primary care nurses, nursing care beyond the ... - School of Nursing

Primary Care NursingLike Mother,Like DaughterSecond-generation Pitt NurseHas Impact on Neonatal CareOur goal is that oneday all babies will beborn healthy.In 2007, we formed a family team,Brady’s Bunch, to walk in March forBabies, which is sponsored by the Marchof Dimes. We raised more than $800 ourfirst year and had a team of 10 walkers.In 2008, our family was named thePittsburgh Ambassador Family for theMarch of Dimes, which allows us to travelthe area sharing our story. So far, Brady’sBunch has been able to raise more than$1,200 in 2008, and we had 20 peoplewalk with us in May. We are honored toserve in this important role in the effortto raise awareness about prematurity.Our goal is that one day all babies will beborn healthy, and we are grateful for theopportunity to tell our story and shareour hope with others who are experiencingthe pain of prematurity.Since 2007, the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursinghas offered a Neonatal Nurse Practitioner concentrationas an extension of its successful and well respectedPediatric Nurse Practitioner programs to care for childrenlike Emma and Brady Laughlin.A quarter of a century after her mother,Frances Powell Bakewell, graduated fromthe University of Pittsburgh’s School ofNursing, Susan Bakewell-Sachs followedin her footsteps.So it is perhaps fitting that Bakewell-Sachs, a second-generation Pitt nurse,has had such a profound impact on othermothers’ children. In 1979, the same yearshe earned her baccalaureate degree fromPitt, she began working in a neonatalintensive care unit (NICU). In 1982, shecompleted her master’s degree in perinatalnursing to become a neonatal clinicalnurse specialist.“I always saw nursing as a clinicalrole,” she says. “The opportunity toparticipate in a clinical trial during the1980s educated me—it changed my focusand my career trajectory.”That study looked at prematurebabies to determine whether they couldbe discharged earlier with appropriatecare in the hospital and at home. Thefindings, which were published in theNew England Journal of Medicine in 1986,showed that advanced practice nursesdirectly impacted whether the babiescould be sent home sooner and demonstratedthe significance of a continuum ofcare in order to prevent rehospitalization.That experience inspired Bakewell-Sachs to focus on obtaining as muchknowledge as she could about the entirespectrum of care for tiny babies. Sheearned a PhD in nursing in 1992 and thena post-master’s certificate to become apediatric nurse practitioner so she couldprovide comprehensive primary care toinfants and children born prematurely.“I saw the impact clinical researchhas on defining nursing care,” she says.“And I could see how such researchsupports evidence in a way that is appropriatefor nursing.”Now serving as both dean andprofessor of nursing at the School ofNursing, Health & Exercise Scienceat the College of New Jersey, she alsoengaged in later research that examinedthe timing of hospital discharge forpremature infants.“It’s all about nursing care,”Bakewell-Sachs explains. “Neonatalnurses, practitioners, and researchers areimportant links between the mother andher baby and play crucial roles in providingevidence-based care that will enhancethe infant’s future physical and mentalhealth.” In addition to her own researchand clinical practice, Bakewell-Sachsis the neonatal editor for the Journal ofPerinatal and Neonatal Nursing and serveson the Nurse Advisory Councilof the March of Dimes to advocatefor better health policies and preventpremature births.“I believe it is my obligationto contribute,” she says.“Collaborationis one of theways I can doall the thingsI want to do.”Pitt Nurse spring 2009 9