Sandra Ringer and Kimberly Dunker Win Most Distinguished Poster Award at CACN Conference

During the 2026 California Association of Colleges of Nursing Conference (CACN) in Palm Springs, CA, Assistant Professor of Nursing and Director of the RN to BSN Program, Sandra Ringer, and former PUC Dean of Nursing, Kimberly Dunker, won the Most Distinguished Poster award for exploring emotional intelligence among PUC senior nursing students.

The purpose of the project was to evaluate how senior student nurses perceived their emotional intelligence, which is critical to the nursing program as it prepares them for their transition to nursing practice. Ringer began her work by investigating and understanding the problem with graduate surveys and community partners’ feedback, which showed critical gaps as students enter the workforce. This feedback served as a basis for understanding how nursing schools ensure that their graduates are well-equipped for nursing practice. Some of the most concerning areas of research within this project focused on stress management, communication concerns, and their ability to handle conflict. Using the BlueEQ emotional intelligence tool, the presentation discussed two years of student feedback in the classroom environment and its impact on students’ scores at the end of the program, along with awareness and training.

The research spanned the 2023 to 2025 school years, beginning in fall 2023 and concluding last spring, with over 170 participants involved. The conceptual basis of the poster identified job stress, fatigue, and turnover as issues students face in high-stress environments, such as the healthcare environment, where the demands of the nursing field often lead to burnout and high turnover. The job includes impacts of burnout, including emotional numbness, avoidance, anxiety, and increased emotional arousal.

“As the award recipient, the California Association of Colleges of Nursing has generously extended a full conference registration for the 2027 spring event in Palm Springs. I am deeply honored, and honestly, still a bit speechless,” said Ringer. “I could not have done this without Kimberly, who was instrumental throughout the process, and whose encouragement and guidance made all the difference. We submitted our initial pilot to the CACN Conference and are now presenting our final findings to the Western Institute of Nursing in San Francisco from April 23 to 25. These opportunities to disseminate our research at several conferences made the initial award even more unexpected.”

“It is wonderful to support faculty when they have a spirit of inquiry and then for them to be recognized by other colleagues, which makes this award even more special,” Dunker added.

This study was an opportunity to incorporate emotional intelligence training into the nursing curriculum to prepare students for the interpersonal demands of clinical practice by equipping them with strategies to navigate workplace interactions and the broader healthcare field. Based on the results of this research, Ringer and Dunker are equipped to assist their graduates as they transition into the workplace, thereby preparing them to handle stress and reduce overall burnout in the nursing profession.