Creating Knowledge for the World

Creating Knowledge for the World

The School of Nursing raised $55.2 million during the seven-year Johns Hopkins Knowledge for the World Campaign. These funds went toward:

New building addition:  $15.3 million
Student scholarships and PhD fellowships:  $16.7 million
Faculty and program support:  $19.2 million
Unrestricted support:  $4.0 million

Blaustein Fellow Seeks to Help Traumatized Children

In 2005, the Morton K. and Jane Blaustein Foundation endowed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship that will “go a long way toward training the next generation of mental health nurses,” according to Deborah Gross, DNSc, RN, FAAN, the JHUSON Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Professor in Mental Health and Psychiatric Nursing.

The second Blaustein Fellow, Shelly Eisbach, PhD, MSN, RN has just begun her work at Hopkins, working closely with Gross to pursue a course of study and research on the effects of childhood traumas, such as maltreatment, disaster, or death of a parent, on the child’s future development. With advanced coursework at the School of Public Health and an interdisciplinary cadre of mentors, Eisbach plans to develop nursing intervention strategies to help children cope with such distress.

“I hope that my work will lead to practical steps that nurses could use in schools or primary care settings,” says Eisbach.  “I want to help these children deal with past trauma.”

Gurtler Scholar Will “Pay it Forward”

“The two years I spent in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan solidified my commitment to working for the public good,” says Marguerite Baty ’04, MSN/MPH ’06. “I later had the opportunity to work with AIDS orphans in Kenya and Tanzania, and that shifted my career interest to nursing.”

Baty received funding for her nursing education from the John R. and Ruth Ward Gurtler Scholarship, established in memory of alumna Ruth Ward Gurtler ’29. She has since earned her baccalaureate and master’s degrees and is working on her PhD.  She plans to continue working in the area of women’s health, both in research and practice.

Says Baty: “I look forward to contributing to the community as a way to ‘pay forward’ the generosity shown me by the Foundation.”

Kidney Donors Find Support with Lyne Funding

Donating a kidney can be the biggest decision of a person’s life,” says assistant professor and transplant nurse Laura Taylor, PhD, RN. “It’s so important for donors and their families to have the information and emotional support they need both before and after the procedure.”

With funding from the Dorothy Evans Lyne Fund, given in late 2001 by a grateful Hopkins patient to support pilot studies by Hopkins nurses, Taylor is collaborating with Pamela Walker, RN, Living Donor Transplant Nurse Coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.  Together, they created the Living Donor Information Network for Caregivers (LINC), a web-based discussion board that provides a forum where caregivers, using pseudonyms to protect their identity, can exchange practical tips on ways to make the donor, usually a spouse or relative, more comfortable.

Taylor says the project has provided an unprecedented resource for living kidney donors and helped launch the next phase of her career as well.  Thanks to her successful pilot study, she is now applying for larger research grants to continue her research.

CareFirst Scholarship Ensures Educators for Nursing’s Future

“Nursing and teaching are not mutually exclusive,” says Virginia Baker.  “In fact, I believe these two passions are inherently dependent on each other.”

With a CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield Project RN Scholarship, Baker is earning her master’s degree at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.  As part of the CareFirst Commitment Campaign, the scholarship is provided to nursing students committed to teaching, in an effort to increase the number of nurse educators and therefore address the nation’s growing nursing shortage.

“I want to teach, inspire, and challenge others,” says Baker.  “I am convinced that the best way for me to influence the world is to equip the next generation of nurses to be critical thinkers, ministers of mercy, and professional caregivers.”

These and other achievements were made possible because of the generous support of our alumni, friends, and corporate partners during the Knowledge for the World Campaign.
Thank you.  www.jhu.edu/impact