Join us for an SRPH tailgate on September 8th for the first SEC Aggie football game.
Tailgate starts at 11:00 a.m. & ends at 2:30 p.m. Bring your family and friends and spend some time with SRPH!
Free barbeque (BYOB) & game day parking will be available.
Shuttle service to and from Kyle Field will begin 3 hours prior to kickoff and continue until the start of the game.
If your able to join us please RSVP to Laura J. Clanton.
(COLLEGE STATION, TX) — The Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) will host commencement ceremonies for the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy on Saturday, May 12; College of Nursing on Friday, May 18; School of Rural Public Health, College of Medicine and School of Graduate Studies on Saturday, May 19; and Baylor College of Dentistry on Tuesday, May 22.
The TAMHSC-Rangel College of Pharmacy commencement begins at 2 p.m. at the Steinke Physical Education Center on the campus of Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Speaker is Gay Dodson, R.Ph., executive director of the Texas State Board of Pharmacy. Students will receive their Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degrees.
TAMHSC-College of Nursing graduates will receive Bachelor of Science in Nursing (B.S.N.) degrees at 10 a.m. on May 18 at Rudder Auditorium on the Texas A&M University campus. The speaker is State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, R-District 13, chair of the House Public Health Committee.
The following day (May 19) are two more ceremonies at Rudder Auditorium. Okechukwu (Okey) Nwanyanwu, Dr.P.H., country director for U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Nigeria, will deliver the commencement address for the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health at 9 a.m. Degrees will be awarded for the Master of Public Health (M.P.H.), Master of Health Administration (M.H.A.), Master of Science in Public Health (M.S.P.H.) or Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.).
The TAMHSC-College of Medicine and TAMHSC-School of Graduate Studies commencement is at 2 p.m. Students will receive their Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree in the TAMHSC-College of Medicine, with TAMHSC-School of Graduate Studies students earning a Ph.D. or Master of Science (M.S.) in Biomedical Sciences.
TAMHSC-Baylor College of Dentistry graduates will receive degrees at 10 a.m. on May 22 at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas. The keynote speaker is State Rep. Dan Branch, R-District 108, chair of the House Higher Education Committee. Degrees will be awarded for the Doctor of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.), Master of Science (M.S.) in Oral Biology, Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Dental Hygiene and various specialty certificate programs. The Ph.D. and M.S. in Biomedical Sciences will be awarded through the TAMHSC-School of Graduate Studies.
For those unable to attend the TAMHSC-Baylor College of Dentistry ceremony, a live webcast will be provided courtesy of the college’s Department of Media Resources and the Office of Communications, Advancement and Alumni Relations. During the ceremony, go online to http://bcd.tamhsc.edu/graduation2012/index.html and click on the “Graduation LIVE Webcast” link on the right panel of the web page.
More information is online at http://www.tamhsc.edu/education/registrar/graduation.html
Just a few months ago, 34,000 acres burned in wildfires that consumed Bastrop, the worst in Texas history. Thousands had to be evacuated to nearby communities, and lives were changed forever.
The next time a wildfire strikes, students from the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) will be ready to respond to any resulting health care issues thanks to an interdisciplinary mass casualty disaster training exercise March 8 at Central Baptist Church in College Station.
The TAMHSC has conducted training exercises in the past, with a primary focus on hurricane relief and a chemical/fire explosion. This year’s scenario was a wildfire in Huntsville, with some evacuees coming to Bryan-College Station. Central Baptist Church served as a special medical needs shelter to handle burns, smoke inhalation, accidents, chronic disease management and acute care emergencies.
Special medical needs shelters are designed for people whose frailty, mobility, functional and/or medical disability makes them particularly vulnerable and at-risk in disaster situations. They provide a safe environment for those requiring limited medical assistance or monitoring due to a pre-existing health problem.
The exercise was planned and organized by senior nursing students with the guidance of Jerry Livingston, M.S.N., RN, assistant professor of nursing. Fourth-year medical students provided consultation on the patient scenarios to create a more interdisciplinary experience.
“We started planning and decided on this scenario about the time of the wildfires in Bastrop and surrounding areas,” said Hannah Swigert, College of Nursing student and incident commander. “We thought we should know about burns and how to care for people with them, as well as dealing with something so extreme.”
More than 100 students from the College of Nursing, College of Medicine and Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy participated in the exercise, which included a separate morning and afternoon session. Assistance was provided by the American Red Cross, Bryan Fire Department, College Station Fire Department, Texas Engineering Extension Service and others.
Nursing students helped recruit more than 200 community volunteers to act as “patients” for the activity. They were organized, assigned to specific case scenarios, trained and coordinated by Laura Livingston, M.A., simulation training coordinator.
Nursing students triaged patients, obtaining vital signs and initial histories while tending to first aid issues. Medical students served as attending physicians. Pharmacy students assisted with pharmacology issues at a table.
Patients were discharged, transferred (with assistance from an EMT team) or remained for observation. Some scenarios even included patients receiving advanced life support efforts that sometimes required the students to determine the patient would not survive.
During the exercise, students made assessments, performed screenings and basic wound care, positioned and transported victims and more. Some even took leadership roles and coordinated care throughout the facility. In doing so, they learned skills such as the function of special medical needs shelters, roles and expectations of personnel, responses to an unfolding public health crisis and the importance of a team approach.
“This is a fluid event, and things happen that are not anticipated,” Jerry Livingston said. “Just like in a real disaster, we all have to be able to think critically outside our area of expertise and utilize any resources that might be available.”
TAMHSC faculty monitored student performance, answered questions, consulted on certain cases and ensured a safe practice. Both sessions ended with a debriefing.
“This exercise gave us good exposure to things we wouldn’t necessarily see in a hospital or clinical setting,” Swigert said. “We were able to collaborate and communicate effectively with the students and the participating agencies while learning a lot in the process.”
Everyone’s invited to a free community-wide health festival Saturday, March 31 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Neal Recreation Center in Bryan.
The festival includes a focus on colorectal cancer awareness. Community health workers (promotores) will be available for private health risk assessments for colon cancer, as the disease is often preventable and, when detected early, highly curable. An inflatable Prevent Cancer Super Colon™ exhibit provides an educational walk-through replica of a human colon.
Among the free clinical services are mammography, diabetes checks, vision and hearing screenings, mental health services, HIV testing, blood pressure checks and more. Music and entertainment will be provided, along with monitored children’s activities.
The health festival is part of a recent grant awarded to the Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) School of Rural Public Health and TAMHSC-College of Medicine/Texas A&M Physicians by the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) – the largest-ever CPRIT prevention grant bestowed to a single entity. The goal is to screen and educate low-income patients at risk for colon cancer in the Brazos Valley while training family medicine residents in colorectal cancer screening procedures.
Participating organizations include the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health, TAMHSC-College of Medicine, Texas A&M Physicians, Brazos Valley Area Agency on Aging, American Cancer Society, Pink Alliance-Brazos Valley Breast Cancer Support, The Rose, Head Start, Carter BloodCare, Bryan Fire Department, 211-United Way, Brazos County Health Department, ElderAid, Texas Home Health Hospice, Project Unity, Blinn College Nursing, Mental Health Mental Retardation Authority of Brazos Valley, Quintiles and Brazos Valley Community Action Agency.
For more information on the festival, contact the TAMHSC-School of Rural Public Health at (979) 862-4993. For information on or to schedule a colonoscopy, contact Texas A&M Physicians at (979) 776-8440.
(COLLEGE STATION, TX) — The Texas A&M Health Science Center (TAMHSC) hosted its biennial academic convocation Friday (Jan. 20) to celebrate its achievements and future endeavors. An evening gala raised private donations and profits to establish the Nancy W. Dickey, M.D., Endowed Scholarship in recognition of her 10-year anniversary as institution president.
Convocation at Rudder Auditorium on the Texas A&M University campus honored the renewed vision and reaffirmed commitment to providing quality programs and services throughout the state. As in 2010, it was satellite broadcast to campuses in Dallas, Temple, Kingsville, Round Rock, McAllen, Houston and Corpus Christi.
“From its beginning, the health science center has followed a thoughtful and rational growth process,” said Nancy W. Dickey, M.D., president of the Texas A&M Health Science Center and vice chancellor for health affairs for The Texas A&M University System.
“We have evaluated the needs of the state, the nation and, in some instances, the world. We have considered potential solutions and how TAMHSC could be part of the solution. We have built upon our land grant heritage, helping to meet the needs of the state and facilitating Texans’ access to education and training that allows them to remain in their jobs even as they build their competencies.”
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), the accrediting authority for the TAMHSC, is evaluating the institution for compliance with core requirements, comprehensive standards and federal requirements. The outcome of this evaluation will help determine if the TAMHSC will receive continuing accreditation.
A new component of the accreditation process is the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP). The plan involves broad-based participation from the Texas A&M Health Science Center community in selecting and focusing on a topic that enhances student learning throughout the institution.
The chosen QEP topic is CARE – Critically Appraise Relevant Evidence – and it will establish a foundation of critical-thinking skills in students while enriching the teaching and application of evidence-based decision-making. In doing so, CARE will enhance the processes through which the institution teaches and practices its vision that all people “deserve the benefits of compassionate care, superior science and exceptional health education.”
To further promote the QEP, TAMHSC students were invited to participate in a contest to produce a two-minute video representing CARE. The winning team was Joe Cerrato, Barbara Reed and Rebecca Armanath in the College of Nursing. Their video aired during convocation and will be posted on the institutional YouTube page (www.youtube.com/user/tamhscmedia) and SACS website (www.tamhsc.edu/about/accreditation/sacs/). The college was awarded a $500 scholarship and plaque, and each team member received a $25 gift card for iPhone/iPad applications.
In her keynote address, “I CARE. You Should Too,” Dr. Dickey said today’s health care professionals must learn to efficiently and effectively evaluate, synthesize and apply rapidly changing data. This requires the TAMHSC continually change curricula and evaluate measurement tools such as exams. And from matriculation to graduation, students must demonstrate improvement in their decision-making.
“TAMHSC has embraced the belief, the philosophy, that health care providers who are taught to critically appraise relevant evidence will be better prepared to provide the best treatment, evaluation and solution options for their communities, patients and clients,” Dr. Dickey said. “It is no longer enough for us to say we teach students to learn and learn continuously. We must teach students how to use the moving database to be competent diagnosticians and cutting-edge problem-solvers in a strong patient-client centered way.”
Dr. Dickey closed by announcing plans for a new research building and new clinical building on the Bryan campus. Details are still being finalized for the facilities, which will complement the Health Professions Education Building, Medical Research and Education Building, and Clinical Building I.
During the convocation, Dr. Dickey awarded six Presidential Awards for Excellence to individuals or groups who personified servant leadership in the areas of community outreach, health care services and delivery, research, institutional advancement, education and mentorship, and administrative support. Also acknowledged were multiple faculty and research awards – some of which were presented at an earlier faculty luncheon – along with Regents Professors and distinguished and emeritusprofessors.
From left, Frank Dickey; Daisy Sloan White; Regent John White; Charlotte Sharp, Chancellor John Sharp; Nancy W. Dickey, M.D.
Additional convocation remarks were provided by A&M System Chancellor John Sharp, M.P.A.; A&M System Board of Regents Chairman Richard A. Box, D.D.S.; Jim Burdine, Dr. P.H., speaker of the Faculty Senate; and School of Graduate Studies student Brenna McGruder, president of the Student Government Association.
Following the event, an evening celebration gala at Miramont Country Club featured gourmet dining, fine wine and dancing in honor of Dr. Dickey’s 10 years as TAMHSC president, having assumed office Jan. 1, 2002. It included a video tribute to Dr. Dickey that highlighted her tenure and personal life, with comments from Sharp, Dr. Box and State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-District 5.
In academia, “convocation” is a ceremonial assembly of the members of a college or university. Traditionally, it celebrates a special event, such as the beginning of the academic year or the anniversary of an institution.
Texas A&M Health Science Center Presidential Awards for Excellence
The following individuals and/or groups were recognized with Presidential Awards for Excellence during the TAMHSC academic convocation Friday, Jan. 20:
Texas A&M Health Science Center Convocation and College Awards
The following individuals were recognized with college awards during a luncheon preceding the TAMHSC academic convocation Friday, Jan. 20:
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