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Making a Difference
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EDITORIAL
Making a Difference
A
t a time when many in North America focus on the dangers inherent in today’s world, JOGNN’s 2004 Reviewer of the Year has willingly accepted the challenges of living beyond our borders to work for mothers and babies. Debra Jackson, RNC, MPH, DSc, began her career with the goal of becoming a clinical nurse practitioner. However, work as a staff nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) put her on the path that eventually led her to live in South Africa with her husband and children. The NICU captivated Dr. Jackson’s attention because the clinical intensity of the care required was tempered by the nurses’ tenderness for the babies in their care. Because the NICU was a relatively new phenomenon when she began her career, she experienced the excitement of rapid technological progress and improvement in the care and outcomes for premature infants.
D
r. Debra Jackson is JOGNN's 2004 Reviewer of the Year.
Dr. Jackson’s stimulus to continue her education beyond the BSN came when she heard then Surgeon General Julius Richmond speak on the prevention of low birth weight. His speech ignited her desire to study public health and prevention, which culminated in a master’s of public health degree from San Diego State University. She served 3 years in Micronesia with the Peace Corps initially supervising community health volunteers, later as a maternal and child health outreach coordinator, and finally as a public health consultant. Her desire to do rigorous health systems research and program evaluation precipitated the final step in her education. A doctorate in epidemiology and biostatistics from Boston University with a specialty in perinatal epidemiology completed her skill set and prepared her for her current work as a senior researcher in the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Capetown, South Africa.
November/December 2004
Dr. Jackson notes that personal and human experiences have been her most humbling. During her years in direct patient care in the NICU and later in a freestanding birth center, the knowledge that she could not be perfect and would make mistakes was particularly difficult. Since moving to South Africa, she has been further humbled by visiting families in remote, rural areas, many of whom are HIV positive and living in huts with their malnourished children. Such reality strengthens her when faced with loses and challenges in her own life: She knows from actual experience that it truly could always be worse. Dr. Jackson gains personal resilience from the awareness that people all over the world in very dire circumstances get through each day. Dr. Jackson’s most exhilarating professional experience occurred recently as a result of her research linking the lack of welfare grants for children in South Africa with the occurrence of severe malnutrition and death in children. Picked up by the South African News Service, her results were described in a 30-minute segment of a prime-time television news magazine. Within 36 hours, the South African minister of social services visited the town where the research was conducted to initiate programs and efforts to reduce bureaucracy and increase the distribution of child welfare to poor families. In Dr. Jackson’s poignant words, “It was exciting because this is why I went into nursing and public health—to make a difference and save babies.” Dr. Jackson’s care for the world, her care for mothers and babies, and her care for nursing are deep and genuine. She advises young nurses to get the BSN, remain open to opportunity, and remember that you are in this work for the mothers and the babies. She believes that our challenge is to balance the need to make nursing an attractive profession with our responsibility to protect the health of the people we serve. Thank you, Dr. Jackson, for demonstrating nursing in action through a career of responding to need and opportunity. The editors honor you for your many contributions and thank you for your excellent service to JOGNN. Nancy K. Lowe Editor
JOGNN 689
EDITORIAL
Making a Difference
A
t a time when many in North America focus on the dangers inherent in today’s world, JOGNN’s 2004 Reviewer of the Year has willingly accepted the challenges of living beyond our borders to work for mothers and babies. Debra Jackson, RNC, MPH, DSc, began her career with the goal of becoming a clinical nurse practitioner. However, work as a staff nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) put her on the path that eventually led her to live in South Africa with her husband and children. The NICU captivated Dr. Jackson’s attention because the clinical intensity of the care required was tempered by the nurses’ tenderness for the babies in their care. Because the NICU was a relatively new phenomenon when she began her career, she experienced the excitement of rapid technological progress and improvement in the care and outcomes for premature infants.
D
r. Debra Jackson is JOGNN's 2004 Reviewer of the Year.
Dr. Jackson’s stimulus to continue her education beyond the BSN came when she heard then Surgeon General Julius Richmond speak on the prevention of low birth weight. His speech ignited her desire to study public health and prevention, which culminated in a master’s of public health degree from San Diego State University. She served 3 years in Micronesia with the Peace Corps initially supervising community health volunteers, later as a maternal and child health outreach coordinator, and finally as a public health consultant. Her desire to do rigorous health systems research and program evaluation precipitated the final step in her education. A doctorate in epidemiology and biostatistics from Boston University with a specialty in perinatal epidemiology completed her skill set and prepared her for her current work as a senior researcher in the School of Public Health, University of the Western Cape, Capetown, South Africa.
November/December 2004
Dr. Jackson notes that personal and human experiences have been her most humbling. During her years in direct patient care in the NICU and later in a freestanding birth center, the knowledge that she could not be perfect and would make mistakes was particularly difficult. Since moving to South Africa, she has been further humbled by visiting families in remote, rural areas, many of whom are HIV positive and living in huts with their malnourished children. Such reality strengthens her when faced with loses and challenges in her own life: She knows from actual experience that it truly could always be worse. Dr. Jackson gains personal resilience from the awareness that people all over the world in very dire circumstances get through each day. Dr. Jackson’s most exhilarating professional experience occurred recently as a result of her research linking the lack of welfare grants for children in South Africa with the occurrence of severe malnutrition and death in children. Picked up by the South African News Service, her results were described in a 30-minute segment of a prime-time television news magazine. Within 36 hours, the South African minister of social services visited the town where the research was conducted to initiate programs and efforts to reduce bureaucracy and increase the distribution of child welfare to poor families. In Dr. Jackson’s poignant words, “It was exciting because this is why I went into nursing and public health—to make a difference and save babies.” Dr. Jackson’s care for the world, her care for mothers and babies, and her care for nursing are deep and genuine. She advises young nurses to get the BSN, remain open to opportunity, and remember that you are in this work for the mothers and the babies. She believes that our challenge is to balance the need to make nursing an attractive profession with our responsibility to protect the health of the people we serve. Thank you, Dr. Jackson, for demonstrating nursing in action through a career of responding to need and opportunity. The editors honor you for your many contributions and thank you for your excellent service to JOGNN. Nancy K. Lowe Editor
JOGNN 689