Undergraduates take part in RHEN Winter Workshop









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Melissa Diers, an educational designer in UNMC Information Technology Services, explains how to put together a successful PowerPoint to students attending the UNMC Winter Workshop.


Eighteen undergraduate students who plan to pursue health-care professions have spent the past week at UNMC to learn more about health issues relevant to rural communities.

The 2003 Winter Workshop, sponsored by the UNMC Rural Health Education Network, helps the undergraduate students learn more about the issues they will face as practitioners in rural Nebraska. The workshop attendees are students at Chadron State College, Hastings College, Midland Lutheran College, the University of Nebraska at Kearney and Wayne State College. All of the students have expressed a desire to practice in rural communities, either as a physician or a physician assistant.

“The students who are attending are upbeat and enthusiastic about the topics that they’re studying this week,” said Dan Chambers, RHEN program coordinator. “Most of them are from rural settings, so they’re keenly aware of many of the challenges that face rural providers, and they’re excited about learning more about rural health care.”

Chambers said that staff from the RHEN office and Susanna Von Essen, M.D., professor of pulmonary medicine at UNMC, developed the week’s curriculum.







Student presentations



On Friday, Jan. 10, the students will give Powerpoint presentations on selected topics dealing with rural health issues. UNMC faculty and staff members are welcome to attend the presentations, which run from 9:30 to 11:50 a.m. in the UNMC College of Nursing’s Cooper Auditorium.



During the weeklong workshop, the students are listening to professors and state agency representatives who work with rural health and safety issues. The also are visiting rural community health-care facilities. The students also are completing group presentations that will be delivered today (see sidebar).

The students who are attending, along with their hometown and college or university, include:

  • Tessa Covington, North Platte, Chadron State College;
  • Natalie Shepperd, Comstock, Chadron State College;
  • Chelsie Lammers, Wood River, Chadron State College;
  • Karissa Johnson, Hershey, Chadron State College;
  • Connie Jurgens, Madison, Chadron State College;
  • Abbie Onken, Glenvil, Chadron State College;
  • Michelle Willmes, Hastings, Hastings College;
  • Beth Dixson, St. Paul, Hastings College;
  • Jessica Changstrom, Lincoln, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Jessica Schutte, Imperial, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Jenn Cihacek, West Point, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Emily Hurt, West Point, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Andrea Stieren, West Point, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Kimberly Maas, Scribner, Midland Lutheran College;
  • Jereme Hartman, Colon, University of Nebraska at Kearney;
  • Sara Enninga, Arvada, Colo., University of Nebraska at Kearney;
  • Elizabeth Doll, Salina, Kan., University of Nebraska at Kearney;
  • Isaac Berg, Henderson, Wayne State College.