Funding to Study Nurse Practitioner Workforce Distribution and Inform Debate About Scope of Practice: Dr. Barnes

A principal goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is to increase access to healthcare for all individuals. One critical aspect of this initiative is to ensure that there is an adequate number of healthcare providers to meet increased patient needs. While nurse practitioners (NP) play a critical role in extending access to healthcare by providing a range of primary and specialty care services, little is known about NP workforce distribution and whether they are working in the settings and areas of highest need. Additionally, state-level scope-of-practice laws, which vary greatly, may limit sufficient distribution of NPs into primary care and underserved areas.

Hilary Barnes, a postdoctoral research fellow at Penn Nursing’s Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, has been awarded funding by the American Nurses Foundation’s Eastern Nursing Research Society to learn where NPs are practicing and if state-level scope-of-practice laws influence the likelihood that NPs will practice in primary care versus specialty settings.

The findings from her study, “Nurse practitioner workforce distribution and the effect of state-level scope of practice regulations on practice characteristics,” have the potential to inform national debate about scope of practice and help states ensure that there is a sufficient number of primary care providers available to respond to the increasing patient demand resulting from implementation of the ACA.

Dr. Barnes’ study includes co-investigators Matthew D. McHugh, the Rosemarie Greco Term Endowed Associate Professorship in Advocacy, associate professor of nursing, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar; Linda H. Aiken, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing, professor of sociology and director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research; and J. Margo Brooks Carthon, assistant professor of nursing.

Research and Alumni Honors: Dr. Gai

Feng Gai, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor of Chemistry in the School of Arts & Sciences, received the 2014  American Chemical Society Philadelphia Section Award. First given in 1962, this award recognizes an individual “who, by conspicuous scientific achievement through research, has made important contributions to man’s knowledge and thereby aided the public appreciation of the profession.” Dr. Gai is the 23rd Penn recipient to receive this award since 1962, which includes Alan G. MacDiarmid, Britton Chance and Madeleine Joullié.

Dr. Gai also received the Outstanding Chemistry Alumni Award from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Iowa State University.
His research focuses on how proteins fold from random or quasi-random coils to their biologically functional conformations, with particular interest in the kinetic aspects of the folding mechanisms. Novel laser spectroscopic methods are being used and developed to study the early folding events and folding intermediates.

2014 One Health Awards: Dr. Goren and Bridging the Gaps

Eric Goren, of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania has been named the 2014 recipient of Penn’s One Health Award, in recognition of his exemplary contributions to expanding interdisciplinary education and improving healthcare.
Penn’s Bridging the Gaps program was also honored for excellence in interprofessional service and education.

Dr. Goren is an assistant professor of clinical medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine, and holds secondary appointments at the Schools of Dental Medicine and Nursing. For the past seven years, Dr. Goren has served as co-clinic director and faculty advisor of the United Community Clinic (UCC) in West Philadelphia. UCC provides free medical, social and mental health care services to residents of the medically under-served community of East Parkside.

Through his work with UCC, Dr. Goren, in collaboration with faculty members from the Schools of Nursing and Social Policy & Practice, provides guidance to students from Penn’s Schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine, Nursing, Social Policy & Practice and Arts & Sciences, who work in collaborative inter-professional teams to provide in-depth and multi-disciplinary care to patients. Students receive an unparalleled experience in cross-disciplinary delivery of health promotion services at the community level, and gain an appreciation for the role that each member must play in ensuring comprehensive delivery of care. In recognition of his dedication and mentorship, Dr. Goren received the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence by Non-Standing Faculty at Penn in 2012 (Almanac April 10, 2012) and has received eight other teaching awards in his short time on faculty.  

“I’m honored to be recognized in this way, but I’m also thrilled for an opportunity to raise awareness about what other committed faculty and I are doing collectively at UCC,” said Dr. Goren. “I know that this multi-disciplinary care approach is making a difference for these patients, in addition to providing a valuable and essential learning experience for the students.”

The Bridging the Gaps (BTG) Community Health Internship Program (CHIP) was founded at the University of Pennsylvania and fully implemented in 1991. It began as an internship program for medical students, but soon expanded to include students from Penn’s other health schools and the School of Social Policy & Practice. The program then grew to become an inter-institutional collaboration among the five academic health centers in Philadelphia (Drexel, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Temple, Thomas Jefferson and Penn), as well as academic health center-based programs in Erie, Lehigh Valley, Pittsburgh and New Jersey (Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, Lehigh Valley Health Network/DeSales University, University of Pittsburgh and Rutgers).

Lucy Tuton, executive director of BTG, states that the program “strives to meet its dual mission of service and training through the provision of effective community-based health-related services for vulnerable and economically disadvantaged populations, while offering partnering community organizations an essential and valued extension to existing services.”

The team that has responsibility for the Penn Component Program consists of Lucy Wolf Tuton; Ellen Martinak; Louis M. Bell, Jr.; Anthony Rostain; Peter F. Cronholm; Bridget McCormick; Susan Primavera; Ann L. O’Sullivan; Zvi D. Gellis; Joan I. Gluch; and Mary Frances Cummings.

BTG CHIP students are placed with community organizations where they work in multi-disciplinary teams. Across all the participating academic institutions, 10 to 12 health and service professions are represented each year by roughly 250 student participants. This interprofessional approach brings an array of talents to community sites and gives students the opportunity to learn about and collaborate with professions other than their own, preparing them for future cross-disciplinary teamwork.

The One Health Award, in its second year of promoting One Health initiatives and Inter-professional Education, was established by the deans of the four health schools at Penn—the Perelman School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, the School of Dental Medicine and the School of Veterinary Medicine.
The One Health concept is a worldwide strategy to expand interdisciplinary collaboration and communication in all aspects of health care for humans, animals and the environment.

APNA Award: Dr. Hanrahan

Nancy Hanrahan, Dr. Lenore H. Kurlowicz Term Associate Professor of Nursing, has been selected as the winner of the 2014 American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) Award for Excellence in Media. The award will be presented at the APNA 28th Annual Conference, being held from October 22-25.

Dr. Hanrahan is a national leader in psychiatric mental health nursing and known for her work documenting the psychiatric nurse workforce and her expertise in system-level mental health services research. More specifically, her research involves examining the extent to which organizational traits of patient care environments and nurse staffing are associated with patient outcomes. She is a faculty member in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research at Penn Nursing, as well as a Senior Fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hanrahan is involved with state and national policy initiatives such as parity, quality indicators, creating a web-based advanced practice psychiatric nurse employment guide and reviewing RUC codes for reimbursement.

The APNA Annual Awards celebrate psychiatric-mental health nurses who inspire us with their excellence and dedication. The APNA honors members who are leaders, visionaries, scientists and much more, but who are all exemplary psychiatric-mental health nurses.

Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering: Dr. Harkavy

Ira Harkavy, associate vice president and founding director of the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, was recently invited by the Director of the National Science Foundation, France A. Córdova, to serve a second term as a member of NSF’s Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE), from June 1, 2015 through May 31, 2017. Dr. Harkavy was also invited to serve as vice chair of the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering from October 1, 2014 through May 31, 2017.  Dr. Harkavy has accepted this honor and will assume the responsibilities of vice chair immediately. The Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering advises the National Science Foundation on policies and programs to encourage full participation by women, underrepresented minorities and persons with disabilities within all levels of America’s science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) enterprise.

Special Recognition: Ms. Ingrum

Cora Ingrum, director of the Office of Multicultural Programs at Penn Engineering, has been selected to receive a Special Recognition Award in the category of College-Level Promotion at the 2014 Women of Color STEM Conference. This award recognizes professionals in higher education who lead successful, timely programs that generate interest in STEM among women, racial and ethnic minorities and that fit the needs of society and the corporate and public sectors.

Ms. Ingrum has led what is now known as the Office of Multicultural Programs at Penn Engineering since its inception in 1973. She has held a range of positions and titles over the last 40-plus years, but their common theme has been the recruitment, retention and support of underrepresented students, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

“Cora is a legendary force of nature in this regard, having worked tirelessly for over four decades to mentor and foster the careers of scores upon scores of students at the University of Pennsylvania and beyond,” noted Eduardo Glandt, Nemirovsky Family Dean of Penn Engineering. “She succeeds because her mentees know of her genuine interest in their progress, of her efforts on their behalf and of her affection for them, which is always reciprocated.”

Ms. Ingrum will be presented with the award on October 24, in Detroit, Michigan.

Blue Planet Prize: Dr. Janzen

Daniel Janzen of the department of biology in the School of Arts & Sciences was chosen to receive a 2014 Blue Planet Prize, an international environmental award sponsored by the Asahi Glass Foundation. The award announcement recognizes Dr. Janzen and Costa Rica’s Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad for work on sustainable development, environmental education and conservation of biodiversity. The award will be presented on November 12 in Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Janzen is the Thomas G. and Louise E. DiMaura Term Chair and professor of conservation biology at Penn. He has studied and catalogued the biodiversity of Costa Rica for more than four decades, involving local people in the research and restoration work. Together with his wife, biologist Winnie Hallwachs, Dr. Janzen helped create a tropical forest reserve covering 163,000 hectares, the Área de Conservación Guanacaste in northwestern Costa Rica.

Two Blue Planet Prizes are awarded each year to individuals or organizations “that make outstanding achievements in scientific research and its application and, in so doing, help to solve global environmental problems.”

Inaugural TANG Prize for Lifetime of Work: Dr. Seligman

Martin Seligman, the director of the Positive Psychology Center and the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology in the School of Arts & Sciences, will be honored with the inaugural TANG Prize for Achievements in Psychology, November 12, during a ceremony at the University of Toronto. 

Awarded by the TANG Foundation in Toronto, the prize highlights the research and career achievements of leading scholars. Dr. Seligman was selected for his lifetime of work in psychology, which has had a long-term and substantial impact around the globe.
As a part of his award, Dr. Seligman will receive $100,000 (Canadian).

Known as the “father of positive psychology,” Dr. Seligman has generated a lifetime of research in the discipline, which applies psychological studies and interventions with the aim of proactively improving mental health and well being, rather than merely responding to mental illness.

In addition to developing the concept of and consequences related to “learned helplessness,” Dr. Seligman’s research has shown routes toward improving optimism, self-discipline and social engagement as well as resilience in the face of tragedy and emotional distress.

A former president of the American Psychological Association, he has received research support from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Aging, National Science Foundation, US Department of Education, Guggenheim Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Mellon Foundation, John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Almost all of Dr. Seligman’s achievements have occurred during his time at Penn; he is entering his 50th year as part of the Penn community, having come to the University as a graduate student in psychology in 1964. He joined the faculty in 1972.  

The TANG Prize for Achievements in Psychology honors a living internationally recognized scholar in psychology who has demonstrated creativity and rigor and whose record of achievement has left an indelible mark on the field.

Established by Fay Tang in 2006, the TANG Foundation is a private institution headquartered in Toronto. Its objective is to raise awareness of the importance of psychological health in the world, and the aim of the TANG Prize for Achievements in Psychology is to carry on its family tradition of helping others to achieve well being.