The Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, in partnership with Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, hosted its eighth annual Translating Research into Innovations in Practice Symposium on May 13-14 at the Penn Harris Hotel and Convention Center. A record-breaking 166 nursing faculty, clinicians and professionals from across Pennsylvania and Maryland gathered to explore the latest in evidence-based practice, research and innovation in nursing practice.
Keynote speaker, Bernadette Melnyk, former vice president for health promotion and chief wellness officer at the Ohio State University, presented "Evidence-Based Practice, Innovative Research & Nurse/Clinician Well-being: The Magic Triad to Improve Healthcare Quality, Safety & Costs."
Additional presentations included "Future Directions: The Role of AI, Technology, and Nursing Research," delivered by Vinciya Pandian, associate dean of graduate education and professor, as well as clinical, educational and research sprint podium topics.
Interactive panel discussion offered dialogue on critical topics, including:
- "SAFE-T System: A Partnership to Revolutionize Access to Specialty Care for Sexual Assault," featuring James Fenush, Erin Dobbs, Deb Faretta, Nicole Gautsch, Vicky Reilly, representing Penn State Health hospitals engaged in the Safe-T System. The session was moderated by Cindy Bittner, project coordinator for the Safe-T System
- "Chief Nursing Officer Panel Discussion," with insights from Wendy Clayton, Michele Szkolnicki, Leslyn Williamson and Valerie Ritter, nursing leaders from Penn State Health
The symposium also showcased a research poster session for faculty, students and researchers. Student poster winners included:
- First Place: Sommer Shay, "Implementation of an Infant Oral Feeding Protocol within the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit"
- Second Place: Kyra Roseman, "Mixed Reality Central Line Insertion: A Novel Approach to Address Post-COVID Challenges in Preventing CLABSIs"
- Third Place: Karissa Barachie, "Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) in an Assisted Living Facility"
General attendee poster awards included:
- First Place: Michael Sheridan, from Penn Medicine, Lancaster General Health, "Hypomagnesemia: Retrospective Medical Record Study of Hospitalized Patients"
- Second Place: Gladys Baksh, from Penn State Health, HMC, "Traveling More Than 20-mile Radius to a Heart Failure Center Can Affect the Quality of Health Failure Care"
- Third Place: Meghan Pontz, from Geisinger, "Bending Behaviors into Better Care: Translating Behavioral Response Team Interventions into Practice"
"The symposium is a collaborative opportunity for nurses to take advantage of networking and learning from other organizations and professional specialties," said Kelly A. Wolgast, associate teaching professor and assistant dean for outreach and professional development. "The growth of the symposium this year was very encouraging and a sign that this type of symposium is needed and valued. We look forward to continued expansion of the symposium in the future."
This year's symposium was made possible through the generous support of sponsors including AMN Healthcare, Mount Nittany Health, Medtronic, National Nurse-Led Care Consortium, Pennsylvania Nursing Workforce Coalition and Elsevier.
To view photos of the symposium, visit the college's Flickr.
Details about the ninth annual symposium will be announced in the coming months. Stay up to date by visiting the college's website, or contact [email protected]
