A new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR) – published in JAMA Network Open today – showed that, aside from retirements, poor working conditions are the leading reasons nurses leave healthcare employment.
Stephanie Ferguson, PhD, RN, FAAN, the Director of the Harvard Global Nursing Leadership Program and Professor of the Practice of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, will serve as the 2024 Penn Nursing commencement speaker.
PHILADELPHIA (March 14, 2024) – Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN, FAAN, has been appointed Chair of Penn Nursing’s Department of Family and Community Health effective July 1, 2024. Currently, she is the Vice-Chair of the Department and the Dr. Hildegarde Reynolds Endowed Term Chair of Primary Care Nursing.
Penn Community Collaboratory for Co-Creation (Penn4C), an initiative led jointly by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) and the School of Engineering and Applied Science (Penn Engineering), has awarded funding to five new research projects that address social justice through designing and implementing solutions to improve health, well-being, and safety. In addition to the involvement of Penn faculty and students, the projects are required to have active and equitable representation of the community in which the project will be completed.
A groundbreaking study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), recently published in Innovation in Aging, has shown promising results in improving the quality of life (QOL) and sleep quality in individuals living with memory problems.
Hilaria Supa Huamán, Director of Mosoq Pakari Sumaq Kawsay (New Dawn for Good Living) Healing Center, is a Peruvian politician and human rights activist.
Wendy A. Henderson, PhD, CRNP, FAASLD, FAAN, has been appointed the Gail and Ralph Reynolds President’s Distinguished Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and will serve as a faculty member in Penn Nursing’s Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences.
Claire M. Fagin, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Dean Emerita of the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), passed away at the age of 97. She served as dean of Penn Nursing for 15 years from 1977 to 1992, during which time she transformed the school into a world-renowned education, research, and clinical development enterprise, established landmark education programs and increased the number of standing faculty seven-fold. In addition to her deanship, Fagin served as the interim president of the University of Pennsylvania from July 1, 1993, to June 30, 1994. She was the first woman to serve as chief executive officer of the University and the first woman to serve a term as interim president of any Ivy League University.
Many people overlook the short- and long-term costs of financial caregiving, a growing problem that financial advisors and employers can help address, according to a new report by the TIAA Institute and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing).
Penn Nursing, with partners from the Annenberg Virtual Reality ColLABorative and New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, have been awarded 2023 grant from the Hillman Emergent Innovation: Serious Illness and End of Life program to study the use of social virtual reality (VR) in enhancing the treatment experience and reducing loneliness in people undergoing hemodialysis.
Police officers often respond to incidents that do not involve crime or immediate threats to public safety but instead deal with community members facing unmet mental health needs. In response to this, many cities are experimenting with co-deploying police officers alongside health professionals or deploying teams entirely composed of civilian health professionals.
To improve the quality of care and reduce healthcare expenditures, heart failure patients in the U.S. are increasingly being treated in community-based programs such as managed long-term care. Although early identification of patients’ risks of negative outcomes, including hospitalizations or emergency department visits, has been shown to prevent these adverse outcomes in settings including hospitals and nursing homes, it has not been studied in managed long-term care.
Managing transitions in care for older adults and their family caregivers, no matter the care setting, is especially challenging in a rapidly changing health care system.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) has received a $1 million grant from the Bedford Falls Foundation – DAF, a donor-advised fund established by Philanthropists William (Bill) E. Conway Jr., co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group, and his wife, Joanne. The couple have given millions to support nursing education and scholarships to address the nation’s nursing workforce shortage.
High rates of firearm injury among urban Black men in the U.S. can lead to long physical and psychological recovery times, worsened by limited access to mental health services.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) has named its second cohort of Fellows for the Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program (LLCCNPP).
The Penn Libraries and Penn Nursing are pleased to announce that Jessica Martucci, PhD, has been named Curator of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing, effective August 28, 2023.
Two decades ago, the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index was published to measure the nursing practice environment. Although the instrument's use has resulted in advances in science and quality improvement efforts, its potential may be limited by the availability and quality of translations into different languages.
Penn Nursing’s new Master of Professional Nursing (MPN) degree offers students with a bachelor’s degree in another field an exciting alternative path to a career in nursing. This entry-level nursing program, offered at the graduate level, prepares students to deliver a full array of health care services to meet the demands of patients and families with increasingly complex health needs.
A unique collaborative study on hospital clinician wellbeing by teams at 60 of the nation’s best hospitals, defined by Magnet Hospital Recognition, was published today in JAMA Health Forum. The study found that physicians and nurses, even at hospitals known to be good places to work, experienced adverse outcomes during the pandemic and want hospital management to make significant improvements in their work environments and in patient safety. The solutions to high hospital clinician burnout and turnover, they say, are not resilience training for clinicians to better cope with adverse working conditions but organizational improvements that provide safe workloads and better work-life balance.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is pleased to announce that ten teams from health systems around the country have been selected for the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship Program (JJNIF), powered by Penn Nursing and the Wharton School–a ground-breaking, one-year, team-based nursing fellowship for Chief Nursing Officers, nurse executives, and senior nurse leaders.
Despite breastfeeding being recommended for at least two years, only 36 percent of all infants are still breastfed at their first birthday. Black/African American mothers are least likely to initiate breastfeeding with initiation rates of only 74 percent compared to 90 percent of Asian mothers with a national average of 84 percent. Given the disparities in breastfeeding initiation, there are likely to be equivalent disparities in breastfeeding duration.
As the distinguished Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholars (FNS) program ends, a special section of an issue of the journal Nursing Outlook offers an in-depth review from University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) leaders about the program’s success and its long-lasting impact on nursing scholars, faculty, and institutions.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing recently announced the Johnson & Johnson Nurse Innovation Fellowship Program (JJNIF), powered by Penn Nursing and the Wharton School–a ground-breaking, one-year, team-based nursing fellowship for Chief Nursing Officers (CNO), nurse executives, and senior nurse leaders. The fellowship is unique in that two nurse leaders – one Chief Nursing Officer or nurse executive and one other senior nurse leader from the same organization – participate and work together to address a real-world challenge their health system is facing.
George Demiris, PhD, FACMI, the Mary Alice Bennett University Professor and Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, has been appointed Penn Nursing’s next Associate Dean for Research and Innovation. This appointment will begin on June 1, 2023.
Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the nation’s largest health philanthropy, will serve as the 2023 Penn Nursing commencement speaker. The event will take place at 3:00 PM EST on Monday, May 15, 2023, at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
The creation of The Coalition for Trust in Health & Science, was formally launched during the 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. The alliance, which includes Penn Nursing’s NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health, was formed to unite leading organizations from across the entire health ecosystem to advance trust and factual science-based decision-making.
Data shows that unless the pattern of furnishing primary health care, particularly to underserved groups in both urban and rural areas, is drastically improved, these groups will suffer in inequitable and unnecessary ways. It is clear that the primary care workforce must be expanded and diversified.
The Eidos LGBTQ+ Health Initiative at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) is partnering with Gaingels, an LGBTQIA+/Allies private investment syndicate, to provide their portfolio of companies access to Penn’s academic research to make an impact into the health and well-being of LGBTQ+ communities.
Comprehensive and inclusive sexual health education reduces young gay, bisexual, and queer (GBQ) men's vulnerability to poor sexual health outcomes like HIV and STIs into adulthood, data shows. However, conservative ideologies continue to dominate policies on school-based sex education and view topics like same-sex attractions as controversial.
Developmental disorders, disabilities, and delays are common outcomes for infants with complex congenital heart disease. Targeting early factors influencing these conditions after birth and during neonatal hospitalization for cardiac surgery remains a critical need. However, significant gaps remain in understanding the best practices to improve neurodevelopmental and psychosocial outcomes for these infants.
Sometimes hospital staff nurses cannot provide required care due to time constraints. This reality can contribute to potentially dire outcomes for very low birthweight (VLBW) infants, who weigh less than 3.3 lbs. at birth.
According to a new study published in Nursing Outlook, the journal of the American Academy of Nursing, chronic hospital nurse understaffing and poor hospital work environments that predated the Covid-19 pandemic largely explain the disruptions in nursing care seen during the pandemic and continuing today.
While people with cancer have options to participate in cancer clinical trials (CCTs), it can be challenging when they encounter difficulties enrolling and remaining in the trial. Trial withdrawal, although every participant’s right, can thwart study goals and hamper advancing novel treatments.
The biennial award honors the best scholarly qualities that Dr. Fagin, the School’s third Dean, exemplified. It is given to a Penn Nursing faculty member, or a graduate from the School’s doctoral program, who has made a distinguished contribution to nursing scholarship.
The Penn Artificial Intelligence and Technology Collaboratory for Healthy Aging (PennAITech) – made up of Penn’s School of Nursing, the Perelman School of Medicine, and other departments across the University – focuses on identifying developing, evaluating, commercializing, and disseminating innovative technology and artificial intelligence methods/software to support aging. It’s made possible through a grant from the National Institute on Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health. In its first year, and through a competitive national grant review process, twelve applicants from academia, industry, and clinical practice across the United States have been selected for funding.
When evaluating the success or failure of efforts to implement evidence-based interventions, ensuring that implementation is equitable across populations is important.
Injuries associated with firearm violence pose a persistent public health threat in the United States. The term “recidivism” is often used when referring to those who experience repeat firearm injuries. A commentary in the journal Preventive Medicine cautions against its use in clinical and public health discourse and as an evaluation descriptor for violence prevention and intervention programs.
Data show that Generation Z youth are coming out at earlier ages than previous generations of sexual- and gender-diverse individuals. However, little is known about LGBTQ youth’s perspectives on how or if parent-child discussions at home about health and sexuality sufficiently meet their sexual education needs.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought many troubling ethical issues to the frontlines of clinical care, creating significant distress for clinicians, patients, and families. Behind the scenes, clinical ethicists managed those issues to support front-line workers and were integral to hospital operations.
People with multiple chronic conditions require complex care management and often experience significant challenges when transitioning from hospital to home. This is especially true for people insured by Medicaid who are disproportionately Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and experience higher chronic disease burdens and adverse outcomes following hospitalization. For them, comprehensive transitional care support is a paramount, yet often absent aspect of care delivery that may result in health inequities.
The COVID‐19 pandemic created novel patient care circumstances that may have increased nurses' moral distress, including COVID‐19 transmission risk and end‐of‐life care without family present. Moral distress is a growing concern in healthcare with implications for both provider and patient outcomes. However, until now, established moral distress instruments do not capture these novel aspects of pandemic nursing care.
Magnet4Europe, a 4 million Euro project funded by the European Commission, is the largest international implementation science project ever attempted to fundamentally change hospital work environments to improve clinician and patient wellbeing. Today the BMJ Open scientific journal published the scientific protocol for Magnet4Europe establishing its scientific and clinical significance.
As one of 27 institutes of the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is responsible for supporting research that improves health and saves lives. Over the past year, it engaged the nursing community as it developed its new strategic plan. The outcome may result in potential shift in research funding priorities while advancing priorities, methods and approaches needed to solve current and pressing health issues.
Kimberly Strauch, PhD, MSN, ANP-BC, has been appointed the inaugural Executive Director of Leonard A. Lauder Community Care Nurse Practitioner Program (LLCCNPP) at Penn Nursing. This program was announced in February 2022 as a first-of-its-kind, tuition-free program dedicated to building a nurse practitioner workforce committed to working in and with underserved communities, both rural and urban. LLCCNPP was borne of a $125 million gift—the largest ever to an American nursing school—by Penn alumnus Leonard A. Lauder, Chairman Emeritus of The Estee Lauder Companies.
Sleep health is increasingly recognized as important to overall health, and sleep disturbances and disorders are clinical problems that require diagnosis and management. But when patients present with symptoms and concerns about their sleep disturbances, they often do so to healthcare providers who are not sleep specialists.
The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) is launching a new, online Master of Science in Nutrition Science (MSNS) program. The 10-course interdisciplinary program has been in the works for the past 25 years. The MSNS will foster a formidable grounding in Nutrition Science to support innovation in nutritional management and research and enhance research skills to advance this work.
Parental smoking is a significant risk factor for developing smoking behavior and nicotine dependence in offspring. These findings suggest that parental nicotine exposure may promote addiction-like behaviors in subsequent generations. Given the significance of cigarette smoking for public health, preventing nicotine use among adolescents is critical to ending tobacco use disorder and decreasing e-cigarette use.
Join Penn Nursing for a year-long webinar series exploring innovative solutions to the caregiving crisis in the United States. This webinar series is the first step of a two-year plan to uncover promising innovations for testing.