Whether by the bedside, in community clinic, administration, research, teaching, or policy reform, Hopkins Nurses are committed to making the world a better place. Send your submission to [email protected]
Jane Williams Ball, DrPH, BS ’74, RN, CPNP
“It is a privilege to contribute to the education of so many nursing students.”
After graduating from the School of Nursing in 1969, I worked in pediatrics and gained experience in both pediatric acute care, emergency care, and as a pediatric nurse practitioner at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. One PNP colleague began working for a publishing company, and asked me to co-author a new textbook in the 1980s, now known as Seidel’s Guide to Physical Examination, in its seventh edition. From there, I co-authored a pediatric nursing textbook, Principles of Pediatric Nursing, in its fifth edition, and a comprehensive pediatric textbook, Child Health Nursing, in its third edition. I continued to work full time while spending three years developing the first edition of each textbook, and now I am always revising at least one book at a time. I view the process of developing a new textbook as a creative challenge, to select and organize information and determine how to present it in order to bring it alive to promote learning.
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Reginald E. Bannerman, MBA/MSN ’03, BS ’97, RN, NE-BC
“I learned at Johns Hopkins that you have to pay it forward and be a positive influence for future generations of Johns Hopkins Nurses.”
Johns Hopkins afforded me a great foundation to build my career and also to give back. The essence of teamwork and dedication to help others was ingrained in me during my tenure at the school. Alumni Director Melinda Rose was one of my unsung heroes. Her support and guidance was very reassuring and gave me confidence to pay it forward. As director of nursing of the Psychiatry Department of Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC, I am proud of my part in the recent publication of the Bully Awareness Intervention Feasibility study in the Archives of Psychiatric Nursing 29 (2015) 426-433 and I also find it quite professionally rewarding to see students excel as I assist them through the career process. “To whom much is given, much is required,” and I always ask the students to pay it forward.
Tina Chikovani, BS ’11
“The Clinical experiences during my time at Hopkins showed me all that I could accomplish as a nurse and inspired my interest in critical care transport nursing.”
When I was a student at Hopkins, my pediatric clinical instructor was a former transport nurse and I learned so much from her during that rotation. I graduated in 2011 and began working in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. I enjoyed being a PICU nurse from the start, and with each year I enjoy it more and more. After a few years of ICU experience, I joined the pediatric critical care transport team, which by far is where my heart is as a nurse. I have grown immensely both personally and professionally and feel so lucky to love what I do.
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Matthew Dwyer, BS ’15
“I fell in love with patient care and decided on a career in nursing.”
I graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2007 with degrees in Human Rights and Economics. In 2010, I joined the Peace Corps and was assigned to a clinic on the tiny island of Emae in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. It was there that I fell in love with patient care and decided on a career in nursing. At JHSON, I was president of the Men in Nursing Club, on the governing board of SOURCE, and worked as a CNE in the Pediatric Emergency Room at JHH. I was the SOURCE Community Service Student of the Year for 2015.
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M. Louise Fitzpatrick, EdD, DHL (Hon), RN, FAAN, ’63
“I have never forgotten that I am a Hopkins nurse and that it all began in Baltimore.”
Receiving the honorary doctorate degree from Villanova University, where I have served as dean of the College of Nursing for nearly 37 years, was an overwhelming honor. Reflecting on my career, I must credit Hopkins with creating the foundation for it. It was there that I embraced an appreciation of nursing’s history, and it was my student experience in the East Baltimore Health District that led to my passion for community health nursing. Following in the steps of Adelaide Nutting, my next stop was Teachers College, Columbia University, where I studied and later taught graduate students community health nursing and guided doctoral students pursuing historical research dissertations. My many years as a dean have been fulfilling in many ways—especially my work with international students and the development of international experiences in the curriculum.
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Paula S. Kent, MSN ’05
“I never imagined when I graduated from nursing school in western New York that I would be able to have the best of both worlds … working as a nurse in patient safety and traveling in the U.S. and abroad to share the safety story.”
My focus in the early years was to get my clinical experience in a cardiac step down unit, stretch into a leadership role, and learn a little about organizational structure. After I finished the MSN/MBA in 2005, I moved into a position in patient safety and was delighted to have some clinical focus in the patient safety arena. Within the first year, I had an opportunity to present in Vietnam and the Health Management Asia Conference and the following year, I presented in South Korea. When the Patient Safety Department partnered more closely with the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality several years ago, new opportunities became available. We are encouraged to partner with writers and researchers to publish and conduct research, support the patient safety programs on grants, and develop advanced skills. I now work both in in the hospital helping new Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) teams and for the Armstrong Institute, where I provide support and lead a variety of programs including teaching CUSP and the Patient Safety Certificate Program in the UAE, Saudi, and across the U.S.
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Natasha Kormanik, MSN ’14, BS ’08, RN, OCN
“It was the Hopkins environment that allowed me the opportunities that make me the public health nurse I am today.”
My career started as an oncology intern at the National Institutes of Health, working on a Hematology/Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Unit. At this time, I was commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS). After the two-year internship, I moved on to be a research nurse specialist, working as an association investigator in hairy cell leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and adult T-cell leukemia with the National Cancer Institute. In 2013, I transferred to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration with the Office of New Drugs/Division of Hematology Products, where I work as a regulatory health project manager on hematology/oncology drug approvals. As a PHS officer, I am equipped to serve in public health crises, including natural disasters, disease outbreaks, humanitarian missions, and terrorist attacks. I serve at my duty station (FDA) on a normal basis and remain on standby for deployments when there is a public health need. As a Hopkins student, I was fortunate to have passionate professors and classmates that were able to pave my career path.
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Julia S. Taylor, BS ’12, RN
“A Hopkins Nurse is a dedicated team member who delivers mindful clinical carewhile mastering the art of professional advancement.”
After graduating with my BS in nursing, I moved to New York and I am currently a clinical nurse in interventional radiology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. I am also enrolled in a family nurse practitioner program in New York but love to be a part of the Hopkins Nursing community. I have been a member of the Johns Hopkins Nurses’ Alumni Association board for the past two years, and along with Meredith Close, BSN ’11, RN, I am a co-leader of the New York Chapter of the Johns Hopkins Nursing Alumni Community.