EMERGENCY NURSING SPECIALIST, AUTHOR, MOTHER AND ADVOCATE FOR SPINAL CORD INJURY RESEARCH TO SPEAK AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY’S SARGENT COLLEGE COMMENCEMENT

Wednesday, May 7, 2003

(Boston, MA) -- Susan Sheehy, RN, MSN, CEN, FAAN, associate director of clinical research in the department of emergency medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, will deliver the commencement address on Sunday, May 18, 2003 at 2:30 p.m. during exercises for Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences.

Sheehy has over thirty years experience in emergency and trauma nursing, including seven years of service with the U.S. military in West Germany and across the United States.

In 2002, Sheehy received a special recognition award from the nationally renown Shepard Spinal Cord Injury Center in Atlanta, GA for her advocacy work with spinal cord injury patients and their families. A single mother whose son sustained a spinal cord injury at age13, Sheehy was able to leverage her expertise as a nurse to help maximize his incredible recovery.

Sheehy currently serves as chairperson of the New England Spinal Cord Initiative, which is dedicated to founding a Boston-area Center for Excellence to provide research and programs for both children and adults with spinal cord injuries. This Center will fulfill a need for specialized care for children and adolescents with spinal cord injuries within the Northeast.

"My goal is to educate people with spinal cord injuries and their families so they will not accept the status quo and to make them aware that they do have choices,” explains Sheehy.

Her work has brought her in contact with the Christopher Reeves Paralysis Foundation, Aventis Pharmaceuticals, state health care administration in Washington, New Hampshire, Vermont, California, and Maine and many other medical and civic organizations. She was the first woman and first nurse to serve as vice president of the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services.

The author and coauthor of seven books in nursing, Sheehy has helped to secure over $750,000 in funding for projects, statewide systems, and research in trauma care.

Sheehy is a doctoral student in the William F. Connell School of Nursing at Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA. She is a certified emergency nurse (CEN) and injury prevention institute instructor. She holds a MSN from Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, a MS in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH and a BS in Nursing from Boston College.

Boston University’s Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences is an institution of higher education and research whose premier academic programs prepare dynamic health professionals and whose research and leadership is the health and rehabilitation sciences is actively shaping health care. For more information about Sargent College and to learn about their degree programs in physical therapy, occupational therapy, communication disorders, health sciences, athletic training, nutrition, and rehabilitation counseling, visit http://www.bu.edu/sargent.