Welcome to the Eta Pi Chapter Website
Eta Pi Chapter, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Nursing, since 1984
The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh College of Nursing inducted its first members into the Nursing Honor Society in 1981, and in 1982 applied to join Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. The Eta Pi Chapter charter was granted in 1984, and the Charter Members were inducted on April 27, 1984. The chapter celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2014.
The Eta Pi Chapter membership has grown from 40 Charter Members in 1984 to over 2,000 inducted members today. We have members who live across the United States, and in India, Oman, Indonesia, Thailand, Australia, Mexico, and the United Kingdom.
The Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International is a nonprofit organization whose mission is advancing world health and celebrating nursing excellence in scholarship, leadership, and service. Founded in 1922, Sigma has more than 130,000 active members in more than 85 countries. Members include practicing nurses, instructors, researchers, entrepreneurs and policymakers. The Eta Pi Chapter is proud to be a part of the Sigma legacy.
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Message from the Eta Pi Chapter President
Greetings! I think that Spring has finally arrived as evidenced by our flower bulbs poking out of the leaves, chickens running outside and our horses shedding their winter coats.
I am so fortunate to have had a long career in nursing. I spent many years as an ICU RN and also 23 years as a faculty member and administrator at our beloved, UW Oshkosh College of Nursing (CON).
I have been a Sigma Theta Tau International (STTI) member since 1984. I was inducted into the Eta Lamda Chapter during my Undergraduate nursing program at the University of Evansville in Indiana. I joined the Eta Pi Chapter of STTI in 1994 and served as the President twice, and the Faculty Counselor for both membership and research. During this time, I led the Eta Pi Chapter in co-hosting an international research conference with Sri Ramachandra Deemed University and Research Institute in Chennai India and began bi-annual induction ceremonies for nursing leaders in India.
There have been many wonderful changes in STTI and our Eta Pi Chapter in these years but it has remained focused on leadership, scholarship, and service. We have always supported our fellow nurses and nursing students in developing their career paths and becoming active in our Eta Pi Chapter and STTI. For the past four years Dr. Nickasch has lead the Eta Pi Chapter focusing on community engagement and recruiting chapter members. I will continue in her footsteps and add an additional focus on retention of members and encouraging previous members to reengage. Reengagement may mean simply reactivating membership by paying annual dues but it may also mean returning to meetings and activities during the year. I am looking forward to working closely with our energized and committed Board of Directors and members in our chapter.
I firmly believe that you will only gain as much from an organization as you put forth. This is a wonderful organization and I am proud and happy to continue serving. I look forward to meeting each of you at one of our Eta Pi events.
Suzanne Marnocha PhD, RN, MSN, CCRN ret.
President of the Eta Pi Chapter STTI, 2019-2021
Curler Endowed Emeritus Professor of Health Science 2017-2019
Retired Assistant Dean and Pre-Licensure Program Director
UW Oshkosh College of Nursing
Dr. Mary E. Wurzbach Nursing Essay Award
In 2020, the Eta Pi Chapter of Sigma will be awarding the Dr. Mary E. Wurzbach Nursing Essay Award for excellence in essay writing in nursing. Dr. Wurzbach’s donation to the chapter made it possible to reward Eta Pi members for their creative writing in an essay format (fewer than 2,000 words). The nursing essay builds on personal knowledge, aesthetic and/or ethical knowledge and is viewed by Dr. Wurzbach as a seldom-published form of nursing scholarship that deserves development and recognition. This is the first year of the award, but it is planned to be an annual event. The first place essayist in 2020 will be presented $1,000 and have their essay recognized at the Eta Pi Spring Scholarship Day. The only criteria for application is that submissions are by an active Eta Pi member. Essay review criteria can be found HERE. Submissions are due by 2/1/2019 to be emailed to etapi-stti@uwosh.edu.
Wurzbach_Essay_Criteria.docx
Example of a scholarly creative essay Love: Preserving Meaning by Dr. Mary Ellen Wurzbach
Eta Pi Member Scholarly Activities
Dr. Heather Englund, Eta Pi member and Assistant Professor at UW-Oshkosh presented the process of developing the Englund Marginality Index, a validated and reliable tool that "speaks specifically to marginalization within the field of nursing and nursing education" at the 45th Biennial Convention of Sigma Theta Tau International in Washington D.C. on November 18, 2019. Dr. Englund has published extensively on the topic of marginality of nursing students and completed her doctoral dissertation on the same topic. Her work has been stored in the Virginia Henderson e-Repository, as have all of the presentations from the event. You can also get a direct link to her presentation slides HERE.
Dr. Laura Smolinksi, Eta Pi Member, UW-Oshkosh Clinical Assistant Professor, and the Assistant Director of Traditional Undergraduate Program presented her doctoral dissertation, Emergency and SANE Nurse' Acceptance of Drug-Facilitated Sexual Assult Myths at a University event entitled Gender Brown Bag Series on April 10th, 2019. Her work is also stored in the Virginia Henderson e-Repository! You can check it out at this link
Dr. Jacki Karlin, Current Eta Pi Vice President presented her doctoral scholarship at the Wisconsin Public Health Nursing Conference in Stevens Point, WI on August 1, 2018. Her Project was titled Family Nurse Practitioner Students' Knowledge, Skills, and Self-Efficacy in the care of the LGBT Patient in a Primary Care Setting and included implementation of online education and a standardized patient simulation with 6 unique LGBT patient scenarios for UW Oshkosh family nurse practitioner students to participate. Her presentation poster can be accessed in the document below:
LGBT_Poster_Final.pdf
Dr. Suzanne Marnocha, long-time Eta Pi Member and soon-to-be UWO Professor Emeritus of Nursing, along with her husband, Dr. Mark Marnocha, presented their work, Swansea Storytelling: Nursing & Primary Care at the International Storytelling for Health Conference in Swansea, South Wales in the United Kingdom, June 15-17, 2017.
This interdisciplinary conference featured storytellers, performers, artists, as well as health care professionals and even former government officials involved in healthcare. Drs. Suzanne and Mark Marnocha (currently a clinical psychologist in a Family Medicine clinic in Appleton, Wisconsin, USA) shared their parallel work involving nursing students and medical students, one group learning at a University and the other training in a Family Medicine clinic. Both Drs. Marnocha utilized storytelling and imagery to help students learn in non-traditional ways about the powers of stories and images that contribute to patient and healthcare provider healing.
Their presentation slides are in the document below.
Swansea_Storytelling.pdf
Drs. Suzanne and Mark Marnocha
Let us know what you are working on! To have your scholarly activities included on our website, please contact the Eta Pi Chapter.
Featuring Eta Pi Chapter Members
Mike Mason, BSN, RN, CCRN
Go here for Mike's story
Clarissa Rueckert, BSN, RN
Go here for Clarissa's story
Abygail Grasee, BSN, RN
Go here for Aby's story
Go here for Ashleigh's story
Go here for Stevie's story
Go here for Sara's story.
Send us your nursing news--no news is too small. We want to tell the world about the great things our Eta Pi members are doing!
Contact us by e-mail: etapi-stti@uwosh.edu