In Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine: Reality Check

Associate Dean Kristen Brown has seen the opportunities an education can bring and is determined that no student under her watch will miss them. That attitude is built into the decision-making on new tech for her Center for Simulation & Immersive Learning. “Everybody is going to want to sell you on the next big thing,” Brown says. 

One thing Brown is sold on is the XR Learning Hub, a pilot education platform she’s fine-tuning at JHSON that combines her clinical experience and passion for immersive learning with cutting-edge tech to fix common issues with clinical training for students. Her aim is to make clinical experiences more flexible, available, and—the big key—controllable. “You can’t predict what situations a learner will encounter while on a clinical rotation, but with simulation, you can make sure they are exposed to what they need and must see.”

The XR Hub is a virtual space that allows the learner to engage with faculty and then travel through portals to environments, such as the hospital bedside, and experience care through the eyes of a provider, of course, but also a patient.

JHSON Faculty Promotions

Dean Sarah Szanton has announced promotions for three JHSON faculty members:

Kelly Gleason and Ginger Hanson to associate professor and JD Murphy to assistant professor.

Dr. Gleason, co-leader of the Teams Core at the Johns Hopkins Medicine Armstrong Institute’s Center for Diagnostic Excellence, focuses her research on removing barriers to patient participation and nurse engagement in health care systems. She aims to enhance patient engagement in the diagnostic process, improve digital literacy and access for older adults, and advance the use of patient portals and electronic medical records to better understand patient-centered outcomes. Dr. Gleason teaches in the doctoral programs and serves on two university-wide committees focused on the use of electronic medical record data for research.

Dr. Hanson, a quantitative psychologist, is an expert in advanced statistical methods, and focuses on occupational health psychology, work-life integration, and workplace violence. As a biostatistician in the Methods Core for the Nursing Office of Research Administration (NORA), Dr. Hanson plays a crucial part in facilitating grant submissions for faculty and students. She collaborates with faculty on study design, methods, statistical analyses, and power analyses, and serves as the project statistician on funded projects, contributing to related publications. Dr. Hanson also teaches statistics in the PhD and DNP programs.

Dr. Murphy leads the Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Acute Care content. A Cohen Scholar and Certified Nurse Educator, Dr. Murphy has over 16 years of experience in caring for acutely and chronically ill children, with 12 years in advanced practice. Her clinical expertise spans pediatric hematology, oncology, blood and marrow transplantation, and pediatric intensive care. Dr. Murphy is a pediatric oncology/BMT nurse practitioner at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, with clinical interests in reducing malnutrition during childhood cancer treatment and caring for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma.

Congratulations to all!

Quotations for 2025

“Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.” —Chief Seattle, leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes

“You pray for the hungry. Then you feed them. That’s how prayer works.” —Pope Francis

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” —Martin Luther King Jr.

“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.” —Artist Pablo Picasso

“I care about decency and humanity and kindness. Kindness today is an act of rebellion.” —Pop singer Pink

“If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.” —General George S. Patton

“I don’t associate with people who blame the world for their problems. You are your problem. You are also your solution.” —Actress/comedian Melissa McCarthy

“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic.” —Unknown

“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead 20 years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.” —Singer Diana Ross

“Sometimes you just have to put on lip gloss and pretend to be psyched.” —Actress Mindy Kaling

Nurse Practitioner Student Panel and Admissions Overview

As the Priority Decision Deadline quickly approaches on January 15, 2025, come learn more about our current students’ experiences throughout their Nurse Practitioner program. Following the current student panel discussion, the Office of Admissions will discuss the Admissions requirements and be available to answer any specific questions about submitting your application.

Programs being covered include:

• DNP Adult-Gerontological Acute Care Nurse Practitioner

• DNP Adult-Gerontological Primary Care Nurse Practitioner

• DNP Family Primary Care Nurse Practitioner

• DNP Pediatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner

• DNP Pediatric Dual Primary/Acute Care Nurse Practitioner

• DNP Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

• Post-Master’s Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Certificate

Research Grand Rounds Series

Research Grand Rounds

Spirit of Discovery: A JHU Moment

What started some 150 years ago with a simple idea—a university predicated on the discovery of knowledge—has grown from a small collection of buildings in downtown Baltimore into a global leader in learning and research. With more than 30,000 students engaged across nine academic divisions in Baltimore, Washington DC, and beyond and more than 250,000 alumni around the world, Johns Hopkins is everywhere. As the year closes JHU President Ron Daniels has invited the community to learn more about itself via an interactive puzzle.

Meet Gurtler Scholar Merissa Daugherty

Merissa Daugherty, who speaks Spanish, had expected that the Peace Corps would post her in Latin America, but unrest across that region scuttled any such notions. She could wait a year and try again, or she could take the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. If you consult your world map, as she did, the nation sits beneath Russia and above Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan on the Black Sea. Where to help was clearly less important to Daugherty than how and when (right now). Off she went. Today, as a Gurtler Scholar and DNP student, Daugherty remembers a mission that set her on the path to JHSON. Read her story and more in the new issue of Johns Hopkins Nursing at nursing.jhu.edu/magazine.