Nursing Faculty Teams Awarded RADIANCE Grants

(September 3, 2024) — Georgetown’s Center for Health Equity, in collaboration with the Office of Faculty and Academic Affairs, awarded RADIANCE (Respect, Advocacy, Diversity, Inclusion, ANti-racism, Collaboration, Equity) Grants to several nursing teams.

RADIANCE Grants aim to contribute to community engagement that center a culture of respect, inclusion and belonging by promoting advocacy, diversity, anti-racism and equity.

Exploring the Impact of a Multifunctional Blue and Green Space for High School Students in Collaboration with an Appalachian Community

Project team: Melody Wilkinson, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP; Deb Dole, PhD, CNM, FACNM; Vera Barton-Maxwell, PhD, APRN, FNP-BC; and Jill Ogg-Gress, DNP, APRN, FNP-c, ENP-c

This community based participatory research project will promote agency and advance equity in marginalized Appalachian adolescents. Community leaders and adolescents will collaborate to create a blue and green space with the goal of promoting wellness. The impact of project implementation will be assessed and the results shared with the community.

This phase of work represents a strengthening and expansion of the academic-community partnership with Clay, WV, which began in 2017 when Georgetown students visited the community for experiential learning. Clay has been hit hard by the opioid epidemic with nearly 50% of school aged children residing in foster or kinship care – primarily due to substance abuse.

“Local high school students requested that school administrators create an outdoor learning space to promote wellness,” said Melody Wilkinson, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, FAANP, project leader. “We are honored that the community trusts us to partner with them when responding to their youth. Through this project, we want to give voice to the agency of the adolescents in this community and collaborate to develop culturally relevant, adolescent-friendly solutions that promote wellness in this historically marginalized population.”

Utilizing Oral Histories to Promote Community Engagement: The Wash and Spin to Health (WASH) Community Advisory Board (CAB)

Project team: Roxanne Mirabal-Beltran, PhD, RN; Ra Amin, and Isabella Seddon, MSN

The project explores the use of oral histories to support community partnerships and engagement in WASH, a community-based participatory research (CBPR) health equity initiative. Results will inform practice guidelines for community organizations and researchers seeking to employ oral histories in their community engagement efforts.

WASH partners with DC community members and laundromat owners to design, implement, and evaluate a reproductive health literacy intervention in laundromats. Continual engagement of WASH CAB members is essential for the success and sustainability of CBPR and strengthens existing relationships between research institutions and the communities they live in.

“It is truly exciting to receive this support for a project idea that was wholly that of CAB member Ra Amin,” said project leader Roxanne Mirabal-Beltran, PhD, RN. It is an honor to apply my skills to highlight the value of community-driven and inspired research as well as to collaborate with one of our recent alums, Isabella Seddon, MSN, who brings her expertise in filmmaking to the project. Truly the dream of any researcher equally passionate about CBPR and teaching!”

Empowering the Next Generation of Women’s Health Professionals: A New Initiative to Inspire Diversity in Nursing and Midwifery

Project team: Mara Evans, DNP, CNM; Christina Marea, PhD, MA, MSN, FACNM; Melicia Escobar, DNP, CNM, WHNP-BC, FACNM; Heather Bradford PhD, CNM, FACNM

This project provides an exciting and immersive experience for high school and prelicensure nursing students, particularly those from underrepresented communities.

Students selected for this program will spend a day on the Georgetown campus, engaging in a series of hands-on activities designed to spark their interest in careers as Women’s Health Nurse Practitioners (WHNPs) and midwives. The day’s agenda includes interactive simulations, a tour of Medstar Georgetown University Hospital’s Labor and Delivery unit, and an inspiring panel discussion featuring midwives and WHNPs from diverse backgrounds. These professionals will share their personal journeys, shedding light on the challenges and rewards of working in perinatal health, while emphasizing the critical need for diversity in the field.

By inspiring students from diverse backgrounds to pursue careers in midwifery and as Women’s Health Nurse Practitioners (WHNPs), GUSON is committed to creating a healthcare workforce that truly reflects the communities it serves-—one that can improve outcomes for all pregnant people, particularly those from marginalized communities.

“This initiative is about more than just education; it’s about empowering young people from all backgrounds to see themselves as leaders in sexual and reproductive healthcare,” said project leader Mara Evans, assistant professor of nursing. “By fostering diversity within WHNPs and midwifery, we’re not only enriching the healthcare workforce but also taking critical steps toward addressing the alarming inequities within perinatal health.”

Sharing the Lived Experience of Family Caregivers of Chronically- and Lifelong Disabled Individuals through Digital Storytelling: A Community Collaborative

Project team: Elke Zschaebitz, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC; Kim Bullock, MD; Tiffany-Mae Purdy, DNP, APRN, FNP-C with ProjectAction!

This project will explore the lived healthcare experience of the dyad of family caregivers and their loved ones experiencing a chronic disability through the use of digital storytelling. According to the CDC, 1 in 4 adults in the US have some type of disability, with this diverse ability community including those born with a development or congenital disability and those with an acquired disability. There are also intersectional identities of race, gender, community, health conditions, and others among those who fall underneath this broad umbrella of patient needing supports. Among these individuals, those with minority identities of Black, Brown, Indigenous or people of color, often face additional care needs, barriers to access, and limited resources. They are recognized as having a “double or triple burden.”

Gaps remain in understanding the day-to-day challenges and concerns of caregivers’ experiences, which can be best understood through their authentic voices. Digital storytelling can facilitate an ethical, authentic representation of underrepresented groups with an unbiased presentation of one’s experiences. It is through the individual stories rather than reliance solely on fixed, universal concepts that learning, change and bias is impacted and transformed. ProjectAction!’s partnership and other voices in this project can serve as a pedagogical approach to find meaning as healthcare improvements are advocated for, and educated about.