Nurse of the Week: Annette Bongiovanni Spends Four Decades in Nursing Making World a Healthier Place

Nurse of the Week: Annette Bongiovanni Spends Four Decades in Nursing Making World a Healthier Place

Our Nurse of the Week is Annette Bongiovanni , a nurse and public health policy expert who has spent the last four decades of her career working to make the world a healthier place. Since graduating from Binghamton University’s Decker School of Nursing in the late 70s, Bongiovanni has traveled the world for her career in public health policy, evaluation, and research.

Bongiovanni has worked for the United States Agency for International Development, World Bank, and World Health Organization, and collaborated with the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has also partnered with foundations and universities, designing and leading initiatives to enhance maternal, neonatal, and child health; improve reproductive health and family planning; and curb the spread of HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

When Bongiovanni started nursing school she wanted to become a social worker and thought she could earn money to pay for a master’s degree by working as a nurse for a few years. However, by the time she graduated she never doubted she wanted to be a nurse.She had focused on community mental health as an undergrad student, and after Binghamton she became a nurse at Stanford University, treating some of the first HIV patients in California’s Bay Area. Later, she became a critical-care nurse working with heart and heart-lung transplant patients.

Bongiovanni moved to Bali for a few months in the 80s to pursue a hobby and fell in love with Indonesia. She later returned to become a project director for Project HOPE in the pediatric and neonatal ICU at the University of Indonesia’s teaching hospital in Jakarta. She also advised Indonesia’s Ministry of Health about creating a policy requiring the certification of pediatric intensive-care nurses, resulting in a program that continues 30 years later. 

After returning, Bongiovanni pursued a master’s degree in public policy from Harvard University’s School of Government. Her career has since taken her to nearly 50 countries, and inspired her to publish more than 30 research papers and write policy briefs for past presidents including Bill Clinton.

Bongiovanni is currently the vice president of technical services for the Virginia-based International Business and Technical Consultants Inc., where she leads a global team with staff in the United States and abroad who are researching the effectiveness of US foreign assistance, such as aid programs to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

Bongiovanni tells binghamton.edu, “The Decker School taught me a lot about the patient as an individual. They come from different walks of life, but they’re all treated equally. To me, that’s the most beautiful thing about being a nurse—everyone is treated the same in a patient gown, and no one person is more important than another. Everybody gets out of bed one foot at a time.”

To learn more about Annette Bongiovanni, a nurse and public health policy expert who has spent the last four decades of her career working to make the world a healthier place, visit here

Penn Nursing Receives Top Spot for Research Funding from the National Institutes of Health

Penn Nursing Receives Top Spot for Research Funding from the National Institutes of Health

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) has received the top spot for research funding for the 2019 fiscal year, with $11.3 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This marks the third consecutive year that Penn Nursing has ranked in the top spot. 

Penn Nursing Dean Antonia Villarruel tells newswise.com , “Although rankings are not the only measure of our research success, they are a national reflection of our commitment to our mission and progress in advancing the health and wellbeing of the public. They also contribute to the extraordinarily high standing and reputation of our school around the world. We achieved this designation through the hard work of our incredible and innovative faculty, and the dedicated staff who support them. This success would not be possible without the individual and collective contributions of each one of these professionals.”

Newly funded research at Penn Nursing includes Improving Self-Care of Informal Caregivers of Adults with Heart Failure; Palliative Care Consultations for Persons in the Medicare Skilled Nursing Facility Setting; Novel Neuroendocrine Mechanisms Underlying Nicotine Seeking and Withdrawal-Induced Hyperphagia; Effect of Opioid Taper on Pain Responses in Patients with Chronic Pain; Multicomponent Behavioral Sleep Intervention for Insomnia in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment; The Role of Opioid Adherence Profiles in Cancer Pain Self-Management and Outcomes; and more. 

According to newswise.com , Therese Richmond, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, stated in a press release: “This sample of our new research grants at Penn Nursing demonstrates the breadth and depth of our science. Penn Nursing is committed to tackling challenging health and social problems to improve the health and well-being of individuals, families, and communities. We conduct rigorous research that focuses on the most vulnerable among us and are committed to testing novel interventions that solve important problems.”

To learn more about the groundbreaking research being conducted at Penn Nursing thanks to the university’s ranking in the top spot for research funding from the National Institutes of Health, visit here. 

Nurse of the Week: NICU Nurse Becky Zimmerman Receives DAISY Award Nomination from Mother of Premature Twin Patients

Nurse of the Week: NICU Nurse Becky Zimmerman Receives DAISY Award Nomination from Mother of Premature Twin Patients

Our Nurse of the Week is Becky Zimmerman , a nurse in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at a Wisconsin hospital who was recently nominated for a DAISY Award by one of the families she cared for. Her patient, Whitney Driver, went into labor at 26 weeks, almost three months before her due date, and gave birth to twin boys who weighed just under two pounds.

Zimmerman was assigned as the primary care nurse for the twins, named Hudson and Hayden. Zimmerman and Driver both report growing close during the Driver twins’ 89 day stay in the NICU, but the family truly formed a connection after they lost one of their sons, Hayden, at just 17 days old.

Driver was overcome by postpartum depression and grief from losing her son, but knew she needed to find a way to be there for her other son. Zimmerman became a huge part of helping Driver manage her emotions and get the help she needed.

Zimmerman tells nbc15.com, “I’ve taken care of a lot of babies. But this story is the kind of one that really clenched my heart.”

The Driver family eventually nominated Zimmerman for a DAISY Award, a program that honors exceptional nurses. To learn more about Becky Zimmerman, a NICU nurse from Wisconsin who was recently nominated for a DAISY Award by one of the families she cared for, visit here.

Nurse of the Week: Penn State Nursing Dean Laurie Badzek Honored with National Leadership in Ethics Award

Nurse of the Week: Penn State Nursing Dean Laurie Badzek Honored with National Leadership in Ethics Award

Our Nurse of the Week is Laurie Badzek, LLM, JD, MS, RN, FNAP, FAAN, dean of the College of Nursing at Penn State, who has been honored with the American Nurses Association’s (ANA) Leadership in Ethics Award. ANA created the award to recognize registered nurses who have authentically demonstrated the highest standards of ethics and leadership in their daily practice, served as an ethical role model, and promoted ethical dialogue and scholarship.

Throughout her career, Badzek has held the roles of nurse, attorney, researcher, and educator. She brings experience in genomics, health care ethics and law, nursing practice, and end-of-life care and decision-making to her work, and her commitment to ethical leadership led her to serve as director of the American Nurses Association Center for Ethics and Human Rights where she was instrumental in revising the ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses.

Nick Jones, executive vice president and provost, tells news.psu.edu , “In 2018, we selected Laurie to be dean of Penn State’s College of Nursing in part because of her exemplary leadership on ethical and human rights issues and advocacy regarding nursing education, practice and policy. I consider Laurie a role model for ethical leadership at the University, so I’m thrilled that she received this much-deserved award from the ANA. I congratulate and thank Laurie for her commitment to excellence.”

Badzek began her role as dean of the Penn State College of Nursing in July 2018 where she oversees the undergraduate and graduate programs at 12 commonwealth campuses and online. Her role also enables her to be a champion of using genomics in nursing to enhance patient care, and her research in genomics has been funded by the National Council of the State Boards of Nursing, National Institutes of Health, National Human Genome Research Institute, and National Cancer Institute. Badzek is also a member of the American Association of College of Nursing Deans and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, and a fellow of the National Academies of Practice and more.  

To learn more about Laurie Badzek, dean of the College of Nursing at Penn State, who has been honored with the American Nurses Association’s Leadership in Ethics Award, visit here.

California Universities Work Together to Train More Nurse Practitioners to Fill Mental Health Care Gap

California Universities Work Together to Train More Nurse Practitioners to Fill Mental Health Care Gap

In an effort to address a shortage of mental health providers in the state of California, UC San Francisco (UCSF), in collaboration with UC Davis and UCLA, has announced the launch of an online training program for psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs). The program aims to train 300 new mental health providers to enter the state’s workforce by 2025.

An estimated 17 percent of Californians live with mental health needs, according to ucsf.edu . Many in that population lack access to mental health care and the problem is expected to worsen as the psychiatrist workforce continues to dwindle. Graduates of UC San Francisco’s new program are projected to serve as many as 378,000 patients over the next five years.

California currently has 13,000 nurse practitioners in its workforce, many of whom care for underserved populations in primary care settings including hospitals, prisons, schools, and other outpatient medical practices. PMHNPs are specialized mental health professionals authorized to prescribe psychotropic medications, treat severe mental illness and substance abuse disorders, and offer psychiatric care.

Program co-director Rosalind De Lisser, MS, RN, NP, associate professor in the UCSF School of Nursing, tells ucsf.edu , “I am tremendously excited about this innovative multi-campus program. It has the potential to expand our reach as an educational institution by providing excellent clinical training and contributing to the workforce development needs of California.”

Her sentiments were echoed by fellow co-director Deborah Johnson, DNP, RN, NP, also an associate professor in the UCSF School of Nursing, who stated: “Building upon our successful history as a top-ranked public PMHNP program, this program eliminates geographical barriers and allows California NPs in primary care to gain the education and training necessary to provide behavioral health services in their communities. The three-school collaboration provides high-quality educational resources for students across the state.”

The new program is scheduled to launch in fall 2020, with administrative offices located on the UC San Francisco campus. Students will be able to complete their clinical training component in the region where they live. The program aims to recruit 40 students for the first years and 65 students each following year, for a total of 300 PMHNPs over five years.

To learn more about the new online training program for psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners being launched by UC San Francisco in collaboration with UC Davis and UCLA, visit here.