Seven Billion

This is my hope as the world’s population welcomes its seven billionth citizen today:

First I want to wish the world’s seven billionth citizen a safe and happy birth. A safe birth is still too infrequent in today’s world where healthcare remains inadequate in many parts of the globe. If the seven billionth citizen is a girl child, I hope she grows into safe womanhood in a world that appreciates her, a world that provides her with a safe living environment, work that is satisfying and stimulating, and recreational opportunities that offer her a healthy life. I hope the seven billionth citizen is successful at creating a healthier world for women, who are at the core of healthy families, successful communities, and productive societies.

Welcome, and know that you can change the world.

The Next Nurse Scientists

This fall, the many wonderful students we welcomed to Penn Nursing included our first cohort of Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation. These academically talented, committed, and foresighted students are planning careers as cutting-edge leaders and researchers. With the generous support of the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, we have begun mentoring these five inaugural scholars along a streamlined BSN-to-PhD pathway.

Led by our own Terry Richmond, PhD, RN, acclaimed for her expertise in nursing education, the program’s diverse and demanding curriculum incorporates interdisciplinary education with research career development and guidance starting at the undergraduate level. Students work closely with faculty mentors and collaborate with established research teams in Penn Nursing’s renowned research centers.

This is a program of national importance. It is no secret that we are facing a severe shortage of nursing faculty in the United States. The average age of nurses graduating with a PhD now hovers near 45 years old, and data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing show that 77 percent of nurse faculty are over the age of 50 years.

We expect that our Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation will complete their PhDs within seven years of entering Penn Nursing, giving them decades to develop and mature a program of research and advance nursing knowledge. Their program of study is designed to prepare them as innovative nurse leaders who will drive the future of nursing, healthcare, and the health of society. The first cohort of Hillman Scholars in Nursing Innovation and their research interests are:

• Kaitlin Best, critically ill children
• Whitney Eriksen, cognitive dysfunction and autism
• Hayley Germack, health of immigrant populations
• Linda Kang, health policy and the nursing workforce
• Kaori Sakanashi, vulnerable non-English-speaking immigrants.

These future nurse leaders have big energy, big talent, and big plans. They are working side-by-side with our premier Nursing faculty and are being integrated into our broad and rich research community, which crisscrosses the world. I wholeheartedly agree with our scholar Kaori, who said that this initiative presents “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” For all of us here, starting young nurses on a journey to becoming the scholars of the future is a dream come true.

Women's Health and the World's Cities

Women are more likely to walk where they feel safe. That may be intuitive, but we now have the science to prove it. A new study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine demonstrated that women throughout the United States, in cities and in suburbs, are more likely to walk where they feel safe and have access to sidewalks and other community resources. Simply stated, more walking and more physical activity mean better health.

In urban planning in particular, consideration of women’s health and social needs is more important than ever. More than half the world’s population – approximately 3.5 billion people -- live in cities. By 2030 this number is expected to increase to almost 5 billion.

People move to urban areas seeking new opportunities, new options, freedom in choices, and better resources. Women in particular believe that they can improve their economic status and social position and find better opportunities for their children by seeking work and education in the cities. However, even as urbanization offers opportunities, the health of women in urban settings is challenged.

Unfortunately, the effects of urban development and gender have received little attention. In Women’s Health and the World’s Cities, my collaborators Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter and I called on scholars and practitioners from the fields of urban planning, global studies, and health sciences to consider urban planning from the perspective of women’s health and to examine the effect of urbanization on women and their health.

Urban planners must consider five forces in planning and developing urban areas in order to improve women’s lives:

1. Developing cities with women’s needs in mind. Women want to live in safe environments with better lighting, lower population density, and space that permit connections and allow them to provide the care that their roles demand to meet the needs of their children, friends, partners, elders, and other family members. This means providing access to resources for their children’s needs as well as elders’ needs. Improving conditions in or replacing slums, where many women newcomers to the city live, must be part of urban planning and development.

2. Focusing attention on the sociocultural context and religious mores that drive, and often dictate, women’s movements, educational and working options, and housing needs.
Developing urban areas in religiously conservative Muslim or Jewish communities or in socially strict societies requires different criteria and guidelines that determine the physical and social capitals and hence the space configurations.

3. Including women’s voices in planning decisions. Women should be key players in the policies and plans used for the development of communities. Involving women in policies related to urban planning and development ensures that their perspectives, needs, and voices are included in designing spaces with women’s needs in mind.

4. Developing a conceptual framework that provides a structure for systematically investigating gender and impact -- or lack of it -- on urban environments as well as on health and well-being. This would drive the design and translation of research programs into gender-sensitive urbanization development plans.

5. Understanding that all of these empower women and give them voice.

Contemporary urban planning must address questions that reflect the differences between men and women in urban living and the differences in health outcomes among those who live in urban areas with differential incomes. As the 21st century unfolds, urban planning must be sensitive to defining and investigating the nature of gender disparities that are characteristic of those who live in urban areas. Careful urban planning provides a momentum to empower women and to enhance the quality of their lives. More accessible education, healthcare, and resources bolster women’s abilities to fulfill their caregiving roles.

Preventing urbanization’s spatial, social, and health risks for women through careful advance planning will be far more effective and productive than intervening after the fact.

Afaf Ibrahim Meleis, PhD, DrPS (hon), FAAN, FRCN, is Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing and Professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and co-editor of Women’s Health and the World’s Cities with Eugenie L. Birch and Susan M. Wachter.

Firsts & Innovations

What does it mean to be first? Thought leadership, trailblazing, going where no one has gone before. These all describe nursing at Penn. From the start, nursing at Penn has meant being at the cutting edge, doing things differently, breaking new ground for science, for the benefit of our patients and our communities, and for future leaders in nursing. What was it like before nurses developed the evidence to manage symptoms, identified the best models to prevent illness, or helped patients through transitions and complex healthcare decisions? In short, where would healthcare be without nursing research? Nursing at Penn has led the way in these areas and many others.

Nursing at Penn always has meant thinking outside the box in our classrooms and our laboratories, at the bedside and the bench, about the very young and the very old, about the sick and the well. Nursing at Penn means influencing the world through ideas, through actions, and through policy changes.


As we open our celebration of 125 years of nursing at Penn, I share with you just a few of our innovations which have made a difference in the health of our world:

• The first nursing doctorate in the Ivy League
• The first privately funded center for nursing research in the country
• The first school at Penn and one of the first in North America to be named a World Health Organization Collaborating Center
• The first operating room nurse in the nation
• The first nurse anesthetist in Philadelphia
• The first nurse to receive the MacArthur Fellowship, known as the “genius” award
• Some of the first endowed chairs for nursing in the country
• One of the first aerospace nurses in the NASA program

Our contributions to nursing and to health are exponential. With that in mind, I invite you to celebrate 125 years of nursing at Penn by helping us assemble a list of 125 innovative faculty, students, and alumni. Share your ideas at nursalum@pobox.upenn.edu and become a fan of Penn Nursing Alumni on Facebook for weekly updates on 125 Innovators and Ideas!