Dr. Blackwell will be presenting two sessions @ the 2024 AANP Conference in Nashville this year! Both are on Wednesday (6/26). First, from 1100-1200, learn about Malpractice Trends and Issues for NPs in Acute Care by registering for Session #24.2.048. Then, from 1330-1430, join Dr. Blackwell to learn about Preventing HIV in 2024: Pharmacologic and Non-Pharmacologic Strategies by registering for Session # 24.2.079. See you there!
Dr. Blackwell’s original article, “The Relationship between Healthcare Organizational Magnet® Status and Scores on the Human Rights Campaign Healthcare Equality Index: A Comparative Temporal Analysis” has been ACCEPTED for publication in the Journal of Social Service Research. Written with colleagues Drs. Humberto Lopez Castillo, Anthony Roque, and Yi Liu, and Mr. Andy Todd, the work provides an update on Blackwell’s work (published in 2020) that examined the relationship between the HRC’s HEI scores and organizational Magnet® status. The Abstract from the work appears below:
The Human Rights Campaign’s annual Healthcare Equality Index (HEI) evaluates participating organizations’ (n = 906) treatment of LGBTQ+ employees and clients. Higher HEI scores reflect greater equitable treatment of LGBTQ+ persons, a mark of merit for the organization. The American Nurses Credentialing Center recognizes nursing excellence in healthcare organization by designating them Magnet® institutions (n = 612). Blackwell and colleagues (2020) showed a significant relationship between organizational HEI scores and recognition as Magnet®. The purpose of this study was to determine if this relationship changedbetween 2018 and 2022. Chi-square tests analyzed statistical relationships between aggregate HEI score as well as each sub-criterion within the HEI, and the organization’s Magnet® status. HEI score and Magnet® status-maintained association (p = <.001). Three of four individual scoring criteria were also related to Magnet® recognition, an improvement from just one of the criteria in 2018. Organizations with greater commitment to LGBTQ+ equality continue to be associated with Magnet® recognition, suggesting a continued commitment to healthcare excellence. Future research should focus analysis efforts across the same organizations between HEI and Magnet® data collection points and assess LGBTQ+-inclusive care and employment practices and organizational nursing excellence with tools external to the HEI and Magnet®recognition.
Dr. Christopher Blackwell is the recipient of the Research Incentive Award (RIA) from the College of Nursing at the University of Central Florida (UCF) for the 2023-2024 Academic Year. According to UCF Faculty Excellence, which oversees and manages the RIA Program:
The UCF In-Unit Research Incentive Award (RIA) program recognizes outstanding research, scholarly, or creative activity that advances the body of knowledge in a particular field, including interdisciplinary research and collaborations. The Research Incentive award recognizes in-unit employee contributions to UCF’s key goal of achieving international prominence in research and creative activities.
Dr. Blackwell original article, “Application of CDC’s Isolation Directives for Patients Exposed to SARS-CoV-2” has been accepted for publication in JNP–The Journal for Nurse Practitioners. The article explores the most up-to-date isolation recommendations for patient exposed to SARS-CoV-2 who test positive and remain asymptomatic and those who test positive and develop symptoms. The work will appear in the journal in the forthcoming months. The abstract for the article appears below:
SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease remain an ongoing public health concern. While directives are subject to change, nurse practitioners (NPs) must have a strong working knowledge of COVID-19 precaution and isolation directives to counsel patients on proper implementation of precaution and isolation strategies. This article informs clinicians regarding: 1) some inputs that inform the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 isolation directives; 2) review of most recent directives to symptomatic and asymptomatic patients testing positive for SARS-CoV-2; 3) use of CDC COVID-19 Isolation & Exposure Calculator; and 4) NP role in guiding future research and public health initiatives.
Story and Photo Courtesy UCF Athletics:
ORLANDO – “The message for us is simple: We belong.”
UCF men’s basketball coach Johnny Dawkins made his declaration Jan. 4 prior to the Knights’ Big 12 Conference opener at Kansas State, and in front of a raucous, sellout home crowd Wednesday night, they proved it.
Built upon a second-half surge and stifling efforts on the defensive end, UCF put its new conference on notice, toppling the No. 3 Kansas Jayhawks by a 65-60 final score before 9,469 fans at Addition Financial Arena, marking the third largest crowd in program history and the second highest in a regular season game.
The victory ranks among the most prolific in program history, representing the first against a top three nationally-ranked opponent, the second against a top five foe, and the ninth against a squad ranked within the top 25. En route to the team’s upset, the Knights (10-4, 1-1 Big 12), erased a Jayhawks (13-2, 1-1 Big 12) lead that grew to as many as 16 points with 3:45 remaining in the first half.
“It was a great night for UCF. Our guys kept fighting in a game in which they got down early in the first half to a very good Kansas basketball team,” Dawkins said. “I’m proud of the way we fought back with great courage, effort and energy throughout the entire night.”
In the first meeting between the two programs in either’s history, the Knights also notched their first win within Big 12 Conference play and extended a few notable win streaks Dawkins himself owns against Kansas and its head coach, Bill Self.
UCF’s Wednesday effort represented his second win against the Jayhawks as a head coach, joining his triumph over Kansas as the head coach of the Stanford Cardinal March 23, 2014 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Overall, Dawkins improved to 4-0 against the Jayhawks in his career, after he also bested Kansas twice as a player with Duke in the 1985-86 season.
Against Self, Dawkins also improved to 4-0, having previously beaten his now-fellow head coach as an assistant coach with Duke in the tournament’s second round in 1999 when Self was at Tulsa, and in 2000 Dawkins bested Self when the latter was with Illinois as well.
With the two squads trading blows throughout much of the second half, the Knights finally claimed a lead they would not relinquish with 2:57 to play in the final half.
Fifth year forward Ibrahima Diallo grabbed a pass from junior guard Jaylin Sellers just outside the paint and finished a turnaround jumper just moments later, giving his team a 59-57 advantage.
Fellow fifth year CJ Walker, who made his first start for the Knights since March 11, 2022, gave UCF a bit of breathing room with a pair of free throws, and a Sellers layup coupled with two more converted free throw tries from junior guard Darius Johnson iced the Knights’ first win against a top five-ranked opponent since the team prevailed against then-No. 4 UConn by a 68-63 final score Nov. 25, 2011.
The timely shot by Diallo punctuated one of the better all-around games authored by the Saly, Senegal, native, finishing with a season-high 13 points and five total rebounds. The contest marked his highest-scoring effort since he recorded 16 points against California Baptist Nov. 18, 2021 with San Jose State.
“He was great,” Dawkins said of Diallo. “He’s going against arguably the best ‘big’ in college basketball, Hunter Dickinson is a terrific player. For Ibrahima to go toe-to-toe with him and have to battle him in the low post, he did a great job, and I’m proud of the way he stepped up and gave us a huge effort tonight.”
The final sequence, one that saw the Knights outscore the Jayhawks 8-3 and limit Kansas to one field goal in the game’s final 3:23 of play, represented a microcosm of the team’s dominant second half in the face of a daunting opponent.
After entering the final 20 minutes staring up at an eight-point deficit, Sellers, Diallo, Walker and fifth year guard Shemarri Allen combined for UCF’s first 16 points of the half while the team held Kansas to just seven in the first 6:47 of gametime to claim a 45-44 lead.
“We knew we had zone (defense) in our bag,” Dawkins added. “It’s something that we work on and we felt it was timely to play some today. That’s why you saw our guys play it so well, because they’re accustomed to playing it in practice. We were able to stay with it longer because it was effective at times in the second half.”
Johnson followed a Sellers turnaround jumpshot with his second triple of the game, and Omar Payne followed with a dunk on the fastbreak that capitalized on a Johnson steal that built the Knights’ lead to 50-44 with 11:01 to play before the Jayhawks made their final push to narrow the affairs.
UCF began its evening as dominant as it finished, jumping out to a 7-0 lead on the strength of five Sellers points. On the heels of a 12-0 Kansas run, the Knights hung with the visitors thanks to a 7-4 spurt down the stretch and a 10-2 UCF run to conclude the opening 20 minutes that pared the Jayhawks’ 35-19 lead down to 37-29 at the halftime buzzer.
“When they get that type of lead, you start to get knocked back a little bit,” Dawkins continued. “In our timeouts, I was trying to settle them down and stress that we have to take it possession by possession. We talked about working our way back in it in that last four-minute segment, and we were able to do that.”
Sellers paced the team with a game-high 18 points, marking his 11th game with at least 15 points and his 13th game in double figures. Johnson, meanwhile, recorded his third-highest scoring game this season with 17 points, and his sixth with at least 10 points.
UP NEXT
The Knights have a quick turnaround to their next Big 12 test, when the Black and Gold will welcome the No. 18/17 BYU Cougars to Addition Financial Arena Saturday afternoon. Tipoff for the contest is slated for 4 p.m. Jan. 13 and will be streamed on ESPN+.
Watch the video below (courtesy ESPN) to see the UCF students storm the court after beating Kansas on Wednesday night:
https://www.espn.com/core/video/iframe/_/id/39282875/endcard/false
After finishing its first season in the Big 12 Conference with a 6-6 record (3-6 Big 12) and a 27-13 win against the Houston Cougars (4-8; 2-7 Big 12), the UCF Knights are heading to the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl to face ACC foe Georgia Tech (6-6; 5-3 ACC). The game will mark the 6th time the Knights have participated in that Bowl game, with its most recent trip in 2021, when they beat the Florida Gators 29-17.
“We’re not satisfied with how everything turned out, but we’re happy that in the first year, we went to a bowl,” coach Gus Malzahn said after the win over the Cougars. “Now we need to focus on winning that bowl and get some momentum going in next year.” A victory against the Yellowjackets would be an amazing cap on a shaky first season in the Big 12. UCF saw a 5-game losing streak (also accompanied by the loss of starting quarterback Jonathan Rhys Plumlee for 4 of those contests) but also a HUGE 45-3 slashing of Oklahoma State (which played in the Big 12 Conference Championship game but ultimately lost to the Texas Longhorns).
Georgia Tech does hold a lead over UCF in their series (3-2). During their last match on September 24, 2022, UCF beat Georgia Tech handily, 27-10. The head coach of Georgia Tech, Brent Key, is also a former Coach at UCF. While his head coaching stint at UCF was short-lived, many UCF fans blame Key for UCF’s 0-12 season in 2015. Beating Georgia Tech would be a great opportunity to cement some revenge. Kickoff for the Union Home Mortgage Gasparilla Bowl is Friday, December 22nd at 6:30pm. The game will be nationally-televised on ESPN.
Dr. Blackwell spent several days in Arlington, Virginia last week completing work related to his appointment to the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner (AGACNP)Board Certification Examination Item Writing Panel. The retreat took place at Convene in the Pentagon City neighborhood and included item writing panels for all 17 of ANCC’s Board-Certification specialty exams.
Participating with Dr. Blackwell were clinicians and Faculty from Vanderbilt, UCF (Blackwell), Virginia, Emory, and NY Touro University. The panelists are pictured below. The items written by the panel will now be reviewed by ANCC’s psychometrics experts and the AGACNP Content Expert Panel before being finalized for placement on the AGACNP exam as “Pretest Items.” Items that score well statistically during this phase are eventually added to the AGACNP Board Certification Examination and/or the exam’s test bank.
Get ready for your heart to go, “Padam Padam” in this scorching hot performance of the track by Kylie Minogue at Capital’s Summertime Ball 2023 below:
The phenomenal musical Kimberly Akimbo took home Tony gold Sunday night at the 76th Annual Awards Ceremony for the American Theatre Wing. The show was crowned Best Musical and its star, Victoria Clark, took home her second Tony award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical while Bonnie Milligan took the prize for Best Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical. David Lindsay-Abaire also won the Tony for Best Book for Kimberly Akimbo and shared the award for Best Original Score with Jeanine Tesori. As described by the American Theater Wing:
Kimberly Akimbo is the new musical from Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lindsay-Abaire and Tony Award-winner Jeanine Tesori that follows Kim, a bright and funny Jersey teen, who happens to look like a 72-year-old lady. And yet her aging disease may be the least of her problems. Forced to maneuver family secrets, borderline personalities, and possible felony charges, Kim is determined to find happiness in a world where not even time is on her side.
Check out the Tony Award show performance of, “Anagram” from Kimberly Akimbo below:
Legendary pop superstar Kylie Minogue has released the first single off her upcoming album Tension. Entitled, “Padam Padam,” the song features an insanely catchy rift and steamy lyrics suggesting an unforgettable one night stand with her just might get your heart pounding. Said Minogue of her upcoming album:
“I started this album with an open mind and a blank page. Unlike my last two albums there wasn’t a “theme,” it was about finding the heart or the fun or the fantasy of that moment and always trying to service the song. I wanted to celebrate each song’s individuality and to dive into that freedom. I would say it’s a blend of personal reflection, club abandon and melancholic high.”
Tension is released worldwide from BMG records on September 22nd. Check out the video for, “Padam Padam” below:
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