WVNA Celebrates Pride month with a 5-CE education Series (1.0CE each week)

Join WVNA tomorrow June 29 at 7pm for our final WVNA Celebrates PRIDE event.  We will offer FREE Veteran CE with Sandra Cotton, DNP, APRN, FNAP.  

June 29th at 7pm - Week 5:  Sandra Cotton, DNP, APRN, FNAP (she/her)

WVNA Nominations and Awards Committee and WVNA DEI Committee  

Veteran’s Health

"Veteran Reintegration Within the LGBTQ+ Family”

Sandra “Sam” Cotton is a Clinical Associate Professor at West Virginia University School of Nursing. She earned an Associate degree from Hocking College (1979), a Bachelor of Science (1984) and a Doctorate of Nursing Practice (2012) degrees from WVU, and a MS from the University of Maryland (1995). For many years, Sam was responsible for leading faculty practice, designed to support WVU’s research, teaching, and service missions. As an adult NP, she has seen patients and precepted students in a university internal medicine practice and a local free clinic for nearly 25 years. She is now focusing on more health policy, prevention, and wellness. Since Jan 2019 Dr. Cotton has been pursuing a post graduate certificate in Veterans and Military Health, through the University of Colorado, expected date of completion, December 2020!

A retired Lieutenant Colonel, Chief Nurse, and examiner flight nurse with the West Virginia Air National Guard, Sam is a 34+ year veteran of the United States Air Force; served in Gulf Wars I and II, including two tours with the 379th and 332nd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadrons in Balad, Iraq, as a Commander and Senior Flight Nurse, flying and caring for wounded troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Germany.

In 2007 she became a distinguished practitioner in the National Academy of Practice; has served as a nurse consultant and tireless advocate for APNs in West Virginia, and nationally, as Helene Fuld Academic Leadership and Penn Macy Academic Nursing Practice Fellows. In 2012, she received the DNP student Excellence and Alumni Leadership awards. In 2014, Dr. Cotton was named the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Nurse Practitioner Clinical Excellence Award of the Year for the state of West Virginia. A member of American Nurses Association since 1979, she is a past state vice-president and has chaired the APN Council and state Nurses PAC. She is a member of the WVNA Nominations and Awards Committee as well as a member of the newly formed WVNA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Committee.  Dr. Cotton is a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing and the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. Cotton initially became a member, because our “nursing faculty said so!” Through WVNA, District 8, while living in Charleston in the early ‘80s. It was during this time the real value of belonging to ANA/WVNA became apparent, as lobbying for a real life issue nurses faced at the bedside, “end of life issues that had yet to catch up with technology”. “It seemed as if we were caring for mere ‘shells’ of a once vibrant human beings, who now were kept artificially ‘alive’ while waiting for nature to take its course”. However, nature was no longer in charge. She describes the days of “slow codes, CPR but no meds, meds but no CPR, CPR but no intubation, or intubation but no CPR began. It was terrible, to see a family torn by the hope of technology, knowing the personal belief system that their loved one would not want any of these tubes and wires connected to them, yet helpless to make it different. Lobbying for one of the first versions of the WV Natural Death Act was empowering. My patients may no longer have their voice, but I could use my voice to make a change. And so it has been ever since...”  Cotton also states she would never miss an election, “especially seeing people in other countries die for the right to vote”.

Instructions to log in and for CE:

Topic: WVNA Celebrates Pride Month - Education Series 

Week 5 - Veteran’s Health "Veteran Reintegration Within the LGBTQ+ Family”

Time: Jun 29, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time 
Every week on Tue, until Jun 29, 2021, 5 occurrence(s)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86160344105?pwd=WUdRSXVLNFdNN0tvcjRST3BHSnhNQT09

Meeting ID: 861 6034 4105
Passcode: 498357
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,86160344105#,,,,*498357# US (Washington DC)
+16465588656,,86160344105#,,,,*498357# US (New York)

Special thank you to the WV Regional Partner of the Mid Atlantic AIDS Education and Training Center for sponsoring our CE for the month of June!  Click HERE on June 29 after 7pm to register for the CE.