Features

This magazine was originally supposed to come out in Spring of this year, as a print edition. We had the stories drafted and the images selected. We had a few more pages to put together, and then we could start the process of printing. But when Spring came, it brought with it a global pandemic that changed our lives in a myriad of ways, including nursing education. What this year has proven, if nothing else, is that when a public health crisis emerges, we need to be ready. I’m extremely proud the team at the School of Nursing was ready and resilient.

The Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) leadership team and the Council on DEI of the School of Nursing have sponsored activities and shared information that addresses racial unrest and promotes equity. Here are a few of the events the School of Nursing has hosted over the past several months:

James Tran’s path prior to entering nursing school might at first glance seem unrelated to his new career. He served as an aircraft mechanic in the U.S.  Marine Corps and as a police officer in the northern California town of Pleasanton. But a deeper look reveals a common thread of helping others. 

As a high school student, James lacked motivation, doing the minimum required to stay on the school’s soccer team. But then 9/11 happened. “I watched first responders and average citizens risking their lives to help others at Ground Zero,” said James. He wanted to help, too.

To encourage more nurses to join boards of directors for community and governmental organizations, foundations, corporations and other entities, Dean Linda Sarna and Dr. Karen Grimley, Chief Nursing Executive for UCLA Health, hosted a reception to introduce UCLA nurses to the Nurses on Boards Coalition (NOBC). NOBC is a national organization dedicated to improving the health of communities and the nation through the service of nurses on boards and other bodies.

Holli DeVon, Ph.D., RN, FAHA, FAAN

Dr. Holli DeVon is passionate about research, and she is excited to bring that passion to the UCLA School of Nursing as the new Associate Dean for Research.

Last winter quarter, eight nursing students(3 MECN and 5 BS) beautified the stairwells in the Factor Building to encourage staff and faculty and their fellow students to take the stairs instead of the elevator.

“We cleaned up the stairwells and added visuals on the inside of the doors and next to the elevators, from the A level to the sixth floor, with motivational and colorful signage,” said Lukas Smith, a second-year MECN student and one of the student researchers.

You know you were a good teacher when you get excellent care from your former students! Beloved lecturer Barbara Demman shared her recent experience at Ronald Reagan UCLA Hospital:

“I was admitted one month antepartum, and post C-section my newborn was admitted to the NICU for one month. During this time, my baby and I had the experience of receiving nursing care from several of my past nursing students.

For Dorothy J. Wiley and Dong Sung An, it was the rise of the then-mysterious disease called AIDS in the early 1980s that set them on their current research paths. For Wei-Ti Chen, it was her work in the 1990s as a nurse-midwife taking care of patients infected with HIV.

Now these three members of the UCLA School of Nursing faculty are at the forefront of research in their specialities, aiming to make a difference for those infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and, in Wiley’s case, human papillomavirus (HPV).

2,000 miles away in Havana, Cuba, our UCLA nursing students are plunged in a disparate landscape of vibrantly colored buildings, Caribbean music, vintage cars reminiscent of the 1960s “low-riders”, and an exceptional health care system.

Dr. Maria Elena Ruiz, adjunct associate professor, first traveled to Cuba with a prestigious group of delegates selected by the American Public Health Association in 2012. Impressed by Cuba’s health care system, Ruiz developed an academic travel program to Cuba in 2013.

Not long after Angelina Cordova started her studies at UCLA’s School of Nursing, she and a friend formed a fitness group aimed mainly at avoiding excess pounds. “We’d heard about the increased obesity rates among nurses and we wanted to take care of ourselves,” said Cordova, who graduated in June. “but we soon realized the problem was so much bigger, with issues of stress, lack of sleep, risk of burnout and leaving the profession,” Cordova said. “We realized we needed to broaden the scope.”