A Gift for Learning

Earl Williamson, a critical care registered nurse from Atlanta, has been selected as the School of Nursing's first Arthur Krotz Scholar.

Williamson, a BSN honors graduate from the Medical College of Georgia, has worked at Vencor, Grady Memorial, and Athens General hospitals. In his application essay, he stressed his desire to enter Emory's critical care nurse practitioner program because of a commitment to enhancing his patient care skills.

His goal is consistent with principles espoused by the late Mr. Krotz, a Crawford Long Hospital nurse who held education and advanced practice in high regard and who had hoped to continue his own nursing education by one day entering Emory's MN program. To honor Krotz and encourage others to follow in his career path, his family, friends, and the Atlanta chapter of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing joined together to endow the scholarship that bears his name.

Computers and Nursing

A $75,000 grant from the Helene Fuld Health Trust will allow the School of Nursing to purchase new computers, interactive video disk players, and software that will enable students to connect to the Internet and other on-line health networks.

According to faculty member John Summerville, 92MN, one of the authors of the grant proposal, the computer is an excellent tool for teaching nursing. For memorization work, the computer feeds continuous and repetitious information to students at their own pace. Computer technology also gives students an opportunity to learn in groups, he says, and the school will use a portion of the Fuld grant to equip learning stations, where two to four students may review interactive computer lessons together.

Computer technology assists nurses not only in the classroom but also in the clinical setting. "A big part of what nurses do is teach patients about their illness, medications, and treatments," Summerville says, "Computers can help them do that teaching."

Giving Meaning to Memory

When David Jowers, an Atlanta public relations executive and travel writer, died of AIDS in October 1991, those closest to him--his parents, Edna and Marvin Jowers of Clayton, and his long-time companion, Tom Rusert--sought to do "something meaningful in David's memory," says his mother. "We wanted to do something to assist nurses in learning more about caring for people with AIDS."

Their solution, with the support of other family members and friends, was to create, in his memory, the David Jowers Lectureship in AIDS and Infectious Disease at the School of Nursing.

"We felt such a lectureship would be most appropriate and helpful," his mother says.

The inaugural lecture, held this past October, was given by James W. Curran, MD, MPH, dean of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory. Curran, an internationally known expert on AIDS, spoke on "HIV in Perspective: The First 15 Years."

This year's Jowers Lecture will be presented in October as well. For details, contact the Office of Development and Alumni Affairs at (404) 727-6998.

Reprinted from Emory Nursing, Spring 1997

For more general information on The Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, call Health Sciences News and Information at 404-727-5686, or send e-mail to hsnews@emory.edu.