Fundraiser to honor retired campus health services director

HASTINGS, Neb. (KSNB) - From 1978 through 2007, Judy Sandeen, director of campus health services, transformed how Hastings College served its students. In shifting from a strictly reactive healthcare model to include proactive health education through peer educators, she empowered students to take responsibility for their health and well-being.

As a 1963 Hastings College graduate, she earned her nursing diploma from the Mary Lanning School of Nursing. She returned to Hastings College as a campus nurse in 1978.

By 1984, she started the College’s first peer education group, the Student Health Advisory Committee (SHAC). Later, she brought a chapter of Boosting Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students (BACCHUS) to campus, in part as a response to changes to the legal drinking age.

She founded Peer HIV Education Organization (PHIVE-O) in 1991, Alliance in 1992, and College Acquaintance Rape Education (CARE) in 1993 to foster awareness and conversations among all on campus.

Beyond campus, she previously served as a board member for many organizations. In her retirement, she remains involved with the League of Women Voters, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), Nebraskans for Peace, and Adams County Senior Services. Additionally, she is a member of the First Congregational United Church of Christ where she serves as Deacon and justice committee chair.

Hastings College is looking to highlight Sandeen’s legacy of promoting hands-on health education by naming the nursing skills lab at the Bryan College of Health Sciences nursing education center in Mary Lanning Healthcare’s new Medical Office Building in her honor. The goal is to raise $50,000 by March 15.

“Through her innovative peer education programs at Hastings College, Judy created an environment on campus where all students had robust opportunities to learn about leading healthy, productive lives,” said Dr. Rich Lloyd, executive president of Hastings College and president of Bryan College of Health Sciences. “It is fitting that tomorrow’s nurses, including many who will be taking classes at Hastings College, will learn hands-on nursing skills in a laboratory named in Judy’s honor.”

The Judy Sandeen Nursing Skills Laboratory will include four beds to allow students to become proficient in bedside nursing techniques such as taking blood pressure, placing IVs, and checking heart rates. The lab is one component of the nursing classrooms, laboratories, and offices that will occupy 17,000 square feet on the third floor of the new Medical Office Building.

To learn more about the campaign and to make a gift to the Judy Sandeen Nursing Skills Laboratory, go here.