Date: September 17, 2007  

Welcome Back Students and Faculty!

The Learning Center (LC) is an audiovisual resource center that provides a computer lab, audiovisual programs, internet access, clinical equipment, a simulation lab, production resources and other services designed to promote learning. New faculty please come by or call one of the staff for a quick LC tour. Read the latest news below.

From the Director ...

Each semester part of the students' fee payment goes toward funding the instructional technology (computer facilities and classroom instructional technology) in the University and the School of Nursing. A committee, chaired by Betty Skaggs is charged with overseeing how this money is spent. Students and Faculty members are welcome to attend this meeting or make recommendations to the committee by emailing Betty Skaggs or calling her at 471-7948.

Emergency Evacuation of the LC and SIM Lab

In case of emergencies students in the learning center and in the 4th floor sim lab should use the back stair wells to leave the building. The center stairs are reserved for emergency personnel only. Visit Emergency Preparedness web page to learn more about the School of Nursing emergency preparedness plan.

School of Nursing Learning Center Community on Black Board

The SONLC community now has Seton and St David's policy and procedures. New ones are being added each day. If the one you are looking for is not there, email Betty Skaggs and she will get it up ASAP.

Simulation Lab

Kathleen Hansen, Simulation Laboratory Coordinator
Phone: 471-9062
Office: NUR 4.114
Email: khansen@mail.nur.utexas.edu

Open Hours:
Sunday, Tuesday: 4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday: 1:00 - 3:00 p.m.
Friday: 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Other hours may be available by appointment. Call the lab at 471-9062 or email Kathy Hansen.

Lab Additions

SimMan was purchased at the end of the spring semester. This advanced patient simulator has interactive technology that allows the learner to practice clinical and decision-making skills during realistic patient care scenarios. Shannon Patton will be assisting faculty to incorporate simulation into their classes and labs. Scott Hudson will handle the technical end of running the simulator and recording the experiences. In the near future, Sim Man will be housed in 4.106, a 4-bay sim lab.

Purchases this summer included a vital sim child and a vital sim baby. Both include sound auscultation, urinary catheterization and general care. The sim lab also purchased 6 digital pulse oximeters, breast shells and nipples shields.

Seton CEC

Seton has developed a clinical education center in the old children's hospital building. They have several skills labs, simulation rooms and classrooms. Five of our skills lab classes for the alternate entry students are meeting at the CEC.

Fall 2007 Lab Employees

The following graduate students are helping during labs and open labs this fall: Jere Hammer, Julie Lin, Amanda Brouchard, Vishwa Bhatt and Sarah Bushner. Jerry Schemerhorn, a student employee and Mira Baltaji, a work study student round out the team.

Learning Enhancement Services

Patricia Castañeda-English, Learning Enhancement Services Coordinator
Phone: 232-4775
Office: NUR 5.102K
E-mail: pcastaneda-english@nursing.utexas.edu

Fall 2007 Office Hours:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday: 11:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, Thursday: 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

The Learning Enhancement Services (LES) in the School of Nursing offers support services aimed at facilitating students' academic success. All nursing majors are eligible for these services.

Academic Peer Tutoring

Free academic tutoring is available to nursing majors during the Fall and Spring semesters for most undergraduate prerequisite science and nursing courses and for certain upper division courses. Tutor requests are by appointment only.

Informal Academic Counseling

Students may seek help with a range of study skills including time management, reading and note taking, test taking, using visual study aids, reducing academic anxiety and more. Students are encouraged to schedule an appointment for in-depth work.

Free Study Skills Workshops

During the Fall and Spring semesters, a series of free study skills workshops designed to address those study strategies deemed most critical to success in the nursing curriculum are offered. The workshops are open to any nursing major who wishes to attend. To view a current schedule and to register for the workshops, please go to Workshop Registration web page. Registration is strongly encouraged for all the seminars.

The Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI)

Success in college entails focusing not only what you learn but also on how you learn. The LASSI is a self-scoring assessment designed to measure ten strategies necessary for success in college classes. Students may use the results to decide which areas to address for improvement.

Other services include the SHINE program, which is a volunteer program for prenursing students designed to facilitate greater faculty/staff/student interaction; First-year Interest Groups (FIGs); the Peer Mentor program; and the Fall and Spring Gatherings.

To learn more about the programs, to register for the workshops, and to access Dr. Castañeda's current office hours, please visit the Learning Enchancement Services web site.

Multimedia Production

Peter Hancock, TV/Radio/Film Specialist
Phone: 471-7964
Office: NUR 5.194A
Email: phancock@mail.nur.utexas.edu

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday: 7:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

Audiovisual Requests

Students can request a/v equipment for class presentations and student organizations meetings. To request equipment, use our online a/v request form or stop by 5.196 and fill out a reserve form.

Please allow at least 24 hours advance notice.

Equipment that will be used after 5 pm must be returned to the LC Reserve Desk when finished.

Need help using the equipment? Stop by 5.196 or call 471-7964 and set up a short tutorial session with Peter Hancock.

Library

Nancy Hall, Media Coordinator
Phone: 471-7961
Office: NUR 5.102F
Email: nhall@mail.nur.utexas.edu

Office Hours:
Monday - Friday: 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Nursing Online Resources and Research (NORR)

The Nursing Online Resources and Research web site underwent a major renovation with the help of the webmaster, Prati Rijal-Trimble. The new look makes searching for nursing web resources more efficient, quicker, and easier. The new page includes

  1. Database information: CINAHL, MEDLINE and others
  2. Course pages: Genetics, Research, Ethics, Public Health
  3. Web Links: consumer, health, research, mental health
  4. Web Evaluation
  5. Books: print and online that the UT library has available.
  6. LC Audiovisual Catalog
  7. Available Equipment

New Audiovisual Software

Calculating Drug Dosages. 2007. QZ 16 C144

This CD and workbook provide an interactive approach to leaning nursing math.

All My Babies DVD. 2006. WQ 160 A416

This film is the story of "Miss Mary" Coley, an African-American midwife more than half a century ago in rural Georgia. Its production, in 1952, was sponsored by the Georgia Department of Public Health as a demonstration film for illiterate "granny" midwives. It was used around the world by UNESCO and has become a classic documentary.

All My Babies was written, produced, and directed by George Stoney in close collaboration with Mrs Coley as well as with local public health doctors and nurses and shows the preparation for and home delivery of bibies in both relatively good and bad rural conditions among black families at that time. The film is both a deeply respectful portrait of "Miss Mary" who is revealed as an inspiring human being, and a record of the actual living conditions of her patients.

Thin. DVD. 2004. WM 175 T443

This HBO documentary film takes the viewer inside the walls of Renfrew Center, a residential facility for the treatment of women with eating disorders, closely following four women (ages 15-30) who have spent much of their lives starving themselves.

Addiction. DVD. 2007. WM 270 A2237

14-part series from HBO. Addiction is a documentary aimed at helping Americans understand addiction as a treatable brain disease. The film addresses different aspects of the disease in order to shed light on the most current, promising developments in the field. Through personal stories from addicts and the loved ones who struggle to help them find treatment, common misconceptions are replaced by insight into addiction's complexity.

Whose Life Is It Anyway? DVD. 1997. BF 789 W628

Join Mike Wallace for a penetrating look at right to die issue. Examine the landmark case of Karen Ann Quinlan, whose parents fought to remove her from life support after she lapsed into a coma induced by alcohol and tranquilizers. In interviews, ethicist Daniel Callahan of the Hastings Center of New York and Susan Mascitelli, head of patient advocacy for the New York Hospital, explore the ethical dilemmas raised when questioning who decides when and how life ends. And see how the media's coverage of the issue and portrayal of figures like Jack Kervorkian has affected a highly-charged debate.

MRSA and VRE Precautions. Battling Superbugs. Video. 2006. WX 167 M939

This video trains healthcare professionals how to stop the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Race the Power of an Illusion. The Difference Between Us. Video. 2003. WY 87.3 R118

This video demonstrates how recent scientific discoveries have toppled the concept of biological race. The program follows a dozen students, including Black athletes and Asian American string players, who sequence and compare their own DNA. The results surprise them when they discover their closest genetic matches are as likely to be with people from other races as their own.

Shock Therapy: the Last Resort. DVD. 2001. WM 412 L349

This program offers a balanced look at electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT. While following the ongoing treatments of a 30-year-old mother of two, the program provides interviews with people on both sides of the issue.

Shock. DVD. 2006. WM 412 S5587

This film reveals the personal stories of a dozen people who underwent electroconvulsive therapy for treatment of severe depression and bipolar disorder, including Kitty Dukakis. Featuring candid, intimate interviews with patients and doctors and footage of actual ECT procedures, Shock offer insight into the contentious treatment which has been both derided as barbaric and praised as miraculous.

Medical Books Online - Stat Ref

Medical Books Online provides full text access to key medical and nursing reference sources and textbooks. Some references include:

  1. Brunner & Suddarth's Textbook of Med-Sur Nursing. 10 ed.
  2. A Nurse's Guide to Cancer Care (2000)
  3. DSM 2000
  4. Guide to Culturally Competent Health Care (2005)
  5. The Merck Manual
  6. Nurse' Pocket Guide: Diagnoses, Interventions and Rationales
  7. Nursing Diagnoses in Psychiatric Nursing. (2004)
  8. Pediatric Nursing Caring for Children and their Families (2004)
  9. Red Book: 2003

PubMED and the "Find It at UT" icon

The Find it UT icon can be added to PubMed citations in order to look up UT library holdings for the journals in which the references are located. In order to view this icon perform the following steps:

  1. Make sure you connect to PubMed through Nursing Online Resources and Research or through the UT Library page.
  2. Click on My NCBI, located on the blue bar. You must register in order to use it. It is free.
  3. Once you have registered and signed in, look at the blue column on the left and click on Outside Tool.
  4. Scroll down to the University of Texas Libraries and click the button.
  5. Next do a search by using the Search box at the top of the screen.
  6. Once the references appear, click on the Display "drop down" box and select "Abstract". The "Find it @ UT" should appear on your citations.

Lexi-Comp Online

Lexi-Comp Online is a new diagnostic and drug reference database. Updated daily. Provides full text access to point-of-care information from 13 clinical databases and 4 clinical applications. Databases include Lexi-Drugs, Pediatric Lexi-Drugs, and Geriatric Lexi-Drugs as well as Clinician's Guides to Diagnosis, Internal Medicine and Laboratory Medicine. Clinical Applications include drug interactions, tablet & capsule identification, medical calculations and patient advisory leaflets. Information on infectious diseases and diagnostic tests available.

NEW UT Library Nursing Bibliographer

Roxanne Bogucka, Professional Librarian, MLIS
Phone: 495-4256
Office: Life Science Library, MAI 221
Email: roxanne.bogucka@austin.utexas.edu

Roxanne Bogucka is the new nursing bibliographer and has taken the place of JoAnne Newyear-Ramirez who has moved with her family to Vancouver. Roxanne's purpose is to supply the nursing literature needed to support teaching and research through the doctoral level. Contact her for any library needs.

Computer Student Assistant

Alison Shepherd, Student Computer Assistant
Email: alisonshepherd@mail.utexas.edu

Alison Shepherd is the Learning Center's Student Computer Assistant. She is a sophomore student enrolled in pre-nursing program at the UT School of Nursing. She can help students with computer problems and can give classes on excel, powerpoint, word and other topics.

Email Alison Shepherd or LC Computer Help for any help. More information is available at the Learning Center Computer web page.

Learning Center Staff