At the completion of Spring and Fall terms, the SPC Nursing program recognizes our graduating BSN students and the contributions of our preceptors in the Leadership practicum course. Preceptors share their time and expertise with our students to foster their growth as future nursing leaders. This year, one of our BayCare community partners designed a unique, comprehensive practicum experience for leadership students at BayCare HomeCare. This collaboration was especially significant since one of our current RN to BSN students, Timsi Johnson arranged this practicum experience. Ms. Johnson is the QI/Compliance Coordinator at BayCare HomeCare. It is rewarding to see a current BSN student pay it forward to her peers and our future graduates through the rich experience she designed.

At this luncheon, we also take the opportunity to acknowledge our outstanding students. This semester’s award for the Outstanding Community Project went to Ashley Pollack. Ashley completed her community practicum experience working with the volunteer population at the Florida Holocaust Museum. The volunteers, an elderly population ranging in age from 65 to 90 years were the recipients of Ashley’s health promotion project. Several were Holocaust survivors. She enacted a program called “Clean that wand! Infection Prevention for Volunteers” to establish the basis a standard of cleaning the audio wands used by guests on the self-guided tours and empowered the volunteers on methods to protect their health through personal hygiene measures.