This content was published: March 31, 1999. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
PCC Nursing Program Sponsors "Day of the Oregon Student Nurse"
Photos and story by James Hill
On April 7, student nurses and nursing faculty from colleges and universities across Oregon will convene in Salem under the banner, "Day of the Oregon Student Nurse," to shine the spotlight on nursing education in Oregon. Gov. Kitzhaber will issue a proclamation declaring April 7 the Day of the Oregon Student Nurse. The event, organized by the Portland Community College Nursing Program, which is located at the college’s Sylvania Campus in Southwest Portland, will focus on mental health parity and other nursing-related topics.
More than 600 students and faculty from nine community colleges, the University of Portland and Oregon Health Sciences University are expected to attend the day-long event. Morning activities, which begin at 8:30 a.m. at Chemeketa Community College, 4000 Lancaster Drive, NE, in Building 50, include an address by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden on mental health matters, a welcome and reading of the governor’s proclamation by state Sen. Minority Leader Kate Brown and presentations by other health care professionals and counselors. During the afternoon, students will meet with their respective legislators and tour the Capitol.
Teri Mills, on the nursing faculty at Portland Community College and organizer of the event, said, "The most important reason we are encouraging our students to be active in politics is that to truly be a patient advocate, our caring must go beyond the patient’s bedside. We have a responsibility to take part in decision making that affects our patients that takes place in the state government as well as in Washington, D.C."
Mills added that organizers chose to focus their efforts on mental health parity as the theme of the legislative day. "Mental illness strikes one in four Americans," she said, "and the statistics are appalling when it comes to mental illness, which is a treatable disease."
About James Hill
James G. Hill, an award-winning journalist and public relations writer, is the Director of Public Relations at Portland Community College. A graduate of Portland State University, James has worked as a section editor for the Newberg Graphic... more »