Basketball concessions

The UAB SNA will be working UAB basketball concessions on the following dates:

• February 1st from 6 pm to10pm
• February 2nd from 5pm to 9pm
• February 8th from 5pm to 9pm
• February 18th from 5pm to 9pm

Any SNA member interested in working these games please contact the fundraising chair, Emily Gatto at ejgatto@uab.edu

Step up to wellness Health Fair

• February 3rd from 10am to 2pm

Lamp of Learning

• February 20th from 4 to 5:30 pm
• Any SNA member interested in volunteering for this ceremony please contact the president, Brittony Inverso at binverso@uab.edu

NLEX-A-THON

Monday January 23rd from 2-4 pm in Nursing Building 1028 (auditorium)

How to participate

• Create a team with 4-6 members and email your team to SNA’s president, Brittony at binverso@uab.edu

What are the rules

• Each team will have an opportunity to answer each NCLEX-style question. Questions will be multiple choice and worth 1 point and “Select all that Apply” questions will be worth 2 points.
•  No team will be penalized for answering the question incorrectly. Each team will be give 5 lifelines if they are unsure of an answer and will be allowed to ask a Faculty member for help.
• The NCLEX-athon will be set up like trivia, so no other team will know if you answered the question correctly or incorrectly.

Prizes will be given to the winning team!!!

October General meeting

• Wednesday October 26th
• The SNA meeting focused on education after the BSN program. We would like to say thank you to all of our guest speakers.
  • Mary Pate from the MSN program
  • Erica Pryor from the PhD
  • Lygia Holcomb from the DNP program
  • Larry Hornsby from the CRNA program

State conference in October

• Your UAB SNA board represented UAB at the State Student Nurse association conference in Auburn, Alabama on October 20-22, 2011. While there the board attended information meetings and workshops in which the board learned what all the State Student Nurse Association has been doing and is doing throughout the state. The board members had the great opportunity to be certified in Disaster Health and Sheltering provided by the American Red Cross National Student Nurse Program. Also your board won the best costume prize at the costume party and dance on Friday night

American Red cross blood drive in September

• From both the stations set up inside and outside the UAB SNA helped collect 48 units of blood for the American Red Cross.
• Thank you to all who came out, participated, and gave blood at this event.

SNA Diaper Drive

EANS student Jennifer A. Browner (left) and SNA representative Kendall Allen (right)
coordinate  diaper drive for sextuplets

Using Student Nursing Teamwork To Collect Diapers for Sextuplets

Only a few more days remain for School of Nursing students, faculty, and staff to make their donations to a diaper drive for recently born Alabama sextuplets.

In a drive that will end July 31, diapers are being collected for use by Heather and Mitchell Carroll for their five newborn baby girls and one newborn baby boy, who were delivered at Brookwood Medical Center. The Carrolls, who reside in the small south-central Alabama town of Plantersville in Dallas County, welcomed their babies into the world when Heather Carroll gave birth prematurely on June 18, the day before Father’s Day.  Born at 28 weeks gestation, the babies were small but strong, breathing on their own within 12 hours.

Joining forces in conducting the diaper drive for the sextuplets at the UAB School of Nursing are students who participate in the EANS program (Enrichment for Academic Nursing Success) and members of the Student Nurses Association (SNA).  Leading the way in coordinating the project are EANS student Jennifer A. Browner and SNA representative Kendall Allen.

Browner and Allen urge anyone who wants to donate diapers to do so at collection bins that have been set up by the elevators on different floors of the School of Nursing Building.  The drive is focusing on collecting diaper sizes 1 through 5. The goal is to help the Carrolls to build a diaper supply that can be useful beyond the first weeks of the sextuplets’ lives. In addition to diapers, gift cards or money donations also are being accepted.

The idea for this project originated with Browner, a student from the rural town of Ellenwood, Georgia, near Atlanta, who, after earning a degree in biology, now is working toward a baccalaureate in nursing and wants to go into pediatric nursing. The idea for the diaper drive came to her in June, during a time when she was among eight UAB nursing students doing a clinical rotation at Brookwood Medical Center. That student learning experience came during the period that encompassed the birth of the sextuplets. “Each of the eight of us in our UAB group interacted in some way with either the Carroll babies or the Carroll parents,” says Browner. “I had the opportunity to meet the Carroll parents, who are awesome people.” 

Browner emphasizes that, while this was originally her idea, soon the project was wholeheartedly embraced by her fellow nursing students in EANS and SNA. “So, although it started as my idea, soon it was OUR idea,” she says.  She first floated the idea to EANS coordinator Martha A. Dawson, DNP, who in turn discussed it with Summer Langston, DNP, advisor to the Student Nurses Association. Both faculty members felt this was a worthy project and welcomed an opportunity for EANS and SNA to cooperate on a joint effort.   

From her view as a faculty member, Dawson says this project goes far beyond a diaper drive. “To me this is a student project that emphasizes what I call ‘the caring part’ of nursing,” she explains. “We have the art and science of nursing, and we also have that caring part. All of this comes together in a way that I feel ties us back to the days of Florence Nightingale. I think projects such as this demonstrate why the public continues to recognize nursing as a caring profession and continues to hold the nursing profession in such high regard.”

Also, says Dawson, a project such as this shows students what they can accomplish when they combine their efforts as members of organizations that can get things done for worthy goals ranging from advocacy to public policy and beyond.

Faculty member Langston echoes her enthusiasm. She notes that the SNA has ongoing involvement in outreach projects all the way from the local to the international level. “However, this diaper drive projects marks the first time in this School of Nursing that there has been a cooperative project between the SNA and EANS.” That, says, Langston is exciting. “This is inspirational,” she says. “Our students are inspired!”

As SNA representative Kendall Allen has taken a lead on the diaper drive from the SNA perspective, she says to her this project is a great lesson in teamwork. “This is super-exciting, for SNA members to be working with EANS on this diaper drive – all of us working together as a team.  To me this is the kind of teamwork that prepares us for our future roles as nurses who are working on teams.” Allen, who is from the Birmingham area and wants to go into labor and delivery nursing, felt a soft spot in her heart for the diaper drive project from the moment it was mentioned to her.

It was Jennifer Browner who took the diaper drive idea to sextuplet mom Heather Carroll.  “Mrs. Carroll was so grateful and expressed to me her gratitude,” says Browner. “She was not only thankful; she also jokingly asked me, “Do you know any babysitters as well?’ ”

The diaper-donation spirit is alive and well within those coordinating this drive. Faculty member Dawson said that she recently was having a conversation with someone and that all during the conversation she had this diaper drive project on her mind. “I thought to myself, ‘Just as soon as I finish this conversation, I’m on my way to buy some diapers!’ ”

Those coordinating the drive encourage others to do the same – between now and July 31.

Dear Students, Faculty, Alumni, and Visitors,

The events of April 27th, 2011 will be with us all for a long time. Many of us are in awe of the terrible devastation and left wondering, "How can I help?" There are many ways you can reach out to your community and beyond to help those affected by the storms. The American Red Cross is mobilized and ready to receive donations of bottled water, canned vegetables, toiletries, adult briefs and baby diapers, formula, wipes, blankets, pillows, and tarps. These items can be donated in bins set up in the Nursing Building located at 1701 University Boulevard Birmingham, Alabama 35294.

The American Red Cross is in great need of blood. You can donate life this week at UAB Hospital at the Nursing Department sponsored blood drive. Hours are:

Monday: 10am - 5pm
Tuesday: 7am - 2pm
Wednesday: 10am - 5pm
Thursday: 10am - 5pm
Friday: 7am - 2pm
Saturday: 10am - 5pm

You can donate time to the American Red Cross by reporting to their Birmingham office at 3230 Galleria Circle Birmingham, Alabama 35244 at 8am on any day. They are located in the building across from Home Depot where Comp USA used to be.

You can also donate your time is to be an On-Site Damage Assessor. Training class are held at the Red Cross Service Center located at 114 22nd Street South Birmingham, Alabama 35233. All training will be provided by Red Cross personnel. No prior experience needed. For information about class times, please call (205) 795-8700. They are open Monday - Friday, 8am to 4:45pm.

For more information on volunteering, contact the American Red Cross Regional Volunteer Services Department at (205) 439-7841 or visit their website at http://www.alredcross.org.

Another great venue to provide disaster relief in the Birmingham area is to sign up with Hands on Birmingham. They have various projects around Birmingham and are a valuable resource to find out current information on where volunteers can report to help.

Thank You,

Chelsea Coleman
Student Nurses' Association

2010 SNA Community Project

Over the past year at  the University of Alabama campus, Student Nursing Association (SNA) students placed bins throughout the SON for the collection of scrubs, clothes, and medical supplies to send to the Haiti Nursing School.

UAB SNA students also worked collaboratively with the students of Johns Hopkins University and the World Health Organization to translate 37 nursing school texts into Creole French.  These were then placed on a 32GB USB drive so that all Haitian nursing students would have access to proper nursing instruction in their native language, as well as the ability to print texts in the midst of financial, economic, and natural disaster.

Two transportation boxes were then loaded with donated scrubs, medical supplies, and the USB drive, and sent to Citizens Action Partnership (CAP) here in Birmingham for packaging and transportation to Haiti. The UAB SNA faciliated organization of this project locally, nationally, and internationally, displaying excellent leadership, professional, and humanitarian skills.

Recently, the UAB SNA traveled to Mobile, AL for the annual statewide SNA conference. During the conference, our chapter was awarded with the “Community Project of the Year" award. We would like to thank you for your support of our efforts over the years, and give you some information about this project. During the 60th Anniversary Celebration, we will proudly display our award in the SNA display case in the break area on the first floor.

This year, the SNA kicked off its service projects with a blood drive in partnership with the American Red Cross. During the fall drive, we were able to surpass our goal of 45 pints of blood by receiving a total of 48 pints. This spring, SNA sponsored another blood drive in partnership with the American Red Cross.  The spring drive was a success with 45 volunteers donating a total of 34 pints of blood.

In addition to the blood drives, the SNA has been asking for donations for the Central American Medical Outreach, Inc. (CAMO) in Honduras over the fall and spring. CAMO is a humanitarian-aid organization that provides care for more than 143,000 medical needs with an average of approximately $2 million in donated medical supplies, equipment, and expertise each year. The SNA will be accepting donations of school supplies, hygiene items, dental supplies, baby items, medical supplies, linens, and clothing through April 1, 2011. If you would like to donate, please place any items in the tubs located outside the elevators in the School of Nursing building.

STUDENT NURSES’ ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

The SNA has partnered with the Central American Medical Outreach, Inc. in Honduras to collect the following items in need:

School supplies: pencil boxes, pencils, erasers, scissors, glue, crayons, rulers, small notepads.

Hygiene: hotel soaps, shampoos, combs, brushes.

Dental: toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss.

Baby: baby blankets, baby t-shirts, diapers, baby lotion, baby brush, comb. (No powder due to respiratory problems with talc.)

Medical: wash basin, emesis basin, gloves (sterile/non-sterile), gauze, ace bandages, used eyeglasses, cotton balls, tape, surgical stockings, disposable diapers, chux.

• All shoe covers, masks, head covers and surgical gloves that have been open but unused.

Linens: blankets, pillow cases, scrubs, dresses, pants, shirts, sheets, towels.

*Please place items in the tubs located outside the elevators in the School of Nursing building.  The final date for donation is April 1, 2011.

*For more information, please contact Trent Friday, SNA Projects Chair at trentfriday@gmail.com.