Nursing | Penn Today

A black-and-white image of health care professionals standing around a patient in a surgical suite during the Vietnam War.

Working hand in hand with the nation’s largest integrated care system

In a unique partnership, Penn Nursing collaborates with the Veterans Health Administration on a range of issues, from pain management to end-of-life care.

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As a nursing innovator, Therese Richmond thinks beyond hospital walls

During a four-decade career, Penn Nursing’s associate dean for research and innovation has tackled topics like gun violence by accounting for her patients’ environment in their long-term recovery.

A home health care aide sits at a kitchen table with a person and applies a blood pressure cuff, home health visits reduce sepsis readmission.

Improving outcomes for sepsis patients

More than 1 million sepsis survivors are discharged annually from acute care hospitals in the United States. Although the majority of these patients receive post-acute care services, with more than a third coming to home health care, sepsis survivors account for a majority of readmissions nationwide.

person in wheelchair looks out the window, elder in an eldercare facility with a lack of nurses present.

Nursing home nurses lack time and resources for complete care

Evidence from hospitals has shown for years that nurses are more likely to leave necessary patient care undone when employed in settings with insufficient staff and resources. This “missed care” has been linked to poor care quality.

Philadelphia Inquirer

Nurses in nursing homes say they can’t finish their work and many feel burned out

Elizabeth White, Linda Aiken, and Matthew McHugh of the School of Nursing led a study of nurse burnout in nursing facilities. “I think that this just kind of raises an alarm,” said White. “Nurses are saying that they just don't have the time and resources to do all the care that needs to be done.”

The Washington Post

Is bias keeping female, minority patients from getting proper care for their pain?

Salimah Meghani of the School of Nursing spoke about physician bias in treating minority patients for pain. “Since pain is subjective and relies on patients’ own testimony,” she said, “disproportionately trusting the self-reports of some groups over others can result in discriminatory care.”

Two people, one older, one younger sitting and looking at their phones.

What influences how parents and their gay adolescent sons talk about sexual health at home?

Research from Penn found that even when parent-child conversations avoid heteronormative stereotypes, outside factors like mass media and religion—those beyond the parents’ control—can reinforce them.

Two students sitting on a stone statue, one on a computer, the other on a phone.

A push for emergency texting services across the United States

Today, fewer than half of U.S. counties have this capability. Rising juniors Anthony Scarpone-Lambert and Kirti Shenoy want to change that with their nonprofit Text-911.

Back of a person's head overlooking a city horizon.

Predicting post-injury depression and PTSD risk

Up to half of all acute injury patients experience post-traumatic stress disorder in the months after injury. For urban black men, some of whom have experienced prior trauma, childhood adversity, and neighborhood disadvantage, acute post-injury stress responses are exacerbated.

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