{"id":229268,"date":"2025-04-29T12:16:24","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:16:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=229268"},"modified":"2025-04-29T12:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T16:16:24","slug":"school-of-nursing-represents-uconn-at-a-nursing-research-conference-with-one-student-taking-home-first-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/04\/school-of-nursing-represents-uconn-at-a-nursing-research-conference-with-one-student-taking-home-first-place\/","title":{"rendered":"School of Nursing Represents UConn at a Nursing Research Conference, With One Student Taking Home First Place"},"content":{"rendered":"

Still celebrating her win for her poster titled \u201cRacial Disparities in Breast Cancer Treatment Burden\u201d, Anita Oppong MSN, RN, a second year PhD student, said the Eastern Nursing Research Society<\/a> (ENRS) conference was more than just a competition, but also a place to expand her research.<\/p>\n

ENRS is comprised of nurses and other individuals interested in nursing research. Established in 1988, the society has continued to advance and promote health through \u201cinnovative nursing science,\u201d according to the ENRS website.<\/p>\n

This was their 37th<\/sup> annual conference held in Philadelphia, PA from April 3-4. The theme of this year\u2019s session was \u201cFreedom to Advance Health and Well-Being Through Revolutionary Nursing Research Partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n

The conference features research symposiums, poster sessions, exhibitors, a member luncheon, and an award ceremony, giving attendees an action-packed experience.<\/p>\n

\"Anita
Anita Oppong MSN, RN with her first-place poster \u201cRacial Disparities in Breast Cancer Treatment Burden.” (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At the conference \u201cwe learn every day,\u201d Oppong said. \u201cIt helps to build your thinking capacity in terms of research.\u201d<\/p>\n

By attending presentations and seeing the work of her peers, she said it helped develop her own program of research.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me questions to ask myself. Questions to search for,\u201d Oppong said.<\/p>\n

Louise Reagan, PhD, APRN, ANP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, is an associate professor and director for the PhD program at UConn as well as an ENRS board member.<\/p>\n

She said this year\u2019s conference had the largest number of attendees with about 780 people.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ENRS conference really brings people together and shows what good work we’re doing and the research that can be life changing for our patients and improve healthcare,\u201d Reagan said.<\/p>\n

Deborah Chyun, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, said ENRS is \u201ca gathering place for all of us in the eastern corridor.\u201d She shared similar remarks as Reagan, saying it\u2019s a great opportunity to show off the work UConn School of Nursing students and faculty have done.<\/p>\n

Chyun said it\u2019s a good forum to catch up with people throughout the region and it serves as an important recruitment opportunity for both faculty and students, whether it\u2019s a masters, DNP, PhD, or post-doctoral student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing about ENRS is it\u2019s very broad, it covers all,\u201d Chyun says. \u201cSo, you have a lot of different topics, but that\u2019s good because it allows you to see what else is going on outside the tunnel of your own specialty area.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the conference encompassing a wide range of nursing research and professionals, Oppong\u2019s win was an important moment for UConn.<\/p>\n

Being handed the certificate was a joyful experience for her and one that she will never forget. \u201cIt was an honor,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Connecting and Networking<\/h2>\n

ENRS provides attendees with a space to connect with like-minded individuals creating an environment for networking. This was a major highlight for third year PhD student Hannah Scheibner, MSN, RN who said it was a great opportunity to meet people with similar interests.<\/p>\n

Like Oppong, Scheibner specifically recounted the poster sessions and how much insight she gained within her own work and others.<\/p>\n

\"Hannah
Hannah Scheibner, MSN, RN with her poster “Remote Sensing and Applications for Studying Environmental Health Inequities in Nursing Science.” (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe poster sessions are great to just see the wide scope and breadth of work that’s being done all across the Northeast,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s great getting feedback and engaging in discussions with people, especially when I have my poster presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheibner\u2019s poster – “Remote Sensing and Applications for Studying Environmental Health Inequities in Nursing Science” \u2013 showed how nurses can use sensors to measure health related environmental characteristics without coming in direct contact with said environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can measure so many various factors that are related to environmental health that impact the patients that we care for,\u201d said Scheibner. \u201cIt’s very accessible for nurses to harness in their research. They don’t need to go out in the field and learn how to use all this equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheibner said the poster session was really encouraging with enthusiasm and support coming from other attendees.<\/p>\n

Christina Ross, PhD, RN, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing also emphasized the networking opportunities she received from the conference. She was able to connect with others who had similar research as hers, ultimately expanding her own work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really enjoyed the conference because there were a lot of nurse scientists who presented work on adolescents’ sexual and reproductive health on both a local and global scale,\u201d she said. \u201cI was able to connect and discuss my research which was similar to theirs but in the US context.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tyler Driscoll, another third year PhD student at UConn said \u201cThe ENRS Conference is a great place to learn, contribute, gain experience, and network with the top nursing scientists in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n

Driscoll\u2019s poster was on psychological pathogen avoidance mechanisms and how they work in modern ecologies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether you are presenting a poster and getting feedback and insights from a more senior researcher or participating as a peer audience member during a scientific presentation, the opportunity to learn something new about anything\u2014from genetics, to school nursing, to post-partum depression, to breast cancer\u2014or even about yourself and your own journey\u2014is always there,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Important and happy moment for everyone,\u2019 said Deborah Chyun, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":229269,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1877],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2655],"class_list":["post-229268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nur"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 00:57:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229268"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229283,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229268\/revisions\/229283"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/229269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229268"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=229268"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=229268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}