Posted: 5/26/2010
Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) will address health disparities right in their own backyard through funding provided in two new grants from the Johns Hopkins Urban Health Institute (UHI). Assistant professor Elizabeth Betty Jordan, DNSc, MSN, RNC, Department of Community Public Health, and instructor Patty Wilson, MS, RN, Department of Community Public Health each received $10,000 for their respective projects.
Jordan’s project, “Birth Companions Services for New Refugees: Partnering with the International Rescue Committee (IRC),” seeks to bring the benefits of the Birth Companions program to refugee pregnant women in urban settings. The project’s goal is to bring culturally appropriate services to this population. Funding will be used to conduct a needs assessment and help provide additional services.
“With the help of the IRC, and funding from UHI, we can make sure we’re reaching out to all underserved populations in Baltimore,” Jordan said.
Wilson’s “Passport to Health: Taking Charge of your Health; Empowering Intimate Partner Violence Survivors to Become their own Health Advocates,” focuses on providing mothers with health education, health promotion, and a health passport (a booklet that stores their health information and anticipatory guidance to meet health care needs). The group specifically targeted for this project will be women and children at the House of Ruth Maryland shelter.
“The better informed mothers are, the better they can manage not only their own health, but their children’s health too,” Wilson said.