College of Nursing Kearney Division students turn out to fight flu
Nine UNMC College of Nursing Kearney Division students volunteered in October to help provide free flu vaccinations at the HelpCare Clinic, a free-standing clinic that serves clients without insurance who live in Buffalo and Kearney counties. Each fall, the clinic works with Walgreens and Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska to provide free flu vaccines for those who meet the guidelines.
The nursing students were involved with the clinic this year as part of a class “Population as Client” project. The students were responsible for the marketing, development of educational literature and teaching clients about the flu vaccine.
“The experience is invaluable because the students work with an impoverished population that can’t afford health care,” said Denise Waibel-Rycek, instructor at the college. “Partnering with the community helps the students learn the process of community ownership, establish goals and outcomes in concert with a community partner, and practice the skills of negotiation, conflict management, and health teaching.”
Dr. Barthold received national education award
Claudia Barthold, M.D., assistant professor and residency program director in the UNMC Department of Emergency Medicine, was awarded the National Faculty Teaching Award from the American College of Emergency Medicine (ACEP) in Washington, D.C. in October. The award is one of the top education awards for emergency medicine.
November fire and rescue exercise is postponed
The tabletop exercise event scheduled for Nov. 9 and Nov. 16 featuring units from Omaha Fire and Rescue and hosted by the Public Health Laboratory at UNMC has been postponed. The event will be rescheduled to a later date.
Dr. Beatty nets VA grant funding
Mark Beatty, D.D.S., was recently awarded grant funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service (RR&D). The funding will support a three-year project titled, “Engineering Prosthetic Elastomers to Mimic Facial Skin Properties.”
Someone who loses a portion of the face to trauma, burns or cancer must wear a facial prosthesis when surgical reconstruction is not possible. Current prosthetic materials are rigid and inflexible, and the project’s focus is to employ an engineering approach to develop new materials that replicate skin properties at different locations on the face.
College of Dentistry, Eppley Institute research collaboration nets grant
Greg Oakley, Ph.D., UNMC College of Dentistry, and Adam Karpf, Ph.D., Eppley Institute, were awarded $100,000 in funding by the Nebraska Center for Cellular Signalling for their pilot research grant titled “Novel Therapy for HGSC Ovarian Cancer.”