Interventions of Music in Nursing

Brianna (Bri) Fox, RN, BSN (pictured left with Dr. Miller) and Abigail (Abbey) Brown, RN, BSN (picture below with Dr. Miller) share a common interest in music therapy with Mindi Miller, RN, PhD. In December 2012, Bri presented her Honors work at the COST Research Day, and Abbey presented her poster at the COST Research Day in December 2014. Abbey also presented her poster at the National Collegiate Honors Council in November 2015. These now BU alumni with Dr. Miller published their article “Interventions of Music: Reviewing Evidence for Better Practice” in the 2016 International Archives of Nursing and Health Care (IANHC), 2:045. Bri’s research centered on therapeutic music for adolescents receiving chemotherapy while Abbey’s study focused on musical interventions to promote behavioral change in troubled youth.

Dr. Miller, a Certified Rehabilitation Registered Nurse (CRRN) studies the benefits of music to facilitate healing. She states, “We recognize that higher education begins with General Education that builds toward lifelong interests and skill sets, including hobbies like music or scholarship activities - or a combination of both! The work that Abbey, Bri, and I did over four years depicts the resources that BU offers. For instance, the Honors Program and the COST Research Days assisted students and faculty in sharing their collaborative work and excelling beyond their BU experiences, as our publication exemplifies.”

The recent article in IANHC resulted from teamwork by undergraduates (now alumni) and nursing faculty who gathered best practice standards in music theory and then provided additional evidence-based recommendations. Best practice was compared between different groups and the published literature in order to suggest “better” practices for using therapeutic music in healthcare. When implementing musical interventions, individual differences like sensory deprivation in some patients, sensory overload in others, and unique preferences and neuro-pathology must be taken into account, in order that each nursing care plan related to music fits the targeted outcomes for individual patients.


Dr. Vandivere, Honors Program Director commented that, “We are so proud of Bri Fox and Abbey Brown. They have helped us understand the ways that we can use Honors to create research projects that will actively help nursing students. Bri and Abbey have taken their fine intellects, their drive, and their commitments to nursing and figured out a way to advance their education to higher levels of creative and original research. They each developed a sustained and original project that helps them understand their own abilities, empowers them as individuals, and makes them highly marketable in whatever they choose to do. More, they have given us a model of how to make Honors work for nursing students.”

Health Physics News

Health Physics Students participate in Emergency Management Drill

Five students from the BU Health Physics program who received training from the Susquehanna Nuclear Plant last spring participated in Columbia Country Emergency Management Drill. The organizers commented that the students did a tremendous job and conducted themselves in a professional manner. The students were invited back by the Deputy Director EMA of Columbia Country to join in the Federally evaluated drill held every four years for the plant and which is scheduled for October 2016. The students who participated were: Mike Algeo, Josh Dendler, Harrison Ludewig, Pat Mattera, and Zach Romano. 

Bloomsburg University Health Physics Department participates in the 15th Annual Penn State Radiation Safety Roundtable meeting in State College, PA.  

 This year’s meeting had 65 participants from 42 facilities, including Geisinger Medical, Hershey Medial, National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), Fox Chase Cancer Center, Merck, and numerous other academic, medical, and commercial organizations.  Most participants were radiation safety officers or senior radiation safety staff of their respective organizations.  Of the participants of this northeast regional meeting, 20% had ties to Bloomsburg University, including 10 graduates of the BU HP program, 2 faculty, and 3 current students, Josh Dendler, Corey Dubil, and Derek Stahl.  Josh and Corey  presented a paper on the radon study that they conducted on campus last year.  This paper had previously been presented by them at the annual meeting of the Health Physics Society last July in Spokane WA.

The BU HP graduates in attendance and their current employers are as follows: 

Ariel Ducet (Mason)                       Virtua
Bryan Edwards                                 Fox Chase Cancer Center
Colt Greer                                         Ecology Services, Inc.
Brian Lorah                                       Hershey Medical Center
Dan McDonald                                 Bristol-Meyers Squibb
Adam Quinton                                 Geisinger Medical Center
Brian Serencsits                               Memorial Sloan Kettering
Henry Smith                                      Univeristy of Maryland, Baltimore
Daniel Snyder                                   Geisinger Medical Center
Patrick Yorks                                    Geisinger Medical Center

Students present at the 61st annual Health Physics Society meeting in Spokane, WA

Corey Dubil and Joshua Dendler presented their research investigating the indoor radon levels in Bloomsburg University campus buildings at the 61st annual Health Physics Society meeting in Spokane, WA from July 17-21, 2016.  They conducted their research with fellow undergraduates Andrew Stacy and Shana Cuff and Health Physics faculty members, Dr. David Simpson and Dr. Naz Afarin Fallahian. The abstract of this work was published in the Health Physics Journal in July 2016. It should be noted that Joshua Dendler, a recipient of Dr. Kozloff Student Fellowship Award, has been selected as one of 12 students nationwide to serve as a Student Support Committee member of the Health Physics Society.

Austin Olson, an honor student who recently graduated from Bloomsburg Health Physics program, also presented his research at this meeting. The abstract of his project entitled: Survey of Policies and Practices for the Inspection of Lead Aprons at Medical Facilities was published in July edition of the Health Physics Journal. This research was performed in collaboration with Penn State Hershey Medical Center, and under the supervision of Dr. David Simpson from Bloomsburg University and Steve King from Hershey Medical Center.

Pictured below are Bloomsburg University students, alumni and faculty at the meeting.

Right to left: Corey Dubil, Caitlin Root, Josh Dendler, Austin Olsen, Dr. David Simpson, Ross Wagner and Brian Lorah.

Additional Health Physics student accomplishments

Harrison Ludewig, a senior Health Physics student who had a summer internship at Hershey Medical Center, received a $1,500 grant from the American Nuclear Society as well. He intends to participate in a research project at Geisinger Medical center during his last year in Bloomsburg and would like to pursue his Master's degree in Medical Physics.

Patrick Mattera, another Health Physics student was accepted to participate in the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program offered by Oregon State University.

 

Davis Receives Provisional Patent

Dr. George Davis, associate professor, Department of Biological and Allied Health Sciences, and his colleague Dr. Mark Stocksdale, Department of Chemistry at Earlham College, have been granted a provisional patent for their invention “'Trojan Horse' targeted delivery system for crop species” as listed on the Penn State “Technologies Available for Licensing” page. This invention uses the iron uptake system found in grasses to deliver nutrients/ minerals, growth regulators, herbicides, and fertilizers to a wide range of plants that have been genetically engineered to express the iron transporter. This technology has the potential to promote more vigorous growth in crop plants and to reduce the detrimental environmental impacts of fertilizers. The provisional patent allows protection for the development of the technology until April, 2017. A description is available at:

 https://www.research.psu.edu/sites/default/files/PSSHE-24%20Non-Confidential%20Description%20%28Stocksdale%29.pdf

Soil judging team wins regionals

Bloomsburg University’s EGGS soil judging team recently competed and won the regional competition hosted by Penn State. Advised by EGGs faculty member Matthew Ricker, the team secured a spot in the national contest coming this spring. In their second year of competition, the team beat eight other teams, including the previous champions from the University of Maryland.

The team had four individual students place in the top 10 and the A-team placed fifth in group judging. Top students included Eric Franz, second place overall, Josh Prezkop, seventh place overall, Dan Steinhauser, eighth place overall and Ryan Sullivan, tenth place overall.

Bloomsburg, along with the University of Maryland, University of Rhode Island and Delaware Valley College, will represent the Northeast region at the national contest in the spring. The competition, including 23 teams from across the country, will be April 23 to the 28 at Northern Illinois University in DeKlab, Ill.

Computer science students hold internship panel

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) student chapter in the Mathematical and Digital Sciences department conducted an internship panel on Tuesday, Sept. 13. The panel, moderated by student Courtney Pachucki, allowed students to discuss their undergraduate intern experiences. Computer science students as well as other majors attended the panel. Panel members Sean Cope, Rio Weber, Jacob Daniel, Brett Logan, Daniel Pany and Brian Fekete discussed their internships, how they benefitted from it and how to find an internship. Their internships covered a variety of computing related areas such as web development and large-scale code-analysis. The internships also took place in a variety of locations from Geisinger Medical Center to startup companies.

First Maue Scholarship recipient named

Lauren Chamberlin has been named the first recipient of the Frederick R. Maue 1976 Scholarship, established by Dr. Maue, an alumnus and local physician, to assist B.S. biology majors in the pre-medical sciences option.

Chamberlin is a biology major and pre-medical sciences major with chemistry minor. She previously earned a bachelor's degree in psychology with a concentration in family, youth and children from Bloomsburg University. Chamberlin is a member of the pre-medical sciences club, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, and the incoming president of Tri-Beta Biology Honor Society. She has experience in counseling and working with psychiatric patients.

Chamberlin has conducted research  in the field of synaptic transmission with William Coleman, associate professor of biological and allied health sciences. “My research investigates the molecular regulation of secretion, which is a way that cells can release various substances and communicate with other cells. This process is crucial for survival and reproduction,” says Coleman. “Since this process is so important, it is highly regulated. It is the job of many proteins to ensure that cellular communication remains efficient and reliable again and again throughout an organism’s life.”

In recent years, Coleman and student assistants have used the common earthworm in research.  Chamberlin has researched cell tracers to map the fine anatomical structures of the earthworm nervous system.

“Earthworms are really interesting because they allow for investigation of both excitatory and inhibitory signaling in an easily accessible, student friendly model,” says Coleman.
This semester, Chamberlin will begin work on a new project investigating the distribution and function of synapsin III in sperm cells, which is part of an ongoing research collaboration with Jennifer Venditti, associate professor of biological and allied health sciences.

Nursing White Coat Ceremony

On September 18, 2016 the Nursing Department hosted the third annual White Coat Ceremony. White Coat Ceremonies in medical, nursing, and other health care schools are designed to instill a commitment to providing compassionate care among these future health professionals. The program forum at BU is designed to promote humanistic, patient-centered care among nursing students as they enter their first clinical experiences. In 2014 the Nursing Department at Bloomsburg University was one of 100 schools nationwide and one of only three schools in the state of PA to adopt the White Coat Ceremony.  These ceremonies are supported by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation in collaboration with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). BU Nursing continues to take great pride in offering this program.  For the event on the 18th there were 111 sophomore-level students who participated with approximately 300 proud family members and friends in attendance.  Pictured below, Dr. Shelia Hartung, interim chair of nursing, addresses the audience.