Sigma is not just about academic excellence but promotes nursing excellence in practice, education, and research. As one of the largest nursing organization in the world, Sigma has approximately 135,000 active members in over 530 chapters located in more than 700 college and universities. Psi Upsilon is the 546th chapter of Sigma and already has over 1500 members located in 50 states across the country. In our first year, the chapter established a Board of Directors and strong committee infrastructure to provide members the benefits they deserve.

Psi Upsilon Celebrates Founder's Day
During the month of October, let’s celebrate Founder’s Day by making a difference in people’s lives.
Choose your own service activity and just do it!
Imagine…Psi Upsilon members across the U.S…simultaneously giving back to our communities….
through a variety of service activities.
Are you in?
REMEMBER! Share your Service Activity information and pictures on the
Chapter Discussion Forum at www.psiupsilon.nursingsociety.org.
Psi Upsilon's Service Commitment
Psi Upsilon has adopted the Opioid Epidemic as the focus for our Service projects for this fiscal year. Please view the recording by Cynthia Thomas of our Philanthropy Committee on the Opioid Epidemic and stay tuned for more information on how you can get involved in the upcoming year!
Psi Upsilon Member Highlight
Sandy Kangas, PhD, RN, participated in a High School career day at Mt. Si High School in Snoqualmie, Washington, to talk with students regarding nursing as a career. The school serves 1900 students in grades 9-12. The state of Washington has a strong push for career exploration in the high schools and has instituted a requirement for a culminating project. Topics discussed included the various type of nursing education programs along with the wide range of opportunities available for nurses. In addition, information was provided about teaching in higher education, including online education. Approximately one hundred students participated in the event. Congratuations, Dr. Kangas!
Ilene Gottesfeld, EdD, RN, Presented a poster at the AACN Master's Education conference February 21-23, 2019 in Tampa, Florida. Dr. Gottesfeld's poster was titled, Remembering or forgetting...A question of approach. Dr. Gottesfeld's abstract is below:
As course instructors we had identified a trending downward of performance success in our Contemporary Pharmacotherapeutics course. We had attempted many approaches to facilitate active learning and connection with content and competencies without significant impact. We revisited learning theory and decided that in such a knowledge and fact-based course, it may be worthwhile to use a hybrid of spaced interventions in a contextual framework to reinforce retention. We applied our understanding of Thalheimer’s theory of forgetting and remembering and Kang’s approach to spaced repetition to a new initiative.
Based on technical limitations and scarcity of resources and support, we opted to use the Quizlet Application platform. We constructed ten questions with answers and rationales in flash card format for each of the five competencies. The application was available only to students enrolled in the course and permission was granted by a Course Instructor. The questions could be accessed from any device (desktop, laptop, tablet, or cell) at any time. Each of the questions pertained to a content area of the course that metrics revealed as knowledge deficient. The platform also provided us with feedback on percentages of correct responses.
Our initial concept was to use push notifications in a spaced fashion to foster knowledge connection. That is still a goal which we hope to realize in the near future.
In a short period of time we have seen the number of passing first attempts increase and the numbers of 3rd attempts decrease. The time to completion has also decreased.
4th Annual Psi Upsilon/WGU CHP Research symposiumWe are pleased to provide the opportunity to view posters presented at the November Psi Upsilon/WGU College of Health Professions Research Symposium. Check out the link to our virtual platform here:
Virtual Poster Presentation
Join us!
Contact us at psiupsilonchapter@wgu.edu for student membership criteria specific to WGU.
Miss an event? Check out our YouTube Channel for recordings of all of our virtual events.