Meet our outstanding scholars
Each year graduating Master of Nursing students are nominated for their outstanding scholarship. Taken into consideration is the student’s academic work, scholarly inquiry, and practice in relation to the application of theory and evidence-based knowledge to practice resulting in the demonstrated potential to enhance the nursing profession, nursing education, the health of the public, and/or health care.
Kate McMonagle
Outstanding Scholar, 2024
Kate developed a fieldwork and capstone to explore the development of institutional policies. She quickly became aware of the lack of a consistent process basis for policy creation. She collaborated with an institutional team and undertook a qualitative research project interviewing policy makers within a large healthcare system to understand the goals and values that provided a foundation to their policy decisions. Kate’s work is a step toward developing an awareness amongst policy makers of how and why they are writing policies and the ways in which divergent goals might result in policies that do not adequately serve their institutions. She disseminated the results of her work in a poster for Seattle Nurses Research Conference where she was awarded “Best Research Poster”. Learn more about Kate’s poster and journey in UW Medicine Huddle here.
MISHA SEVERSON
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2023
Misha’s capstone project embodies the mission and values of the School. Misha collaborated with Ariadne Labs at Harvard and Cherokee Nation to evaluate and support work toward reducing perinatal health disparities in American Indian communities in Oklahoma by bringing TeamBirth to Cherokee Nation. To do this, she proposed a reflexive, listening-based approach incorporating trauma-informed care into her research. The implementation of this intervention for birthing persons in Cherokee Nation is one example of how a reflexive, listening-based approach to a public health crisis can empower a grassroots embrace of vital changes in healthcare infrastructure and practice.
NINA KIRK
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2022
Nina personifies nurse education for positive change. Nina’s capstone, “Addressing Discrimination and Bias in the Nursing Workforce: Developing Learner-Centered Education” explored the experiences and perceived capabilities of RN-to-BSN students in addressing workplace discrimination and bias to identify gaps in student knowledge and skills to be developed in the course curriculum. Nina brought a personal and theoretical understanding of the impacts of racism and other structural oppressions.
IVANKA VASSILEVA
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2021
Ivanka utilized her fieldwork to make necessary changes to the new Nurse-Driven Protocol to promote quality of care and patient safety and decrease in hospital-acquired CAUTI. Her fieldwork exemplifies the application of theory and evidence-based knowledge to practice and her academic work, scholarly inquiry, and practice demonstrated great potential to further enhance the nursing profession.
JARICK HULIGANGA
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2020
Jarick Huliganga translated his academic work into a hospital-wide QI project that is focused on improving patient safety and public health outcomes. The goal of this very important project he spearheaded was to improve patient handoff to enhance patient safety and increase nurse satisfaction. In collaboration with the unit personnel, he developed a standardized patient handoff tool with educational training for staff in the perioperative department at Kaiser’s Central Hospital Surgery Center.
SUSAN COLLINS
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2019
Susan Collins translated her academic work in the Administrative Leadership Track to become the voice for nurses. She used her new voice as a graduate-prepared nurse to ensure enough nurses were at ‘the table’ when decisions impacting patient care and nurse safety were being made. She is now the HMC Magnet Coordinator.
ARLYCE COUMA
OUTSTANDING SCHOLAR, 2018
Arlyce Coumar has personified the Mission and Vision of the UW “to advance nursing science and practice through generating knowledge and preparing future leaders to address health.” Arlyce incorporated the paradigm of practice taught at UWB that has the global community as a partner in health care. Her professional practice begins with the client as primary foci and never acts upon the individual or community rather is guided by a spirit of collaboration and respectful partnership.
Updated June 2024