Franciscan student wins national nursing scholarship
By Janessa Barrette
Staff Writer
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Photo by Janessa Barrette
Elizabeth de St. Aubin cares for a
patient in the nursing wing of Egan.
Elizabeth de St. Aubin, a junior nursing major at Franciscan University of Steubenville, recently won a $1,000 scholarship from the National Association of Pro-Life Nurses.
The NAPN awards one scholarship a year to a student who writes an essay on the provided topic. The topic for this past year was on ways nurses can respect life in the medical field.
St. Aubin saw a flyer advertising the scholarship in the nurse’s wing of Egan in December and decided to apply. She only had a couple days to do so, because the deadline was quickly approaching. She received the news that she had won on Dec. 20.
“I was really surprised,” she said.
However, she also says she’s relieved.
“That’s really going to help out with tuition,” she said.
For her essay, St. Aubin focused on informed consent for patients. Doctors today leave information out, she said. A woman often doesn’t know the full consequences of an abortion before she has one.
“A lot of times alternative procedures aren’t even given as options. As a nurse you can step in and … fully inform the patient. It’s a matter of upholding the person’s rights,” said St. Aubin.
Debrah Sturm, an RN and the secretary of NAPN, said that the Board of Directors was extremely impressed with St. Aubin’s essay.
“One thing I think impressed them was that nobody had ever written on the issue of informed consent,” Sturm said.
In order for a patient to have received full informed consent, a patient must have a full explanation of each procedure. It also must be completely voluntary, and the patient must have a full understanding of what is happening.
“If there was absolute informed consent, then we wouldn’t have euthanasia. We wouldn’t have abortion,” Sturm said.
This year there were between six and eight final essays that the board chose from. These were the essays that qualified and followed the topic.
“It’s those that understand the mission of NAPN who qualify,” Sturm said. NAPN’s mission is to establish and protect the values of the nursing profession.
Sturm said that St. Aubin was perfectly qualified as the scholarship winner.
St. Aubin is the coordinator of the Madonna of the Streets household, which focuses on abortion clinic outreach and pro-life issues.
“She’s out there in the front line, protesting abortion,” Sturm said.
Along with receiving the scholarship, St. Aubin’s essay will also be published in NAPN’s magazine, “Pulse Line.”
St. Aubin has been a nursing major since freshman year, and though it was not always what she wanted to do while growing up, she is happy with her decision.
“I just sort of fell in love with it,” she said. “I loved the pro-life aspect of the whole field and the close connection I would have in being able to defend life.”
She says that her favorite part of being a nursing major is clinicals and going into the hospital, having one-on-one time with patients.
“It’s the whole aspect of being able to serve someone personally,” she said.