Research Centers - University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

“The family’s well-being as a unit
has an impact on the child’s ability
to function. Oncology resources and
programs have been more familyoriented.
We need to learn from
these programs and develop similar
resources for other illnesses…”
that those patients with fundamental
religious views, or who are from lower
income brackets, are more likely not to take
medications or use healthcare providers at
all. “We have to figure out how to negotiate
those beliefs and talk about them with the
patients,” says Dr. Lewis.
Health disparities cut across more
than racial lines. “We live in a diverse,
multicultural world where healthcare
and health outcomes disparities continue
to exist in people who are marginalized
because of age, gender, race/ethnicity,
poverty, or residential status,” says
Marilyn Sawyer Sommers, Nu ’72, PhD,
RN, FAAN, the Lillian S. Brunner Professor
of Medical-Surgical Nursing. “Scientific
work that develops or tests culturallycompetent,
developmentally-appropriate,
and theoretically-based interventions is
critical to the reduction and elimination of
health disparities and ultimately improves
the health of the populations we serve.”
Dr. Sommers is currently researching if
postmenopausal women sustain more
injury after rape than younger women and
if women with dark skin are less likely than
women with light skin to have their genital
injuries identified and treated, noting “I am
trying to determine whether the standard
forensic rape examination is appropriate
for all women and improve that exam by
developing new technologies that can
be used in emergency departments.” Dr.
Sommers recently received a four-year $2.3
million R01 National Institute of Nursing
Research (NINR) and National Institute
of Mental Health grant to continue this
research.
Children are another segment of the
population that often finds itself without
a voice in the healthcare system. To help
remedy that, Associate Professor of Nursing
of Children Terri H. Lipman, GNu ’83, GRN ’91,
PhD, CRNP, FAAN, developed and maintains
the only registry of pediatric type 1 diabetes
in Philadelphia and is investigating the
epidemiology of type 2 diabetes in the city’s
schoolchildren. “Type 2 diabetes was not
seen in pediatric practice, and therefore has
not been included in pediatric research until
recently,” says Dr. Lipman. “The increased
incidence is associated with the increase in
childhood obesity.”
She is also investigating the optimal
biobehavioral interventions to treat children
with type 2 diabetes as part of a multi-site,
randomized controlled, National Institutes
of Health (NIH) study entitled Treatment
Options for type 2 Diabetes in Adolescents
and Youth (TODAY).
Associate Professor of Nursing and
Associate Center Director Janet A. Deatrick,
HOM ’96, PhD, RN, FAAN, also focuses on
Dr. Christopher Coleman’s
research includes working with
colleagues in Botswana.
18 | care penn to nursing change science´s the world research centers of excellence