UNMC for the record

From left, Heather Sell, Leandra Ramirez, Sadie Shoup, Riley Damrow and Kayla Herman at Clinic With a Heart.

Students, faculty and staff from the UNMC College of Nursing Lincoln Division gave back to the community last week during Clinic with a Heart. The clinic serves those without health insurance or the ability to pay out of pocket, including those who work for small businesses, students and seasonal workers. The students used a $350 grant from Sigma Theta Tau International, Gamma Pi Chapter, to support a heart station where they assessed blood pressure and hypertension risk factors of patients. They also individualized plans to minimize health risks and provided heart healthy snacks.

UNMC College of Nursing students and staff, as well as a variety of community organizations, collected donations for and decorated the Siena/Francis Homeless Shelter Child Development Center. They received more than 800 toys and more than $500 in monetary donations. Nursing students Amy Hayes and Amanda Nelson said the success was overwhelming.

On May 15 and June 12, the ENT/ ENT Allergy and Audiology Clinic will provide three separate hearing education sessions to the Omaha community. Presentations will emphasize the importance of educating family and friends of the hearing impaired about hearing loss. Open house sessions will examine how hearing aids work and what new technologies are available. Expert advice on hearing equipment will be provided by Phonak®, a leading hearing aid distributor. Two sessions will be held on Thursday, May 15 at the Durham Research Center with the first presentation starting at 10 a.m. and the second at 1 p.m. Those who wish to participate on Thursday, June 12 will meet at the Village Pointe Medical Office Building, Suite 2700 at noon. Seating is limited with light refreshments served. If interested, please register in advance by calling 888-898-8662.

Terri Khan and Marcia Shade, two Omaha UNMC College of Nursing doctoral students, have been selected to receive scholarships from the Jonas Nurse Leaders Scholars Program. Each will receive two-year grants for $20,000 to help support their doctoral education. They also will attend the Jonas Scholars Leadership Conference in Washington D.C., in October. Khan is a student in the doctor of nursing practice program and Shade is a student in the doctor of philosophy in nursing program. Khan is implementing a psychiatric care transition model that integrates hospital- and community-based interventions to improve self-management behaviors. Shade is conducting research on prescription drug interactions in adults.

San Ming Wang, M.D., associate professor in the UNMC Department of Genetics, Cell Biology and Anatomy, recently joined a consortium called COMPLEXO. The consortium facilitates collaboration between researchers applying massively parallel sequencing to understand the genetics of breast and ovarian cancer to advance the discovery of additional breast cancer susceptibility genes. As a member of the consortium, formally formed last week, Dr. Wang will contribute genomic data generated from his work with familial breast cancer patients, participate in data analysis and validation, publish results and submit joint grant applications. Other notable members include: Mayo Clinic; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; City of Hope, California; University of Southern California, Los Angeles; the University of Utah and Huntsman Cancer Institute, Salt Lake City.