On September 20, seven School of Nursing faculty and 29 students traveled to Bristol to participate in one of six statewide Stand Down events. Event organizer Donna Dognin, executive director of Veterans Strong Community Center in Bristol, Connecticut, said Quinnipiac was offering much-needed health and wellness information, services and items to the 175 military veterans visiting Bristol’s St. Gregory CCD Center.

“The nursing students are doing a great job of helping us with several different stations, but what I also love is seeing them offering their help to some of our veterans who may have mobility issues, or who may be here alone,” said Dognin.

Kaitlyn Gorton ’25, said helping out at the event was a great opportunity.

“It’s helping us to understand different communities. We’ve all grown up in different areas, so seeing this area of Bristol and the population that’s coming in is super important,” said Gorton.

School of Nursing Assistant Dean of Clinical Education Bridget Rich said Quinnipiac was joining the Bristol Stand Down event for the first time this year.

“We got involved because they hadn’t partnered with a School of Nursing before,” Rich said. “For a veteran-friendly university like ours, it’s a great opportunity for our students to meet the veterans at an event that’s also a pay-back from the community to those who’ve served.”

Students practiced community-based nursing by manning four information and awareness stations on Narcan education; smoking cessation; impaired driving; and the state’s Veterans Crisis Line.

Rich developed the four interactive stations with School of Nursing Director of Community Engagement Pina Violano, and School of Nursing Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing Nicole Casbarro.

“We wanted to make sure that the population can benefit from the education and it’s something the students can readily teach, learn more about, and walk away with as something that’s tangible,” said Rich.

School of Nursing faculty helped students prepare with simulations in community lecture classes and discussions with visiting military veterans.

“We did learn a lot of the older veterans smoked so today I’m definitely expecting some veterans who are heavy smokers, and I hope I can help them out with getting cessation going for them,” said Jolene Dinzey ’25.

Gianna Conti ’25 said she felt it was meaningful to be able to help veterans of all ages learn about easily accessing the state’s Veterans Crisis Line.

“The crisis hotline is open 24 hours. We want the veterans to know they always have someone to talk to, no matter what they’re going through,” Conti said. “We just want to extend these resources to them and to let them know they’re never alone. We just hope they can take that information home with them today.”

Kiley Meehan ’25 said talking with veterans about smoking cessation was an opportunity to expand her ability to better understand the whole person and apply each person’s experiences to helping them.

“It helps you to have a different perspective and to relate to them to try to understand where they’re coming from,” Meehan said.

At the Narcan station, students provided veterans with opioid overdose awareness information, over-the-counter Narcan samples, and gave manikin demonstrations showing how to administer Narcan safely and effectively.

“We’ve heard about Narcan in class, and with the opioid epidemic on the rise, it’s so important to know how to save someone’s life if you need to. But I think also it’s cool to take what we’re learning in community and actually bring it to a real setting, outside of our clinical,” said Jaclyn Denicker ’25.

School of Nursing adjunct clinical faculty member Kristina Kaminski helped prepare the students to manage the event’s Narcan station.

“Having the students here is really important as way to start exposing them to everything the community has to offer, and maybe experiencing different areas of nursing they weren’t aware of until this point,” said Kaminski. “I think it’s a great opportunity.”

“I’m definitely seeing a lot of different parts of the community that I haven’t seen in the four years that I’ve been in nursing,” said Grace Dyckman ’25. “It’s cool to be able to provide outreach to people who maybe don’t know they have these types of resources available to them.”

School of Nursing adjunct clinical faculty member Valerie Ling worked with students overseeing the event’s impaired driving station. Students helped veterans try out goggles which simulated different types of alcohol and drug impairments as they attempted to walk a curving path.

“We’re helping the veterans to experience the different levels and types of impairment, and the students are talking to them about the importance of having safe alternatives to get home,” said Ling.

“Being here today is a new experience for a lot of us,” said Alec Solomini ’25. “We haven’t had quite this much exposure to being around veterans, so we’re learning a lot about how to communicate with them and seeing some of the issues that they deal with that we’re not as familiar with. They can inform us so we can better help them in the future."