UW Oshkosh graduate writes honors thesis to aid future nursing students

JAN. 26, 2015 – Naomi Weiss, a class of 2015 graduate from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh and a 2010 graduate of Durand High School, wrote a Honors thesis regarding the history and the relationship between the American Psychological Association and the nursing profession to aid future nursing students.
“Caring for others has been a passion of mine since I grew up on my family dairy farm,” Weiss said. “I really enjoy learning about the scientific aspects of health care, but helping others is the biggest reason I decided to go into nursing.”
Weiss said she chose UW Oshkosh because it has one of the best UW nursing programs in the state; she liked the campus and said it has some wonderful University Honors Program professors (UHP).
“I really felt that the professors in the program truly invested their time in the honors students and helped them challenge themselves,” Weiss said.
UHP affords high achieving students with small classes, team taught classes, and opportunities for collaborative research, co-curricular activities, and more. On Dec. 8, 2014, Weiss graduated with an Honors Certificate that is given to UHP graduates with a cumulative GPA of 3.2 to 3.49.
For her Honors thesis, Weiss created a survey with the aid of professor Shelly Lancaster. She obtained answers from graduate and undergraduate students.
After compiling information for six months regarding the history and the relationship between the style rules of the APA and the nursing profession and conducting surveys, her research was complete.
Weiss said she discovered the nursing students of one Midwestern school require more education regarding citation use with APA and are frustrated by the inconsistencies associated with it.
“It is my hope to publish my thesis in an attempt to aid future nursing students so that they may have a voice and their concerns may be heard,” Weiss said.
Weiss joined the UHP at UW Oshkosh to challenge herself as a student and to give herself the opportunity to take more intense classes.
“Personally, I had already set the personal goal of receiving a GPA as high as the one required for the honors program,” Weiss said.
As part of her experience in the nursing program, Weiss studied abroad in Central and South America.
Weiss studied parasitology and assisted in creating health clinics in rural areas in Nicaragua and Costa Rica and studied community nursing and worked in public and private hospitals in Peru.
“I feel that my greatest accomplishment as a student would be the work I have done through my study abroad experiences and also the help I have provided through participating in my nursing clinicals throughout my two and a half years in the nursing program,” Weiss said.
After graduating from UW Oshkosh, Weiss moved to Madison, Wisconsin and now works as a nurse resident at the UW Health Hospital in the burn unit. It is a trauma one center and her job consists of taking care of patients of all ages.
“No matter where I go in life, Durand will always be my home,” Weiss said. “I am thankful for the members of this community and the support they have always given me.”
Students in UW Oshkosh professor Julie Henderson’s Public Relations Techniques course in the Department of Journalism developed the above story as part of a series profiling outstanding university students. The stories have been shared with students’ hometown newspapers and media outlets.