This past April, nursing students from Fairfield University’s Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies attended the 67th National Student Nurses’ Association Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. During the conference, Aisling Coffey ’19, Casey Collins ’19, Brianna McCleary ’19, Kate Brown ’19, Christina Ni ’19, Abbey Lawlor ’19, Caroline Gallo ’19, and Hannah Ferreira ’20, alongside Assistant Professor Mary Murphy, PhD, APRN, FNP, presented original research to an audience of more than 3,000 nursing students, faculty, and nursing leaders from across the country. The nursing students who were selected for the conference are all seniors completing their capstone and transition clinical experiences. Ferreira ’20 attended the conference as a delegate in order to gain exposure to this research experience.

In addition to presenting their research, students throughout the conference had the ability to meet representatives from other nursing schools, attend empowering speeches delivered by prominent medical professionals, and participate in a variety of networking opportunities with various hospitals and schools. 

“My experience was incredible — it was truly amazing to be able to listen to and meet such renowned leaders in the healthcare industry who have performed such incredible work in their field,” said Collins ’19, Fairfield’s Student Nurses’ Association president. During this year’s conference, Collins had the opportunity to present her senior capstone project entitled “Patient Identification and Specimen Labeling: The Dangers of Mislabeling Patient Vials in the Emergency Room.” Her research focused specifically on the importance of accurately labeling patient specimens collected during hospital procedures. 

The other senior nursing students conducted and presented research on varying aspects of the healthcare industry; each having selected individual topic ideas that hold personal interest to them. Fairfield senior McCleary ‘19, presented an original research project which focused on the benefits of implementing complementary and alternative method (CAM) therapies on cancer patients. She found that CAM therapies such as aromatherapy, massage, and music are successful in alleviating cancer pain. Commenting on her overall conference experience, she stated, “This experience was exceptionally motivating and enabled me to create lasting relationships which will surely continue throughout my nursing career. Because of this conference, I am more excited than ever to become a nurse and one day be empowering to others, just as these nurses were to me.” 

From offering attendees a variety of networking opportunities to showing students the immense impact nursing professionals can have on the community, this year’s convention was certainly an experience these Fairfield students will never forget.

“The nurse’s role is expanding as we become innovators and leaders in the healthcare industry. Our future generation of nurses is going to make an enormous impact on the world,” predicted Ferreira ’20.