Nursing association wins state awards

The JMU chapter of the Virginia Nurses Student Association won five of seven total awards at the VNSA 52nd Annual Convention Feb. 20 to 21.

Four JMU members also were elected to the board of directors.

Senior Stephanie Jenkins was awarded Virginia's National Student Nurse of the Year Award, and the chapter won Most Active Constituent, the Community Service Award, the Breakthrough Nursing Award and the Most Spirited Award.

"There should have been a Nursing Class of the Year Award for JMU," Jenkins said. "It's embarrassing to receive an award that each and every nursing student deserves."

Junior Amanda Stroud said it was a great honor to be recognized statewide.

"It (the honors they received) really reflected and showed all of our hard work that we have put into this organization over the past year," she said.

Stroud was elected as a member at-large to the VNSA Board of Directors. Stroud, senior Haley Phillips, junior Pam Weirich and junior Christina Russell also were elected to the board.

"I think that the JMU nursing department does a good job expressing why we need to be good leaders," said Phillips, who is the JMU NSA president and the current VNSA vice president. "It's not all about the hospital; it's about changing healthcare. I think we're definitely one of the best nursing programs in the state because they teach us to be good nurses, but even better professionals."

Russell said that the JMU NSA has one of the larger NSA chapters in the state, which allows it to be able to reach out and do more projects. As the most active constituent, the JMU chapter had the largest overall participation in all activities planned.

"JMU's NSA chapter has so many talented people involved and it took effort on everyone's part to make everything turn out as well as it did," Russell said.

The JMU NSA recently had a health fair carnival at John Wayland Elementary School in Bridgewater that allowed children and parents in the community to get information on healthcare and enjoy free food and activities.

"It's definitely an honor to be involved with the NSA because we are able to reach so many people," Phillips said. "Especially the carnival; we all loved that day — it was awesome. It's amazing what we can do for the community."

In addition to providing healthcare information for the parents and activities for the kids, the JMU NSA was able to get 800 free products from Johnson & Johnson.

"We just talked to them (Johnson & Johnson Company) and told them what we wanted to do and they sent us 50 boxes full of free products," Phillips said. "We were able to make baskets for families to take home filled with Johnson & Johnson products."

The JMU NSA's goal for this year was to promote healthy lifestyles to high-risk populations. It chose three groups in the community and worked at getting them healthcare information.

"We're just trying to get the education out there," Phillips said. "There's a high Hispanic population in the community, and they don't speak English, so we worked at getting information out in Spanish because they're not getting [the] treatment they need."

Phillips said the NSA focuses on students as a whole by developing each student to be the best nurse and person possible.

"Taking care of lives means looking at each individual differently," Phillips said. "We have to realize what goes into a person and helps them physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

"That's what the JMU nursing program's philosophy is all about — taking care of clients as a whole," Phillips added.