News about Nursing & Health Sciences

With the end of another academic year at hand, Pennsylvania College of Technology renewed a spring custom: presenting awards to noteworthy faculty and staff, and acknowledging retirements and other employee milestones.

President Davie Jane Gilmour acknowledged the honorees during an expansive all-college meeting, held May 12 in the Klump Academic Center Auditorium and livestreamed.

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Bryan Marcel Bilbao, a graduate student in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s physician assistant studies major, was recently selected as a director for Physician Assistant Students for Leadership, Equity, Anti-Racism and Diversity.

The national organization, known by its initials, PA-S LEAD, began as a group of PA students of color and their allies. Its goal is to forge connections among underrepresented minority PA students and other diversity-minded PA student leaders to share resources, experience and support.

“I joined PA-S Lead in honor of my late grandmother Italia Cusati, grandfather Guiseppe Cusati and mother, Silvia Cusati,” Bilbao, of Old Forge, said. “Seeing how certain health care services were radically different for those who were non-English speaking and of different backgrounds was astonishing to me. I always vowed that, when I was able to have my voice heard with my passion in medicine, I would publicly address these issues and do what I can so minorities and many other groups will never feel that way in a setting where they should be comfortable, since they are coming in for a problem that is distressing them.”

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On April 23, 16 Pennsylvania College of Technology physical therapist assistant students – joined by Victoria Hurwitz, program director – partnered with Trailing Pines Tree Farm to plant 170 tree seedlings for conservation. The farm is a partner of the Keystone Ten Million Tree Partnership/Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

The physical therapist assistant program has helped to plant seedlings for the past three years on the farm, owned by Paul Huffman.

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Tijana Mrkalj, a student in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s health information management major, was named one of two recipients of a $1,000 Pennsylvania Health Information Management Association Scholarship for 2022.

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Students in the Community Health Nursing course recently provided a round of one-hour wellness courses for Pennsylvania College of Technology employees.

Four sessions were presented in early April on two topics: “Colon: Love Your Interworks” and “Suffering From Burnout.”

For each session, a team of students presented research; developed websites, handouts and tools to check participants’ understanding; and provided learning activities.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology has granted faculty emeritus status to Dorothy M. “Dottie” Mathers, a professor of nursing who retired in December after 27 years of full-time teaching and 30 years of service overall to the college.

Mathers began teaching nursing full time at Penn College in 1994. Prior to that, she was a part-time clinical instructor and laboratory instructor for the college from 1991-94.

In 2014, she received the Veronica M. Muzic Master Teacher Award, the highest honor accorded to a faculty member at Penn College. She was also a recipient of the college’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009.

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Penn College’s sixth Wildcat Egg Hunt – bigger than ever, after a two-year pause necessitated by COVID-19 – saw about 120 children scampering about the main campus lawn early Sunday afternoon. “We started filling the 3,500 or so Easter eggs last week,” said Chet Beaver, coordinator of veteran and military services, who has overseen the popular event since it began in 2015.

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Student Government Association senators representing Pennsylvania College of Technology’s School of Nursing & Health Sciences recently hosted a week of activities to show appreciation for student health care workers.

Samar Alquraish, SGA senator for nursing; Angelyvette Santana, senator for health sciences; and Callie A. Sobolewski, senator for nursing, collaborated to host the weeklong event, which they dubbed Student Health Care Week, March 28-April 1.

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On April 7, Penn College’s second-year dental hygiene students – led by Bridget E. Motel, instructor of dental hygiene, and Grace G. Hicks, clinical director of dental hygiene – provided 39 oral cancer screenings for members of the college community.

The screenings, offered on campus during Oral Cancer Awareness Month, are done to identify mouth cancer early, before there are symptoms.

According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, about 54,000 people in the U.S. will be newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2022. For more than a decade, there has been an annual increase in the rate of occurrence of oral and oropharyngeal cancers.

“While some think this is a rare cancer, mouth cancers will be newly diagnosed in about 145 new individuals each day in the U.S. alone, and a person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day,” the foundation states.
Photos by Bridget E. Motel

Brady L. Breon has been named director of Pennsylvania College of Technology’s paramedic and prehospital medicine program, overseeing the college’s bachelor’s degree in prehospital medicine, associate degree in paramedic science and certificate in paramedic practice.

Breon had been an assistant professor in the college’s prehospital and paramedic program, having joined the faculty in 2005. He has also been a paramedic/prehospital supervisor for Susquehanna Health (now UPMC Williamsport), a flight medic for Geisinger Health System’s Life Flight, an emergency medical services operations manager for Jersey Shore Area EMS, and a paramedic for Loyalsock Volunteer Fire Co. and Lock Haven Hospital.

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Day after day, and not just on International Women’s Day, Penn College champions the hands-on effort needed to reverse the disproportionately low representation of women in the trades. Visit the college’s Turn It Up website and join the transformational students and their campus mentors – from automotive and aviation to information technology and engineering – who loudly and proudly embody the specialized skills that tomorrow needs most.

Boy Scouts from several Pennsylvania councils – and some from surrounding states – made their way to campus on Feb. 19 for Merit Badge College, during which they had their choice of 19 merit badge offerings. Expertise for the hands-on sessions – which ranged from two to six hours – was provided by Penn College faculty, who led the learning activities. Topics covered all three of the college’s academic schools, from drafting to soil and water conservation, and from dentistry to welding.

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For the second consecutive year, 100% of Pennsylvania College of Technology associate degree graduates who took the national board examination for registered nurses passed on their first attempt, while those in the college’s bachelor’s degree nursing and practical nursing majors also exceeded state and national pass rates on their licensing exams.

The National Council of State Boards of Nursing recently released pass rates for the NCLEX-RN (National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses) and the NCLEX-PN, for practical nurses. Results are for those who took the exams for the first time between Oct. 1, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021.

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Students and faculty in Pennsylvania College of Technology’s nursing program will soon be honored with The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students and The DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty.

The awards are part of The DAISY Foundation’s mission to express gratitude to nurses through programs that recognize them for the extraordinary, compassionate and skillful care they provide patients and families.

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Pennsylvania College of Technology radiography student Jalen S. Seyler was recently selected to the American Society of Radiologic Technologists’ Student Leadership Development Program.

Seyler, of Jersey Shore, is pursuing an associate degree in radiography and a bachelor’s degree in applied health studies. Her term in the Student Leadership Development Program began Jan. 1 and continues to Dec. 31, 2024.

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