Health Professions, Nursing & Pharmacy News: Summer/Early Fall 2020
Students win fellowships and scholarships, faculty members and students publish, and a new program celebrates its first graduates
Three students in Shenandoah University’s physician assistant studies program have received fellowships from the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA).
Physician assistant (PA) studies students Isabel Contreras and Sarah Yancey were recently named as two of the 20 members of the 2020–2021 Student Health Policy Fellowship cohort, while another PA student, Joshua Montgomery, is one of PAEA’s 15 Future Educator Fellows. In September, Contreras and Yancey participated in the PAEA’s first-ever virtual Student Health Policy Fellowship workshop, which was a three-day event.
Shenandoah’s PA program has produced several PAEA fellows in recent years. Distinguished Professor of Physician Assistant Studies Anthony A. Miller, M.Ed., PA-C, helped develop the Student Health Policy Fellowship when he served as the PAEA’s chief policy and research officer. Miller said he encourages Shenandoah students to apply for the program, and notes that it’s consistent with the Division of Physician Assistant Studies’ mission, specifically the fellowship’s core value of “supporting advocacy that empowers those in need.”
“The PA program faculty are very excited that we had students among the few selected for these competitive and prestigious national fellowships for students. I know that our students will serve as outstanding representatives for our PA program and Shenandoah University,” Miller said.
Distinguished Professor of Physician Assistant (PA) Studies Anthony A. Miller, M.Ed., PA-C, is a newly appointed board member of the Medical Society of Virginia Foundation. Miller’s three year term began Oct. 10.
“Operating Room Virtual Reality Immersion Improves Self-Efficacy Amongst Preclinical Physician Assistant Students” co-written by Associate Professor of Physician Assistant Studies Erika R. Francis, MSPAS, PA-C; Associate Professor and Associate Director of the Division of Physician Assistant Studies Stephanie Bernard, MMSc, PA-C; Assistant Professor of Physician Assistant Studies Morgan Nowak, M.S., PA-C; and Associate Professor of Quantitative Methods Sarah Daniel, Ph.D., has been published in the Journal of Surgical Education. The article covers how the introduction of virtual reality simulation improved preclinical PA student self-efficacy in the operating room setting.
An article by Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy Alicia Lutman OTD, MOTR/L, ATC, “Autism Awareness Education for First Responders: Closing the Loop,” was published in OT Practice in September.
The Shenandoah University Division of Occupational Therapy congratulates the first seven graduates of its online Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate program. These students successfully planned and completed their capstone projects during the pandemic, all while managing their ever-changing home and work situations. They presented their findings over Zoom in August.
Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy Michele Wiley, DPT, was featured in a recent article about telehealth in the school-based setting in the APTA Magazine. Dr. Wiley also had a letter to the editor published in the July 2020 issue of the APTA Magazine (July 2020, volume 12, No. 6, pages 7-8). She offered a perspective in response to a previously printed ‘Ethics in Practice’ column (April 2020) about school placement of a child with disabilities.
Nursing student Carmen Mazyck ’22, has been presented with the Jo Anne J. Trow Award from Alpha Lambda Delta for the 2020-21 academic year. The $1,000 award was started in 1988 to honor the past national president of Alpha Lambda Delta. Jo Anne J. Trow is the former vice president for student services at Oregon State University. She served Alpha Lambda Delta as national president from 1985 to 1988.
A piece co-written by Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy student Shivangi Patel, ’21, appeared over the summer in Pharmacy Times. The article, “Expanding the Role of Pharmacists in the Wake of COVID-19,” was composed during a virtual Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiential Rotation with preceptor Jonathan Ogurchak, Pharm.D., CSP, the founder and CEO of STACK, a pharmacy compliance management software. Ogurchak is the article’s other co-writer.
