By Dr. Lisa Rauch, Director, The Valley Foundation School of Nursing

On March 14th, seven nursing students from Miyazaki Prefectural Nursing University in Japan visited The Valley Foundation School of Nursing on a Study Abroad program. It is a study-abroad program where students earn three units by participating in the program and completing course assignments. This program has been on hold for four years due to the pandemic, and it restarted this year.

The visiting students were invited to attend the Nursing Health Assessment and Skills II course where they participated with SJSU nursing students led by Dr. Renee Bilner Garcia, a lecturer in the School of Nursing, in a hands-on Tracheostomy competency activity. The visiting students explained that they are first- and second-year students, and many have not been in a hospital setting at this point of their education. They were excited to learn that SJSU students get the opportunity to participate in clinical sites in their first semester, and the level of hands-on experience they participate in the first and second year of the nursing program. The visiting students visited all the simulation labs where they saw the advanced innovation of safe nursing practice and were excited to observe the mannequin’s ability to communicate. We were invited to also bring SJSU students back to Japan to visit the affiliated nursing school campus and learn about how the nursing program is different in their country.

Coordinator of the visit: Junko Linafelter
Email: junko.linafelter@sjsu.edu
Coordinator of the SJSU study abroad program at Miyazaki Prefectural Nursing University in Japan

By: Maya Carlyle, Recruitment and Events Associate, The Valley Foundation School of Nursing

In August of 2023, Linda Higgins (nurse and teacher in The Valley Foundation School of Nursing – and a “firebrand of a person”) watched the news and was heartbroken. Now she has 40 large, very full boxes in her garage, waiting to travel to Hawai’i in early December.

That night, on the news, Linda saw the reports of a series of wildfires on the Hawai’ian island of Maui, in and around the city of Lahaina. The fires, driven by dry, gusty winds prompted evacuations and caused widespread damage, destroying homes, businesses, and two of the elementary schools.

“I had a wild idea that came to me in the middle of the night,” Linda shared, “If I had thought it through, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I would have been overwhelmed.”

That wild idea? Help the children who would have attended some of those schools, and give them something joyful this holiday season.

Since August, Linda and “hundreds of family and friends and friends of friends” had put together 900 handmade stockings and 40 non-holiday themed gift bags, filling them with cloth backpacks, treats, play doh, crayons, toys, toothbrushes and toothpaste, hair brushes, and other things to bring some joy and comfort to impacted kids – all of them, ages 4 to 11 years old.

To make all of this happen, Linda has been working with other teachers – those in Lahaina, working to keep their kids learning and safe, and on the mainland, in the Bay Area. After hearing about the project, several instructors at West Valley College joined the project. The Fashion Design department made about 300 of the stockings which are heading over, and the Maker Space in the Interior Design department used their 3D printing lab to make bookmarks with banyan trees for the stockings.

The story of these gifts has made it pretty far. Linda was interviewed by Becky Worley for Good Morning America (the interview aired on December 8th), and Southwest Airlines donated the travel to get Linda and the 40 boxes of gifts over to Lahaina.

“That was the biggest, giant-est gift of all,” Linda said of the Southwest Airlines support. “And, I really just want to thank the people who have been so generous in helping out – at least 60 of my friends have been in my house for a week [in late November], stuffing stockings and bags.”

“This whole thing is so not the nursing method of ‘assess and make a plan first’ – I just implemented and then looked back, and I swear to all, I’m not sure how any of this happened. At one point I got 12 stockings in the mail from someone on the East Coast who I had never met or talked to.”

Linda shared that she intends to keep this project going – though, she hasn’t made a plan for that quite yet.

For more information about The Valley Foundation School of Nursing, please reach out to:
Email: Nursing@sjsu.edu
Phone: 408-924-3131

By: Maya Carlyle, Recruitment and Events Associate, The Valley Foundation School of Nursing

In The Valley Foundation School of Nursing (TVFSON), nurses work every day to educate, mentor, and support the nurses of tomorrow. This is no simple task! Challenges abound; from those found in all classrooms, to unique challenges faced by the wider healthcare community.

One such challenge is that of numbers.  Every semester, TVFSON adds a cohort of 60 students to the roster, and those students all need to get into healthcare facilities twice a week in order to learn some of the vital hands-on skills which will make them life-saving nurses in the future.

Over many Saturdays this Fall semester, one nurse clinical instructor, Carolina Cacho, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, CRNP, CCRN—K, had to get creative ensuring her 11 students received “quality experiential learning opportunities…” as she brought her class into a facility experiencing several healthcare challenges: a small unit with an average of 24 to 26 patients; only 5 to 6 nurses on staff and up to three Hospital Services Assistants (HSAs); and ongoing renovations of the floor below the unit (causing a reduction in space, and sometimes a reduction in the number of hospital staff on duty) which meant that at times there were more students than hospital staff!

Neither Dr Cacho, nor the hospital staff let that stop them from providing students the best education possible. With an assist by another amazing TVFSON clinical instructor, Marilyn Reiss-Carradero RN, MSN, CCRN, some creative solutions were found as connections with nurse leaders in the Wound Care Department, Cardiac Monitor Room, Rapid Response Team, and the PICC/USGIV Team were established.

“The goal was to [have students] spend time with the nurses [and/or] cardiac monitor techs during their clinical time… they were able to learn and understand these other roles and how they impact the role of the nurses.  These shadowing experience opportunities made a big difference…”

On the purely logistical side, the 11 students were able to be rotated through, in both their primary unit and the other partnered units and teams, making sure the primary unit was not overwhelmed with learners.

The real winners, though, are the students.

“These shadowing experiences were well received by the students,” Dr Cacho reported, “And they all looked forward to their clinical times.  They loved sharing their experiences during our post-course conferences.”

For more information about The Valley Foundation School of Nursing, please reach out to:
Email: Nursing@sjsu.edu
Phone: 408-924-3131

By Sonia Wright

This spring we celebrated with the Vlasoff family as the first named room in the College of Health and Human Sciences was dedicated: the Susan Vlasoff Memorial Pediatric Nursing Simulation Lab.  The lab is on the third floor of the Health Building, home to our donor-named department, The Valley Foundation School of Nursing.  This new name honors an endowment which will provide support for supplies and equipment to the simulation lab, a vital immersive tool used to train tomorrow’s nurses.

The Susan Vlasoff
Memorial Pediatric Nursing Simulation Lab.
© 2023 SJSU, photo by Robert C. Bain, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

The Susan Vlasoff Memorial Pediatric Nursing Simulation Lab is home to tools, interactive human-simulation mannequins, and hospital-like equipment which allow student nurses to hone the skills needed to caretake the health of our smallest and youngest community members.

​​Susan ‘Suzy’ Jacobs Vlasoff grew up in the Bay Area and attended SJSU for her undergraduate degree. She graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Nursing in 1970. Seven years after starting her nursing career, she married Dan, and they raised their daughter Elizabeth in Campbell. Suzy worked at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, first in oncology and then moved over to pediatrics and the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) where she spent the rest of her 30+ year career. She was a woman’s rights supporter and interested in helping other young nurses become successful.

The Susan Vlasoff
Memorial Pediatric Nursing Simulation Lab.
© 2023 SJSU, photo by Robert C. Bain, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

When asked to talk about her mother, Elizabeth described her as a “spitfire.”  Dan added that she was a very outspoken, opinionated person – perfect for a nurse advocating for her patients, as well as her fellow and future nurses.

By Maya Carlyle

“Vanndy is somebody who is extraordinary, truly,” said Dr. Daryn Reicherter, MD, psychiatrist at AACI, a robust, multi-focus community health organization in San Jose, CA

He was being asked about Vanndy Loth, his employee, and a three time graduate from San José State University.

Dr. Vanndy Loth, DNP, MPH, MSN, RN, graduated from The Valley Foundation School of Nursing twice of those three SJSU graduations; first as she began her nursing career with her Bachelors of Science in Nursing (BSN), and after her MPH for her Masters she graduated again from the School of Nursing in 2021, completing her doctoral degree as a member of the first graduating cohort of SJSU’s stand-alone Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program.

This spring, Dr. Loth has continued to be a Spartan, supporting her alma mater in a new way; this time agreeing to be interviewed as part of a project by the College of Health and Human Sciences to showcase the departments and schools under its umbrella.

“I have a strong desire to improve community mental health services through my nursing role…” Dr. Loth shared when she first applied to the DNP program. “My hopes are to gain insight into applying evidence based practice and to improve patient outcomes through improved quality of care. I [also] want to improve my skills as a nurse leader…”

And become a leader she did. While originally aiming to teach, Dr. Loth pursued nursing at the encouragement of her mother and found the work, from the beginning, to be “very rewarding.” Her first job as a new grad nurse from SJSU was in public health, working in the rural and less populous areas of Monterey County, where the competency and skills of TVFSON allowed her to tackle the more challenging cases to come through the clinic doors.

Now as a Program Manager in the Integrated Behavioral Health program at AACI, Dr. Loth continues to care for the community in culturally sensitive, policy-active, and educationally-focused ways. On May 3rd of this year, she and her AACI team were awarded a “Behavioral Health Community Hero Award” by the County of Santa Clara’s Behavioral Health Board for their work in addressing mental health in San Jose and the whole county.

During the interview for the College of Health and Human Sciences spotlight, Dr. Loth was asked what she thought might be next for her, now that she has her doctorate and has achieved some of the levels of leadership she had been aiming for.

“Teaching,” she responded, laughing a little at the full circle of her career. As a psychiatric nurse and community caretaker, Dr. Loth has a lot of knowledge to pass on, and looks forward to training the nurses who may one day take over her role.

Watch the College of Health and Human Sciences YouTube channel for highlights from Dr. Loth’s interview, coming later this summer.

For more information about The Valley Foundation School of Nursing, please visit sjsu.edu/nursing or call 408-924-3131.