The Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Join SON Student Affairs for a talk with Anne Mekalian. While teaching third grade, Anne developed a cough and cold and quickly developed into sepsis. Within five days she was in the ICU at St. Joseph's Hospital. Septic shock and gangrene followed and she was given a fifteen percent chance of survival. Both of her legs below the knee and both arms below the elbow were amputated. After six weeks at St. Joe's she was transferred to Kernan Hospital for rehab, followed by a year of outpatient rehab. This is the story of her recovery for the past eight years.  

Anne’s  message about the importance of resilience and a positive attitude is applicable to all of us and especially those undergoing a life threatening experience.

Anne graduated from the University of Delaware with a B.S. in Education, and Johns Hopkins with a Master of Liberal Arts. She is the subject of a documentary film, DRIVING MRS. M, tracing her recovery during  the past eight years with the incredible love and support of her third graders.

We hope you can attend this inspiring event!

“CURA: low-threshold clinical ethics support for nurses”

Malene van Schaik is a Junior Researcher and PhD student from The Netherlands. She works at the Medical Humanities department at the Amsterdam UMC, VUMC. Her research focusses on how care professionals (specifically nurses) can be supported in dealing with morally challenging situations in palliative care.

Together with colleagues and stakeholders, she created a clinical ethics support instrument called CURA. This four-step instrument can be used independently by professionals in either small group settings or alone. It helps to express moral doubts and emotions, helps with perspective taking and to come to a careful assessment on what one can do when confronted with morally challenging situations.

During the presentation, she will introduce the instrument and we will have a chance to discuss its feasibility for American nurses.