School of Nursing happenings
Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing faculty, students and scholars continually participate in lectures, speaker series, symposiums and other special events that reflect the school's vision and mission to transform health care through nursing education and research. This frequently updated list is a sample of the breadth of such activities.
2025 Happenings
Laura Van Auker, an associate professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, is being recognized for her outstanding global engagement work with the Chancellor’s Award for International Engagement. The award recognizes faculty and staff members for outstanding global engagement in advancing the university’s teaching, research and service missions. Her nominators shared that she leveraged 25 years of volunteer experience with the Health Education Africa Resource Team (HEART) to create transformative opportunities for UC Davis students and faculty to engage in primary care medical camps in rural Kenya, enhancing health care access and empowering communities through team-based care. Laura brings expertise in health care policy promoting the use of advanced practice registered nurses to improve community health and access, particularly for underserved, diverse and rural communities.
The Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Physician Assistant (PA) program, along with the UC Davis Library, hosted a panel presentation, "Who’s My Clinician? Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) in Team-Based Health care." Roughly 120 people attended to learn more about the roles and responsibilities of various health care professionals and how to build teamwork behaviors that leverage the expertise of various professions to enhance collaboration and improve patient outcomes. A panel of nurse practitioners, PAs, and doctors — including Amber Ramage, Keoki Leong, Kathleen Schneider, Diana Nguyen and Jeffrey Vitt — discussed the challenges and opportunities for fostering positive teamwork behaviors that harness the expertise of various professions to boost collaboration and enhance patient outcomes.Jan. 16 — Nursing faculty present poster exploring DNP scholarly project dissemination
Associate Professor Charleen Singh and Assistant Professor Joanne Minnick, both from the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, presented "Finding a Place....Dissemination of DNP Projects" at the American Association of Colleges of Nursing Doctoral Education Conference in San Diego. They discussed discuss the various ways of dissemination available to Doctor of Nursing Practice students and faculty and advocated for the need to educate and involve stakeholders to improve support for the dissemination of project outcomes. The School of Nursing graduates its inaugural cohort of the Doctor of Nursing Practice — Family Nurse Practitioner Degree Program this June. The conference explores national trends in doctoral nursing education, strategies to increase enrollment and ways to increase or maintain rigor in terminal degree programs.
Jan. 15 — Doctoral candidate awarded grant from national nursing board
Kate Turpin, an education program designer and doctoral candidate at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing, was awarded a $10,500 grant from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing for her project “Navigating Academic Support: A Thematic Analysis of Nursing Educators Responses to CCNE Standard II-C.” The study seeks to examine how U.S. nursing programs define, implement and evaluate academic support services in response to CCNE Standard II-C. (II-C is the only standard that directly addresses student resources.) Kate hopes to develop an operational framework for standards for academic support that can enhance student success and retention. CCNE is the nation’s leading accrediting agency for baccalaureate, master’s and Doctor of Nursing practice programs, as well as postbaccalaureate nurse residency and post-graduate advanced-practice registered nurse certificates.
Jan. 14 — Nursing faculty wins national award for textbook
Victoria Keeton, an assistant professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis, won third place from the American Journal of Nursing for a textbook she co-edited. “Pediatric Physical Examination: An Illustrated Handbook” was awarded in the child health category. It is a resource designed to assist NPs and primary care providers in performing physical exams. The handbook covers body systems from fetal development through all the developmental stages of childhood, providing a comprehensive approach to pediatric assessment. This book includes new features, including “Telehealth Tips” that address the use of virtual visits in clinical practice. It also provides updated coverage of topics like maltreatment, mental and behavioral health, and social determinants of health. Since 1969, the American Journal of Nursing, in service of its mission to “promote excellence in nursing and health care,” has published a list of the best nursing books of that year.
Past Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing Happenings
