Howard University

Dorothy L. Powell, EdD, RN, FAAN
Joseph Camphor, Third-Year Nursing Student
Charmaine Hutchinson, Fourth-Year Nursing Student
Ambrosia Fisher, Fourth-Year Nursing Student
Dianne Johnson-Thomas, Fourth-Year Nursing Student
Tania Thorne, May 2002 Graduate

Dorothy L. Powell, EdD, RN, FAAN

1. What inspired you to become a nurse?
I grew up in North Carolina. I've always been passionate about helping people. My aunt was a teacher who helped those less fortunate. She was a humanitarian and influenced my values. I discovered that I could play out those values in nursing. Initially I wanted to attend medical school. Then I worked as a nurse's aide while in high school and had the opportunity to work with registered nurses. I was most impressed by an RN with a BS in nursing. I came to appreciate the nurse's ability to interact with people and assist them in managing and overcoming their health problems. I really enjoy the patient interaction and the fulfillment I felt in helping. I realized how much more I could do with a degree.

2. What are your specialties, and how did you get there?
I attended Hampton University and during my junior year I spent a semester in England observing the nurse midwifery system. I decided to immediately enter graduate school and major in maternal-infant health nursing. I first worked as an OB nurse. Then I discovered that I could make a greater impact by being involved in education. I have had a marvelous career. Nursing is the best thing that I could ever have done. It affords so much diversity: the caring, the advocacy, the education, the research. There are so many opportunities. My career has been so rich!

3. What role does Howard University play in nurse development?
Our university has a major research mission that we embrace. We need to ensure that our programs and curricula are consistent with the overall thrust of the university. Consequently, we accept seriously our charge to cultivate an interest in research and the science of nursing, while simultaneously producing competent compassionate providers of care. We expect much of our graduates; that they will be creative problem solvers capable of defining and managing complex problems, with a special focus on caring for those who are underserved with limited access to quality care.

Howard University values the development of nursing leadership for "America and the global community." We want to instill in students a continuous quest for learning and encourage continuation of the educational process through master's and doctoral-level education. Our nation cries out for more doctoral-prepared minority nurse scientists, and we want to become known as an institution were we cultivate that interest.

To see the research focus evolving at Howard has been very gratifying for me. The strength of our faculty has grown as a result of it. We are currently developing an honors track that will fast-pace students to PhDs. We recently established our own Nursing Partnership Center on Health Disparities Research with our collaborators at the Yale University School of Nursing.

4. What are some of the research programs offered by Howard University?
We have developed a partnership with Yale University School of Nursing by establishing the Yale Howard Scholars Program three years ago. The idea evolved from a brainstorming session with Yale's Dean of Nursing Catherine Gilliss. It has always been my vision that if we could fast track students to earn their doctorates, we could recruit increased numbers of scientifically inclined students who want to mature into expert nurses with a strong scientific orientation. It is our hope that they will also want to solve some of the very complex and perplexing problems of health disparities.

Yale shared that interested and was eager to increase the number of talented minority students in their graduate programs. It was obvious that we had a win-win combination. Through the program, Howard student scholars spend the summer at Yale working with accomplished researchers. They carve out independent studies for themselves. At the end of the six weeks' residential experience in New Haven, Conn., they present their experiences and findings to other students and the campus community. We have seen growth, increased confidence, and a seriousness of purpose among the students following the summer immersion experience.

We also have other research-intensive internships for students, such as through the Minority International Research Training (MIRT) Program collaboratively conducted with the University of Illinois in Chicago and the Jackson Heart Train Study at the University of Mississippi. MIRT Scholars have spent 10 weeks conducting research in Africa, Chile and Thailand. Other students accept research internships at the National Institutes of Health during the summer. Still other students apply their research training through practice internships at such well-known medical centers as the Mayo Clinic and our own Howard University Hospital.

Each year we host the M. Elizabeth Carnegie Research Day, where accomplished nurse researchers and students, or research scholars as they are known, present their studies. The event represents a major turning point and motivator for all students. Not only do they admire and appreciate what their peers are doing, but they also realize greater possibilities and opportunities for their careers. There has been a major increase in graduate school applications among the research scholars and the student body as a whole. The programs and their successes are sending out such powerful messages to students and faculty. It helps us with recruitment and enables us to make an even more significant contribution to nursing in the future. We expect to evolve into a major educational and research-generating entity as our faculty are funded for more and more research projects, as we expand our research center, as we publish increasing numbers of research-based articles and as we groom the next generation of minority nurse scientists.

5. What is your vision for the programs that you lead?
By providing a research-enhanced environment, we hope to contribute to producing tomorrow's nurse leaders while at the same time addressing the shortage of nurses. There is an inadequate number of minority nurses. Given the current health care environment, we must educate talented young people to provide care within their communities and around the world. Howard is an institution committed to the education of talented students, with a special emphasis on African Americans. We must continue to stress the development of competent and sensitive nurse providers, with a focus on eliminating the disproportionate prevalence of health problems within minority populations.

We have to think about how we can move our students quickly -- with interest, with intent and with motivation -- to get through college, complete graduate school and earn a PhD. After a dose of an enriched research experience at Howard, their whole attitude about life becomes transformed. They see how they can really make a difference by becoming nurse scientists, whether by conducting research or providing an expert quality of care!

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Joseph Camphor, Third-Year Nursing Student

1. What was your summer research experience?
I participated in the Jackson Heart TRAIN Project at the University of Mississippi. This is a program that encourages African Americans to explore research careers. I worked on a research project that studied alcohol (wine, beer and distilled spirits) and its effect on cardiovascular disease. It was an intense eight weeks' experience during the summer. I was responsible for gathering material and collecting data on my own.

2. What did you like best about your experience?
Our work gives us, as students and as African Americans, the opportunity to alleviate some of these health disparities. While in Jackson, Miss., I also had the chance to work at the VA Medical Center. I had the opportunity to see things from the doctors' and nurses' points of view. I discovered that nurses were more social with the patients. You have to be a caring person to be a nurse and be able to interact well with people.

3. What are your plans for the future?
I plan to attend graduate school. It's not an option; it's a requirement. I now plan to major in cardiovascular nursing. The research project motivated and pointed me in the right direction.

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Charmaine Hutchinson, Fourth-Year Nursing Student

1. What was your summer research experience?
I participated in the Yale Howard Scholars Program for six weeks during the summer. I had planned to get my bachelor's, and then I heard about the research program. I conducted a study in cardiology critical care. I had a phenomenal experience at Yale. The professors were so supportive.

2. What did you like best about your experience?
The research program took me to the next level. I feel like I can do anything now. I now plan to get my master's and doctorate. Nursing is such an important profession. Many people are living longer, and the elderly, especially, need nurses to take care of them.

3. Why did you choose nursing?
When I was 10 years old, I was in a car accident. I had a concussion and was in the hospital for two months. I kept telling the nurses that I wanted to do what they did. My aunt was a nurse. Role models are very important to me.

4. What are your plans for the future?
I hope to attend Johns Hopkins University and get a master's in public health. I'd like to eventually go back to Jamaica, where I'm from, and teach at the university.

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Ambrosia Fisher, Fourth-Year Nursing Student

1. What was your summer research experience?
I was a Yale Howard Scholar and worked in the area of child mental health. I studied caretakers' perceptions of behavioral problems in minority preschoolers. I had no idea how big the problem really was! It's a big issue, and we are not addressing it. I developed a proposal for a project that I am working on now.

2. What did you like best about your experience?
I am ready to work with patients, and this experience gets me there faster. It was a great experience. The professors were phenomenal; they were so open and blunt about everything. Research nurses are able to provide more comprehensive care. They can talk to patients, determine what is affecting them and understand more completely the health care issues.

3. Why did you choose nursing?
I started as a bio major, and I had several friends who were studying nursing. The staff here has been so supportive. I thought about premed, but then I had the chance to intern at Howard University Hospital, and I became more interested in the role of nurses. I am so glad I switched my major. It was the best decision I have made.

4. What are your plans for the future?
I hope to go to Africa next summer for the 10-week research program. I want to begin my career in the clinical setting. It's hard to see the problems without spending time there. I also would love to teach. I already have a job at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C., and I hope to attend graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania.

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Dianne Johnson-Thomas, Fourth-Year Nursing Student

1. What was your summer research experience?
I participated in the Yale Howard Scholars Program. For my research project, I worked with African American breast cancer survivors and examined the effects of menopause. It was a full-spectrum experience using a quantitative research design, and included focus groups and support groups. I also had the opportunity to shadow nurses on the outpatient cancer unit.

2. What did you like best about your experience?
It was a wonderful experience. The warmth the professors provided is unique. There was a great support structure. Everything I've learned through my experiences at Howard and Yale I can now apply to my career in nursing. I feel that I'm prepared.

3. Why did you choose nursing?
This is actually a career change for me from political science. I had a preterm delivery of my baby, and it was that hospital experience that inspired me to think about nursing. I now have two boys, Mikail and Malik.

4. What are your plans for the future?
Before I worked in the research program I was undecided about what I wanted to specialize in. Now I know it will be women's reproductive health. I would love to open a women's health clinic. I have a job in oncology at the National Institutes of Health.

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Tania Thorne, May 2002 Graduate

1. What was your summer research experience?
I was a Yale Howard Scholar and worked in the area of pediatric diabetes.

2. Why did you choose nursing?
When I was in the military I saw how outstanding the nurses were. They inspired me. They were diligent, proficient and devoted to their profession. Hospitals can't function without nurses. Patients need a certain level of care. Nurses manage care holistically with compassion, efficiency and knowledge.

3. What are your plans for the future?
Right now I work as a travel and contract registered nurse at various hospitals within the metro D.C. area. My future plans are to apply to graduate school at Yale University for its Acute Care Nurse Practitioner track. I hope to begin next fall. I'm currently writing a manuscript of my research substudy on "Carbohydrate Intake in High-Risk Youth for Type-2 Diabetes" for publication. I plan to redesign and conduct the study at Howard University Hospital. I eventually plan on obtaining my PhD in research, with a concentration on Type-2 diabetes in children.

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