Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation

Scholarships & Awards

NPHF/sanofi-pasteur Health Through Immunizations Award Recipients 2008-2009

Hope Moser, MSN, ANP, WHNP—is currently a Doctor of Nursing Practice student at Robert Morris University, Moon Township, Pennsylvania. She has a dual Master of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh in adult and women’s health, and currently works as a Nurse Practitioner in inpatient medicine at the Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. Hope volunteers at the Houston Area Women’s Center (HAWC), a non-profit organization supporting survivors of domestic and sexual violence. She focuses primarily on health education for the women and staff. As a volunteer, Hope has implemented an infection control program and certified the staff in Heartsaver CPR and First Aid. This project will focus on addressing the immunization needs of the transient population of women afflicted by domestic violence residing in the HAWC, who are literally running for their lives. The focus will be on providing ageappropriate screening and immunizations. Relationships with a collaborating physician and community services will facilitate longterm healthcare follow up for these battered women on their road to survival.

Patricia (Patty) Hewson, MSN, PNP—received a Master of Science in Nursing degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985, with a major in Primary Care of the Young Family. Patty is an Adjunct Clinical Faculty at Temple University School of Nursing and at Villanova University. She has worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner, part-time, at the CHOP Newborn Care unit of Pennsylvania Hospital since 1985 and part-time at the Public Health Management Corporation’s (PHMC) Health Connection, a nurse-managed health center in Philadelphia, since 1997. In her PNP role at Health Connection, she has taken the lead to increase vaccine rates in the pediatric patient population. The Health Connection center is located in public housing in North Philadelphia and serves a low-income population that finds it difficult to come in to the office for routine care. Phone numbers are disconnected frequently, making it difficult to recall patients for visits, or to provide reminder calls. Her project is to improve Health Connection’s immunization rates for infants under age 2 and adolescents ages 11-15 through the use of a reminder and recall system. This system is already in place for infants and will be expanded to include adolescents. The electronic medical record system will be refined to include the ability to recall patients due for immunization. Additionally, incentives will be added to encourage patients to come in for routine immunizations for their children and adolescents.

Sharyn S. Tondel, MS, ANP, CRNA—is currently enrolled in the Doctor of Nursing Practice program at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey. She holds dual preparation as an adult nurse practitioner and nurse anesthetist, and has practiced in a variety of settings. Since 2004, she has been practicing in Occupational Health at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. She has been on staff at the Cytodiagnostic Breast Care Center at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey since 2002. Sharyn holds certification in Holistic Nursing, and is strongly committed to wellness and self care education for the prevention of illness and injury. The improvement of healthcare workers’ compliance with adult immunizations has been identified as an area of national focus. Sharyn will address this problem by initiating a year-long Integrative Self Care Education Program targeted to nurses. This wellness program aims to increase nurses’ compliance with CDC recommended vaccination through self care awareness, relaxation techniques to deal with needle phobia, and stress management education to lessen immunization-related anxiety.