College of Nursing faculty members, Lauren Valk Lawson and Danuta Wojnar, received funding from the Nursing Faculty Initiatives Fund for projects promoting student engagement in scholarship and research.
Lauren Valk Lawson, MN, RN, is using the funds to pursue her project entitled: A Needs Assessment and Program Implementation for the Homeless Population of Lake City.
This community project is intended to build on an existing relationship between SU and the Seattle Mennonite Church’s community outreach program, which includes a drop-in center for the homeless. This summer, Elena Busto, an SU graduate nursing student, is assisting Ms. Lawson in the implementation of a community assessment to measure services available to the homeless including access to health care. “From this assessment,” Lawson states, “we will identify needed programs for the volunteers and community of the drop-in center, such as health education and resource linkages and recommend projects for future nursing students.”
Danuta Wojnar, PhD, RN, is using the funds to employ two undergraduate nursing students as research assistants in her ongoing study entitled: Perinatal Experiences of Somali Immigrant Couples in the US.
Dr. Wojnar writes that the study she is “currently conducting with the local Somali community explores their experiences of pregnancy and childbirth” and that the goal is “to propose culturally appropriate clinical interventions.” The research assistants, Fadumo Aden and Janna Cuneo, will assist Dr. Wojnar in a variety of tasks ranging from recruitment of subjects, language interpretation, and data analysis to potentially presenting at professional conferences and taking part in the publication of research findings. Wojnar hopes that this opportunity will enable Aden and Cuneo to “better understand the intricacies of the research process” and that they will “expand on this experience” as they continue their nursing studies at SU.
Support for the Nursing Faculty Initiatives Fund was given through a private donation to the College of Nursing. The purpose of the initiative is to assist full-time faculty members engage in scholarly activities or community projects with an emphasis on mentoring students in the area of nursing education and scholarship.
Dr. Wojnar’s study is also funded in part by Sigma Theta Tau International and has been approved to continue through May 29, 2010.