School of Health and Human Services Blog

The NUSNA will be conducting a toiletry drive in conjunction with the Regional Task Force on the Homeless. This task force conducts the annual Point-in-Time Count, which is a one day count of all the homeless in San Diego County. During the count the volunteers hand out toiletry kits to the homeless. This is a great way for our organization to be involved in the community and give back while also promoting health. The drive will go through Wednesday, January 11, 2012 .

We are pleased and proud to announce our newest doctorally-trained faculty member. Dr. Catie Chung successfully defended her dissertation last week and completed requirements for her PhD in Nursing from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Chung on her accomplishment!

Newly reported lupus was not associated with military deployment in support of the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan when compared with nondeployers. Our study did note a significantly decreased risk of newly reported rheumatoid arthritis among deployers with and without combat exposures when compared with nondeployers; the reason for this finding is unknown, but may be due to a selection effect for deployment. Jones KA, Granado NS, Smith B, Slymen DJ, Ryan MAK, Boyko EJ, Gackstetter GD, Phillips CJ, Smith TC, for the Millennium Cohort Study Team. A Prospective Study of Lupus and Rheumatoid Arthritis in Relation to Deployment in Support of Iraq and Afghanistan; the Millennium Cohort Study. Autoimmune Diseases . 2011 Nov; vol. 2011, Article ID 741267, 13 pages, 2011. doi:10.4061/2011/741267.

On November 10, 2011, during the 14th Meeting of the Minds Behavioral Health Conference in San Diego Kenneth Woodson and Angela Geraci, two graduate students in the MPH program coauthored poster sessions. The conference, entitled Strengthening Communities: Behavioral Health’s Role, was organized by Mental Health America of San Diego County, the oldest consumer advocacy organization in San Diego, dealing with all aspects of mental health and mental illness.

Dr. Ellen Kaye Gehrke and Dr. Suzanne Evans recently presented at the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting held in Washington D.C. They were part of more than 1,000 scientific sessions sharing the latest in public health research and practice with the more than 13,000 public health professionals. Drs. Gehrke and Evans shared a session on Alternative and Complementary Health. Dr. Evans also presented a session on Health Literacy and a poster research session on the Availability of Health Literature in Elementary Schools. Dr. Alba Diaz presented on the Effectiveness of CHWs Working Locally and Internationally with Migrants: Their key role in identifying and treating Ulysses Syndrome .

On Sunday, November 6th, 2011 NU Fresno Nursing department took part in a free public Health Fair sponsored by Telemundo Broadcasting, at Manchester Mall in Fresno, CA. The health fair offered a variety of medical checkups to Spanish speaking persons who do not have medical insurance. A team of Fresno Campus faculty, students and staff participated in this health fair, offering blood pressure tests, dietary and infant health information. I am proud to report that our nursing students completed over 320 blood pressure checks and passed out information for better living. I was proud to organize this event to promote the universities values, give back to the community and put forth a positive image of National University. Fresno Team Consisted of: Roslyn Villalobos, Student Support Specialist, Nursing Department Amy Mason, Nursing Adjunct Faculty Leticia Degraff, Conference Service Coordinator (Spanish Translator) Maria De La Mora, Student Accounts Officer (Spanish Translator) Robo...

1. On Monday, Oct 24th the NU-SNA sponsored a blood drive with the San Diego Blood Bank. The students contacted the SD Blood Bank, took charge of publicity and coordinated with NU-Facilities personnel to make this happen. Also, the majority of donations came from the nursing students ! By the end of the day, 37 units of blood were collected, exceeding the goal that was originally set. According to the SD Blood Band rep, this equates to saving 74 lives ! The SD Blood Bank was so impressed that they have asked the NU-SNA to plan to work with them again in the spring, and this time they are setting the goal even higher! 2. On November 12th, several of the nursing students from the NU-SNA will be volunteering at the 17th Annual “Taking Control of Your Diabetes Conference and Health Fair”. This conference is put on by local healthcare professionals that focus on the care of diabetics. It is for members of the general public who are living with diabetes The emphasis is to give people a...