space Between Us. He begins the poem by discussing that nurses encounter human beings when they are ill and that they may promote wellness through their nursing care.

                             For A Nurse

In this fragile frontier-place, your kindness         

Becomes a light that consoles the brokenhearted,

Awakens within desperate storms

That oasis of serenity that calls

The spirit to rise from beneath the weight of pain,

To create a new space in the person’s mind

Where they gain distance from their suffering

And begin to see the invitation

To integrate and transform it.

May you embrace the beauty in what you do

And how you stand like a secret angel

Between the bleak despair of illness

And the unquenchable light of spirit

That can turn the darkest destiny towards dawn.

May you never doubt the gifts you bring;

Rather, learn from these frontiers

Wisdom for your own heart.

May you come to inherit

The blessings of your kindness

And never be without care and love

When winter enters your own life.

Alumna lauded for extra-special care

Photo courtesy of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Amy Federico McVeigh, ’91 BSN, sees children in crisis each day in her role as a nurse practitioner with Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center. She makes an extra effort to help them cope with their hospitalizations. Her work was recognized in March with the Above and Beyond Award from the Connecticut-based Mill Foundation for Kids.

Federico extends herself beyond the routine for special activities such as visiting a patient in a rehabilitation facility on her day off, lifting the spirits of another young patient by taking her to a nearby Starbucks for a treat, and establishing a discharge check list to ease the transition to home for patients and their care teams.

The Mill Foundation supports research into cancer and other pediatric diseases and provides toys, games, art supplies and other gifts to children battling cancer and other illnesses.