Nursing Articles

Can you survive a month in poverty? That was the key question at a recent Community Action Poverty Simulation explored by Penn College students in various majors in the School of Nursing & Health Sciences and School of Business, Arts & Sciences. Poverty simulations have been held at the college since Spring 2019, but the Spring 2025 event was the first to cast a wider net of cross-curricular collaboration.

Pennsylvania College of Technology has received approval from the Pennsylvania State Board of Nursing to expand its Workforce Development practical nursing program, originally based at Penn College’s Wellsboro campus, to the college’s main campus in Williamsport. This strategic move aims to enhance access to quality nursing education and address the nursing shortage at both state and national levels.

A unique anatomy competition, hosted recently by Pennsylvania College of Technology, connected students from 12 Pennsylvania high schools with future health career opportunities as they proved their knowledge in a gaming-style contest. Wellsboro Area High School took first place in the inaugural Penn College Anatomage Regional Tournament.

WNEP-TV reported on today’s Penn College Regional Anatomage Tournament, which brought 20 teams from 12 Pennsylvania high schools to campus to test their anatomy skills. The local ABC affiliate interviewed the college’s Elizabeth S. Gizenski, director of surgical technology, as well as an Anatomage representative and a student from Benton High School.

Raising awareness and encouraging campus community members to register as organ donors is at the heart of the “Gift of Life College Challenge,” a project being pursued on the Penn College campus through April 28. Penn College nursing students, Wellness Committee and other partners kicked off the initiative by distributing small bags of Hershey’s Kisses and organ donor information

Pennsylvania College of Technology recently bestowed a DAISY Award for Extraordinary Nursing Students on Elexus J. Dunkleberger, of Hughesville. Dunkleberger, who completed an associate degree in nursing from the college in December, was one of 15 nominees for the award following the Fall 2024 semester. She received nominations from two fellow students and from a family member of a patient she cared for during a clinical education experience.

Penn College at Wellsboro’s one-year practical nursing program is profiled in this inspiring, four-minute video that introduces viewers to students, graduates, faculty, facilities and the program director. “This gave me an opportunity to better myself and get a better job,” shared recent graduate Megan Lewis. “I’m really thankful for that, honestly.”

Pennsylvania College of Technology recently introduced a revision to its Master of Science in Nursing curriculum that will reduce the number of required courses, ultimately lowering the cost for students to complete the degree. The revised curriculum will be implemented in May.

Sherry L. Hyland, assistant professor of nursing at Pennsylvania College of Technology, recently completed a Doctor of Nursing Practice from Aspen University. The Doctor of Nursing Practice culminates in an evidence-based practice improvement project. Hyland, who works in the hospital setting in addition to her full-time teaching position, focused on implementation of a standardized oral care protocol for hospital patients in a medical/surgical unit.

While helping with a training activity at the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System, Donnamarie Lovestrand saw more than a decade of inquiry put into practice. That inquiry began in 2011 when Lovestrand, now an associate professor of nursing at Pennsylvania College of Technology, was a staff nurse in the post-anesthesia care unit of Bayne-Jones Army Community Hospital at Fort Polk (now Fort Johnson) in Louisiana.