Nursing Advisory Council health seminar and luncheon brings in $42,000

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Dean Robin Froman, Ph.D., visits with former Gov. Dolph Briscoe and Janey Briscoe Marmion.

More than 320 supporters of the School of Nursing learned ways to reduce stress during the Nursing Advisory Council’s annual health seminar and luncheon on May 2.

The event, which also featured health screenings conducted by Health Science Center nursing students, is a fund raiser for the School of Nursing. Nursing Advisory Council President Nancy Miller announced that the luncheon had raised more than $42,000 in sponsorship support.

“Because of events like this and generous donors like each of you, we are able to deliver about $500,000 in student scholarships each year,” added Robin Froman, R.N., Ph.D., F.A.A.N., dean of the School of Nursing. “Your donations also allowed our faculty to extend the use of simulation technology in our curriculum, enhance the success of our continuing education office’s annual Southern Stated Nursing Knowledge conference and ignite collaboration between our department of family nursing care and Avance Inc.”

During the program, guest speaker Cynthia Knorr-Mulder, A.P.R.N., N.P.-C., C.Ht., explained that while we cannot change the things in life that stress us, we can change the way that we react to them by taking better care of ourselves.

Knorr-Mulder is a nationally recognized speaker specializing in women’s health, pain management and complementary medicine program development and research. She opened one of the first private nurse practitioner integrative health care practices in northern New Jersey. She is a certified aromatherapist, Reiki practitioner and advanced medical hypnotherapist.

Of the many roles people have in life, the most important role is self care, Knorr-Mulder explained. “By transforming stress, we can have a better balanced life and create better health for ourselves,” she said. The speaker recommended using a holistic approach including good nutrition, relaxation techniques, journal writing, getting rid of clutter and positive affirmation – the practice of turning negatives into positives.

She also recommended that patients make a point of telling their practitioners what prescribed medications and dietary supplements they are taking to avoid dangerous, if not lethal, side effects or drug counteractions. Supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration yet can be powerful chemical agents.

Knorr-Mulder also noted that nurses are in the perfect position to recommend and coordinate a holistic treatment approach to stress or pain relief for their patients. “Nurses have done this forever and really understand the patient’s psychological situation,” she said.

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School of Nursing Dean Robin Froman, Ph.D., addresses the Greater San Antonio Hospital Council during National Nurses Week.

Two days after the seminar and luncheon, community nursing leaders gathered at the School of Nursing to celebrate National Nurses Week and to discuss local efforts to address the shortage of nurses in area hospitals. Dean Froman welcomed members of the Nurse Executive Forum of the Greater San Antonio Hospital Council. The forum, established in 2004, has representatives from all the nursing schools and health systems in San Antonio.

Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff read a proclamation from the Commissioners Court affirming the nursing profession and measures to educate and retain nurses.

Dean Froman discussed factors that have changed the education of nurses, including cultural diversity, bedside technology, patient simulator technology, health care needs of the Baby Boomer generation and the aging of today’s nursing faculty.



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