News Archives

Improving Trauma Pain Outcomes

November 11 - Improving acute pain management after traumatic injury remains a priority for policymakers and clinicians as rates of injury and subsequent pain-related disability rise nationally. Yet, innovations in trauma pain management remain understudied.

From Navy Nurse to VA’s Top Executive

November 11 -

After 38 years of active duty and reserve enlistments, Karen Flaherty-Oxler, MSN, RN, GNu’85 is now leading one of Philly’s largest medical centers—and bringing health care to 60,000 other veterans.

Humans of Penn Nursing: Ellen Dreibelbis

November 11 - “My patient, let’s call him Eric, was assigned to me on my first night shift after he was transferred to our unit from intensive care.

New Online Curriculum Equips Nurses to Lead Innovation by Offering Training in Design Thinking

November 6 -

Unique suite of materials developed at Penn Nursing in collaboration with the Rita & Alex Hillman Foundation is available free of charge to all nurses, nursing programs, and health care innovators.

Quality of Life Changes After Weight Loss

November 5 -

Obesity increases a number of adverse health consequences including reduced health-related quality of life. But little is known about the relationship between weight loss and changes in quality of life.

Kathryn Di Vitantonio, Nu’19

November 5 - “When I was 13, I started volunteering at my local hospital—Newton Medical Center, located in the northwestern corner of New Jersey—because I wanted something to keep me busy and I also wanted to help people.

Fighting the HIV Epidemic

November 4 -

Addressing perceived stigma about taking HIV preventive medication key to helping women at risk.

2020 Barbara Bates Center Fellowships Available

November 1 -

The Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania is taking applications for the 2020 Fellowships and Research Awards. Interested individuals are encouraged to apply.

Novel Research Aims to Identify New Medications for the Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder

October 30 -

Opioid use disorder and overdose deaths are a major public health crisis in the United States. While medication-assisted treatments for opioid use disorder exist, these treatments remain inadequate for many patients, resulting in a high rate of relapse following detoxification. 

Testing HIV Testers

October 29 -

A team led by Penn Nursing’s José A. Bauermeister, PhD, MPH , Presidential Professor of Nursing, developed an innovative study that employs a mystery shopper methodology to assess HIV testing services for young men who have sex with men.

Rebecca Cross Bodan, PhD, FNP, Nu’97

October 28 - “Years ago, when I was applying to college as an undecided major—unsure of the direction I would take my life—for reasons I’ll never know, I was recruited from a beach town in California to attend Penn Nursing. I was immediately sold on the career as a perfect marriage of science and humanity, and off I went to Philadelphia.

Matura Wins Inaugural Award to Advance Pulmonary Hypertension Science and Care

October 23 -

Lea Ann Matura, PhD, RN, FAAN, Associate Professor in Penn Nursing ’s Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, is one of eight winners of the inaugural Pulmonary Hypertension Accelerated Bayer (PHAB) Awards.

Ben Katz, Nu’02, W’02, WG’02

October 22 - “While I began my professional path in the Penn Nursing program, I took a wildly different course after college. Rather than continuing to become a practicing nurse, I found my way into finance and started an online bank called CARD.com.”

George Demiris, PhD, FACMI, Elected for Membership to the National Academy of Medicine

October 21 -

Election to the National Academy of Medicine is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.

Early Career Award Win for Stevens

October 15 -

Penn Nursing ’s Robin Stevens, PhD, MPH , Assistant Professor in the Department of Family and Community Health , is set to receive the Early Career Award from the Public Health Education and Health Promotion Section of the American Public Health Association (APHA).

Luz Elena Pérez Méndez, Nu’22

October 15 - “I was volunteering in a small rural clinic in the outskirts of Volcán Tajumulco in Tejutla, Guatemala—the village where my parents are from—and witnessed a live birth for the first time. I cried, of course. This single moment allowed me to realize the beauty of life and the incredible process of bringing another life into this world.”

Fellow Named 2019-2020 Jonas Policy Scholar

October 9 -

The American Academy of Nursing recently announced that six individuals – including Penn Nursing Postdoctoral Fellow Darina Petrovsky, PhD, RN – were selected to participate in the newly re-envisioned Academy Jonas Policy Scholars Program.  Petrovsky is a Fellow in the NewCourtland Center for Transitions and Health .

June Treston, MSN, CRNP, GNu’92

October 8 - “While I was in college in my senior year of nursing school, I was involved in a very emotionally and physically violent relationship. I don’t mean a threat or a slap. I mean having my head repeatedly bashed into a sliding glass door until it broke, and then being pushed out of a car going 60 miles per hour into the middle of a busy highway in Florida. Wow, that sounds awful. Just writing it is hard. But it was an important, transformative event in my life.”

Initiating Breastfeeding in Vulnerable Infants

October 7 -

The benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and child are well-recognized, including for late preterm infants (LPI). But because LPI do not have fully developed brains, they may experience difficulties latching and/or sustaining a latch on the breast to have milk transfer occur. This means that these infants are at high risk for formula supplementation and/or discontinuation of breastfeeding. Without human milk, these infants lose a critical component for protection and optimal development of their brains.

Compher to Receive 2019 Norma M. Lang Award for Scholarly Practice and Policy

October 3 -

The award is given biennially to a Penn Nursing faculty member or a graduate from the School’s doctoral program who has made a distinguished contribution to nursing through scholarly practice.  It honors Norma M. Lang, PhD, the professor and dean emerita of Penn Nursing for her world-renowned contributions to health policy and practice.

Andre Angelia, BSN, RN, Nu’19

October 1 - “Sometimes the greatest compliment that you can get when you are a student is from your teacher, but in this case it was someone I had never met before. A rapid response was happening on my unit and I went in to observe.”

Penn Nursing’s Elizabeth Wright Fund to Turn 40

September 27 -

The Elizabeth Wright Fund—which gave Penn Nursing its first student exchange program—has its roots in a time when post-operative hospital stays were longer, and when private duty nurses attended patients in the hospital as well as at home after discharge.

Kelsey Gross, RN, Nu’19, W’19

September 25 - “One Tuesday morning before my senior leadership clinical, I was kind of stressed out over typical “college sorority girl” problems - I was worried about disappointing my boyfriend because we were deciding between going to my sorority date night and going to New York for our good friend’s birthday party. I couldn’t decide what to do and was worried about disappointing him and potentially missing out on my senior year experiences. I still hadn’t decided what to do before it was time to leave for clinical.

Moral Distress and Moral Strength Among Clinicians in Health Care Systems: A Call for Research

September 23 -

Nurse burnout impacts both nurses and patients, and significantly influences the retention of nurses in the healthcare setting, research shows. But could burnout be a symptom of something larger?

How to Successfully Recruit Minority Adolescents for STI/HIV Prevention Research

September 19 -

Disparities in rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV between Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino adolescents and their white counterparts are well documented. Culturally and developmentally appropriate efforts targeted to help these youth establish healthy practices to lower their risk of sexually transmitted infections are warranted. However, such interventions present unique challenges in recruiting and retaining research participants.

Therese Richmond, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, GR’95

September 18 - “Around 1980, I worked in a 14-bed trauma ICU in Washington DC as a primary nurse leading a team of 7 nurses who provided care to our primary patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One primary patient was a 19-year old man who had survived a serious motor vehicle crash. He had a brain injury and was slowly emerging from a coma and had complex wounds over his entire body. He was in isolation and my team and I spent hours each shift in his isolation room without a break to manage his wounds over several months.

American Academy of Nursing Announces New Fellows

September 17 - Eight nursing professionals with ties to Penn Nursing will be inducted as 2019 Fellows of the American Academy of Nursing (AAN). Two are current Penn employees and alumnae; one being a current faculty member; and the other being a program director at Penn Medicine’s Abramson Cancer Center. The additional six are Penn Nursing alumni.

Jim Hettinger, Nu’21

September 12 - “I spent a summer as an extern in a hospital’s progressive care unit and had a patient who was a four-year-old girl on the autism spectrum. She also had a problem with her airway that made her nonverbal. I cared for her for three days straight and on the morning of the third day I came in to find her crying. We keep patients like her in “bubble-top” cribs to prevent them from climbing out and injuring themselves, so I came in and opened up the top. I was trying to figure out why she was crying. No signs of being in pain, and her diaper wasn’t wet. I offered her favorite toy but she kept crying. So the question became, what did she want?

Stephanie Tran Rojas, Nu’20

September 12 - We are happy to announce the launch of a brand new feature - Humans of Penn of Nursing. Inspired by Humans of New York, we take a look at the meaningful stories of the community here at Penn Nursing. First up is Stephanie Tran Rojas, Nu’20.

Flores Selected for National Workshop

September 4 -

The Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science (Council) has selected Penn Nursing’s Dalmacio Dennis Flores, PhD, ACRN , Assistant Professor, as one of six early career nurse scientists to participate in the 2019 Duck-Hee Kang Memorial Mentored Workshop. The competitively chosen group of postdoctoral and new faculty will receive research mentoring from senior nurse scientists during a one-day workshop on October 22, 2019 in Washington, DC.