Faculty and Staff

Faculty &
Staff

Faculty News

Sarah Beckman, M.S.N., B.S., RN

Sarah Beckman, Associate Professor, has teaching responsibilities in the areas of nursing theory and leadership in nursing. She serves in a number of leadership roles within organizations concerned with healthcare delivery, nursing education and research, and professional representation.

Professor Beckman is a leader in Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society. She is president of Xi Nu at-Large Chapter of IPFW and University of Saint Francis and is a dual member in Beta Rho Chapter at Ball State University. As a delegate, she represented the chapter at the two most recent biennial conventions in Toronto 2003 and Indianapolis 2001. A paper presentation on nurse empowerment, funded by a local healthcare agency, was presented at the STTI International Research Congress in Copenhagen 2001 and at several regional research conferences.

Professor Beckman had the distinct pleasure of working with members of the International Sister Cities organization and during a recent sabbatical traveled to Fort Wayne’s two sister cities in Europe. Several presentations were given at universities and healthcare agencies in Plock, Poland, and Gera, Germany. Mutual sharing and networking resulted in many positive outcomes which continue to flourish today. Opportunities for student, nurse, and/or faculty exchanges are being discussed.

Professor Beckman is responsible for introducing nursing theories in the baccalaureate program. Her credibility is enhanced as she was recently named a Neuman Trustee by Betty Neuman, Ph.D, FAAN, nurse theorist and the Neuman Trustee Group, Inc. This prestigious group of 20, of which Neuman is the founder/director, has the task of maintaining the integrity of the NSM. The group does this through scholarly work and by providing open forums for discussion and dissemination of work related to the further development and refinement of the NSM. In this leadership role Sarah has begun work with the planning committee for the 2005 biennial symposium in the USA followed by a conference to be hosted by colleagues in The Netherlands in 2006. It is her hope to have students accompany her to either or both of these conferences as occurred a few years ago when two alumni presented their scholarly projects in Vancouver at a NSM conference.

Professor Beckman continues to serve as a Board of Director at Cancer Services of Allen County. She has served for over a decade on the annual cancer symposium planning committee.

Sarah's Personal Page

Sanna Boxley-Harges, M.A., A.N.P., B.S., RN

Sanna Boxley-Harges, Associate Professor, has been a proponent of the Neuman Systems Model since its adoption in 1982 as the nursing model foundation of the Associate of Science Nursing curriculum. Sanna’s primary teaching responsibilities are in Adult Medical-Surgical Nursing in the Associate of Science Nursing program. She is also an active member of Northeast Region, Indiana State Nurses Association, and participates in Xi Nu at Large Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau International, as a Counselor, Board of Directors member, and Finance committee member.

Professor Harges' continuing interest in the Neuman Systems Model (NSM) was the basis of her sabbatical in Spring 2001. To collaborate with NSM colleagues, she traveled in Western Europe for seven weeks. Two compact disks highlighting collaboration with colleagues in The Netherlands and Sweden were produced by Professors Harges and Sarah Beckman, fellow traveler and NSM consultant, and Penny Leverman, Department of Nursing secretary. Through an invitation from Fort Wayne Sister Cities Committee, Sanna visited the Fort Wayne sister cities of Gera, Germany, and Plock, Poland. Travels also included Copenhagen, Denmark, with attendance at the opening ceremonies of the International Council of Nurses Congress, Helsinki, Finland, and Tallinn, Estonia. Comparing nursing issues and health care delivery systems, especially in Poland, and experiencing diverse cultures through exchange of ideas and customs, visiting hospitals, talking with nursing students, and attending local festivals were distinct highlights of her sabbatical.

In Spring 2003, at the NSM Ninth Biennial International Symposium in Philadelphia, collaboration with colleagues from The Netherlands continued and global connections were expanded. During the symposium Professor Harges along with Professors Beckman, Cheryl Sorge, and Becky Salmon presented a paper entitled Critical Teaching: Spirituality and End of Life Issues.

Linda L. Graham, M.S.N., AP.R.N., B.C.

Linda Graham, Associate Professor, continues to be actively involved with Community Health Nursing. Her work includes activities with the Fort Wayne Allen County Department of Health and coordinator of the health services for the annual (13th) Healthy Cites Health Fair. In November 2002, 800+ uninsured or underinsured adults received services. This community service project continues to expand each year and provides additional services to this under served population. Linda successfully obtained grants of $14,000 for the 2003 Health Fair.

Trans-cultural healthcare continues to be of interest to this faculty person. In October 2002, Professor Graham presented a paper on Community Health Nursing in American at the Nursing in the 21st Century Joint Conference Sponsored by the Chinese and American Nurses Associations in Beijing, China. In addition to attending the conference, she visited several healthcare facilities, including a combination hospice and nursing home, women’s birthing center, military hospital, traditional Chinese medicine hospital, and a general hospital. In some facilities, Linda would not have known she had left America, they were state of the art. In other facilities, it was like stepping back in time to an American hospital from the 1940s or 1950s. Visits were also made to rural villages where the average annual income is approximately $1,000 in U.S. dollars. Medical care for these people is a nurse run clinic (the nurse had no formal education), with a visit from a "barefoot doctor" (now called "village doctor") every few weeks.

Professor Graham continues her interest and research with the Old Order Amish. She currently is beginning work with the town manager of Shipshewana, several local Amish leaders from LaGrange County, and area mental health professionals to assess and provide interventions for alcohol and drug use and abuse by Amish adolescents. In 2002 this faculty member published an article on, Healthcare and Sequestered Cultures: A Perspective from the Old Order Amish, in the Journal of Multicultural Nursing and Health and also presented a paper in November 2003, on Caring for the Old Order Amish, at the 37th Biennial Sigma Theta Tau International Convention in Toronto, Canada.

Sally Hartman, M.S., R.N., N.P.


Sally Hartman
2004 Division Volunteer of the Year

In recognition of dedicated & committed volunteer efforts in helping the March of Dimes to save babies.

Professor Hartman has been a volunteer with both the state & Northeast Indiana March of Dimes for the last 15 years. At the state level she has served on the Executive board, been a member of the Public Affaire, Program Service, & Pre-maturity Summit-Program Planning Committees. She has also chaired the state NICU Selection Committee & several committees in Northeast Indiana. This exemplary volunteer spends approximately 25 hours a month working for the March of Dimes and its’ mission to assist Indiana families.

Linda Meyer, PhD, RN, CNE

Linda Meyer, PhD, RN, CNE is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs at the IPFW Department of Nursing. Her teaching responsibilities include pediatric at the undergraduate and informatics at the graduate level. She has published and presented papers about hypermedia assisted instruction, integration of computerization into nursing curriculum, and research about students’ intentions and essential clinical behaviors.

Dr. Meyer co-authored two CD-ROMs that received international awards for outstanding instructional use of computers in education. The awards from Sigma Theta Tau International were presented at the biennial conference in Toronto, Canada. A paper describing the design of the two interactive instructional programs, Cardiovascular Anatomy and Physiology and EKG Interpretation, that foster critical thinking and decision-making skills was presented at the 4th U.S. Russian Nursing Conference, Building Bridges for Collaboration Between U.S. and Russian in 2003. She and Dr. Carol Sternberger with a collaborative project, Global Links, are assisting Russian nurses via the Internet to learn about nursing practice and health care systems in their own country as well as linking them to the global nursing network; thus, facilitating regional, national, and international dissemination of information.

The Essential Clinical Behavior (ECB) database has been a focus of her attention and research for some 5 years. The ECB system is a web application for recording and reporting nursing students’ patient care experiences. The application is designed to enhance nursing students’ learning and to assist faculty in making student assignments, evaluating student progress, and supporting curriculum decisions. She directed the integration of the database into the nursing curriculum, initiated the collaborative project with the Department of Computer Science, and actively seeks evaluation and evolution of the ECB.

Carol Sternberger, PhD, RN, CNE

Dr. Sternberger, Professor and Chair of Nursing, is active in the design and research of hypermedia assisted instruction and distributive learning with learner satisfaction and efficacy. Carol co-authored the cardiovascular CD-ROMs with Linda Meyer and she shares the Sigma Theta Tau excellence awards. The CD-ROMs are distributed by Medical Audio Visual Communications Inc.

Both Dr. Meyer and Dr. Sternberger visited Russia as members of the US nurses contingency, touring Russian hospitals, hospices, rehabilitation centers, and pediatric centers. More about the Russian-US project that evolved from visit the can be seen at The Global Links Project. During her sabbatical, the summer and fall of 2004, Carol will be working with the Russian nurses in St. Petersburg and Moscow.

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the National League for Nursing Accrediting Commission (NLNAC).
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