DNP Graduates and Faculty Soar at Leadership Conference

Friday, May 06, 2022

Pictured: Nancy Wyrick (left) and Tammy Eades (right)

“It was an honor and privilege for Dr. Tammy Eades and I to present DNP posters with recent doctoral graduates Dr. Margaret Badejo and Dr. Nancy Wyrick at the 2022 American Organization of Nurse Leaders (AONL) Conference,” shared Cynthia Plonien, clinical associate professor and director of UTA College of Nursing and Health Innovation’s doctorate program of nursing practice.

Dr. Plonien and her colleagues are members of the Texas Organization for Nursing Leadership, and attended the AONL conference from April 12-13 in San Antonio, Texas to present posters on their recent research efforts, which included Dr. Badejo and Dr. Wyrick’s DNP projects they completed for graduation.

As longtime members of TONL, Eades and Plonien sponsored the DNP projects of Badejo and Wyrick, supporting abstract submission, poster revisions, uploads, printing, and on-site presentation.

“The mentoring relationship allowed access and experience for deserving DNP graduates to present their work, achieved through CONHI’s DNP program to nursing leaders across the nation,” shared Plonien.

Plonien and Badejo presented a poster titled “Improving African American Men’s Blood Pressure with Home Based Blood Pressure Monitoring,” while Eades and Wyrick presented their project, “Nurse–Practitioner Directed Adolescent Depression Screening Tool.”

Plonien and Badejo’s poster presentation focused on whether supervised home-based blood pressure monitoring using an American College of Cardiology educational intervention might improve systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) readings in African American male participants. They concluded that supervised home-based blood pressure monitoring is an effective intervention for improving blood pressure for African American men with uncontrolled hypertension.

Both Eades and Wyrick’s aim for their DNP project and poster presentation was to bring awareness to the magnitude of depression in today’s adolescent population. The main question they focused on was the impact a depression screening tool may have among adolescents in primary pediatric practice. Depression among adolescents is given less attention and it is known to be the ninth leading cause of illness and disability in adolescents.

“The conference was geared toward nurses who practiced in administration positions. I was unsure if these administrators would be interested in depressed adolescents. I was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming interest in my poster presentation. I talked to leaders from the emergency department, outpatient services, as well as inpatient services. Presenting my poster was a great professional experience,” said Wyrick.

-Written by Precious Olowokere, College of Nursing and Health Innovation