PLU's School of Nursing, Scholarship of Nursing Conference 2026
Anderson University Center
Friday, May 8, 2026 | 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM PST | FREE
Keynote Speaker (UC Room 133): Mary S. McCarthy, PhD, RN, FASPEN, FAAN, Senior Nurse Scientist
“Precision Nursing: Your Genes Are Not Your Destiny“
“Mary S. McCarthy, PhD, RN, FASPEN, FAAN, is a distinguished senior nurse scientist and retired Army Major known for her 20+ years of federally funded research in military nutrition, genomics, and health promotion. She has served as a Nurse Scientist at the Center for Nursing Science & Clinical Inquiry (CNSCI) at Madigan Army Medical Center since 2005. She was awarded the 2018 Geneva Researcher of the Year and 2021 Tri-Service Nursing Research Program Scientific Mentor Award winner.“
Featuring: Scholarly Projects from DNP, BSN, ELMSN, & ABSN Students
Scholarship of Nursing Conference Schedule
Friday May 8, 9:00 AM – 2:00 PM
8:30 am Students set up morning posters
Morning Poster Presentations 9 AM – 10:30 AM (Scandinavian Center)
498 TBSN 36 posters (#1 – #36)
799 DNP 16 posters (#37- #52)
Break | 10:30 AM – 11:00 AM
11:00 AM – 11:45 AM | Keynote Presentation (UC Room 133)
“Precision Nursing: Your Genes Are Not Your Destiny”
11:45 AM – 12:00 PM | Announcement of recipient for the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award
12:15 pm Students set up afternoon posters
Break | 12:00 PM – 12:30 PM
Afternoon Poster Presentations 12:30 PM – 2:00 PM (Scandinavian Center)
404 ELMSN 9 posters (#53- #61)
404 TBSN 12 posters (#62- #73)
498 ABSN 5 Posters (#74- #78)
Faculty posters
TBSN 498
| 1 | Kana Lin & Holden Anderson | Alcohol Withdrawal: A Medical Emergency, Not Just a Hangover |
| 2 | Haley Barnesson & Bailey Nagai | From Graduate to Confident Nurse: The Role of New Graduate Residency Programs in Retention |
| 3 | Blaire Bobila | Stroke: A rare but serious risk of combination birth control pills. |
| 4 | Olivia Boehm | Golden Hour - Importance of Golden Hour for Newborn Health Outcomes |
| 5 | Annika Bostrom | Formula Feeding Education & Reducing Stigma |
| 6 | Mara Clay | Trach Emergency Readiness on Pediatric Units |
| 7 | Emma Gassman | Mental health in native communities |
| 8 | Ashley Harvey & Paige Gregory | Preventing preterm labor: Evaluating the effectiveness of hormonal vs. physical methods |
| 9 | Connor Hanson | Late Night Eating and Sleep Quality |
| 10 | Claire Hindman | Placental Assessment: Clinical Indicators of Maternal & Neonatal Complications |
| 11 | My-Phi Huynh & Tessie McBride | How does excessive alarms from medical devices affect patients and healthcare staffs? |
| 12 | Manpreet Kaur & Emily Shaw | How thermoregulation is used for patients in the NICU (heating and cooling) |
| 13 | Esther Kim & Esther Lim | Standardized Hypoglycemia Education for Newly Diagnosed Pediatric Diabetes Patients |
| 14 | Bree Kunkel | Ryan's law |
| 15 | Irene Lee & Claudia Oliveira | Maternal and neonatal outcomes of water birth vs traditional vaginal birth |
| 16 | Stacy Long | Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Children |
| 17 | Michaela Springs & Noelani Lopez | The Impact of Nurse Burnout on Patient Care Quality and Safety |
| 18 | Olivia McBride & Mari Oyer | Preeclampsia recognition in the ER - symptom recognition and early nursing interventions |
| 19 | Virginia Neff | Delayed sepsis recognition increases mortality |
| 20 | Amanda Peters | Blood culture contamination |
| 21 | Audrey Poirot | Early Signs of Respiratory Distress in the Pediatric ED |
| 22 | Hannah Quiton | Blenderized vs Commercial Formula for Tube Feedings |
| 23 | Christian Renteria | The Importance of Keeping Patients Warm After Surgical Procedures for Recovery |
| 24 | Hayden Reskey & Sandra Valmonte | Umbilical cord prolapse |
| 25 | Samantha Rivard | Raising awareness of common mental health issues (and how to respond) among med/surg nurses |
| 26 | Chase Ronsse | Early Identification of CVAs in patients with dementia |
| 27 | Jason Sabol | CABG |
| 28 | Tyler Tanaka | Early Identification of Sepsis in the Hospital |
| 29 | Elle Thomas | Moral distress and ethical burnout in the PICU |
| 30 | Rachel Treves | Footware and preventing long-term foot pain |
| 31 | Kaitlyn Tyler | Dying 20 Years Too Soon: Preventable Mortality in Individuals with Serious Mental Illness |
| 32 | Dillon Wells & Aaron Valley | Use of ultrasound guided IV therapy to reduce infiltration rates and improve patient satisfaction |
| 33 | Sierra Vivar & Janis Villaflores | Cultural Barriers to Risk of Coronary Artery Disease in Filipino-Americans and Filipinos Living in the US |
| 34 | John Weldon | How to read EKGs |
| 35 | Mackenzie Wolfe-Harrington | Bridging the Gap Between Recognition and Response in Fetal Heart Rate Monitoring |
| 36 | Ella Ann Wong | Climate-Related Environmental Exposures and Their Effects on Pediatric Morbidity |
DNP 799
| 37 | Cathy Elder | The Use of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to Decrease Burnout in Nurses |
| 38 | Bonface Muniu | Mindfulness for Social Anxiety |
| 39 | Marisa Mack | Optimizing HIV Risk Screening in Primary Care Through a PDSA-Based Clinical Pathway |
| 40 | Ameena Hoosein | Implementation of a Sleep Screening and Education Toolkit in a Family and Multispecialty Clinic |
| 41 | Shukri Salah | Culturally Tailored Diabetes Education to Improve HbA1c and Self-Efficacy Among Somali Immigrants |
| 42 | Carly Hodgman | Utilizing the Menopause Rating Scale in Women Over 40 |
| 43 | Elizabeth Cardozo | Exploring the Impact of a Comfort Menu for In-Office Gynecologic Procedures |
| 44 | Anna Welle | Screening for Health-Related Social Needs in Outpatient Mental Health |
| 45 | Deborah Lim | Motivational Interviewing as an Adjunct Therapy for Weight Management |
| 46 | Ellie Hendrickson | Exploring Lavender Oil Aromatherapy for Anxiety Reduction |
| 47 | Alexandra Rose | Routine Mini-Cog screening in adults 65 and older |
| 48 | Matthew Anderson | Optimizing Reflex Urine Cultures in Urgent Care:A Diagnostic Stewardship Approach |
| 49 | Cecily Stone | The Effects of Mindful Eating in Adolescents |
| 50 | Kendra Hoyt | Impact of Social Prescribing Phone Calls on Loneliness in Caregivers |
| 51 | Reya Grossman | Impact of Auditory Binaural Beat Music: A Home Quality Improvement Study |
| 52 | Jamie Wilson | Piloting a Digital Intimate Partner Violence Screening Tool in Primary Care. |
ELMSN | TBSN 404
| ELMSN | ||
| 53 | Karely Rivas-Camacho, Payton Murai, Tyler Castro, & Katherine Calimlim | Two Systems, One Growing Crisis : Antibiotic Use and Antimicrobial Resistance in Mexico and the United States |
| 54 | Leo Bravo Valenzuela, Lisa Todisco, & Haley-Renee Cornell-Morton | Bolivia vs United States;Culture, Health Systems & Outcomes |
| 55 | Monte Montehermoso, Ava Brooker, Angel Louis, & Katelynn Clark | Back to Sleep, Safer Babies: Comparing SIDS Prevention Efforts in the U.S. & Japan |
| 56 | Hannah Ford, Makenna King, Aureliana Weinstein, & Daniel Rotolo | Childhood Anemia Across Borders: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Peru and the United States |
| 57 | Mercy Nuam, Grace Lopez, Jesusa Ignacio, & Hytzel Oleta | Emergency Care Comparison: United States vs Philippines |
| 58 | Dung Quach, Min Loh, Alanna Sousa, & Erika Vasquez | Cancer Care Across Borders: Spain vs. US |
| 59 | Colin Molloy, Aisha Mbangkollo, Jovan Brown, & Hannah Morris | Sex Education Policy and Health Outcomes in the United States and United Kingdom |
| 60 | Grace Macharia, Pauline Muthii, Lucy Ndichu, & Gosi Lelaka | Cross-Cultural Comparisons in Maternal and Child Health Outcomes: Kenya vs United States |
| 61 | Alaina Pugh, Kiana De Jesus, Sarah Baxstrom, & Sharlene Insong | More Than Medicine : How Culture, Stigma, and Access has Shaped the HIV Epidemic in the US and South Africa |
| TBSN | ||
| 62 | Emma Oswald, Caitlyn Podolak, Kailey Floyd, & Nikolay Nekrasov | Mental Illness Has No Borders |
| 63 | Elyse Prock, Katie Woodward, Rehema Isom, & Aaron Woehl | Does 212 Years of History Change How We Treat Mental Illness? History shapes care. Stigma determines access. |
| 64 | Sonja Dickinson, Edgar Valenzuela, Leann Wagner, & Lucero Torres | Bandages or Barriers; Healthcare Access in America and Congo |
| 65 | Katie Koznarsky, Sydney Christenson, Banreet Kaur, & Evelyn Dow | A Tale of Two Prison Systems |
| 66 | Katelyn Raguse, Chelsea Seldvedt-Janssen, Alissa Powell, & Cory O'Day | Two Nations, One Leading Cause; Getting to the Heart of Cardiovascular Disease |
| 67 | Emily Corbin, Kate French, Sierra Longaker, & Haramy Shimokawa | The Power of Leave : How Policy Shapes Parenthood |
| 68 | Kaiyn Jackson, Joan Njane, & Anna Becker | Lack of Healthcare Workers in Nigeria; Why is Everyone Leaving? |
| 69 | Whitney Loucks, Jillian Cenci, Tara Shields, & Brittany Clanton | The Pacific Gap; Comparing the United States and New Zealand Healthcare Systems |
| 70 | Khushi Dosanjh, Gurnoor Brar, Katrina Wilson, & Kaadejah Sesay | Access to Healthcare; A Comparative Analysis of the United States and Switzerland |
| 71 | Juan Flores del Torro, Andrew Cha, Dylan Jones, & Shanelle Carbonel | Beauty on a Budget; Cosmetic Surgery in Turkey |
| 72 | Nancy Ramirez, Josselin Martinez, Najele Razo, & Dianna Dominguez | When Giving Life Becomes Life Threatening |
| 73 | Yuri Kim, Brianna Colina, Elyza Alagar, & Teona Casul | Unseen Barriers: How Culture Shapes Mental Health Care |
ABSN
| 74 | Melina Karadzic & April Sandoval-Garcia | Bridging the Gap: Cultural Competence, Humility and Workplace Diversity in Advancing Health Equity |
| 75 | Navjot Kaur & Jasleen Pamma | Do Patients with Renal Failure Have Better Quality of Life with Peritoneal Dialysis than Hemodialysis? |
| 76 | Blanche Berg | Animal Assisted Therapy for Reducing Anxiety Symptoms in Hospitalized Patients |
| 77 | Johnny Hernandez-Perez & Sarah Moran | Atrial Fibrillation: Anticoagulants versus Catheter Ablation for Reducing Stroke Risk |
| 78 | Jacky Chan | Nursing Interventions to Help Community-Dwelling Older Adults Manage their Medications |
Faculty
| Heather King PhD, PMHNP-BC, FAAN | Non-Pharmacologic Interventions for Insomnia in Service Members: A Systematic Review |
| Carrie Ann Matyac, DNP, ARNP, FNP, PMHNP, Oredolapo Kartchner, MA, RN* | Healing in the Digital Age: Assessing the Impact of Technology on Traditional vs. Modern Medical Access in Nigeria |
| Brittany Shutes , Kayla Harvey, Chance Alvarado, Kate Kanwar ,Sandra Staveski | Parental Perspectives on Delirium in pediatric cardiac patients (P-POD): A North American Survey |
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