Nursing Students for Choice
is a collaborative, nationwide organization
that works to promote women’s
health and reproductive rights
NURSING STUDENTS FOR CHOICE · NEWSLETTER · 2010
It’s Official: Nursing Students for Choice Has
Arrived!
It all started with recognizing a need. We’re nurses. That’s what we do.
Many of us were motivated to go to nursing school because of our pro--
‐
choice convictions. Some of us became activated in college. Some of us were
responding to what we saw in the field. But all of us were
frustrated by the lack of comprehensive reproductive
health educational opportunities, and in some cases by
the attitudes of our instructors in our professional pro--
‐
grams, and we started looking for one another.
On listservs. At conferences. By word of mouth. We vol--
‐
unteered for our local reproductive rights organizations. We identified
pro--
‐
choice nursing faculty. We talked our
local abortion clinics into letting us observe. We tagged
along at Medical Students for Choice conferences, which
were amazing...but where was the Nursing Students for Choice conference?
Where were our mentorship connections?
Where was the institutional support for our efforts at curriculum re--
‐
form, for abortion training opportunities, for framing discussions about our scope of pract
ice?
We heard about a chapter of Nursing Students for Choice here, another chapter there,
and determined to form an independent, national non--
‐
profit organization so that nursing students
around the country would have that resource ready for them. We gradually laid the grou
nd--
‐
work, spreading the word, seeking advice, networking like never before, and learning ne
w skills—grantwriting! web design! button--
‐
making!—
all while working and going to school.
We assembled a fantastic advisory board of experts in reproductive health care and adv
ocacy.
We held garage sales and sold buttons to raise the money so that new members could
gather
NSFC Co--‐Founder Erika Staub
www.nursingstudentsforchoice.org at reproductive health conferences. And today…
Nursing Students for Choice is a registered non--
‐
profit with 501 (c)(3)
status. We have an office. And a website (not to mention a Facebook page.)
We were able to bring 24 members from 8
schools in 8 different states together for our first annual meeting,
and sent 30 students to an Advanced Practice
Clinicians workshop at the annual meeting of the National Abortio
n Federation. We are reaching out to nursing
students at schools across the country. We have a Board of Dire
ctors. We have established an official partnership
with Clinicians for Choice in order to connect graduates with a pro--
‐
choice organization supporting newly--
‐
graduated pro--
‐
choice nurses and midwives.
We won a national award for our organizing work. And we’re just getting started!
We have accomplished our initial goals over this past year, and we are so excited abo
ut the years to come!
Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/NursingStudentsForChoice
Representatives from Nursing Students for Choice chapters gather for the first national meeting in Salt Lake City, November 2009
NSFC WINS CHOICE USA’S 2010
GENERATION-‐
TO-
‐
GENERATION EXCELLENCE IN
LEADERSHIP AWARD
This summer the co--
‐
founders ͞When not recruiting
pro--
‐
choice nursing students to their cause,
of NSFC were honored with
organizing workshops, and connecting with other leaders in the pro--
‐
choice
an award from Choice USA, a
medical community, NSFC leaders are
national pro--
‐
choice organi--
‐
participating in local pro--
‐
choice events in their own communities, writing
zation that supports a pro--
‐
grants, and stamping pro--
‐
choice
choice future in leadership
buttons to sell at the next conference (the mark of a dedicated organizer?
by starting at college cam--
‐
Asking for a button--
‐
making machine for your 24th birthday, which Erika Staub did, and received!)͟ Ε from one
puses. NSFC co--
‐
founders
Erika Staub, Becky Ek--
‐
of the many letters of support
received by Choice USA
McIntyre, and Jacqui Quetal
were awarded with the
‘Excellence in Leadership’
title. Other awards given were for ‘Outstanding Chapter’ and the
‘Steinem--
‐
Waters Legacy Award’. This incredible honor was presented
with a party in Washington D.C. to celebrate the year in choice activ--
‐
ism. The highlight of the evening came when Choice USA’s guest of
honor, LeRoy Carhart, M.D., congratulated NSFC on their work thus far
to bring pro--
‐
choice activism to college campuses, pursuing nursing cur--
‐
abortion and supporting mentorships between students and profes--
‐
sionals. It was an exciting night that bolstered NSFC’s drive to continue
to work for pro--
‐
choice justice.
Choice USA celebrates NSFC’s “radical, unrelenting leadership
that led to social change for reproductive justice.”
www.nursingstudentsforchoice.org
Erika Staub, Dr. LeRoy Carhart, Becky Ek--‐ McIntyre, and Jacqui Quetal at the 2010 Choice USA Awards NSFC Co--‐founders with Kierra Johnson, Executive Director of Choice USA
NURSING STUDENTS FOR CHOICE: WHO
WE ARE
Current Board of Directors
Erika Staub (RN, PHN)
lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Currently, Erika is employed at Planned Parenthood and Midwest Health Center for Women doing reproductive health care and abortion care. She plans to earn her DNP in Women’s Health and hopes to expand the scope of abortion care that nurse practitioners can provide in Minnesota. Erika was inspired to start NSFC on the Winona State University
campus with her best friend Becky Ek. Later, their shared mentor introduced them to Jacqui Quetal the res t is history!
Becky Ek McIntyre (RN, PHN)
is currently living in Rochester, Minnesota and working as a RN for the Mayo Clinic
as an orthopedic trauma nurse; she is hoping to soon find her way onto the popular labor and delivery uni t. Becky helped co--‐found NSFC with Erika Staub and Jacqui Quetal.
Jacqui Quetal (RN, FNP) is a co--‐
founder of the national group Nursing Students for Choice as well as the founding member of the Oregon Health and Sciences University chapter in Portland, Oregon. Jac qui is a family Nurse
Practitioner and works in a clinic serving migrant farmworkers, uninsured and underinsur ed persons. Her passion is
adolescent reproductive healthcare, and she has spent the last few years educating teen s about sexuality. Currently Jacqui is working on a collaborative project to get a pro--‐
active abortion training group in abortion as part of primary Tara Cardinal is a Nurse--‐
Midwifery and independent masters student at the University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle. She also plans to earn a certificate in Maternal and Child Healt h through the US School of Public Health. Tara co--‐
founded a NSFC chapter at her campus and is also a certified labor support doula who volunteers her services when her academic schedule permits.
Wilhelmina (Aiden) Nicholson is enrolled in the BS/ MSN Program in Midwifery at New York University. As a person who identifies as queer, grew up poor, and has worked in non--‐profit women’s reproductive health care, Mina recog-nizes the need for compassionate nonjudgmental health care. Aspiring to serve wom en and transgendered people in the LGBTQI, queer, and alternative lifestyle communities, Mina intends to make repro
ductive and primary health care, including abortion, accessible to patients who, due to their gender identity, sexual orientation, or altern
ative lifestyle, may not feel comfortable seeing a clinician outside of their community. Althea Swett is a nursing student in the Direct--‐Entry Master Nursing Program at Massachusetts
General Hospital’s Institute for Health Professions working towards her licensure as an Adult and Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. Prior to nursing school, Althea was a researcher at the Health Policy Center of The Urban Institute in Washington, DC, and later worked at the DC
Rape Crisis Center, where she conducted community outreach
November 2009 and is dedicated to working for reproductive
justice for all as a core component of her future practice as a Nurse Practitioner. Annelle Taylor (MSN, RN, NP--‐C, WHNP--‐BC)
recently completed the MSN program in Women's Health and Adult Primary Care at the Yale School of Nursing and after working this past summer as an RN in the post--‐
abortion recovery room at Planned Parenthood and studying
for her NP board exams, she passed and is now officially living and working in NYC as a WHNP/ ANP at a Family Community Health Center in the Bronx. While at Yale, she co--‐
coordinated NSFC and is currently a liaison on the Clinicians for Choice advisory committee. It is her dream that one day both medical and surgical abortions will be within the scope of practice of advance d practice clinicians in all
WHAT WE’VE BEEN DOING...just a
sampling:
Bake sale and tabling with condoms on World AIDS Day ·∙ Film screening of Abortion
Democ--
‐
racy: Poland/
South Africa, with director Sarah Diehl in Washington and Minnesota ·∙ Film
screening of Not Yet Rain with director Lisa Russell in Washington and Minnesota ·∙ Val
ues
clarification workshops ·∙ Film screening of I Had an Abortion in Minnesota ·∙ Lobby Day
s at
State Capitols ·∙ Workshops, conferences, trainings and meetings connecting our memb
ers
with Medical Students for Choice, Clinicians for Choice, the National Abortion Federation,
and the American Medical Students Association ·∙ Stamping and selling hundreds of
buttons like the ones you see on this page ·∙ Forming new chapters in Portland, Chicag
o, and Minneapolis!
NURSING STUDENTS FOR CHOICE · NEWSLETTER · 2010
Nurses are vital clinicians in reproductive healthcare.
We provide much of the pregnancy testing, birth control
counseling, options counseling, and post procedure care
that affects women daily.
We also are, increasingly, providers of abortion services.
The national goals of Nursing Students for Choice are
rooted in the belief that nursing students across the country
can be inspired to join our cause, with organizational sup--
‐
port from current student leaders. Utilizing the skills of
nurses and improving their educations will improve the
total healthcare experience of patients nationwide.
www.nursingstudentsforchoice.org
