By Monica R. McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN
According to the authors of The Woodhull Study Revisited, nurses and individuals with expertise in nursing are only cited between 2 percent and 4 percent of the time in media generated for the public. Few, if any, schools of nursing offer training in media relations, advocacy or leadership skills that include ethical conduct of research, leading clinical research studies and facilitating processes to develop a research and policy agenda for nurses. The University of California, San Francisco, seeks to change this.
In August 2018, under the leadership of Monica R. McLemore, PhD, MPH, RN, in partnership with Midwifery Specialty Director Kim Dau ,CNM, MS, and Kimberly Baltzell, RN, PhD, FAAN, director of the Center for Global Health in the School of Nursing, nine nursing and public health clinicians, students and scholars from around the country participated in the first Generative Incubator to develop these fundamental skills.
Participants – who came from California, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Utah – included professionals working across organizations in nursing and public health, from direct clinical care provision to home visiting for Nurse-Family Partnership.
The Incubator – co-sponsored by Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH), the UCSF School of Nursing, and the Scholars Strategy Network – provided intensive content for three days, in addition to opportunities for networking, strategizing and deep thinking about how to maximize nursing voices in public media. Alicia Swartz, RN, PNP, PhD, a postdoctoral scholar working with McLemore, was essential to the program’s success. Many distinguished guests joined this stellar group of nurses and public health practitioners , including Diana Taylor, RN, MS, PhD, professor emerita and co-chair of the Women’s Health Expert Panel of the American Academy of Nursing; Lina Buffington, PhD, executive director of Nurses for Sexual and Reproductive Health; and many faculty members from ANISRH and the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Their future work will include a co-authored piece for two blogs, an invited, peer-reviewed article for a journal special issue on health disparities and equity, and two abstract submissions for professional meetings in 2019.
This Generative Incubator is part of McLemore’s newly funded work to develop pre- and postdoctoral scholars and other learners in creating programs of research in reproductive justice. Over the next three years, the program will provide funding for scholars to increase both the number of trainees and the capacity of nurse scholars to design studies that prioritize reproductive justice as the primary approach to reproductive health services provision, including abortion, birth, contraception, healthy sexuality, parenting and pleasure.
For more information about these programs, please contact Monica McLemore or Helen Arega, MPA.
(Photo, from left: Laura Britton, PhD(c), BSN, RN; Julia Quinn WHNP-(c) BSN, RN; Katherine Simmonds, PhD, WHNP-BC; Danielle Pendergrass DNP; Rebecca Duncan; BSN, RN; Monica R. McLemore PhD, MPH, RN, April Bell PhD(c), Ifeyinwa Asiodu PhD, MSN, RN; Lisa Stern MA, MSN, RN.)