In gearing up for the new year, Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing students and faculty share their scholarship and expertise through radio, panel events, and a new school.
On Supermarket Accessibility
On 90.3 FM KFAI Radio Without Boundaries on December 11, Kelly Bower, PhD, MPH, RN, APHN-BC, discussed her study “The Intersection of neighborhood racial segregation, poverty, and urbanicity and its impact on food store availability in the United States.” Her findings show that fewer supermarkets are available in impoverished neighborhoods, and predominantly black neighborhoods have the most limited access to supermarkets—both scenarios leading to fewer healthy food choices. With this information, Bower believes clinicians should not only have conversations about healthy foods, but also create “strategies about where and how” people should get these foods.
Champion of the Month
In a field of nominees from the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health, Accelerated student Nyadia Griffith was chosen as the first-ever SON December Student Outreach Resource Center (SOURCE) Champion of the Month. Volunteering her time at Baltimore’s Soccer Without Borders, she says she loves working with the kids and their families. “I am attending this prestigious school solely on the generous support of strangers, donors, faculty, other students. There were a lot of people who paid it forward so I could be here. I owe it to them to give back,” she reflects. Griffith understands it’s a struggle to find time to volunteer, but she says, “simply listening to someone is one of the hugest ways you can make an impact. You may not have time to physically do something, but you can find time to slow down, and listen to someone.”
World Health Discussions
Accelerated students Audrey Mills, Alex Doherty, and midwifery student Allison Boyle moderated sessions and provided support for the first Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery (GANM) online conference. The discussions focused on improving in-patient newborn survival, postpartum hemorrhage, life saving skills, and more. The GANM also hosted an expert panel series on simulation learning lead by Vice Provost for Digital Initiatives Pamela Jeffries, PhD, RN, ANEF, FAAN. Representatives from seventeen countries participated, and there were over 80 postings on the discussion board.
Open Doors
At the newly opened Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins Partnership School, Community-Public Health Nursing Program Manager Keri Frisch, MS, has begun implementing the Coordinated School Health Program. The program will integrate the provision of health services and health education for K-8 students. A partnership is being developed to offer nursing services in collaboration with the Baltimore City Health Department. Jeanne Alhusen, PhD, CRNP, RN, and Clinical Instructor Nasreen Bahreman, MSN, RN, will also provide health services and promote health education.