Nursing Student Elected MNSA President

March 11, 2004 == MEDIA ADVISORY

A junior nursing major at Calvin College is the new president of the Michigan
Nursing Students Association (MNSA), the first Calvin student elected to the
post.

One of her goals is to get nurses off their feet more - at least for a few
hours.

Megan Schairbaum hails from Bryan, Ohio, and is the daughter of a nurse and a
hospital maintenance worker. She says she always felt a career in health care
was in her future.

"The hospital was pretty much my babysitter," she says. "After school I would
hang out on the floor. I love people, and I love the medical field because it's
constantly changing you and challenging you to learn."

Schairbaum is excited about her new challenges as president of the MNSA. And
she believes that associations such as the MNSA can have an important impact on
the nursing profession.

"it's interesting how people look at the profession of nursing and the
healthcare field," she says. "A lot of people look at doctors, and they're
very respected, whereas a lot of people look at nurses and say, 'Oh they're
just a nurse.'"

Associations like the MNSA change these misperceptions, she says, adding that
the MNSA "also gives us a voice with legislation."

One area of legislation Schairbaum is following with keen interest deals with
mandatory overtime for nurses.

Nursing externs, Schairbaum says, typically work several back-to-back shifts
of mandatory overtime a week.

"You have professionals like truck drivers or airline pilots," she says, "and
they're only allowed to fly or drive a certain amount of hours because of the
risk it poses to their passengers. But nurses have to stay on their feet for 12
or 16 hours, and they have patients' lives in their hands."

Schairbaum got connected to the MNSA last spring when she joined the board of
the Calvin nursing association and attended an MNSA convention in New Orleans.

"When I started to attend these conventions," she says, "it really opened my
eyes to the voice that nurses have to carry. Nurses deal with patients day in
and day out and the problems of patients. Who better to be an advocate for
those patients than their nurses?"

That's a lesson Schairbaum also learned through Calvin's new nursing program,
which has an intensive community focus.

While performing blood pressure screenings and volunteering at a local clinic,
she realized the enormous impact nurses have in a neighborhood.

"It's a great focus for nurses to have," she says. "Nursing goes so much
further than just acute care, and the sooner students learn that the better,
which is why they encourage that at Calvin."

Debra Hansen, a Calvin assistant nursing professor, thinks Schairbaum will be
good for the MNSA.

"She really has a fire for nursing," says Hansen. "She has tried to stimulate
membership in the Calvin nursing organization, networking with other students
and learning all of the different types of nursing that are available."

In a few weeks, Schairbaum, who hopes to practice as a trauma or obstetrics
nurse, will be representing Michigan at a convention in Nashville.

Contact Schairbaum at mns2@calvin.edu
See http://www.minurses.org/mnsa/index.shtml

~written by media relations staff writer Myrna Anderson

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Received on Thu Mar 11 09:43:06 2004