Letters to the Editor

Letters to Johns Hopkins Nursing

Email 200 words or less to [email protected] or send to: Editor, Johns Hopkins Nursing 525 N. Wolfe Street The House, Room 107 Baltimore, MD 21205 We welcome all letters regarding the magazine or issues relating to Hopkins nurses. Letters will be edited for length and clarity.

I am not an “expert,” but am very passionate about global healthcare. Prior to having any formal healthcare education, I volunteered for 18 months in medical humanitarian aid in Nepal, first in a community clinic, then in a district government hospital, and lastly, in a small mission hospital.

Everyone benefits by empowering individuals and thus empowering the people with education, training, and mentoring.  Offering a “hand-out-only” type of healthcare creates dependency and a “welfare mentality,” thus disempowering the people. I support the concept of meeting healthcare needs, while training and preparing the nationals to be able to take over as the healthcare educators and leaders in their countries or within their people group. Also, teaching community health education and preventative health is essential: teaching the individual how to take responsibility for the daily choices that affect their health.

Carol A. Jensen, BSN, RN
Case Manager, The Queen’s Medical Center
Honolulu, HI

Coping with Death is an Important Life LessonDr. Jodi Shafer makes an excellent point [in “Lessons from Dying,” Summer 2010]. You [as nurses] must also take care of yourself. Like the airline personnel say in the case of an emergency “put on your own oxygen mask—and then help others around you.”

Jodi is the exemplar of that kind of person. I was worried that we would never hear that delightful laugh ever again on the 4th floor of the Pinkard Building. It has been slow in returning, but it has returned. In caring for herself, she has taught us all an important life lesson. Hugs to you, Jodi.

Patti Abbott
Associate Professor
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing

New Online Magazine Gets Two Thumbs UpWe received “thumbs up” from many, many readers who visited the new online magazine. You can check it out at http://web1.johnshopkins.edu/~nursingmag, learn more on page 8, or keep reading to find out what people are saying.

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It looks great. It’s eminently readable, with an accessible and sharp design.

David McKay Wilson
Writer

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Well done! Love how you draw folks in with the graphics and succinct text, and if they want more they can get right to it. Very nice.

Ann Dee Lee
Coordinator of Marketing and Public Relations
University of Central Oklahoma

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Wanted to say congrats on the online Johns Hopkins Nursing. Love it! The articles on diversity are terrific and the list of publications fabulous.

Stephanie Wilmer, MSN, RN
Nursing Project Analyst for Magnet and Quality Outcomes
The Johns Hopkins Hospital

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It’s beautiful! What a sleek design and it’s so easy to navigate. Congratulations!

Rita Buettner
Managing Editor
Loyola College

Correction

The center fold-out map “Caring Around the World” (Summer 2010) should have listed Brittney Gangemi ’11 as the student conducting research at Yanbian University in China. Janine “Jade” Borromeo ’11, along with Anna Karuba Kirby and Erin Meehan of the accelerated class of 2010, assisted in neuroimmunological studies at the University of Newcastle, Australia.