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Day 4: Sigma Biennial 
Today we served as delegates in the voting of new officers and listened to the Sigma biennial reports.  The take home message from the reports is that Sigma is in a very healthy financial state. For those chapter members who submitted your votes we voted based on your preferences and the choices for officers were elected successfully. So our day was basically sigma international reports and updates and the elections of officers.  We then went to dinner with the Region 14 members and brainstormed some collaborative events we can do to enrich our members with research, community and education and to hopefully increase chapter member engagement and participation. Yes that means you all! So please message or email us with any community or educational events you are interested in participating in or planning as a chapter! Tomorrow is the voting on the bylaws amendments and articles of incorporation. We did get to go out to the Alamo and river walk for a bit. “Remember the Alamo!”

Day 3: Sigma biennial
Today we attended the Plenary closing and awards ceremony where the following recipients were awarded the Nell J Watts Lofetime Achievement in Nursing Awards: 
Dr Dana Bjarnason 
Dr John Patrick Daly 
Patricia Davidson
Dr Beth Ulrich
Dr Bethany Ann Hall-Long, (Lieutenant governor of Delaware)
Dr Jean Watson (Nurse theorist)

Archon Award recipients:
Medical Bridges
United network for Organ Sharing
Luci Baines Johnson (daughter of President Lyndon B Johnson) and Ian J Turpin

We then presented our poster at poster sessions for the afternoon.  
We took a bit of time to see the most famous Alamo.
We attended the key awards in hopes of getting ideas so our chapter can earn another key award! We need member engagement in order to obtain this goal. 
In the evening we joined the nurse educators and researchers from Morristown Medical Center in a Trivia FUNraiser to raise money for the sigma foundation who provides scholarships and grants. We did not place but we did well and had a lot of fun!
Our chapter proudly is a giving club donor to the Foundation of Nursing. 

Today we had a lot of interest in our poster titled “Does Interprofessional Simulation Increase Students' Self-Confidence, Self-Efficacy, and Decrease Anxiety”. We attended multiple presentations on student engagement activities to utilize in the classrooms and incorporating interprofessional simulations with nurse practitioner students. We attended a presentation by Dr’s Lise Cooper and Mildred Kowalski on puppy cam use prior to nurse leaders huddles to reduce stress. Our clinical coordinator at Morristown Medical center, Marilyn Robayo presented a poster on “Medication Flash Cards for Humanity: Increasing Distribution and Utilization of an Interactive Flash Cas Card” it was a good day!

Day 1 of The Biennial Sigma conference. We arrived in San Antonio, Texas and set up our poster on our recent research project and had good responses so far to our poster and research findings.  We attended the plenary session and had the privilege to see our colleague from Morristown Medical center Nurse researcher Dr Mildred Kowalski who was a keynote speaker at one of our chapter research days a few years ago receive the Marie Hippensteel Lingeman Excellence in Nursing Practice award.   We also got our picture with the current Sigma International President Dr Kenneth Dion. San Antonio is an awesome city.

Epsilon Rho Chapter (Fairleigh Dickinson University)

Upcoming Events:

41st Annual Induction:

Date: Friday, March 31^st, 2023

Time: 5:30pm

Location: The Mansion at FDU (Florham Campus) Lenfell Hall, Madison, NJ

Keynote speaker: Dr. Mary Ellen Levine

 

Annual Nursing Research Day:

Date: Saturday, April 22, 2023

Time: 9:00am- 12:30pm

Location: Metropolitan Campus, Teaneck, New Jersey, Dickinson Hall, Wilson Auditorium

Keynote speaker: Dr. Lisa Heelan-Fancher

Scholarship News:

Dr Jeannie Couper, Assistant Professor, Henry P Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health, Epsilon Rho Past-President and current Leadership Succession Chair. Publication titled:

Couper, J. (2022).  Micro-preemie parents’ perceptions of trauma-informed developmental neuroprotective care and nursing support.  Advances in Neonatal Care, 22(5), 422-431. 

This study explored the parents’ perceptions of their extremely preterm (<26 weeks gestation) infant’s nursing care during their hospitalization in the NICU.  Trauma-informed developmental neuroprotective care (TIDNC) encourages robust nurse-parent authentic caring relationships, which are foundational to the parents' perceptions of nursing care and support. These relationships, built on mutual trust, respect, and genuine listening, appear to foster an exceptionally high degree of support.  Parents were extremely grateful for the compassionate care and support.

Dr. Oyedele Olufunke (Chapter Vice-President) Assistant Professor & Dr. Marnie Sperling (Chapter President), Clinical Assistant Professor, Henry P Becton School of Nursing and Allied Health, abstract accepted  for presentation at the 47^th Biennial Sigma Theta Tau Convention titled:

“Does Interprofessional Simulation Increase Students Self-Confidence, Self-Efficacy and Decrease Anxiety”

PLEASE SAVE THE DATE FOR DINNER AND THEATRE NIGHT AT FDU TO SUPPORT OUR CHAPTER AND THE FDU THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS STUDENTS: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH, 5:30 PIZZA DINNER THEN 7:00 SEUSSICAL THE MUSICAL. IN LENFELL HALL AT THE MADISON FDU CAMPUS. 25$ GENERAL PUBLIC/ 20$ EPSILON RHO MEMBERS

Sigma region 14 conference is today:
8:30-1pm Chapter Members are welcome to join

Join Zoom Meeting

https://columbiacuimc.zoom.us/j/96472624566?pwd=ZHlacDlmeTdCMTlvYXoxU21iK3RGdz09



Meeting ID: 964 7262 4566

Passcode: 393888

Day 5 and 6: these two days were the House of Delegates and Professor Lola and I served as delegates voting on 13 amendments to the international bylaws and 9 proposed resolutions. I know this sounds like a cake walk but these individual votes do not go without a lot of discussion and debate and with proposed changes.

It was announced that Sigma has 33 new chapters with 6 outside of the United States.

Another milestone is that we have for the first time added chapters with three Greek letters starting with alpha alpha alpha (University of St Augustine).

Our new international officers that we voted on where installed including our new President Dr Kenneth Dion, PhD, MSN/MBA, RN, FAAN who declared his Call to Action to “Be Bold”

So let’s as leaders and members in our Epsilon Rho chapter stand up, participate, innovate and take our chapter to a BOLD new level!

Thanks for following us on our journey here this past week at the biennial conference and continue to follow us and participate in the events we are planning this spring for our 40th anniversary celebrations.

Submitted respectfully,
Lola and Marnie

Love, Courage and Honor

Hello members,

Day 3, we attended a seminar on how to get published which was so enlightening. It was an amazing perspective that was presented by some of the reviewers for the Journal of Nursing Scholarship, Sigmas publication. 

The tips were invaluable to publishing but the message that being rejected for publication should not be a deterrent but an opportunity for improvement in writing and an opportunity for constructive feedback of your hard work in order to address areas that require improvement. 

I found it interesting that author Theodor Geisel had his first book rejected 23 times before it was accepted for publication on the 24th submission. This book was called “I think I saw it on Mulberry Street”  Dr Suess’s first book. 

We attended the Tribute awards which was so inspiring. So many awardees were recognized  for their work with global issues, veteran issues and high risk and special populations. 

Our chapter did not receive a key award this year along with many others who had to put their initiatives and activities on hold due to the pandemic.  With the participation, innovative ideas and leadership that many of our own members possess we would like to make it our mission in the next two years to increase participation within our chapter and increase our presence in the our very own communities.  We task each and every one of you to use our chapter as a stepping stone to the commitment to our communities. Please email us, email anyone on the board for your ideas and where there are needs in your communities where we as the Epsilon Rho chapter can come together and help! Some of our members are doing a volunteer opportunity in the upcoming 2 weeks for “Moms helping Moms” in collaboration with the Florham campus Student Nurses Association.  So let’s get out there ! We welcome any and all ideas.  

In the afternoon, we attended a hackathon where we spent three hours with other members of other chapters and were put in groups to each come up with a technology based sustainable plan addressing one of the United Nations sustainable development goals. Each team then presented their pitch to the Sigma UN liaisons.  It was a lot of fun and we have been inspired to incorporate hackathon team activities in the classroom for our students. 

See our pictures from day 3 on our chapter Facebook page  

https://m.facebook.com/114760493315833/

Until tomorrow!!!

hello members!

Day 2: today we attended some lectures on flipping the classrooms in didactic and using standardized patients in advanced health assessment. Other topics included utilizing escape rooms in undergraduate BSN education.

In the afternoon the exhibit halls opened and we tried to get ideas on how to make our chapters 40th anniversary induction planned for the spring a special celebration. We also sought out resources to integrate the next gen NCLEX alternative format questions in our courses to prepare our students for the planned changes coming to the nclex in 2023.

Perusing the posters was very interesting, there were some presentations on how various schools of nursing used the COVID pandemic to get their students out in the community, testing, vaccinating and answering hotline calls collaborating with their local county departments and healthcare facilities when the clinical settings could not accommodate students in the hospitals. This made us think we could have presented a poster in how we were able to integrate our very own FDU students in the community settings to obtain their clinical hours while contributing by providing support and promoting health during the pandemic in our very own communities.

Until tomorrow!

Continue to follow us on the chapter website and Facebook!

Thank you to all members who voted in our election, the results are as follows:

We have arrived in Indianapolis representing the Epsilon Rho chapter at the 100th anniversary of Sigma at the biennial convention. Enjoy following us here and on Facebook as we share what we are doing here representing our chapter.

f ollow us on Facebook at:

https://m.facebook.com/Epsilon-Rho-chapter-of-Sigma-Theta-Tau-FDU-114760493315833/

Your delegates, Olufunke Oyedele and Marnie Sperling are currently attending the biennial conference. We have arrived in Indianapolis representing the Epsilon Rho chapter at the 100th anniversary of Sigma at the biennial convention. Enjoy following us here and on Facebook as we share what we are doing here representing our chapter.

Day 1- we took a session on integrating innovative strategies into the clinical and classroom. We look forward to sharing what we learned with our nursing faculty colleagues at FDU.

All chapter members, Look for an email from us today! We would like to ask for your enthusiasm and dedication to our chapter to self nominate or nominate a member to take on a leadership role. check your email for request for nominations!

rsvp for the zoom link to Couperj@fdu.edu

 

Please JOIN US FOR: The Annual Epsilon Rho Chapter Research Symposium

Year of the Nurse and Midwife: Showcasing Nursing Research

Saturday April 24, 2021 10 am- 12 pm

Dr. Linda Flynn, the keynote speaker, will share her research journey. Learn more about the innovative research and EBP projects here at FDU.

RSVP to couperj@fdu.edu by April 23 to receive link to access virtual conference.

Thank you,

 Board members of the Epsilon Rho Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau

PLEASE SAVE THE FOLLOWING DATES:

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 28, 2021- VIRTUAL INDUCTION, (MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.)

SATURDAY APRIL 24, 2021- VIRTUAL RESEARCH DAY.
(MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW.)

SATURDAY MAY 1, 2021- SIGMA OUTING!
(MORE INFORMATION TO FOLLOW)

IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DAY FOR A CHAPTER INDUCTION. Thank you to our keynote speaker Dr. Donna Fountain.

Applications for the new Helene Fuld Trust Scholarship is now available for the 2020-2021 academic year.  Eligible students must be enrolled in either an Accelerated Second Degree or Doctor of Nursing Practice program at an accredited US school of nursing. Funding is up to $5,000 per academic year. To learn more and apply online visit Sigma at  www.sigmanursing.org   

Serving as delegates today and tomorrow, representing Epsilon Rho. We challenge you, our members to take the Sigma Theta Tau 2019 new vision and mission and integrate it into your nursing practice.Get out to your communities and make a difference. Post the differences you made in your community to our discussion board. Post a picture or encourage other members to make a difference. Pay it forward Campaign!

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Your delegates, President Dr Jeannie Couper and Vice-President Dr Marnie Sperling are attending the 45th Biennial Convention in National Harbor, MD.