Unretired The Search Is On Faculty Scientist Awards Dynamic Duo 'Health Care Hero' Adapting to Change Shirley Carey Retires Faculty Announcements

 

In her 22 years at Emory, Dr. Margaret Parsons has received many honors: the university's Emory Williams Teaching Award, the School of Nursing's Outstanding Faculty and Outstanding Undergraduate Faculty awards, and an invitation to present the address at this year's nursing school graduation. The most recent was the coveted "Pickle Award" handed out at Alumni Reunion Weekend '98.

Dr. Parsons returns to serve as Interim Dean. or the time being, anyway, you could say that Margaret Parsons is off her rocker. Presenting a rocking chair to a retiring faculty member is a traditional gesture, a sort of good-natured final jab at a colleague who is supposedly heading off into the sunset. Still, everyone present at Associate Dean Margaret Parson's retirement party May 6 knew that she was the least likely candidate to move immediately on to front-porch rocking. Indeed, it was expected that the commemorative chair would be packed away with the rest of her furniture as Parsons and her husband of 36 years, Les, completed their move into a new home and took a long, well-earned vacation. Even the best-laid plans can change. When Dean Dyanne Affonso, at the end of the academic year, announced her intention to return to teaching and research (see the Dean's Message on the inside cover), Parsons, one foot out the door, quickly agreed to return to lead the school until a new dean could be selected (see "The Search Is On" below). "Having been on the faculty for 22 years and having served as associate dean for four, I felt I could offer the school a sense of continuity and familiarity during this time of transition," says Parsons. "I had just about come to grips with entering an interim stage in my life, with the retirement, so I saw no reason I couldn't serve the school ably in an interim capacity as well. I am happy to do it."

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Dr. James Curran, dean of the School of Public Health.

Committee formed to find a new nursing dean. lthough the search committee charged with finding a new dean for the School of Nursing is still working out the specifics of the job search, they do have a clear idea of the characteristics their ideal candidate will possess, says Dr. James Curran, dean of Emory's Rollins School of Public Health and chair of the committee. "What we want is someone who is a leader and who can produce leaders and build on the current strengths of the school," he says, "someone who can work closely with the rest of us [health sciences administrators] and with the challenges that face the university and the Health Sciences Center, as well as the School of Nursing." The new dean must also have the ability to "capitalize on the richness of the current faculty and the promise of a new building and a new doctoral degree program," Curran adds. Assisting Curran in the search are Dr. David Blake, associate director of the Woodruff Health Sciences Center and vice president for academic health affairs; Dr. Carlos Del Rio, associate professor of medicine; Dr. Sandra Dunbar, professor of nursing; Dr. Harriet King, senior vice provost for academic affairs; Dr. Lynn Lotas, professor of nursing and director of the school's Office of Research Affairs; Dr. Kathy Parker, associate professor of nursing; Dr. Donald Stein, vice provost and dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences; and Dr. Alice Vautier, chief nursing officer at Emory Hospitals. The search firm Whitt-Kiefer will assist in the process. "We want to find someone as quickly as possible," Curran says, "but the most important thing is to find the right person." In the meantime, he adds, "we have very able interim leadership from Dr. Margaret Parsons."

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Dr. Marlene Walden

Walden and Deaton selected for 1998-1999. n the second year of its innovative Faculty Scientist Award program, the School of Nursing has again identified two promising faculty members whose research will advance knowledge in nursing and the health sciences: Drs. Marlene Walden and Christi Deaton. Each will receive $30,000 to pursue research in neonatal pain and management of cardiac patients, respectively. The incentive grants, awarded last year to Drs. Peggy Moloney (see related article) and Joyce King (see related article) were designed to support promising researchers in their quest for external grants, says Dr. Lynn Lotas, director of research at the School of Nursing. "External funding like that from the National Institutes of Health is simultaneously becoming more competitive to win and more vital to the health of an academic research institution," she says. "Funding agencies are looking for more preliminary data, and they want to see a track record before investing their money, which makes it difficult for beginning researchers to get their foot in the door. This program should help young researchers address the dilemma."

Dr. Christi Deaton

Work in Progress hile it was once believed that premature infants were unable to feel pain, researchers now think they do and that prolonged exposure to pain can somehow change pain pathways in the developing brain. By using her award to study how these pathways are formed in newborn rats, Marlene Walden hopes her research will lay the groundwork for developing more effective treatments for babies. "I'm also interested in looking at how containment strategies - keeping arms flexed, decreasing light and noise - affect pain," she says. "No one has really looked at the impact of the neonatal environment on pain." The award carries with it a 50% release time from teaching and administrative duties. Walden plans to spend part of that time in the lab and at regional hospitals, but she also plans to take course work in the molecular biology and neurobiology of pain, under the direction of her mentorship team. Christi Deaton's work will focus on the many recovery issues for patients undergoing coronary artery bypass surgery or angioplasty. "I'm interested in how we can improve recovery outcomes," she says, "what kinds of interventions are needed, and whether they are cost-effective." Like Walden, Deaton will work with an interdisiciplinary team of mentors, take some advanced course work, and visit hospitals for data, and she also plans to write grant proposals and articles about her research. The Faculty Scientist Award "provides wonderful support," she says. "It will give me the freedom and the tools to write a strong grant proposal. It is providing me with the framework for success."

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hen Associate Professor of Nursing Marianne Scharbo-DeHaan, 75MN, learned her husband, cell biology professor Robert DeHaan, was picked to receive Emory's Thomas Jefferson Award for service, she and their four children (one coming all the way from California) planned a surprise for him at the award ceremony. Then she received a surprise of her own: She had been singled out for honor, too, as one of five faculty selected to receive the university's highest teaching honor, the Emory Williams Award for Distinguished Teaching. This marks the first time Emory's two top honors have gone to a husband-and-wife team, but is part of a pattern of achievement by the couple. In 1996, Scharbo-DeHaan had received funding from the University Teaching Commission for her work in promoting "active learning" in the classroom. DeHaan, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Cell Biology, is a two-time winner of the School of Medicine's Outstanding Teacher Award.

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Ann Connor

Ann Connor honored for community service. nn Connor, MSN, RN, FNP whose work on behalf of Atlanta's homeless was featured in the Spring 1998 issue of Emory Nursing, has been recognized by the Atlanta Business Chronicle as an Atlanta Health Care Hero. The Chronicle's staff culled through hundreds of nominations to select one winner and three finalists in four categories - physician, allied health professional, community outreach, and health care innvoations. Connor, a family nurse practitioner and clinical associate professor of community health nursing at Emory, was selected as a finalist in the allied health professional category. She and the other honorees were recognized at a ceremony held at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. In 1988, Connor and her husband, A.B. Short, opened Café 458, a nonprofit diner in downtown Atlanta that was designed to serve as a more civil alternative to the traditional soup kitchen. "Beyond just physical sustenance, the café strives to offer homeless people spiritual nutrition as well as a kindly ear, a circle of support, and a sense of respect, dignity, and choice," said Dr. Michael Johns, director of Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Health Sciences Center, who nominated Connor for the award. The café also serves as a springboard to other services, such as access to health care, job and resumé training, voice mail services, and 12-step recovery programs. In the Chronicle's profile of Connor, she says her work with the homeless is driven by issues of faith as well as social conscience. "I felt a call to work with people at the edge," she told the paper. "The Café, to me, is really about nursing - providing good nutrition and good health - improving the health of the entire community. I think we are all called to smaller issues, and if we put one or two hours a week toward them we could pull together to solve the larger problems."

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Dr. Lynda Nauright

A new post-master's program focuses on outcomes. new post-master's program in clinical management and outcomes is now being offered for master's-degreed nurses and nursing administrators who want additional skills to help them adapt to changes in health care practices. The program's courses will move practicing clinicians into the realm of financial management, outcomes evaluation, and health care informatics, says Dr. Lynda Nauright, who directs the program. "Where we think the gap is - within the group of clinicians that we and other programs like ours have prepared - is in managing financial resources, measuring outcomes, doing that level of research that's currently being done in clinical institutions," Nauright explains. "So we see this as helping update their preparation for practicing in today's very different health care environment." Classes are scheduled during the afternoon and evenings to accommodate work schedules. Students, who are admitted to Emory in special standing, can enroll in any of the program's three semesters but must wrap up their study by completing a residency in which they further develop or investigate an area of interest. The program's professors have a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. "We've got a really good team of faculty who have current experience in the field and are up to date in their materials," says Nauright, who teaches the course on program design and evaluation and coordinates the residency. Other professors include Ninfa Saunders, chief operating officer of DeKalb Medical Center who holds master's degrees in nursing and business, and Dr. Faye Sisk, director of the health care administration program at Mercer and an adjunct professor at the Rollins School of Public Health. For more information about the program call (404) 727-7965.

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This past spring, the university Board of Trustees named Dr. Shirley Carey Professor of Nursing Emerita.

After 27 years, veteran faculty member says goodbye. fter 27 years as a faculty member, researcher, and administrator, Shirley Carey, RN, PhD, is retiring from the School of Nursing. Carey helped implement the nursing school's first clinical nurse specialist program in maternal-infant health and child health. In 1976 she assumed responsibility as project director of a US Public Health Services training grant to prepare clinical nurse specialists in maternal-child health. That program, funded for 12 years, helped create the nurse midwifery, neonatal/perinatal, and child health programs. In 1978, Carey received a tenure appointment. In 1980, Carey was awarded a Division of Nursing training grant to help prepare nurses for roles in administration and education. Funds from this grant were used to support the first competency-based programs offered within the graduate program. For the past eight years, Carey has worked closely with administrators at Crawford Long Hospital to develop nursing research through clinical nurse specialists and to create case management research instruments that focus on outcomes. As long-time chair of the school's Nursing Institutional Review Board, Carey helped usher a merger with the Woodruff Health Sciences Center Human Investigation Review Board. During her long tenure on the faculty, she served as both educator and mentor to more than 125 graduates in nursing administration. Although officially retired since this past August, she is staying on through the fall term to see her last four students complete her Patient Services Administration (PSA) major. Eventually, Carey plans to work as a consultant with a task force formed to redesign the PSA specialty into a multidisciplinary program of study. Otherwise, she says, her future includes plans to collaborate on various patient education publishing projects - as well as spending time with five very special grandchildren.

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Selected arrivals and promotions ssistant professor Patricia Clark, RN, PhD, joined the School of Nursing in the fall of 1997. She came to Emory from Lenoir-Rhyne College School of Nursing in Hickory, N.C. Her background includes an appointment as clinical assistant professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Nursing. Clark earned her BSN at the University of South Alabama-Mobile, her MSN at the University of Kenucky-Lexington, and her PhD in 1998 from the University of Rochester, New York. Her dissertation focused on the "effects of individual and family hardiness on the stress of caregivers of older adults." She recently was selected to attend a one-week workshop on grant writing for Alzheimer's Disease research. Darla Ura, MN, RN, CS, ANP, has been named associate professor in Adult/Elder Health. Jane Mashburn, CNM, MN, is now an associate professor in Family/Community Health. Maureen Kelley, PhD, CNM, is now an associate professor in Family/Community Health. Tanya Sudia-Robinson, PhD, is now an associate professor in Family/Community Health.