xt7gms3k0r7g https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7gms3k0r7g/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky College of Nursing Kentucky -- Lexington University of Kentucky College of Nursing 2002  newsletters  English University of Kentucky College of Nursing  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. University of Kentucky College of Nursing publications Nursing CONnections, Spring/Summer 2002 text CONnections, Spring/Summer 2002 2002 2002 2019 true xt7gms3k0r7g section xt7gms3k0r7g CON
Spring/Summer 2002

Linda C. Gill Chair in Nursing

Debra Moser
a cardiovascular researcher
and teacher fits perfectly into
Coronary Valley

Inside
New Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
offers expanded clinical leadership
opportunities
SimMan patient simulator — is he really
breathing?
Reunion celebrates 15-year anniversary
of Ph.D. program

University of Kentucky College of Nursing

* From the Dean
What a great year this has been in the life of the College of Nursing! A major accomplishment has been the addition of 84 to the ranks of the College’s alumni: 43 individuals
received baccalaureates, 31 master’s, four post-master’s clinical scholars and six Ph.D.s.
During the year we welcomed several new faculty portrayed in this newsletter, including
Dr. Debra Moser, the occupant of our first endowed chair, the Linda C. Gill Chair in Nursing.
Dr. Moser “hit the ground running” and quickly established
her office of research.
We are very pleased that research activity in the College
is expanding at a very good rate. Several faculty have
received significant funding. Others are preparing proposals
for submission for external support.
Another major development was the launch in Fall 2001
of our new program, the Doctor of Nursing Practice
(D.N.P.), explicitly designed to prepare graduates for top
leadership roles in health care delivery. The program
emphasizes research utilization and clinical and executive
leadership to improve outcomes. It is the first of its kind in
nursing and is attracting considerable national attention.
Other new developments include the addition of
“SimMan” to our teaching resources (see article on page 7).
SimMan is part of the first phase of a major expansion and renovation of our clinical
teaching laboratory. We also began offering an honors option for undergraduates and
added a synthesis course to the senior year curriculum in the baccalaureate program.
I am very pleased that Terry Green has joined us as the new director of development
for the College. Terry has excellent development experience, most recently as director of
development for the Henry Clay Foundation. She will be working with me and with Nancy
Mangrum, our director of alumni affairs, to reach out to our large community of graduates
and friends of the College.
This August the College begins its 42nd academic year! One of the highlights will be the
celebration being planned for October to commemorate the 15th year of our Ph.D.
program. We look forward to other indications of the contributions being made by our
outstanding faculty, staff and students. We hope you will join us for this celebration and
other activities being planned for alumni and friends of the College.
During this past year we have enjoyed wonderful support, financial and otherwise,
from alumni and friends of the College. This has been deeply appreciated and has
enabled us to move the College forward as one of the leading colleges of nursing in the
country.

Carolyn A. Williams, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N.
Dean

2

Connections

CON
ON
Editor:
M. Claire Baker
Contributors:
Tammy Gay, UK Public Relations
Terry Green
Lynne A. Hall, Dr. P.H., R.N.
Juliann G. Sebastian, Ph.D., A.R.N.P., F.A.A.N.
Marcia K. Stanhope, D.S.N., R.N., F.A.A.N.,
Associate Dean and Professor
Peg Teachey
Darlene Welsh, M.S.N., R.N., C.S.
Design:
M. Claire Baker
Photography:
M. Claire Baker
Nancy Mangrum
Shooters Photography, Inc. (page 12)
J. Breck Smither (pages 3 and 5)
Lee P. Thomas (front cover and page 9)
UK Medical Arts and Photography (page 2)
Connections
is published twice a year by the
University of Kentucky College of Nursing.
Carolyn A. Williams, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N.,
Dean
University of Kentucky
College of Nursing
315 College of Nursing/
Health Sciences Learning Center
Lexington, KY 40536-0232
Visit us on the Web at
www.mc.uky.edu/nursing

* College's First Chair
Moser studies state’s
number one cause of death

E

ight Americans will die of cardiovascular disease while
you read this article. Kentucky ranks higher than most
states in coronary heart disease mortality and has the
unfortunate distinction of being part of what’s referred to as the
Coronary Valley. National data reveal a clustering of coronary heart
disease in the Ohio and Mississippi River Valleys.
“When I found my state ranked fifth worst in heart disease,
the challenge was very clear,” said Linda Gill, who, with her husband,
Jack, made a donation to the University to build a state-of-the-art
heart institute, which became the Linda and Jack Gill Heart Institute.
Linda Gill grew up in Louisville and Fort Thomas, Ky., and is a
1962 graduate of UK. She and her husband began the charitable
Gill Foundation that supports higher education and health care.
The Gills’ donation also helped to establish the Linda C. Gill
Chair in Nursing to support leadership in research relevant to the
prevention, management, and rehabilitation of people with
cardiovascular and/or pulmonary problems. Debra K. Moser,
D.N.Sc., R.N., accepted the Chair position and joined the College
in July 2001. Moser came to UK from The Ohio State University
College of Nursing.
Moser, an internationally known nurse researcher in cardiovascular health, leads an interdisciplinary team of researchers in
developing research projects to answer clinical questions.
“I want to provide clinicians with useful information to identify
cardiac patients at high risk for poor physical or psychosocial
recover after acute cardiac events or during adaptation to chronic
cardiac conditions,” Moser says.
Several different funded projects are keeping Moser busy. In
one of those, a $2,778,548 multi-center study funded by the
National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of
Health, Moser, as co-investigator, and her colleagues from across
the country are studying ways to encourage people to seek immediate
treatment when they experience cardiac symptoms. Her mentor,
Kathleen Dracup, D.N.Sc., F.A.A.N., dean of the University of
California at San Francisco School of Nursing, is the principal
investigator.

Professor Debra Moser conducts heart rate variability analysis, a noninvasive method for assessing autonomic nervous system tone.

Moser is also principal investigator for the study, “Effect on
Outcomes and Resource Utilization of a Focused Home-based
Education Program for Elderly Heart Failure Patients,” funded by
a $300,000 Established Investigator Grant from the National
American Heart Association. Nurses see patients at home within
a couple of days of the patient’s release from the hospital.
Since 1997, Moser has served as co-editor of the Journal of
Cardiovascular Nursing. She is co-author, along with Barbara Riegel
of UCLA, of the textbook, Improving Outcomes in Heart Failure:
An Interdisciplinary Approach (2001).
Moser’s work has been published in numerous journals,
including the Journal of the American College of Cardiology,
Circulation, Nursing Research, Social Science and Medicine,
American Heart Journal, American Journal of Cardiology, and the
American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
She has numerous honors and awards to her credit, including
the 2001 Research Article of the Year from the American Heart
Association, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, the 2000 Mentor
Award from the Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau, and the 1999
Alumnus of the 1990s award from the UCLA School of Nursing.

University of Kentucky College of Nursing

3

* New doctoral program offers
clinical leadership opportunities
The College’s new Doctor of Nursing
Practice (D.N.P.) program opened in the
Fall of 2001 with much excitement over the
promise of contributing to the development
of top-level clinical nursing leadership.
Thirteen highly qualified students are
enrolled in the first class.
Assistant Dean for Advanced Practice
Nursing Julie Sebastian, Ph.D., A.R.N.P.,
F.A.A.N., and Associate Dean Marcia
Stanhope, D.S.N.,R.N., F.A.A.N., co-direct
the program.
The program complements the
College’s highly successful Ph.D. in Nursing
program. Together, they provide nurses
varying opportunities for advanced study.
The D.N.P. program prepares nurses
interested in clinical nursing leadership to
function effectively at the highest levels
of clinical decision-making and to do so
using a population-based approach.
The curriculum contains two options
for specialization. Clinical track students
focus on becoming expert in designing,
implementing, and evaluating care for
individual clinical populations. They
develop a broad understanding about the
state of the science related to their
populations of interest. They also design
new models of care delivery for those

4

Connections

populations that take into account the
complex array of comorbidities, social,
economic, and cultural variations present
within the population.
Students in the nurse executive track
learn to design systems of care that
respond to the needs of multiple populations.
They focus on the interaction between
highly complicated physical and
psychological health needs of multiple
populations, and on the intersection
between these clinical needs and the
social, cultural, and economic demands
within health care organizations.
Students in the D.N.P. program
become expert in providing clinical
leadership within all types of health care
organizations, including hospitals,
outpatient and community-based facilities,
public health and managed care. They
blend expert clinical knowledge with a
depth of understanding of leadership,
evidence-based practice, and populationbased care delivery.

Reaccreditation
Underway
For three days in April the College of
Nursing engaged in a national reaccreditation process for B.S.N. and M.S.N.
programs in colleges of nursing. This is a
process the College participates in every
8-10 years to showcase the quality of the
nursing education programs we offer to
our B.S.N. and M.S.N. students and the
College’s involvement in continuous
quality improvement.
Four visitors from the Commission on
Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE),
Washington, D.C., visited the College to
conduct a site visit. For the past 18
months College faculty, staff, and student
representatives engaged in self-study. The
visitors participated in the Southern
Association of Colleges and Schools
(SACS) review of the University, and
reviewed the College for the SACS report
as well.
A final report will be available this
summer.

Part of the first D.N.P. class. Front row, left to
right: Patricia Seabolt, Tukea Talbert, Karen
Mutsch and Kathleen Haley. Standing, left to
right: Barbara Kitchen and Kelley Furlong.

* It’s what we learn that
counts
During the past two years, faculty have been extremely
successful in garnering federal funding for research. Deborah Reed,
Ph.D., R.N. (Ph.D., 1996), assistant professor, received two research
grants from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (NIOSH/
CDC).
She was awarded $1.2 million for a five-year study, “Sustained
Work Indicators of Older Farmers.” Reed and her co-investigators,
Mary Kay Rayens, Ph.D., associate professor, and Steve Browning,
Ph.D., assistant professor, along with Jan McCollough, Ph.D.,
associate professor of family studies, and Lori Garkovich, Ph.D.,
professor of rural sociology, will track the work patterns of aging
farmers and identify factors that influence their decision to
remain in farm work. They also will develop physical and mental
health profiles and injury risk profiles of older male and female
farmers.
Reed’s second award was $594,485 for a multi-site evaluation
research project to examine the effectiveness of Farm Safety 4 Just
Kids day camps, a national program. She and co-investigators Mary
Kay Rayens, Ph.D., and Hank Cole, Ed.D., of the College of
Education will investigate the long-term effects of the program
on children, their families and their communities.
Professor Ann Peden, D.S.N., A.R.N.P.-C.S., is the principal
investigator of, “Prevention of Depression in Low-Income Single

Mothers,” a three-year $648,980 study funded by the National
Institute of Nursing Research/National Institutes of Health (NINR/
NIH). Peden and her co-investigators, Lynne Hall, Dr.P.H, R.N.,
professor and assistant dean for research and the Ph.D. program,
and Mary Kay Rayens, Ph.D., are testing the effects of a cognitivebehavioral intervention in reducing the risk of clinical depression
in single mothers.
Assistant Professor Patricia Burkhart, Ph.D., R.N., received
$144,800 from NINR/NIH for a two-year study, “Promoting
Children’s Adherence to Recommended Asthma Self-Management.”
Her co-investigators are Mary Kay Rayens and Robert Revelette,
M.D., Ph.D., Pediatric & Adolescent Associates, Lexington. They
will use an intervention that combines a contingency management
protocol with asthma education, based on the National Asthma
Education and Prevention Program treatment guidelines. A variety
of health outcomes in children with asthma will be examined,
including adherence to peak expiratory flow rate monitoring.
The College is taking part in a multi-site, international intervention study, “Reducing Delay in Myocardial Infarction.” Debra
Moser, D.N.Sc., R.N., F.A.A.N., professor and Gill Chair, is a
co-investigator and director of the Kentucky site. This $2.8 million
study is funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research/
National Institutes of Health. See the article on Moser on page 3.
Associate professors Ellen Hahn, D.N.S., R.N., and Mary Kay
Rayens, Ph.D., received a $100,000 grant from the American Legacy
Foundaton for their study, “Testing the Effect of a Multi-component
Statewide Smoking Cessation Contest.”

Alumni receive national
awards
Associate Professor Patricia B. Howard, Ph.D., R.N., C.N.A.A.
(Ph.D., 1992), received the Melva Jo Hendrix Lectureship Award
for 2002 from the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental
Health Nurses. Criteria for the award include leadership, commitment,
and contributions to the profession and to the care of individuals
with psychiatric-mental health problems and their families.
Howard teaches in the graduate program here at the College. At
the same ceremony, Evelyn Parrish (M.S.N., 1997) received the
Clinical Practice Award.

Alums, mark your calendar…

Debbie Reed, Ph.D., R.N., has a five-year grant from NIOSH/CDC to
study work patterns of older farmers and reasons why they continue to
work.

for the 2002 College of Nursing Alumni Association Alumni
Reunion to be held Sat., Oct. 26, 2002, at Spindletop Hall in
Lexington. There will be a special recognition for members of
the 1972, ’77, ’82, and ’92 classes. Watch your mail in August
for more information.

University of Kentucky College of Nursing

5

* Ph.D. program hosting
long-awaited reunion
“Baby Jessica” McClure fell down a
backyard water well and was rescued two
days later. President Reagan first said the
word “AIDS.” Three Men and a Baby was
the top grossing movie. The first class of
four students began studies in the new
Doctor of Philosophy Program at the UK
College of Nursing.
That was 1987. Fifteen years later,
40-plus students are enrolled and another
36 have graduated.
On October 11, we are hosting a 15th
anniversary celebration and reunion to be
held at the Hilton Suites at Lexington
Green. Kathleen Dracup, D.N.Sc.,
F.A.A.N., dean and professor, University
of California at San Francisco, will be the
keynote speaker. The internationallyknown cardiovascular researcher will discuss
her 20-year program of research in a
presentation titled, “For Better or Worse:
the Role of the Cardiac Spouse in Recovery.”
As part of the event, there will be a
poster session to showcase the research of
alumni and students. Faculty, faculty
emeriti, past and current committee members
and others from the University community
will be invited. Alumni and Ph.D. students
– watch the mailbox for your invitation!
In other Ph.D. program news,
Deborah Armstrong (Ph.D., 2001),
received the 2002 Sigma Theta Tau International Research Dissemination Award
for her dissertation, “Emotional Distress
and Prenatal Attachment in Pregnancy After
Perinatal Loss,” and for dissemination of her
research through publications and presentations. Armstrong also received the 2001
MCN: American Journal of Maternal/Child
Nursing Best Paper award for her publication, “Exploring Fathers’ Experience of
Pregnancy After a Prior Perinatal Loss.”
She conducted this research and wrote the
6

Connections

paper as part of a course assignment for
Professor Emeritus Barbara Sachs.
Armstrong is an assistant professor at the
University of Louisville School of Nursing.
Ph.D. student Patricia K. Howard,
M.S.N., received the 2002 You Make a
Difference Award
from EN CARE, the
Emergency Nurses
Association (ENA)
Injury Prevention
UK Polar Fleece Vest
Institute for her
UK royal blue, embroidered UK Wildcat logo.
voluntary contribuXS, S, M, L, XL: $35.00
tions to injury
2XL: $37.00; 3XL: $39.00; 4XL: $41.00
prevention. Howard
wrote ENA’s Gun
UK fleece stadium blanket
50” x 60”, UK royal blue, embroidered
Safety: It’s No Accident
UK Wildcat logo.
training program.
Includes carrying case.
She also is a member
$25.00
of the ENA board of
Christmas ornament
directors.
3 ½” diameter, printed with “University of Kentucky
Ph.D. candidate
College of Nursing” in blue.
Debra Hall, M.S.N.,
$10.00
was selected as a
To order, complete the form below, and mail with your
member of the
check made payable to CONAA, to: CONAA, University
National Institutes
of Kentucky College of Nursing, 315 CON/HSLC Bldg.,
of Health (NIH)
Lexington, KY 40536-0232.
Director’s Council of
Public Representatives.
The council is an
Name
advisory committee
Address
representing patients
City
State
Zip
and their families,
health care professionals, scientists,
health/science
communicators and
educators. The group
advises the director of
NIH
regarding
programs, activities
and policies.

Item

Size

Quantity

Price

Item

Size

Quantity

Price

Item

Size

Quantity

Price

Shipping and Handling

$

Total

2.50

$

Kentucky state sales tax is already included. Proceeds go
to support many College of Nursing Alumni Association
projects.

* SimMan
This superhero’s just past this side of reality

A

paradigm shift is occurring in nursing education, with
a move from a teacher-centered to a learner-centered

model. Technology is the
catalyst for this
move, and the
latest in technology is what the
College
of
Nursing has
invested in.
This is not
about one new
piece of equipment. This is
part of an
overall venture
to create an
entire Learning
Undergraduate students work with
Resource Center
SimMan to alleviate respiratory
within
the
distress.Feedback on the computer will
College. In the
indicate whether their interventions
were successful.
last two years,
the College has
invested more
than $84,000 in
state-of-the-art patient simulation equipment. $74,000 of the
expenditure came from the Council on Post-secondary Education
from funds earmarked for equipment to enhance programs at the
University. The balance was paid with College funds.
The Center’s anchor is the SimMan Adult Universal
Patient Simulator. SimMan is a life-size adult male manikin,
controlled by Windows-based software, which runs on an attached
PC and wireless remote control.
It provides scenarios – actual patient cases can be recreated
– that challenge and test clinical and decision-making skills.
Claudia Diebold, M.S.N., R.N., a lecturer with the College, says
that for example, “Beginning students work with SimMan to

understand the body’s response to a decrease in oxygen and how
to intervene appropriately. Senior students will be challenged with
more complex
scenarios
involving a
var iety
of
disease processes
such as diabetic
ketoacidosis or
abnormal heart
rhythms.”
SimMan is
especially
designed to
create situations
related to typical
and non-typical
difficult airway
management.
Some of its
capabilities are:
spo ntane ous
breathing with a
full library of
breath sounds,
production of
pneumothorax,
various cardiac rhythms and accompanying ECG readings, and
response to synchronized cardioversion.
Using SimMan, students learn to take blood pressure, perform
auscultation, interpret and treat malignant and lethal cardiacrelated situations, and recognize, understand, and treat conditions
related to a variety of abnormal heart, breath, bowel, and vocal
sounds. SimMan can be intubated as well.
The instructor chooses from a set of scenarios he or she has
programmed, and the software plays out this scenario through
SimMan. The student must treat the “patient” (SimMan) as if he
were real and provide interventions just as one would in real life.
See “SimMan,” page 8

University of Kentucky College of Nursing

7

* Last piece of
the puzzle
fills gap in
senior year

NUR 886, Synthesis of Clinical Knowledge for Nursing Practice, is a unique, new
course started this past spring semester.
The College developed it for undergraduates
in the final semester of the senior year. The
Synthesis experience provides students with
one-to-one learning opportunities that
develop clinical competence and leadership
skills.
The course is divided into two parts.
During the first half of the semester,
students take part in a seminar series that
prepares them for the clinical experience.
On completion of this portion of the course,
students begin the clinical immersion
experience.
Students select a clinical site with
faculty assistance at the end of the preceding
semester. At the clinical sites nurse
preceptors supervise the students as they
deliver nursing care. Students and preceptors
work on a one-to-one basis for 30-32
hours each week. The faculty’s role then
changes from teacher to facilitator,

guiding and supporting the students and
their preceptors, as the students “learn by
doing” the nursing activities that are
integral to their specialty area of interest.
The course coordinators are Darlene
Welsh, M.S.N., R.N., C.S., and Melanie
Hardin-Pierce, M.S.N., A.R.N.P.-C.S.,
both on the faculty of the College.
“One important outcome for this
learning experience will be to bridge the
gap between nursing education and the
real world of clinical nursing,” says Welsh.
She adds that students may “experience
less culture shock than other beginning
nurses as they enter the profession.”
Synthesis teaching and learning methods
include seminar discussions and participation, clinical practice and instruction,
and an oral presentation with critique.

SimMan

• Breast and testicle models
There are several important advantages to learning with patient simulators
as opposed to real patients. Students “can
practice diagnostic reasoning and ‘hands
on’ skills with a patient simulator, thus
developing the necessary skill competence
and confidence to be able to deliver safer
and more effective care to actual patients,”
says Melanie Hardin-Pierce, M.S.N.,
A.R.N.P., an instructor with the College.
Diebold notes another big plus to
using patient simulation: “With SimMan
we can pause the scenario that the students
are responding to and allow them to problem
solve and respond in a controlled
environment.”
What’s practiced in the laboratory
reflects what is done in real-world
situations. The link between education,
practice, and research is appreciated. In
addition, agencies will be more confident
in our students, knowing they have been

through realistic training at the laboratory
level.
Hardin-Pierce says, “With the appropriate increase in agency and consumer
consciousness of safety and quality
surrounding patient care, it has become
necessary for schools of nursing to look
into simulation technologies as a means
of teaching critical thinking, clinical
decision making, and psychomotor
nursing skills.”
SimMan, and other patient simulation
models, will be used across all undergraduate and graduate programs.

continued from page 7

According to Diebold, “Working with a
manikin that breathes and has a heartbeat
simulates real life situations so closely that
students feel the urgency and stress as if
they were working with a real patient.”
Other patient simulation models the
College has acquired for the Learning
Resource Center are:
• IV Catheter Simulator
• Gatesville Child with Multi-Sounds
Simulator
•Baby Code with Multi-Sounds
Simulator
•Auscultation Trainer and Smartscope
The College has purchased several other
new educational pieces:
• Chromosome Simulation Set
• Uterus and Fetal Model Set
• Nasogastric/intubation model

8

Connections

* Undergrads
experience
professional growth
in scholars program
It’s a not-to-miss opportunity for gifted junior and senior
nursing students. The Nurse Scholar’s Program, begun in 2001,
enables up to 16 selected students to participate in advanced seminars,
hear from guest nurse researchers and clinicians, and prepare a
final project on a specialized topic. Students apply to become a
nurse scholar and are selected by a committee of faculty and
student services personnel. These individuals are not only gifted
academically — they have the qualities of leaders.

Practice, practice is
key to success
The College of Nursing has an active academic clinical program
that significantly contributes to clinical, education, and research
opportunities. Faculty and professional staff
provide cutting-edge clinical services in 24
different locations throughout central and eastern
Kentucky and will generate $1.5 million
dollars in grant and contract revenues during
this academic year alone.
The College works with a number of UK
departments, including inpatient nursing at the
University of Kentucky Hospital and University
of Kentucky Children’s Hospital, University
Health Service, UK Associates in Women’s
Health, and the UK Departments of Psychiatry,
Pediatrics, Family Practice and the Division of
Cardiology. College of Nursing faculty also work
collaboratively in community-based clinics,
including the Family Care Center in Lexington,
four Healthy Kids Clinics in local elementary schools, and the

UK is designated by the Carnegie Foundation as a Research
University of the First Rank and has a goal of becoming a top-20
research university by 2020. Toward that goal, the College
provides these unique opportunities for gifted students during
their undergraduate years by getting them involved in nursing
research, professional issues and advanced clinical experiences.
The program has requirements beyond those required for the
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degree. Students take a
one-credit hour seminar each semester that permits them to
examine clinical and professional issues in-depth. What a student
takes away from it includes a chance for in-depth study of various
subjects, enhancement of professional development, growth as a
future leader, and preparation for graduate study in nursing.
Dorothy Brockopp, R.N., Ph.D., assistant dean for undergraduate
studies, says, “ I am quite certain that these students will be leaders
within the nursing profession within the next five to ten years.
They are bright, articulate and dedicated to the profession. The
experiences they have as a nurse scholar will enable them to move
quickly into a masters’ program should they desire to do so.”

primary care clinics operated by Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital
in Ashland, Ky.
In addition to these interdisciplinary sites, the College takes
an innovative approach to health care services through its nursemanaged Good Samaritan Nursing Center for Health Promotion
and Illness Prevention. This initiative includes individual, family,
and population-based care delivery in 11 different locations,
including elementary schools and one middle school, the Hope
Center Nurse-Managed Clinic for the homeless, four clinics for
low income families, and a mental health nursing
service for high risk adolescents.
Students from each of the College’s
academic programs have the opportunity to
work with faculty in their day-to-day clinical
practices. Not only does this provide students
with the opportunity to see their faculty as
practicing professionals, but it also exposes
students to new models of care delivery. Graduate
students have creative laboratories from which
to generate clinical research questions and to test
the effectiveness of new models of care.
Leslie Scott, MS.N., A.R.N.P., provides primary care
for children. Her doctoral research topic grew out
of her clinical work with school-age children.

University of Kentucky College of Nursing

9

* New faculty
Steve Browning,
Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
teaching in Ph.D. and
D.N.P. programs.
Research interests: environmental and occupational epidemiology.
Karen Butler,
M.S.N., R.N.
Lecturer teaching in
undergraduate
program. Is also a
student in College’s
Ph.D. program.
Jennifer
Cunningham,
M.S.N., A.R.N.P.
Instructor teaching in
the undergraduate
program. Also works
at the Family Care
Center as part of
faculty practice.
Wanda Lovitz,
M.S.N., A.R.N.P.
Lecturer teaching in
the undergraduate
program. Also is a
nurse practitioner
working in adult
health.

Debra Moser,
D.N.Sc., R.N.
Professor teaching in
the Ph.D. program.
Linda C. Gill Chair in
Nursing. Research interests: improving outcomes and quality of life in people with
cardiovascular disease.
10

Connections

Kay Mueggenburg,
M.S.N., R.N.
Assistant Professor
teaching in the
undergraduate
program. Area of
interest:
public
health.

A good friend
and nurse leaves
legacy
Elizabeth Morgan, known to most as
Betty, was an absolutely delightful woman.
She passed away in October 2000, leaving
$250,000 to the College of Nursing in her
will.
Many will remember Betty Morgan
because she generously shared stories of
working as a nurse
in the southwest
Pacific
islands
during World War
II. She met her
husband, William
Morgan,
M.D.,
during this time and
they returned to
Betty Morgan
Kentucky where together they cared for
patients in Bourbon County for 30 years.
In her later years Mrs. Morgan wrote
poetry, even publishing three books, was
an active community volunteer and was a
Donovan Scholar and Fellow here at UK.
We hope her story will inspire others
to think about their own estates, whatever
size they may be, and how a bequest might
help in the forming of future nurses and
the work that they may do to help others.
She shared her thoughts most poignantly
in the following poem in making this
bequest to the College.

Kittye Roberts,
M.S.N., A.R.N.P.
Instructor teaching
in the undergraduate
program. Area of
interest: preventive
care.

Will
I have placed myself into a trust,
my securities are no longer boxed.
But are in a bank
watched over by a stranger
named McCabe.
I have been wined and dined
by these professionals taking over,
They seem eager to do it for me.
My lawyer says it is wise
to do this now
While all the choices are my own.
So he rewrote my will.
Half of what I have
I will leave to my closest kin –
nieces, nephews and sibling.
With three smaller bequests
To my favorite charities.
The other half I willed to the University
for the College of Nursing there.
It will establish a Chair in the field of
nurse practitioner.
Each year some qualified person
Will be able to become a professor.
Then she will go out to teach
other nurses
All that she has gleaned.
The gift will be from Bill and me.
I know he would have approved –
he always did
like nurses.
Reprinted by permission from the author.

* Former Dean Dies
Marion E. McKenna, Ed.D., second dean of the College, died
in July 2001 at her home in Niceville, Fla. McKenna was 79.
McKenna was the second dean of the College, serving from
1972 to 1984. She simultaneously served as acting dean of the
University of Louisville School of Nursing from 1981 until 1983,
while a search was conducted for a permanent dean.
During McKenna’s tenure at UK, the College of Nursing/Health
Sciences Learning Center was planned, built, and dedicated in
October 1979. The Master of Science in Nursing program was
begun and planning for the Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing
program was started.
She had a long career in nursing service and education. As a
member of the Army Nurse Corps, she served in both World War
II and the Korean War.
McKenna retired as a colonel after collectively serving 37 years
in the U.S. Air Force Reserves and the U.S. A