Nursing invests 70 years into Idaho communities

Boise State nurses have been playing a vital role in the health of the community since the school began 70 years ago. From local clinics to global partnerships, here's a glimpse of their impact over the past seven decades:

Creative community clinical placements

Gaining clinical experience out in the community has always been a crucial part of nursing education. But for as long as faculty can remember, finding clinical placements has required creativity and resourcefulness. There have always been more students than spaces and working nurses available to train them.

During the 1970s and 80s, there was such a large number of students enrolled in the program that Carol Fountain, a 1964 alum and faculty from 1977-99, said the big question was: "Where are we going to put them?"

So faculty brainstormed clinical sites beyond local hospital units where students could learn. Finding placements for behavioral health practice can take additional legwork, since units are often small and can't host a dozen students and their instructor.

Springer recalls taking students for clinicals in homeless shelters and, one spring break, to Blackfoot, Idaho. The group stayed in a motel together and conducted behavioral health clinicals at State Hospital South. But this trip wasn't the first of its kind.

The Idaho Statesman in 1963 spoke with the school's inaugural director of nursing, Florence Miles, about the associates program. They published that "Ten weeks in the summer are spent at State Hospital South in Blackfoot, where students work with the mentally ill."

Faculty continue to innovate new ways for students to gain hands-on experience. These days, students in the behavioral health course also learn through a multi-patient simulation. Designed by professor Kelley Connor, the scenario portrays what a behavioral health clinical might actually look like.

"I just got to thinking, 'How can I recreate this in the sim center?'" Connor said.

Connecting students to community care

By the turn of the century, the school was booming with activity. Barbara Allerton, who taught between 1993-2013, described the era as filled with "little entrepreneurial" endeavors that faculty or faculty-student groups launched. These ranged from international partnerships to local community wellness projects.

In 2005, Sharon Stoffels, an associate professor at the time, launched the Idaho Hispanic Wellness Initiative: La Buena Salud. This initiative brought preventative healthcare to migrant worker camps in southwest Idaho, where students worked on interdisciplinary teams to conduct health assessments.

Nursing students regularly participate in community health partnerships, such as the mobile health
assessments in the early 2000s.

Part of the initiative also involved pesticide research, which Stoffels published about in Northwest Public Health. She partnered with Dale Russell, a professor of chemistry, to test the workers' hands for chemicals and see if the contaminants were carried beyond the fields.

Nursing faculty throughout the 2000s continued similar community health initiatives, providing mobile care for local populations like Peruvian sheepherders trekking through Idaho and refugees resettling in Boise.

Students learned to work in interdisciplinary teams as part of the La Buena Salud community initiative.

"There were so many creative people that had great ideas," said Pam Springer, faculty between 1989-2013 (no relation to Joanne). "We accomplished a lot…I just think it [the school] moved forward in a very positive way."

Students make lasting change for the community

Several nurse-led support services that exist in the Treasure Valley today originated from the humble beginnings of student projects.

In the early 2000s, students in the community/population health class would conduct a community assessment survey. Then, those in the leadership class created a relevant intervention and implemented it.

This kind of teamwork led to the creation of the Friendship Clinic on Latah St. and the parish nurse program at Saint Alphonsus.

According to their website, the Marie Blanchard Friendship Clinic offers "basic health services to the uninsured and underinsured. It has since expanded to include chronic illness management, therapy, mental health counseling, and more…"

Students still take a community and population health service-learning class today. Even students headed to work in hospitals after graduation benefit from knowing what kinds of care patients might receive after they're discharged. Allerton explained the purpose isn't to train every student to be a public health nurse, "but you need to understand the world out there."

Research faculty impact local health systems

Boise State's School of Nursing has been involved in community research for decades. In the early 2000s, faculty joint appointments within local health systems Saint Alphonsus and St. Luke's were established.

"One of the big things they were doing was pressure ulcer prevention in the hospitals, and that was a huge project," said Ingrid Brudenell, faculty between 1981-2010. "But it made a big difference in patients and involved all different levels of nursing care."

Through her joint appointment, professor Lucy Zhao mentors both Boise State undergraduate research assistants and working nurses at St. Luke's.

Joint appointments are an opportunity for nursing scholars to directly give back to the local community: faculty offer their research expertise to nurses working in the thick of it, and in turn, the hospitals offer a space for faculty to conduct their patient-centered research. It's a win-win for both organizations.

Today, professor Lucy Zhao holds the joint appointment at St. Luke's. She promotes a culture of nursing science through research and mentorship.

"Dr. Zhao's research provides invaluable insights and implications into how nurses and other healthcare professionals can positively impact quality of care," said Laura Tivis, who oversees St. Luke's nurse scientist apprenticeship program. "Her research speaks directly to St. Luke's mission to improve the health of people in the communities we serve, and interconnects with strategic objectives to advance the safety of the care we provide."

Making a worldwide difference

Bronco Nurses don't just make a difference in Idaho. Pam Springer, faculty between 1989-2013 who also served as interim department chair from 2001-2003, remembers supporting other instructors' incredible worldwide ideas.

"I remember Barb having this great relationship with China," Springer said. "She's like, 'Pam, could we?' And I'm like, 'I don't know why we couldn't.'"

Barbara Allerton's faculty portrait in 1993.

Barb Allerton cultivated a relationship with Hangzhou Normal University, organizing multiple trips for whole groups of students to travel. They conducted community assessments, toured hospitals and met with Chinese nursing students. Faculty also got involved during the trips; Professor Emeritus Cynthia Clark led a collaborative study on civility at the Hangzhou Normal University nursing college.

"One thing that I loved early on -that seemed to grow over the years - was having students involved in faculty research and involved in projects," Allerton said, referring to students who helped collect data during the civility study.

Group from Boise State's School of Nursing visiting Hangzhou Normal University in 2013.

"I was really lucky in that I kind of stumbled into a relationship within China," Allerton said. "It really was fun."

Allerton's work also paved the way for Kelley Connor, now divisional dean of the School of Nursing, to spend a semester as a visiting professor in China.

Over the years, other study abroad opportunities brought nursing students to the Netherlands, Ireland, Croatia and, as recently as spring break 2026, Belize.

Connor herself has led several of these study abroad groups, and she's proud of the unique opportunities that Boise State offers nursing students. Many health sciences programs function in cohort models, which Connor said often doesn't allow students to fit in study abroad classes.

An interdisciplinary group from Boise State traveled to Belize in 2013 for a service-learning experience.
Courtesy of Karen Breitkreuz, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing at the time.

"So we feel fortunate that we're able to bring this to students," she said.

No matter what the international trip is, the goal is to help students think broader.

"When they're practicing, they'll have a wider breadth of knowledge that they can pull from and they can try to apply it in different ways here [in the U.S.]," Connor said.

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