MINNESOTA Volume 5, Issue 1 Fall 2014 VITALS Minnesota Student Nurses Association MSNA TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1 Introduction Page 2 Letter from the President Page 3 Meet the New Board Page 4 Meet the New Board cont. Page 5 Adventures of a MN Nursing Student Page 6 Contact Us! 1 of 6 MN Vitals. Fall 2014
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MEET THE NEW 2014-2015 BOARD! Melissa Heiniemi~President~Anoka Ramsey Community College (Cambridge) Melissa Heiniemi was elected the 2014-2015 President of the Executive Board for the Minnesota Student Nurses Association (MSNA). She is an attending nursing student at the Anoka Ramsey Community College-Cambridge Campus, with an expected graduation date in December 2014 and will continue her education at Bemidji State University in the fall of 2015. She is continuing her involvement with the MSNA after her term as 2013-2014 North Regional Director for the Executive Board. "As president of this organization, I intend to serve as a professional representation for all the student nurses in Minnesota on a state and national level. The leadership skills I have obtained over the last year serving on the MSNA board and throughout my educational experience have enhanced my ability to be president of the Minnesota Student Nurses Association and have gained the ability to effectively lead Minnesota student nurses." Shelby Milbrath~Vice President & Convention Chair~Presentation College Throughout nursing school I have been presented with many opportunities for personal and professional growth and being a part of the MSNA will give me the chance to continue to grow into the professional I hope to become in the future. By being a member of the board, I hope to create new networks with nursing professionals throughout Minnesota and encourage other nursing students to join me on my journey by sharing with them the opportunities presented through this nursing association. My interests in the field of nursing include intensive care and cardiac nursing. In my free time I enjoy time spent outside enjoying the great outdoors and spending time with friends and family. I am excited to meet other students with my same passion in the field of nursing and cannot wait to become more involved! McCartney Renn~Secretary/Treasurer~Gustavus Adolphus College Favorite quote: life is better when you re laughing. Hobbies: I love to run and watch Grey's Anatomy. Interests: I am interested in emergency nursing or international medicine! I am excited for this upcoming year on the board to build connections with the nursing programs in the state. 3 of 6
Kailee Carlson~Director of Communications~Gustavus Adolphus College I am an avid outdoors person who enjoys hiking, camping, traveling, running on the cross country team at Gustavus, music, playing tennis, and sun! I also love spending time with family and friends, trying new restaurants, and going to concerts. I look forward to sharing my ideas with the MSNA and making connections and meeting new people! Jessica Nowicki~South Regional Director~Presentation College I am in my senior year and am looking forward to serving on the Minnesota Student Nurses' Association board and graduating this year! I enjoy spending time with my family, boating, and trying to golf. I love nursing and hope to one day work in an emergency department. As a board member this year, I hope to advocate for student nurses in my area and get students from Presentation College involved in MSNA so that we continue to be involved in such a great organization. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Suess Kiera Erikson~Breakthrough to Nursing Director~Presentation College "Surround yourself with people who are going to lift you higher." "Be bold enough to use your voice, brave enough to listen to your heart, and strong enough to live the life you've always imagined." "Whatever you are,be a good one." I have a dog and a cat who I have spent most of my time with these past couple years haha, I enjoy being active outside, spending time with family, and I am in the national Guard as well so I suppose I enjoy that, too!! I am not entirely sure what field of nursing I want to end up in, but have always been interested in mental health. I see this as an opportunity to get student nurses involved in their communities and fellow nursing schools to "spread the word" of nursing and get more people involved. I will definitely be using this as a way to contact other schools to be involved and hopefully start BTN committees as Christina was trying to do. The South Regional Director, Jessica, and I have already made plans to talk to area high schools to do events at health fairs and promote not only nursing in our college, but other colleges around us who offer excellent nursing programs! 4 of 6
a f o s e r u t n e Summer Adv udent t S g n i s r u N MN This summer, I interned at a place where the sun never se ts and be aut y never ends; a place where moose roam along the roadsides and snowcapped mountains are hidden be t ween the clouds. I was lucky enough to intern as at the Alask a Se a-life Center (ASLC); a place dedicated to rese arch, rescue and imparting knowledge of Alask an marine ecology. With a pair of rain boots and a fleece jacke t for those not-quite 70 degree days, I se t out for an unforge t table summer in the small town of Se ward. As a ve terinar y lab intern, I was responsible for much of the preliminar y lab work for my department. Some days involved blood chemistr y, serum separation, and even biopsies. Others involved CBC (Comple te Blood Counts), fecal floats and making blood slides (a ne wly acquired specialt y of mine). The lab skills I le arned from working with these animals strengthened my understanding of lab results and what they represent. Applying knowledge I le arned in nursing classes to these understudied species was the highlight of my lab experience. On the days that I don t play with the lab equipment, I of ten shadow the ve terinarians at work. I obser ved se a birds surgeries; assisted in blood collection during exams; monitored anesthesia of se al lions; and even performed necropsy on collected beluga whale specimen. I also did my fair share of animal husbandr y working closely with 13 orphaned harbor se al pups and spent parts of my days feeding, cle aning, and restraining them for examinations. That does not however, me an that the rest of my time in Alask a wasn t exhilarating. Af ter long days of making perfect blood slides, I went whale watching, zip lining, ice climbing, hiking and biking through lush greener y, dense moss-cover forest and reinvigorating glaciers Alask a offered. ~MJ Sun, Gustavus Adolphus College 15 5 of 6
CONTACT US! Like us on Facebook and Twitter! Please contact us with any questions, comments or concerns. We would love to hear from everyone. For further information, visit our webpage at www.minnesotasna.org. President Melissa Heiniemi Secretary/ Treasurer McCartney Renn Director of Communications Kailee Carlson Breakthrough to Nursing Kiera Erikson Convention Chair Shelby Milbrath Regional South Director Jessica Nowicki Faculty of MSNA Jennifer Tucker Minnesotasna.president@gmail.com Sectreas.msna@gmail.com Communication.msna@gmail.com Btndirector.msna@gmail.com Conventionchair.msna@gmail.com Directorsouth.msna@gmail.com Jennifer.tucker@anokaramsey.edu By becoming a National Student Nurse Association (NSNA) member you are automatically considered a member at the state level. There is an annual fee to joining NSNA and with membership comes many benefits. Benefits include many discounts, scholarship opportunities, a copy of Imprint magazine (official NSNA newsletter), and the opportunity to run for board on the state or national level and most importantly the chance to network with many other students and professional people and groups. Check out the NSNA website at www.nsna.org for more information about membership. 66 of of 6 6