Nursing School educates young mothers

With the highest rate of infant mortality in the country, Memphis, Tenn., has a separate area at its local cemetery dedicated just to infant burials.

But one student and two recent alumnae from the School of Nursing have been trying to remedy this problem. They traveled there earlier this year as part of the U.S. Office of Minority Health’s “A Healthy Baby Begins With You” campaign, aimed at educating young mothers about infant health and care.

Their work will be featured in a short documentary produced and directed by Tonya Lee Lewis — the campaign’s honorary chairwoman — and her husband, Spike Lee on Nov. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Claire M. Fagin Hall auditorium.

Along with students and alumni from other schools across the country, 2008 alumna Tushana Fowlin, 2009 alumna Stephanie Chu and Nursing senior Jaleisha Jackson walked door-to-door, seeking donations for and educating mothers in need of financial help.

In one case, they collected donations for a 22-year-old mother who did not have enough money to buy a crib for her newborn baby.

Nursing professor Mary Lou Siantz, who organized Penn’s involvement with the campaign, has been secretary to the Advisory Committee on Infant Mortality since the Clinton Administration was in the White House. Penn is the only school that sent nurses on the campaign.

“Public health nurses are integral to the health education process,” she said, “so when we were organizing the campaign this year, I stuck my hand up and insisted that we have nurses on the team.”

Fowlin agreed. “I don’t know why they hadn’t thought of involving nursing schools before,” she said.

All three Penn nurses involved were selected because they specialize in minority health.

Before going to Memphis, Fowler, Chu and Jackson attended training sessions in Washington, D.C., where they learned about infant mortality and how to approach the problems they may face while campaigning. While there, they were also given the task of bringing the message back to Penn’s campus and the West Philadelphia community.

Jackson described the whole experience — both Memphis and D.C. — as being “pretty phenomenal.”

“I was planning on going into nursing anesthesia,” she said. “Now I’m definitely looking at a career in public health after going to Memphis.”

For many of the families in the areas they visited, “a knock on the door isn’t always the most pleasant thing,” said Chu. “More often than not it’s the police, and so it wasn’t always easy getting them to listen to us.”

According to Siantz, however, reaching out to the mothers who did take the time to listen to them was made easier because the volunteers were often close in age to the mothers.

“We need to close the gap on infant mortality,” Siantz said. “And it’s pretty clear how vital nurses are to the whole education process because by the end of the week, every team wanted a nurse.”

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.