Frances E. Ashe-Goins, RN, MPH

1. What inspired you to become a nurse?
I always wanted to be a nurse. I am the oldest of five girls and one boy. I was the one always fixing dolls with broken limbs by putting bandages on them, holding them tight. I remember when a bird fell out of its nest. It was injured, and I picked up the bird and put it back in the nest. I have always wanted to take care of people. As the eldest, my family looked to me to fulfill that role.

2. What are your specialties, and how did you get there?
I've always been involved with health promotion and disease prevention, which includes family and community health, but more recently women's health. Typically, women make most of the health care choices for the family. In that way I am more recently involved in women's health. Everything you hear about health care, who will carry out the message, who will act on the message, it tends to be the mother. However many times they care for everyone else and tend to put themselves last on the list. The biggest effort is to ensure that women take care of themselves too. When you are healthier, you can take better care of others.

3. What is your motivation to work in health care policy?
I want to help people live longer, healthier and better lives without disability and diseases. I am involved with efforts across the country, through numerous organizations to address HIV/AIDS prevention and care. It's interesting to see how this issue has evolved; we can never forget that prevention works. With many other health issues such as heart disease, diabetes, lupus, cancer, obesity, family and intimate violence, I try to help them see that they can change small things in their lives. It's great to be in a situation where you can see things from both the policy and community perspective. I take the opportunity to go out into the community to speak on these issues to assist others in making small, but consistent steps toward good health.

4. Are nurses teachers?
From the health education aspect, we have to teach people how to help themselves. We shouldn't have to live with poor health outcomes from diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke, which commonly afflict African Americans. We can make small changes that will enable us to lead healthier, happier lives. For example, if you want to drink a can of soda pop, for everyone, you should drink two glasses of water. If you want to eat chocolate candy, then balance it out with an additional 30-minute walk. I try to take people from where they are, to help them see how they can make small changes in their habits that have long term-positive consequences.

5. What do you like best about working in the nursing field?
This gets back to the core of me . . . to help people.

6. What, if any, barriers have you had to overcome?
When you have an idea for a project, as with anything you want to accomplish in life, it takes a lot of will power and knowledge, and you must have a strong commitment to get things done, despite the naysayers. Nurses are not seen as creative people, but we are. We see the holistic approach, which is the total person, not just certain body parts.

7. Do you have a personal story you'd like to share?
Early in my nursing career, I was assigned to care for a 10-year-old boy who was in the pediatric unit with leukemia. He was the first child I ever saw with the illness. When I walked in, I was so apprehensive. I didn't know what to say to him. But he introduced himself and said, "I have leukemia, I might die any day." He explained what it meant to live with leukemia. He had such a positive outlook on life.

Even with the illness, he had the perspective that "I'm going to do it all." I have that same outlook today; no matter what I'm working on or when, I do the best that I can, for as long as I can.

8. What are your most proud accomplishments?
Through my work for the National Commission on AIDS, I had the chance to coordinate the very first commission hearing with sports celebrity Magic Johnson. The day of the hearing we found out the building had been flooded, and we had to move everything to the Great Hall at DHHS. To be able to move the hearing, alert those involved and the media, and pull it off was quite an accomplishment. It tested my entire nursing experience, to work under a crisis situation and yet find the resolve to be pleasant.

There are other programs that I have created, including the collaborative work group on women and HIV/AIDS, the nurses' and social worker summits on violence against women, the lupus awareness project and the national young women's health summit, for which I recently received an award. This award is to recognize the creation and implementation of these summits for three years. These young women's-focused conferences are an example of the health prevention model. The goals of the conferences were to encourage youth to identify health problems in their communities, create projects to address these health issues and serve as women's health advocates all over the world.

9. What are your plans for the future?
I would like to continue to be a mentor for young people (interns, service fellows, staff assistants). We have to be sure there's someone taking up the charge for health promotion and disease prevention.

10. What words of wisdom do you have for a student just graduating?
Be committed. Don't go into nursing just because you want to make money. You need people skills, knowledge and compassion. An unhappy person in nursing will not have happy patients. Choose it for your passion to help others. Live life in the way that is most pleasing to you.

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