Strengthening a bond that traces back to its founding 71 years ago, Blanchet House has selected University of Portland’s School of Nursing & Health Innovations (UPSONHI) as the recipient of its 2023 Service Award.
Blanchet House bestowed the honor on UPSONHI at its annual Lend a Helping Hand Brunch in downtown Portland March 5. In its ongoing mission to offer food, shelter, and aid to those in need, Blanchet House recognized UP student nurses and faculty for serving people experiencing homelessness in Blanchet’s café, at its foot care clinics and in the nurse-led Harrington Health Clinic.
“The University of Portland’s outstanding nursing faculty and nursing students bring their spirit of innovation in community health care to Blanchet House's residents and meal guests," said Scott Kerman, Executive Director of Blanchet House. “This Service Award honors the outstanding impact they make in our community."
Blanchet House, located in Old Town Portland, was founded in 1952 by University of Portland alumni as a “House of Hospitality”—a place for people experiencing poverty to receive hot meals, clothes, and community. More than seven decades later, the University is proud to remain a faithful ally, according to Casey Shillam, Dean of UP’s School of Nursing & Health Innovations.
“Blanchet House and Harrington Health Clinic are two of our most treasured community partnerships, and the contributions of UP nursing students and faculty makes a powerful impact on the health and wellness of all people living in our beloved city of Portland,” Shillam said.
We are pleased to announce that Claire McKinley Yoder, PhD, RN, CNE, Assistant Professor, was chosen to serve as a Distinguished Thought Leader in Nursing & Health Education for the National League for Nursing and Walden University College of Nursing’s Institute for Social Determinants of Health and Social Change, Social Determinants of Health & Social Change Leadership Academy. The Leadership Academy is overseen by the NLN Center for Transformational Leadership.
In this year long program, thought leaders will work on scholarly writing, research, curriculum development, and building leadership competencies to prepare them for a lead role in preparing future caregivers who provide culturally sensitive care as well as focusing on systems that advance the health of national and global communities.
“We anticipate that through their immersion in this intensive initiative, these nursing education leaders will be prepared to address individual, family, and community health and welfare to advance health equity” said NLN Chair Kathleen Poindexter, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, interim associate dean of academic affairs at Michigan State University in Lansing.
The University of Portland Elsie Franz-Finley Simulated Health Center (SHC) in the School of Nursing & Health Innovations is the first healthcare simulation center in Oregon to be fully accredited by the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH). Specifically, the SHC is accredited in the area of Teaching/Education, effective August 2, 2022 and through December 31, 2027.
The SSH examines healthcare simulation centers with a peer-reviewed and evidenced based approach. By being granted full accreditation, the SSH affirmed that the SHC has dedicated and sufficient resources to achieve its mission of preparing and inspiring healthcare leaders through high-fidelity, immersive experiences to support the development of clinical judgment, ethical reflection, and leadership formation, while providing holistic care and valuing human dignity.
The SHC is recognized for and continues to be committed to:
We have big news to share! The University of Portland School of Nursing is now the School of Nursing & Health Innovations.
Our faculty, staff, and students strive to embrace innovation to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving health care system. We are constantly looking ahead and adapting our curriculum, programs, and collaborations to ensure our graduates enter the workforce ready to face the health care challenges of today — and lead the way tomorrow. That’s why our longstanding mission to continually innovate is now part of our name.
We are proud to announce Sarah Ignacio as a recipient of an Army Nurse Corps Association Scholarship. She was selected from a large group of outstanding applicants by the Army Nurse Corps Association. Congratulations Sarah!
University of Portland’s student nurses live for their clinical rotations, when they finally get the chance to take what they’ve learned and practiced at school and apply it to real world situations. But, due to COVID, a group of juniors poised to work pediatric and ob-gyn rotations in a local hospital this spring found their internships canceled. But UP’s nursing program is nothing if not resourceful, and the students were quickly set up with a new opportunity to get experience with live patients while doing something to actively fight the nemesis that thwarted their plans: administering COVID-19 vaccines at the Oregon Convention Center.
The students say working with a steady onslaught of different people gave them an incredibly valuable learning experience in patient care.
As Oregon welcomes long-awaited vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Portland School of Nursing & Health Innovations (UPSONHI) is stepping up to assist with vaccination of priority recipients at Kaiser Permanente medical centers.
When the spring term begins on the UP campus in late January, 30-40 students from UPSONHI will join the vaccination effort to increase the distribution of the vaccines locally. The students, juniors and seniors in the nursing program, will receive additional training as part of their clinical curriculum to prepare them for the vaccination responsibilities.
Within the busting halls of a Los Angeles hospital, a popular Beatles song plays over the intercom. The uplifting melody has become an anthem of hope for School of Nursing & Health Innovations alum Bailey Saleumvong ’08.
After years of experience in neuroscience, emergency, cardiac, and ICU units, Bailey decided to become a travel nurse. With this job, Bailey gets the opportunity to live and work in different cities and hospitals around the country, but chooses to take jobs primarily in California and Washington.
In April, Jennifer Graves ’87, ’92 MSN, the regional nursing executive of Kaiser Permanente Washington, was asked to staff a new COVID-19 assessment and recovery facility with around-the-clock coverage for those in the King County, WA, area experiencing homelessness. She didn’t hesitate. In mere weeks she had the staff and processes in place. A creative thinker, a listener, a leader, a proud mom, and a lover of the game of basketball, Graves believes her University of Portland education prepared her for the challenge of the moment.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) invited nursing deans and directors across the country to submit videos on how the nursing community can end racism and foster equitable change. The University of Portland School of Nursing & Health Innovations participated and shared how they are working to create an inclusive learning environment.
The University of Portland School of Nursing & Health Innovations has partnered with the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) to provide undergraduate and doctorate students with a palliative care education through ELNEC's online curriculum. It is a valuable asset not only with the School of Nursing, but nationwide!
University of Portland
5000 N. Willamette Blvd.,
Portland, Oregon 97203-5798
503.943.8000
