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Image Makers:
Beyond the Tired Stereotypes
Every Thursday night Sandy Summers, MSN '02, turns on her television to
watch ER and holds her breath in anticipation. Just how will nurses on the perennially
popular program be portrayed this episode? Most of the time the show's
representation of nurses is inaccurate and even demeaning, Summers says.
ER's physician characters often perform critical nursing tasks, such as
defibrillation, triage, and patient education, she notes, a distressingly common
tendency known as the "Marcus Welby Syndrome." While ER's nurses
do occasionally act as patient advocates, they question physician care only when
the physician is somehow impaired, such as by illness or inexperience. And plot
lines surrounding the show's sole major nurse character are far more likely
to revolve around her love affairs with her physician colleagues. Because ER
goes out of its way to achieve "medical accuracy" — its physician
characters correctly rattle off obscure diagnostic tests — viewers may
think that the professional roles depicted are also accurate, Summers worries.
Tired of influential misportrayals like these in the entertainment industry
and the media in general, and concerned that such portrayals were exacerbating
the
nursing shortage, Summers decided to act. While still a graduate student, she
and fellow alumnus Richard Kimball, MSN '01, gathered together some classmates,
a handful of faculty members, and colleagues from national nursing organizations
to advocate for accuracy in the portrayal of the nursing profession. The group
has grown to become the grassroots Center for Nursing Advocacy, and is now
collecting many members from around the world.
The center has launched an extensive Web site to advance its mission (www.nursingadvocacy.org).
While the center applauds accurate, balanced media portrayals — such as
Joel Dresang's recent series of articles in the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal — the
center's leaders want to call attention to inaccurate images of nurses
and spearhead campaigns to educate those responsible.
One recent victory the center had involved consumer products giant Procter & Gamble,
which makes Clairol shampoo. Summers says she cringed when she saw a Clairol
commercial that featured a nurse leaving her critically ill patient unattended
while she went to wash her hair in the bathroom. The center quickly started a
letter-writing campaign. The result? Procter & Gamble promptly discontinued
the commercial and issued an apology to the profession.
"The Center for Nursing Advocacy should be viewed as a hub of action," says
Summers. "We want to tell the world what nurses really do, and we want
nurses everywhere to come to the Web site to advocate for the profession. Nurses
can do something about the negative way we are sometimes portrayed."
This fall the center is launching a broad scale letter-writing campaign to urge
the producers of ER to do a better job of portraying nurses. Summers believes
that such efforts will ultimately lead to more resources for nursing education,
research, and clinical practice.
— Kate Pipkin
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Endowed Chair Honors Anna D. Wolf
It took more than 10 years and $1.5 million, but the Anna D. Wolf Chair
has finally been fully endowed. Since 1986, when the Anna D. Wolf Professorship
was established, School of Nursing alumni and friends, and members of
Wolf's family have worked to raise the necessary funds to convert
the professorship to a fully-endowed chair.
At the school's annual Homecoming celebration in September, Dean
Martha N. Hill announced establishment of the Anna D. Wolf Chair. She noted
that close to 300 people have contributed to the effort.
"Anna D. Wolf is a major figure in the legacy that is Johns Hopkins Nursing," said
Hill. "It is only fitting for her accomplishments to be acknowledged
more prestigiously with a chair."
In 1940, Wolf became the fifth superintendent of nurses at Johns Hopkins.
A 1915 graduate of Hopkins, she had founded a nursing school in Peking,
reorganized nursing services at the University of Chicago, and developed
the baccalaureate program at Cornell. She returned to Baltimore with the
intention of establishing a university-based program at Hopkins and remained
here until her retirement in 1955. She died in 1985.
A tall woman with a commanding presence, Wolf was known for moving through
the hospital corridors with her long gray cape sweeping behind her. She
could be formidable at times, and students were respectful and sometimes
even fearful of her.
"Miss Wolf was instrumental in promoting higher education for nurses," says
Hill. "She also was a pioneer in advocating for research to be a
critical part of all nursing education. I applaud the alumni and others
who have contributed to creating The Anna D. Wolf Chair. They understand
that Miss Wolf was a visionary and a leader in her own right."
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, associate dean for faculty and professor at the
School of Nursing, holds the Anna D. Wolf Chair. Campbell is known internationally
for her research and work in the area of domestic violence.
— KP
^ top
Welcome Incoming Class
The Johns Hopkins community welcomes the incoming baccalaureate class at
the School of Nursing. With 114 students, it is the largest class ever.
The new students will graduate in two years. In addition to them, 107 students
began the school's 13-month accelerated baccalaureate program in June.
The average age of this year's nursing student is 26. Approximately 5 percent
of the incoming class are men, 20 percent are minorities, and nine of them
are returned Peace Corps volunteers. Close to 80 percent of the new students
hold a bachelor's degree in another field.
Orientation took place on August 28 and 29, where the new nursing students
received class assignments, were measured for uniforms, picked up textbooks,
and toured the school.
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Five "Stellar Nurses" Join Faculty
Five new full-time faculty members have joined the School of Nursing
with the start of the new academic year. "Each of these stellar
nurses brings a particular expertise to the School of Nursing that
will enhance
our research, teaching, and practice efforts," says Martha N.
Hill, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean of the School of Nursing. "We are very
pleased to have them on our faculty as we head into the fall semester."
The five include: Patricia A. Abbott, PhD, RN, FAAN; Marguerite Kearney,
DNSc, RN, FAAN; Linda E. Rose, PhD, RN; Julie Stanik-Hutt, PhD, ACNP;
and Jo M. Walrath, PhD, RN.
Patricia Abbott, an expert in nursing informatics, is an assistant
professor who teaches baccalaureate and graduate students and conducts
research
in the area of data mining techniques with a particular emphasis in
long-term care. She also directs efforts of the school's Collaborating
Center for Information Systems in Nursing Care, which was designated
last year
by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO) as the first WHO/PAHO Collaborating Center concentrating
specifically
on clinical nursing informatics.
"I think that informatics, as an applied science, requires access to the
clinical laboratories to demonstrate utility. I'm intrigued by
the opportunities at the School of Nursing and with collaborative organizations
within Hopkins, such as the Center for Innovation in Quality Patient
Care," says
Abbott, referring to the new Johns Hopkins initiative that seeks to
examine patient care and improve patient safety systems.
"I am also quite excited at the prospect of working with students, particularly
the pre- and post-doc fellows," she adds.
Abbott comes to Johns Hopkins from the University of Maryland School
of Nursing, where she was an assistant professor and director of the
graduate
program in nursing informatics. While there, she also served as an adjunct
assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.
Marguerite Kearney, a bench researcher whose area of expertise is pathophysiology,
served on the faculty at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in the
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine for three years.
She took
a primary appointment with the School of Nursing in August as an associate
professor and continues to hold a joint appointment with the School
of Medicine. Kearney's work is almost fully funded by the National
Institutes of Health. She is currently investigating the effects of
estrogen deficit
on the platelet, an important blood coagulation element. Her research
will determine if estrogen deficit-induced or estrogen replacement-induced
platelet
function changes alter patterns of cerebral circulation after cardiac
arrest or stroke.
Prior to joining Hopkins, Kearney taught master's and doctoral students
in trauma critical care at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. "I
really enjoyed teaching nursing at the University of Maryland, and I look
forward to getting back into teaching the nursing students at Johns Hopkins," she
says.
Kearney has been a Nurse Corps Officer in the United States Navy Reserve
since 1987. She served four months of active duty at Bethesda Naval Hospital
earlier this year and is now back in reserve status as a commander.
Linda Rose is no stranger to Johns Hopkins. She has been an adjunct
faculty member with the School of Nursing for the past two years and
became a
full-time associate professor in July. Rose teaches in the school's
baccalaureate program while developing her clinical and research expertise
in the areas
of adult and family psychiatry. She has published extensively on topics
such as how families manage mental illness; mental health and the underserved
patient; and interventions to support families of psychiatric patients.
In addition, she has consulted on research studies involving domestic
violence and adolescent teasing.
Rose has also worked at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.
Prior to coming to Maryland, she lived in Canada and worked at the
University of British Columbia School of Nursing, St. Paul's
Hospital, Nova Scotia Hospital, and Victoria General Hospital.
Julie Stanik-Hutt became an adjunct faculty member with the School of
Nursing in 2002 while serving as an acute care nurse practitioner in
the lung transplant
program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She is now an assistant
professor at the School of Nursing, teaching students in the acute care
nurse practitioner program. She continues to practice at the School of
Medicine in the Emergency Department/Emergency Acute Care Unit. Her field
of research is pain management in the critically ill.
Stanik-Hutt says that when she taught at the School of Nursing last
year, it reminded her how much she enjoyed teaching. "I thought I'd
really like to combine the two. I really enjoy teaching, and I really
enjoy practice, and now I can do both."
Before coming to Johns Hopkins, Stanik-Hutt taught and practiced at the
University of Maryland School of Nursing and the University of Maryland
Medical System.
Jo Walrath is an assistant professor and teaches in the school's
baccalaureate and graduate programs. In addition, she participates in the
clinical studies of Johns Hopkins' new Center for Innovation in Patient
Quality Care. Walrath's primary areas of focus are managed care,
case management, and organizational performance improvement.
" After a long and very satisfying professional career as a hospital-based
nurse and administrator, I am happy to have the opportunity to impart
to young nurses some of the knowledge and experiences that I have had that
might influence their new careers as nurses," she says.
Walrath comes to the School of Nursing from the Virginia Hospital Center
in Arlington, Virginia, where she was vice president of patient care
services from 2001 until last spring. Prior to that, she was director
of emergency
medicine from 1981 to 1985 at Johns Hopkins Hospital and director of
surgical nursing at Johns Hopkins from 1985 until 1998.
— Ming Tai
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Faculty
News
Jerilyn Allen, ScD, RN, FAAN, was appointed to the Board of Directors
of the Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association, a national
organization that
develops and promotes nurses as leaders in the prevention of cardiovascular
disease.
Anne
E. Belcher, PhD, RN, FAAN, presented "Nursing — So What's to
Laugh About" to the Association of Occupational Health Nurses and "Using
Humor to Cope with Cancer" to the Women's Support Group at
Bayview Medical Center.
Marion Ball, EdD, was named an honorary member of Sigma Theta Tau International,
the honor society of nursing.
Jacquelyn C. Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN, published an article titled "Risk
Factors for Femicide in Abusive Relationships: Results from a Multi-site Case
Control Study" in the July issue of the American Journal of
Public Health. Campbell was also a key speaker at the Pennsylvania Coalition
Against Domestic
Violence 2003 Statewide Training Institute held in May.
Campbell, Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Daniel
Sheridan, PhD, RN, published chapters in the March 2003 issue of Clinics
in Family Practice. Campbell
and Sharps wrote "Medical Lethality Assessment and Safety Planning in Domestic
Violence Cases," and Sheridan's chapter is titled "Forensic
Identification and Documentation of Patients Experiencing Intimate Partner
Violence."
Marion D'Lugoff, MA, RN, and Carmalyn
Dorsey, MSN, RN, were honored as "Nurse
Heroes" at The Daily Record's 2003 Health Care Heroes Award
ceremony earlier this year.
Fannie Gaston-Johansson, DrMedSc, RN, FAAN, received a grant from the National
Institutes of Health/Fogarty International Center to continue the Minority
International Research Training Program (MIRT). The funds support 14 students
abroad this summer
to participate in joint research projects with SON faculty and faculty
at foreign research institutions. Gaston-Johansson also received The International
Trends
and Service Award from The Links, Inc. for being outstanding in the field
of international services.
Linda Gerson, PhD, RN, instructor, was appointed to the Continuing Competency
Education Committee of the Maryland Board of Nursing.
Martha N. Hill, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean, published an article titled, "Hypertension
Care and Control in Young Urban Black Men" in the November issue
of the American Journal of Hypertension.
Miyong Kim, PhD, RN, published an article titled, "Depression, Substance
Use, Adherence Behaviors, and Blood Pressure in Urban Hypertensive Black Men" in
the July issue of Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
Sharon Olsen, MSN, RN, published an article titled "Creating a Nursing
Vision for Leadership in Genetics" in the June issue of MEDSURG
Nursing.
Linda C. Pugh, PhD, RNC, FAAN, and Phyllis Sharps,
PhD, RN, FAAN, have
been named fellows of the American Academy of Nursing. They will be formally
inducted
into
the Academy at its annual meeting and conference in November.
Kathy Sabatier, MS, RN, received a Presidential Award from the American
Society of PeriAnesthesia Nurses, for helping the group to develop the
Guideline for
Perianesthesia Pain and Comfort.
Phyllis Sharps, PhD, RN, FAAN, was appointed to the Literature Selection
Technical Review Committee of the National Institutes of Health National
Library of Medicine.
Theresa Yeo, MSN, MPH, RN, CRNP, was named president of the Nurse Practitioner
Association of Maryland. Her term began June 1, 2003.
^
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Four Full
Scholarships Awarded
Thanks to gifts from two major organizations, four students at the
School of Nursing are receiving full scholarships this year.
The Women's Board of The Johns Hopkins Hospital has awarded full scholarships
to three senior nursing students, and The John R. and Ruth W. Gurtler Foundation
has awarded one $50,000 scholarship to provide full tuition, matriculation fees,
and a stipend to a student in the school's accelerated program.
The Women's Board of The Johns Hopkins Hospital, established in 1927, has
provided support to the School of Nursing since 1984 in areas such as student
scholarship and building initiatives. All have committed to working at Johns
Hopkins Hospital for at least one year after graduation. Recipients of the Women's
Board full scholarships are Megan A. Hoffmann, John Kerr, and Bethany
Toliver.
"This scholarship opportunity from the Women's Board is a dream come
true," says
Hoffmann. "Nothing compares to placing my stethoscope around
my neck, washing my hands, and entering my patient's room equipped
with knowledge and a smile, prepared to help heal them in any way
I can."
The John R. and Ruth W. Gurtler Foundation Scholarship was awarded
to Marguerite Baty, a returned Peace Corps volunteer.
"I plan to work primarily in clinical settings that treat the underserved," says
Baty. "I want to enact positive change in health care, and
the Gurtler Scholarship will help me achieve those goals."
The John R. and Ruth W. Gurtler Foundation was established following
the death of Ruth Ward Gurtler, a 1932 graduate of the Johns Hopkins
School
of Nursing.
Based in Maitland, Florida, the foundation has been a generous supporter
of Johns Hopkins Nursing and of many organizations throughout Florida.
— KP
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Global Connections
African Connection
Last May, Nicole Subryan and about 20 of her fellow classmates showed
up at commencement sporting a bright addition to their black robes:
colorful
stoles
from Africa,
hand-embroidered with JHUSON Class of 2003.
Subryan had been looking for a way to bring an Afrocentric flavor
to her graduation when, in class one day with faculty member
Julie Hindmarsh,
MPH, RN, she heard
from Theodosia Jackson, a guest speaker from Ghana, Africa. "She was with
the Women's Opportunity Fund, and she was wearing this beautiful stole.
When I saw that stole, the light bulb went off," says Subryan.
After class, Subryan spoke to Jackson about the Women's Opportunity Fund,
which directs funding to programs throughout the world that aim to empower women.
Subryan learned that the stoles were made by a cooperative of low-income women
in Ghana. Convinced the stoles would provide a perfect complement to traditional
commencement robes — and a great way to support the efforts of low-income
women living and working in another country — Subryan commissioned
around 20 stoles to be made and custom embroidered. They arrived
in plenty of time for
graduation day.
Subryan, who now works on the coronary intermediate care unit at
Holy Cross Hospital in Silver Spring, Maryland, keeps her African
stole
on display
in her apartment.
China Calling
Currently, nursing students in China who want to take their education
to the doctoral level are out of luck. Doctoral programs in nursing
don't exist
there. Not yet, anyway. In October, Dean Martha Hill made her second trip to
Beijing to meet with officials from the Peking Union Medical College School of
Nursing to discuss how Hopkins can help them implement doctoral level nursing
programs. While nothing is written in stone yet, Dean Hill says she is optimistic
about the collaborative opportunities, including possible exchange programs,
that exist between Hopkins and Peking Medical Union. It wouldn't be the
first time the two institutions have interacted. The founding of the Peking Union
Medical College in 1917 was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation through the
China Medical Board, and Hopkins' own Dr. William Welch
traveled to China to help get them started. Dr. Welch was also
instrumental
in recruiting
Anna
D. Wolf (nursing superintendent at Hopkins from 1940-55) to start
the nursing school at Peking Union.
^
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Letters
to the Editor
Congratulations! The new Johns Hopkins Nursing is truly a first-class
magazine. I guess most of us in nursing are quite aware of
the nursing shortage.
I've
kept my license active so I can give flu shots and TB tests. I get one or two
calls a week as well as mail solicitations from hospitals and nursing services
begging me to come back to work. At 77 years, I'm not about to do that,
so I just smile and say "No, thank you." I still work three full
days a week as a volunteer in our Regional Cancer Center and appreciate feeling
needed. It balances my life. I've always felt privileged
to be a graduate of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School of
Nursing. Thanks
again
for a great
new publication.
Mary Danielson, Class of 1947
Oakland, California
The first issue of Johns Hopkins Nursing magazine is spectacular!
Starting with the creative and eye-catching cover, the entire
piece is well-written
and visually
pleasing. I am so very pleased with the inclusion of so much
information pertaining to the Johns Hopkins Hospital and of course
the theme
of hospital-based nursing
as a "destination career." What a great kick-off
edition.
Ronald R. Peterson
President, Johns Hopkins Hospital
Walking the Halls of a Legend
Little did M. Adelaide Nutting know, when she was a student
in the very first class of the Johns Hopkins Hospital School
of Nursing
back
in 1889,
that more
than 100 years later a corridor in the venerable institution
would bear her name.
Last June 5, one of the most prominent corridors in Johns
Hopkins Hospital was named after M. Adelaide Nutting,
the school's
second superintendent. In addition to laying the foundation
for Johns Hopkins Nursing, Nutting
was instrumental
in creating national standards in nursing education and
was responsible for reducing the number of hours nurses
worked
at the bedside
and increasing their time in
the classroom.
"We thought this was a great opportunity to acknowledge the enduring legacy
of Hopkins nursing leadership by honoring a very special nurse in Hopkins' history," said
Ronald Peterson, president of Johns Hopkins Hospital.
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The 411 on Nursing
By Karen Haller, PhD, RN
Vice President of Nursing and Patient Care Services,
Johns
Hopkins Hospital
We have two generations working at the bedside.One
group is the experienced, but aging, baby boomers.
The boomers
can give
you
the "skinny" on
what nursing is about. The other group is the inexperienced, but energetic, Gen-X'ers.
They can give you the "411" on why they chose nursing. Most of the
first group were educated in programs that provided more hours of hands-on practice
than in today's colleges and universities;
but most of the second group grew up with high-technology
and the
high-speed
systems
that come
with it.
In a new recruitment video, Hopkins asked six of
its young, tech-savvy nurses to give their peers
the "411" on
what nursing at Hopkins is like for a new practitioner.
Melanie Michel, BSN '99, a nurse working with
patients undergoing bone marrow transplants, cheerfully
explains that she chose nursing because she
is just "pathologically helpful." She
acknowledges that there is no way to be prepared
for the high mortality rate, the experience of holding
someone's hand while they die, or being with
the family as they say good-bye to a loved one. Most
new
nurses do not
feel prepared
the
first day
on the job.
But all six Gen-X'ers found help around the corner — in the form
of their boomer-preceptors, who were their "first line of defense" when
help was needed. As Michael Cox, a cardiology nurse, says: "You started
learning skills in the School of Nursing, but the finishing touches" must
be mastered on the job. New nurses found that help was always on the way for
them at Hopkins, and that time was on their side. As a word of advice, Emergency
Department nurse Ray Blush tells new nurses to "handle every opportunity
thrown at you" in order to learn.
All six agreed on why they became nurses, citing
the gratification from saving lives; making a difference
in others' lives;
and as a result, feeling rewarded in their own lives.
All six seemed
to echo the values
of an earlier
generation.
We welcome these young nurses to our ranks and need
more like them.
^ top
A Better Way to Schedule
When Amy Vance first started working as a nurse in
the Johns Hopkins Hospital oncology department,
she was dismayed by the
amount of
time and paperwork
it took to schedule the nursing staff.
"As a new nurse, I found manually coordinating the scheduling for my entire
unit to be a tedious and time-consuming task. I thought, There has to be a better
way to do this," recalls Vance, a 1996
graduate of the School of Nursing Accelerated
Class.
She set out to find one.
Working together with her husband Josh, who has
a background in automated systems, she eventually
came up with
Nightingale© software, a Web-based system that
allows nurses and staff to self-schedule and/or enter a preference for their
schedules. Using customized rules for each unit and staff member (such as the
number of hours in a shift or the number of shifts that can be worked in a row),
the system then creates the best schedule based on the unit's needs and
nurse's preferences. Once the schedule
is generated, manual adjustments can be made.
"
Other applications focus on management," says
Vance, "but
we focused on the end user, figuring if we made
a flexible product that people
were able
to use, then everything else would fall into
place."
The Nightingale© system includes a real-time application that allows staff
to view the schedules for other units and even other hospitals. A unit that is
understaffed can see another that is overstaffed and ask for help. "This
leads to a more efficient use of internal resources," says
Vance, who now works for VasTech, the company
that markets the software.
The system is currently being tested in the Department
of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is slated
for testing
in the
Department of Pediatrics
next spring,
as part of a research project headed by School
of Nursing instructor Barbara Van de
Castle, RN, APRN.
One of
Vance's former teachers, Van de Castle
believes an electronic scheduling system could benefit everyone — nurse
managers, educators, staff nurses, and ultimately patients — by
saving time, improving work flow efficiency,
and increasing job satisfaction.
Van de Castle's research project, funded
through a grant from the Nu Beta chapter of Sigma
Theta Tau
International, the
honor society
of
nursing,
will
eventually survey 10 units at Hopkins Hospital.
Staff nurses, nurse managers, schedule coordinators,
and
educators from
each department
will be surveyed
prior to implementation and six months later
to measure time
spent, work flow efficiency,
and participant satisfaction.
The success of automated scheduling could lead
to better retention of nurses, according to Krysia
Hudson,
RN,
MSN, a co-investigator
and clinical
instructor
at the School of Nursing. "The second most common reason nurses leave a
job is because they are unhappy with their work schedules," she says. "This
new system could give nurses more control over
how, when, and where they work."
"
It also allows for a better staff mix," she says. "The
system takes into account abilities and certifications.
Mixing nurses with varying
degrees
of experience will create the opportunity for
established nurses to mentor those new to the profession. This too
may
contribute to better nursing
retention."
Other co-investigators of the project are Lynn
Jones, RN, MS, and Peggy Neidlinger, RN, BSN, from
the Johns
Hopkins Hospital
and
Joy Nanda,
DSc, MS, MHS, from
the Bloomberg School of Public Health.
— MT
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Hawkins Awarded Prestigious
Graduate Scholarship
When Hopkins nursing student Annika Hawkins considered applying for
the prestigious 2003 Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Graduate Scholarship,
she felt a moment of doubt. "I
was surprised at the complexity of some of the questions. They wanted to know
things like my philosophy on the environment and my view of overpopulation," she
says. As she was looking over the application in the school's library,
another nursing student, Rachel Breman, passed by. Even though the two didn't
know each other, Breman, a 2002 recipient
of a graduate scholarship from the private
foundation,
encouraged
Hawkins to apply.
That encouragement paid off. Hawkins completed
and submitted the application, and now
she is one of
three students
from Johns Hopkins
and the only
one from Nursing who will receive up to
$50,000 a year for up to six years
to pursue
a graduate degree. Hawkins, who received
her baccalaureate degree in nursing last
summer, plans to earn two degrees — an MS in nursing in the family nurse
practitioner program at the School of Nursing and an MPH from Hopkins' Bloomberg
School of Public Health.
A native of Strafford, Vermont, Hawkins
graduated from Wesleyan University in 2000
with a degree
in Spanish
Language and
Literature, then worked
for one year
in Boston at Planned Parenthood as a clinical
assistant and counselor. "It
was there, counseling Spanish-speaking patients and working with nurse midwives
and nurse practitioners, that I realized the nursing profession was a good fit
for me," she says.
From Boston she traveled to a rural village
in the Amazon jungle to work with Robert Gilman,
MD,
a professor
in the department
of International
Health at
the Bloomberg School of Public Health, to study
shigella, a form of bacteria
that
causes diarrhea. The original intent was for
her to assist with language-based tasks, but
within
weeks
of her arrival,
her responsibilities
grew enormously.
"Shortly after our arrival, the doctor leading the project left," Hawkins
explains. "Suddenly there was a project,
up and running, with four field workers,
a pediatrician, and a biologist, but no
one to keep it running." The
23-year-old Hawkins jumped in and provided
guidance to the group. She describes the
experience as "incredible, rewarding,
difficult, and hot," adding, "Being
able to speak Spanish gave me a distinct
advantage."
"Annika was one of the best students I have had the pleasure of supervising," Gilman
says. "She is innovative, very bright,
mature, and highly personable."
When the project ended in February 2002, Hawkins
began the task of analyzing the data, another
new and challenging
experience
for
her.
She returned
from Peru just a few weeks before entering
the accelerated baccalaureate program
at the
School of Nursing.
After she earns her master's degrees, Hawkins would like to practice in
a community or public health setting and is interested in working with Hispanic
populations. "As an advanced practice nurse," she says, "I
will work firsthand with the public health
issues that will define the 21st century,
including
those of indigent
people,
both locally
and internationally."
— MT
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The
411 on Nursing