3 UIC Nursing faculty featured in inaugural SparkTalks
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Three UIC College of Nursing faculty members participated in UIC’s first-ever SparkTalks – a series hosted by the Office of the Chancellor that brought together faculty from across campus to give quick, three-minute talks about their work.
Clinical assistant professor Katie Vanderzwan, DNP ’17, MS ’06, APRN-BC, CHSE, associate professor Mark Lockwood, PhD, RN, and clinical assistant professor Rebecca Singer, DNP ’18, RN, were among the 36 faculty who spoke at the event, held on Nov. 17.
Presenters from all 16 UIC colleges and schools spoke about some of the most consequential topics in medicine and public health, technology, social justice, and education, among others.
Singer spoke about her work as co-founder (with the College of Medicine’s Stockton Mayer) of the Outbreak Response Team, founded in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to provide testing, vaccinations and infection control guidance to those in Chicago most at risk for poor outcomes.
“Perhaps most important to me and Stockton is that our work brings students into the community to see the challenges that many in our great city face … and to do something about them hand-in-hand with those community members,” she said.
Lockwood spoke about the results of a pilot study looking at the gut microbiome’s relationship to pain interference among 35 kidney transplant recipients.
“Chronic pain persists in a third to a half of kidney transplant recipients,” he said. “Pain interferes with daily functioning, and it has potential serious consequences … Symbiotic microbes in the gut perform critical functions in health and disease, and new evidence shed light on the role of the gut microbiome in mediating pain.”
Vanderzwan spoke about the role of simulation-based education in preparing competent learners to take care of patients at the bedside, including the use of “SimZones” to help guide educators and students.
“You’re trying to mimic or mirror a real-world experience so then your learner can enter into a clinical setting feeling competent and well-trained,” she said.
The next UIC Spark Talks event is slated for Feb. 1, 2024. Speakers have not yet been announced.