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Frontier Nursing University is currently accepting applications for the 2016 Courier Internship Program which will run from June 5-July 31, 2016. Visit https://frontier.edu/courier for details and to apply.

Eligible applicants should be interested in learning about public health, health care, social work and related fields; share a commitment to Frontier’s mission of serving the rural and underserved; and be ready for an adventure! Formal training or an educational background in healthcare is notrequired.

Frontier Couriers Began Serving in 1928

Couriers are an integral part of Frontier’s history. Mary Breckinridge, founder of Frontier Nursing University, established the Courier Program in 1928 to recruit young people to work in the Kentucky Mountains and learn about service to humanity. Couriers escorted guests safely through remote terrain, delivered medical supplies to remote outpost clinics, and helped nurse-midwives during home visits and births. Frontier has benefited tremendously from the 1,500 Couriers who have served since 1928.

Today’s Couriers Embody the Same Spirit

FNU’s Courier Program is a service learning internship focused on serving rural and underserved communities, distinguished by its legacy and the adventuresome nature of our site placements. Couriers provide critical assistance to rural health clinics and birth centers in Appalachia, as well as outpost locations across the country.

While responsibilities vary by site, all Couriers will:

• Complete a Community Health Profile, paying particular attention to health equity issues;
• Shadow clinicians in their work with patients;
• Perform volunteer duties to meet critical clinical needs; and
• Engage directly with the community through secondary project(s).

Courier Program Goals

1. To introduce Couriers to the value of public health, advanced practice nursing, and primary healthcare services to people living in rural and underserved communities;
2. To support clinical and other community sites by meeting critical needs that would otherwise go unmet;
3. To foster cultural humility through Courier engagement with diverse communities and fellow Couriers; and
4. To facilitate Couriers’ experience of FNU’s mission in action and encourage them to embody the Frontier legacy in their later vocations and personal lives.

Important Dates

• Applications and reference letters are due by February 12, 2016.
• The Courier Program will run from June 5 to July 31, 2016.

Contact Information

• APPLICATION FEE: Applicants should contact Robin Smith at 859-899-2503 to pay the $50 application fee by February 12.
• REFERENCE LETTERS: References should email letters to CourierApplicants@frontier.edu with the applicant’s name in the subject line.
• LEARN MORE ONLINE: Do you or someone you know embody the legacy of a Courier? Visit https://frontier.edu/courier for details.

By Jamie Wheeler, FNU Clinical Site Facilitator

From Sacramento, California to Floyd, Virginia, virtual, and everywhere in between, Frontier Nursing University is happy to announce that we hosted 102 Case Days in 30 states this year, which is double the number from 2014.  More than 900 students, alumni, faculty, preceptors, and friends of Frontier participated in these events.

Case Days are seminars organized and hosted by our Regional Clinical Faculty (RCFs).  They provide opportunities for group learning and networking within the region. Students doing their clinical practicum present cases to facilitate group discussion of management options and to promote the pathways of critical thinking. Our Case Days are held at a variety of locales including faculty and student homes, restaurants, birth centers, museums, and local hospital meeting rooms, among others.  Case Days are casual and fun with great opportunities to network and meet other Frontier friends, and refreshments are always provided.  Some RCF hosts choose to incorporate an additional element into the gathering like a tour of the hosting museum, birth center, or even a group hike.

Everyone is invited to attend FNU Case Days.  Check here for a schedule of upcoming FNU Case Day events.

Please take a look back at all the wonderful memories from 2015 in this short video: FNU Case Days 2015 Video.

By: L. Kim Baraona, DNP, APRN, CNM

This article was originally published by FNU faculty Kim Baraona in ADVANCE. To read the full article, go here.

There is no doubt that tobacco use during pregnancy is strongly associated with a variety of avoidable adverse perinatal outcomes like placental abruption, placenta previa, spontaneous rupture of membranes, low birth weight, intrauterine growth restriction, preterm birth, and sudden infant death syndrome.

Alarmingly, newer research indicates that nicotine causes an alteration of production and function of neurotransmitters that may increase the risk of attention disorders, learning and behavior problems, depression, and future nicotine addiction in offspring of pregnant women who smoke. The fact that women who smoke in pregnancy experience perinatal mortality rates twice that of non-smokers makes tobacco use in pregnancy the most preventable cause of poor perinatal outcomes.

To read the full article, go here.

Article by FNU faculty

Kim Baraona, DNP, APRN,CNM

Read full bio here.