Nursing School co-sponsors major research conference

Nurses from 11 states are congregating in Philadelphia this week to attend a major nursing research conference co-sponsored by the University's Nursing School. The Eastern Nursing Research Society Conference -- which began yesterday and continues through Tuesday -- is an annual event designed to allow nurses to share new research and implement it in patient care. This year's theme is "Vision and Voices: Passages Into The 21st Century." Penn Director of Nursing Practice and Research Jane Barnsteiner coordinated the event -- which Nursing Dean Norma Lang called a "major, major research conference" -- and is serving as the conference's chairperson. After several research presentations, the ENRS officially kicked off the conference yesterday with a reception and speeches by the deans of the five nursing schools that co-sponsored the conference and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). Specter noted that "health and education are the two highest priorities in America today," and that, therefore, "our obligation is to try to make the allocations as fair as we can." He also stressed the importance of nurses in American society, and added that the federal government has increased its funding for nursing research. Nurses -- including a large number of Penn faculty -- will make presentations during the conference on topics ranging from "Managed Care and the Nurse Labor Market" to "An Analysis of the Omaha Classification System in the Hospital Care of the Elderly." In a presentation tomorrow, for example, Lang will "challenge each of the researchers in the kinds of language that they use to describe their research and how this language can be put into a language system. "In nursing, we are looking for common languages around the world to be able to share our science and our research," she said. ENRS President Cheryl Stetle described the goal of nursing research as studying the "youngest of the young to the oldest of the old, to enhance their function and ability to stay well, to cope with adverse events and to prevent more adverse events when they are ill." Stetle also stressed the need to "build on the research of others," noting that "you really exponentially learn about an area" through collaboration with other professionals. And Barnsteiner emphasized the importance of "the dissemination of nursing research findings." She added that the conference offers nurses an opportunity "to meet with colleagues throughout the region -- not just in their own workplace." And many participants agreed that sharing research is the only way to keep patient care up-to-date. "The distinct thing about nursing research is that we are in a distinct position? to be working within a number of expert disciplines to be able to collaborate and have our own body of knowledge," explained Assistant Professor of Nursing Margaret Mahon, whose presentation will be about the effects of a child's death on his or her family.