The Penn community was extremely fortunate to have had the opportunity to hear former President of the Republic of Botswana, Festus Mogae speak about his country's response to HIV/AIDS. As part of the Botswana-UPenn Partnership, the lecture was an inspiring account of how a developing nation can devote its resources, attention and commitment to stopping the spread of HIV/AIDS, a task President Mogae hopes to accomplish by 2016.
He has invested much of the country's annual budget in tackling this health crisis. His ground-breaking antiretroviral drugs program made Botswana the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to provide universal, free access to the medicines. It is due, in large part, to this commitment that the HIV-transmission rate from mothers to children went from 40 percent to 4 percent. Such gains are also a result of the many steps undertaken by President Mogae: advocating for routine HIV testing and counseling, negotiating with pharmaceutical companies to provide antiretroviral drugs at a discounted rate (and receiving up to 95 percent in discounts!), and partnering with Merck and the Gates Foundation to provide comprehensive prevention, care, treatment, and support.
As President Mogae described, the AIDS pandemic in Botswana was dire. Health facilities were overwhelmed. In many hospitals, there was hardly room to walk. Such scarcity led to Community Home Based Care projects and other efforts to support children who have been orphaned or otherwise left vulnerable because of the ravages of HIV/AIDS. For some of our nursing students in the audience, they were all-too-familiar with the programs that the Former President described because they had worked on these projects just this past summer.
Eight Penn Nursing students spent five weeks in Botswana this summer completing their Community Health clinical rotation; many of them worked at various Home Based Care sites around the country. Clinical days often involved driving to remote villages and walking from house to house, accompanied by local health volunteers and nurses, to visit patients in their homes. Komal Patel, one of our students who worked at a Home Based Care site, reflected on the program: "If there is no caregiver in the family, the volunteers and nurses become the primary caregivers. This care concept is almost unheard of in the United States... it has been a very humbling experience."
The students also spent a lot of their free time in Botswana working at Kamogelo Day Care Center. Kamogelo supports orphaned and vulnerable children in one community of Botswana by providing them with education, school uniforms, and even basic necessities, like food and transportation to medical facilities. Our Penn Nursing students enhanced the programs there by offering health screenings for the children, and even health education classes for the children's' parents and teachers. A short documentary about their work can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flT2fya7VWo
I also encourage you to read a blog by Kayla and Shira Kapito, two attendees at this year's International Conference on Women's Health Issues, held in Botswana. It can be found here: http://deanmeleis.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-blogs-from-icowhi-conference.html
In Botswana, the focus is now on fighting the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. "Priority number one is a new campaign focused on behavior changes," President Mogae explained. More specifically, he said, the aim is to change male attitudes and behaviors. Multiple partners, low condom use, and low levels of male circumcision all contribute to the HIV/AIDS problem facing the country. Currently, there are more women infected from this disease than men, with women in the 15-19 and 35-39 age groups most disproportionately affected. It is because of President Mogae's strong commitment to women's health that I was honored to present him with the Taylor & Francis Distinguished Research Award at the International Council on Women's Health Issues conference earlier this summer. The award was established to honor accomplishments and to highlight the critical need for ongoing attention to global healthcare issues for women. Former President Mogae has been quoted as saying “One more day of delayed action is a day too late for our people, ... Our people are crying out for help. Let us respond while there is time.” Throughout his life, President Mogae has led by example and practiced what he has preached, and it was wonderful to have had him on campus.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Great news for nursing shifts
Exciting news!
Last week, a state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to prohibit mandatory overtime for healthcare workers in Pennsylvania. As the work of our very own nursing professor Ann Rogers has shown, the risk of error increases three-fold when nurses work 12.5 consecutive hours or more.
It is always inspiring to see how the work produced by our stellar faculty translates into changes in healthcare policy. Dr. Rogers' 2004 study, "Hospital Staff Nurse Work Hours and Patient Safety," was the first project to establish a clear link between long hours worked by nurses and an increased risk of mistakes on the job.
The passing of House Bill 834 is certainly good news for nurses, but it is great news for all Pennsylvanians, as well.
Last week, a state Senate committee unanimously approved a bill to prohibit mandatory overtime for healthcare workers in Pennsylvania. As the work of our very own nursing professor Ann Rogers has shown, the risk of error increases three-fold when nurses work 12.5 consecutive hours or more.
It is always inspiring to see how the work produced by our stellar faculty translates into changes in healthcare policy. Dr. Rogers' 2004 study, "Hospital Staff Nurse Work Hours and Patient Safety," was the first project to establish a clear link between long hours worked by nurses and an increased risk of mistakes on the job.
The passing of House Bill 834 is certainly good news for nurses, but it is great news for all Pennsylvanians, as well.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
How our history can change our future
Penn Nursing is proud to have hosted the American Association for the History of Nursing's 25th annual conference, from September 25th-28th. Nursing history is truly dynamic and relevant to our discipline, and we are pleased to be part of the conference's milestone celebration.
Here, too, we are celebrating various milestones in our School – 50 years of our Sigma Theta Tau chapter, 30 years of doctoral education, 20 years of the Penn Nursing Consultation Service, and 10 years of the LIFE program. These serve as reminders of how the historical context is vital for understanding our contemporary goals for integrating research, education, and practice. Milestone celebrations are a cause for reflection and celebration.
As AAHN celebrates the 25th anniversary of its conference, it is important to pause and recognize the tremendous progress that has been made in historical research and in making nursing history dynamic and relevant to our discipline. As professor Julie Fairman, the director of our Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, puts it, how can we think about strategies to relieve health disparities if we don't understand how they developed, what has and has not worked in the past, and how we can use this information to make a better future for everyone?
We are living in a time when our discipline faces many challenges, such as lack of diversity, proliferation of degrees, integrating technology with humanistic tools and science with theory. A historical context can inform how we may resolve these issues and more without making the same mistakes of the past.
Understanding our history allows us to make a difference in quality of care we provide and in the caliber of science and scholarship we produce. That is why I am so proud of the many awards given to our own students and faculty at the AAHN conference. A very special congratulations to:
• Winifred Connerton, recipient of a History of Nursing H-30 Pre-Doctoral Student Research Award entitled, "Have cap, will travel; U.S. nurses abroad 1898-1939," (chair, Julie Fairman).
• Cindy Connolly, recipient of the Livinia L. Dock Award for her book, Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in American Life, 1909-1970 ( Rutgers, 2008). This Award is given to an author of a book noted for its outstanding research and writing.
• Patricia D’Antonio, recipient of the Adelaide Nutting Award for her article, “Nurses—and Wives and Mothers: Women and the Latter Day Saints Training School’s Class of 1919,” Journal of Women’s History. This award is given to an author of a post-doctoral article on the history of nursing.
• Jennifer Hobbs, recipient of the Teresa E. Christy Award for excellence of historical research and writing done while the researcher was a doctoral student. The title of Jennifer’s research is, “Naming Power: A Historical Analysis of Clinical Information Systems,” chair, Julie Fairman.
• Barbra Mann Wall, recipient of a H15 Grant for Historical Research. Her project is titled, “Clash and Compromise: Catholic Hospitals, Secularization, and the State in 20th Century America."
Here, too, we are celebrating various milestones in our School – 50 years of our Sigma Theta Tau chapter, 30 years of doctoral education, 20 years of the Penn Nursing Consultation Service, and 10 years of the LIFE program. These serve as reminders of how the historical context is vital for understanding our contemporary goals for integrating research, education, and practice. Milestone celebrations are a cause for reflection and celebration.
As AAHN celebrates the 25th anniversary of its conference, it is important to pause and recognize the tremendous progress that has been made in historical research and in making nursing history dynamic and relevant to our discipline. As professor Julie Fairman, the director of our Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, puts it, how can we think about strategies to relieve health disparities if we don't understand how they developed, what has and has not worked in the past, and how we can use this information to make a better future for everyone?
We are living in a time when our discipline faces many challenges, such as lack of diversity, proliferation of degrees, integrating technology with humanistic tools and science with theory. A historical context can inform how we may resolve these issues and more without making the same mistakes of the past.
Understanding our history allows us to make a difference in quality of care we provide and in the caliber of science and scholarship we produce. That is why I am so proud of the many awards given to our own students and faculty at the AAHN conference. A very special congratulations to:
• Winifred Connerton, recipient of a History of Nursing H-30 Pre-Doctoral Student Research Award entitled, "Have cap, will travel; U.S. nurses abroad 1898-1939," (chair, Julie Fairman).
• Cindy Connolly, recipient of the Livinia L. Dock Award for her book, Saving Sickly Children: The Tuberculosis Preventorium in American Life, 1909-1970 ( Rutgers, 2008). This Award is given to an author of a book noted for its outstanding research and writing.
• Patricia D’Antonio, recipient of the Adelaide Nutting Award for her article, “Nurses—and Wives and Mothers: Women and the Latter Day Saints Training School’s Class of 1919,” Journal of Women’s History. This award is given to an author of a post-doctoral article on the history of nursing.
• Jennifer Hobbs, recipient of the Teresa E. Christy Award for excellence of historical research and writing done while the researcher was a doctoral student. The title of Jennifer’s research is, “Naming Power: A Historical Analysis of Clinical Information Systems,” chair, Julie Fairman.
• Barbra Mann Wall, recipient of a H15 Grant for Historical Research. Her project is titled, “Clash and Compromise: Catholic Hospitals, Secularization, and the State in 20th Century America."
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