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Driving Nurse-Led Advances in Health Equity & Social Justice

A monthly publication from the Duke University School of Nursing

Duke University School of Nursing

The School of Nursing has launched a new Master’s Entry to the Practice of Nursing (MEPN) program designed to provide a pathway for people without an undergraduate degree in nursing to become registered nurses (RNs). This new MEPN program is a type of pre-licensure program which prepares students for successful completion of the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN). The program, which awards a Master of Nursing (MN) Degree, is one of only two direct-entry master’s degree programs in North Carolina.

“The launch of Duke’s MEPN program represents a significant step forward in nursing education in North Carolina and at Duke,” said Dr. Michael Relf, Interim Dean. “By offering a Master of Nursing degree, we are providing our students with a robust foundation for their nursing careers and opening doors to advanced practice and leadership roles in the future.”

Duke University School of Nursing

Duke University School of Nursing and Pratt School of Engineering have awarded funding to faculty investigators for four interdisciplinary projects bridging nursing and engineering science. The goal of this pilot program is to support research that accelerates knowledge and technology development to tackle health inequities, create innovative solutions considering social determinants of health, and evaluate results to improve patient care.

“Over the last several years, researchers at the School of Nursing had become increasingly interested in collaborating with researchers in Pratt because of the changing healthcare landscape in the U.S. requiring innovative solutions to the delivery of care,” said Dr. Sharron L. Docherty, Vice Dean for Research, Duke University of Nursing. 

Hanzhang Xu, PhD'18, RN
Duke University School of Nursing

Duke University School of Nursing Associate Professor Hanzhang Xu, PhD’18, RN, leads an NIH-funded study of aging Chinese Americans, one of the fastest-growing aging populations in the U.S. and one of the least examined.

“Older Chinese Americans often perceive strong shame and stigma in relation to dementia and lack dementia-related knowledge,” Xu said.

The study is titled Developing a Mobile App-Based Intervention to Promote Cognitive Health in Older Chinese Americans, and an important part of the project includes working closely with local Chinese communities to develop and test cognitive training intervention in this older population. To that end, Xu and her team collaborated with the Chinese club at the Cary Senior Center to deliver a lecture on dementia earlier this summer.

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Health Equity in Action

Last week nursing colleagues from SingHealth, Singapore’s largest health system, visited the School of Nursing for a weeklong symposium on informatics, research, and innovation in nursing. As part of the symposium, they participated in a brainstorming session alongside nurses from the Duke University Health System (DUHS). The session, led by Associate Professor Ryan Shaw, addressed common barriers to health care experienced in both health systems and how those problems might be addressed with new technologies or processes. Dr. Terry McDonnell, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Executive of DUHS and Vice Dean for Clinical Affairs at the School of Nursing, joined the group to hear their presentations.

Driving Nurse-led Advances in Health Equity & Social Justice

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