An Iowa nursing student is helping to develop a plan that educates students, faculty, and staff in Van Meter, Iowa, about anaphylactic reactions—all while working a full-time job, raising her child, and completing Iowa’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program.

By Tom Snee | UI Office of Strategic Communication | 5-6-2021

When a student at Van Meter High School tragically died from a food allergy in early 2020, school administrators turned to nurse Katie Hovda to develop a strategy so nothing like that would happen again.

Part of Hovda’s plan was to put together an anaphylaxis awareness campaign throughout the Van Meter School District so students, faculty, and staff could take steps to prevent it from happening again—and if it does, how to best respond. For that, she turned to University of Iowa nursing student Danielle Yonemura.

Yonemura was working at Van Meter, an Iowa community located to the west of the Des Moines metro area, as part of her public health rotation, and Hovda thought Yonemura would be good at a project like that.

“She’s a top-notch student, dedicated, and sees the big picture,” says Hovda, herself a 2002 graduate of the Iowa College of Nursing.

Yonemura grew up splitting her time between Des Moines and Kailua Kona, Hawaii. A single mom, she received her Associate in Applied Science in nursing from Des Moines Area Community College and became an RN, working at Planned Parenthood in Des Moines.

“Nursing seemed to make sense because I knew that I liked to take care of other people and help others,” she says. “When I was younger, I went on an ‘I’m going to become an RN’ kick, and it never went away.”

Yonemura started attending classes through Iowa’s RN-to-BSN program online in spring 2019 while still working full time at Planned Parenthood. While managing a job and parenthood with classes was an exercise in time management, she says the quality of the education she received from the Iowa faculty made the workload so much easier to handle.

“The teachers are really, really good,” she says. “There’s never been a time when I’ve struggled because they are so committed to work with the students to make sure you understand what they’re teaching.”

Click here to read the full article by UI’s Office of Strategic Communication

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