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Dr. Surreira and Dr. Diaz stand with their research poster.
Dr. Celeste Surreira and Dr. Christopher Diaz stand with their research poster at Sigma Beta Zeta Chapter at Large's Scholarship Day on April 10, 2024 in Northampton, MA.

Professor Lindsay DuBois, Dr. Celeste Surreira, Dr. Sheila Pennell, and Dr. Christopher Diaz will be representing the College of Nursing at Sigma Theta Tau’s European Region Conference in Bournemouth, United Kingdom this June. They will be sharing their work with the honor society of nurses community as a podium presentation. 

Their presentation, "Improving Diverse Patient Representation & Nursing Competency Through Clinical Simulation," focuses on when the team collaborated with clinicians at Transhealth Northampton in 2022 to enhance a simulation with the overall goal to improve gender-diverse patient representation and nursing competency in clinical simulation. In 2022, two simulations were enhanced with community-based collaboration and insight. These included care for a non-binary patient suffering abdominal pain and care for a limited-English speaking patient with neurologic symptoms. These changes aimed to help students gain confidence in clinical nursing assessments, appropriate interviewing, and demonstrating trauma-informed care approaches to potentially vulnerable patients and their support systems. 

Student feedback since 2022 has been supportive of this simulation experience and the team received Institutional Review Board (IRB) exemption for their work in 2023. 

Student evaluations since 2023 consistently show improved levels of confidence in providing inclusive, trauma-informed care to gender diverse populations post-simulation, reflections on bias as barriers to accessing healthcare, and a desire for more simulations that reflect diverse patient backgrounds.

The team shared their work as a poster presentation at Sigma Beta Zeta Chapter at Large's Scholarship Day on April 10, 2024. 

Sigma 2024 Scholarship Day Poster
The team's Sigma 2024 Scholarship Day Poster, which is now on display in Skinner Hall.

The clinical faculty are grateful to students, community collaborators, faculty and leadership for their support in this important and ongoing work.  

Professor DuBois, who is also a first year PhD student at the College, has been accepted for a second podium presentation at this conference. She will be presenting  a review of literature regarding the impacts of low fidelity simulation on international newborn resuscitation programs.

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