For the past 20 years, the Andrews University Department of Nursing has maintained the only chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) Nursing Honor Society in southwestern Michigan. The scholarship arm of the nursing profession, the STTI parent organization held its 38th biennial conference in Indianapolis, Ind., where four Andrews nursing faculty had the opportunity to share their research.

For this conference, all poster and podium presentations were selected through a refereed process. Four faculty members submitted abstracts for blind review, and the department was pleasantly surprised when all four were accepted. Assistant professors Arlene Saliba and Nancy Carter held a poster presentation on “Promoting Critical Thinking Through Concept Map Care Planning”; assistant professor Diane Ford presented a poster on “Use of Story Writing and Telling for Teaching Pathophysiology to Nursing Students”; and Karen Allen presented a paper entitled “Finding Missing Persons: Increasing Diversity in Nursing Students.”

In attendance at the conference were the Andrews University’s Eta Zeta chapter president and secretary, Helen Pelleschi and Lisa Girr. Based on feedback they received, Pelleschi and Girr reported that all presentations were well received by nursing scholars in attendance. However, attendees were particularly interested in Arlene Saliba and Nancy Carter’s poster session detailing the methods used at Andrews for teaching patient care to nursing students, which was viewed as having the potential to replace current care plan systems used in health care.

Karen Allen, Department of Nursing chair