O’Fallon resident earns scholarship to study nursing

The Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation has awarded O’Fallon resident Kelly Eastman a $2,000 Matthew Debono Memorial Scholarship award for the 2015-2016 school year.

Eastman, an aplastic anemia survivor, will be attending the Goldfarb School of Nursing at Barnes Jewish College in St. Louis.

Her dream is to become a pediatric oncology nurse, and she hopes to one day work at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis where she received a life-saving bone marrow transplant from her sister in 2008 at the age of 14.

In order to get admitted into Goldfarb, Kelly had to take prerequisites for two years at McKendree University in Lebanon and Southwestern Illinois Community College. Between the three schools, she has compiled a 3.8 GPA. While going to school and sometimes struggling with low blood counts, she held down three part-time jobs and also played goaltender for her collegiate lacrosse team at McKendree.

In 2013, she was named to the Academic All-Western Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association team, an honor reserved for academic and athletic achievement.

Eastman says that when she becomes a nurse she’ll be able to tell the children about “a girl who almost died and eventually played a college sport.”

The scholarship is in memory of Matthew Debono who was diagnosed as a college freshman in Indiana with severe aplastic anemia, a rare life-threatening disease that destroyed his body’s ability to produce red and white blood cells as well as platelets. Matthew passed away 18 months later.

A total of 96 students have received scholarships from the fund since its inception.

For more information about the scholarship program, visit aamds.org.

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Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s McKenzie Ferguson has co-authored an update to a technical review on the topic of patient-controlled analgesia versus other methods of pain control after surgery. The review is part of the Cochrane Collaboration and will guide evidence-based decisions among clinicians.

“I had the pleasure of working with some of the best collaborators in the area of evidence-based medicine,” said Ferguson, assistant professor of pharmacy practice in the SIUE School of Pharmacy.

Ferguson and her co-authors reviewed and analyzed data from multiple randomized control trials to draw conclusions on the use of patient-controlled treatments for pain versus conventional treatments post-operatively.

“Systematic reviews such as this help clinicians guide treatment decisions based not only on efficacy, but also safety,” she added. “This in turn affects the patients who are receiving treatment.”

According to Ferguson, the reviewers determined patient-controlled medication provided superior pain control when compared against non-patient controlled regimens without significant adverse effects.

“The fact that pharmacists can be involved in a project like this, among a collaborative team of health care providers, demonstrates our clinical insight and expertise,” Ferguson said. “Not only can this type of scholarship improve patients’ health outcomes, it can also drive policy decisions.”

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If you’d like to find a job that pays you to help take care of the planet, Southwestern Illinois College has several programs that may be of interest.

They include:

▪  Home Energy Auditor Training and Residential Air Leakage Control Installer: Sessions will be offered at the East St. Louis Community College Center, 601 James R. Thompson Blvd., this summer and fall.

▪  Residential Building Envelope Whole-House Air Leakage Control Installer: Courses are offered July 13-31 and Sept. 4-25. In this class, you will learn about air dams, foamed-in-place and blown-in insulation, and duct insulation principles. You will discuss various methods to prevent air infiltration and ex-filtration.

▪  Home Energy Auditor Training – Building Analyst: Courses are offered Aug. 3-26 and Oct. 5-28. In this course, you will learn about heat flow, combustion analysis, air leakage and health and safety.

“This is cutting edge training implemented by SWIC through grants awarded by Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity for St. Clair and Madison counties,” said special projects coordinator Candace Hubbard. “The training provides candidates with Building Performance Institute, Inc. certifications as a building analyst, or residential building envelope-whole house air leakage control installer upon successful exam completion.”

Jobs available in the emerging green job sector include building analyst, weatherization crew technician, or sales and marketing, all of which are solid foundations for lifelong careers, Hubbard said.

This story was originally published July 9, 2015 at 12:43 PM with the headline "O’Fallon resident earns scholarship to study nursing."