December 2018 graduates of the WSU College of Nursing received their nursing pins at the college’s Convocation ceremony on Thursday, Dec. 6.

The tradition-filled ceremony included a recitation of the Nursing Pledge led by Dean Joyce Griffin-Sobel, who invited all nurses in the audience to participate.

In addition, students with family members who are nurses were pinned by those family members. Other students received their nursing pins from Jo Ann Dotson, BSN Program Director and Associate Professor.

The ceremony, held in the historic Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox, was followed by a reception for friends and family.

For more photos from the ceremony by … » More …

In 2009 Washington became the first state to pass a law requiring that young athletes be cleared by a healthcare provider to return to play after a concussion. In the next few years all states passed similar laws as awareness of the danger of sports-related concussions grew.

But have those laws been effective?

Using one measurement, the answer is no, said Jacquelyn Deichman, a nursing student at Washington State University who researched adolescent concussions for her WSU Honors College thesis.

To gauge the laws’ effect, she looked at “leave without being seen” rates for sports- and recreation-related adolescent concussions in U.S. emergency rooms. … » More …

Rita Catching had to retire from nursing to have enough time to write her first novel, a murder mystery whose main character is a nurse in Eastern Oregon.

The book by the WSU College of Nursing graduate (MN ’03) was selected out of hundreds of entries as a finalist for a prize from the Crime Writers’ Association in 2016, and she was invited to London for the awards ceremony.

Her book didn’t win, but Catching, 68, said she scored “a very quiet victory” anyway. Being in London with famous mystery authors was a treat, and she proved to herself she could be a writer.

… » More …

Families of rural children with mild head injuries pay more for medical care and get less of it, a Washington State University analysis has found.

Janessa M. Graves, an assistant professor of nursing at WSU Spokane, analyzed data on more than 380,000 children with mild traumatic brain injuries, which usually involve concussions. They account for almost all types of traumatic brain injury, moderate and severe being the other two. On the whole, traumatic brain injury is a leading cause of death and disability among children and adolescents in the United States.

Patients with mild traumatic brain injury are hospitalized less frequently and often get treated … » More …

A growing number of teenagers in Anne Mason’s psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner practice are asking for prescriptions to get sleep medications. 

Chronic pain and depression are linked to food insecurity, according to new research headed by WSU College of Nursing PhD student Teresa Bigand. 

Dogs, cats and their people cycled through the second Healthy People + Healthy Pets clinic at Washington State University Health Sciences last week, all getting free vaccinations, screenings and simple treatments from WSU nursing and veterinary medicine students. 

Angela Brown was in Guam when her last year of nursing school began, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base as a Washington Air National Guard medic.

The United States is getting more diverse, and that’s a challenge for health care providers, said Professor Janet Katz of the Washington State University College of Nursing.

Students at the Washington State University College of Nursing hosted a Halloween event for kids who have dietary restrictions or special needs, and the community responded.