The 18th annual Tri-Chapter Research Day was held March 13, 2008, at Harding University. The consortium of Epsilon Omicron, Eta Theta, and Kappa Rho-at-large chapters work each year to put together this seminar. This year's planning chapter was Epsilon Omicron.The theme for the day was Research and Ethics: Protecting Vulnerable Populations. The theme was identified as nurses must have the ability to identify ethical dilemmas as research consumers and investigators. The program addressed the ethics of research, giving nurses and nursing students the tools to critically think about the situations they face in current practice.
The term “vulnerable populations” refers to groups that are at risk for developing “higher comparative mortality rates, lower life expectancy, reduced access to care, and diminished quality of life” (UCLA School of Nursing Center for Vulnerable Populations Research). These groups include pregnant women, unborn fetuses, newborns, children, prisoners, racial and ethnic minorities, the chronically ill, the mentally ill, and the financially impoverished. As researchers, nurses must work to create a balance: safeguard patients from the inherent risks of research, but also ensure that quality, applicable, and safe investigation is conducted to benefit all groups.
The term “vulnerable populations” refers to groups that are at risk for developing “higher comparative mortality rates, lower life expectancy, reduced access to care, and diminished quality of life” (UCLA School of Nursing Center for Vulnerable Populations Research). These groups include pregnant women, unborn fetuses, newborns, children, prisoners, racial and ethnic minorities, the chronically ill, the mentally ill, and the financially impoverished. As researchers, nurses must work to create a balance: safeguard patients from the inherent risks of research, but also ensure that quality, applicable, and safe investigation is conducted to benefit all groups.
Our keynote speaker was Mr. Fred Gray. As a young attorney, Mr. Gray represented Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Jr. In 1972, he represented the participants in the notorious Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The U.S. Public Health Service recruited 623 African American men from Macon County, Alabama, for a study of the “the effects of untreated syphilis in the [African-American] male.” For the next 40 years—even after the development of penicillin, the cure for syphilis—these men were denied medical care for this potentially fatal disease. Mr. Gray has published two books, Bus Ride to Justice (1995) and The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1998). In 1997, he established the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center. Mr. Gray is a graduate of Nashville Christian Institute, Alabama State University and Case Western Reserve University. He is a senior partner at the law firm of Gray, Langford, Sapp, McGowan, Gray and Nathanson in Tuskegee and Montgomery, Alabama. He has served as president of the National Bar Association and the Alabama Bar Association.
The seminar was well attended, with around 500 attendees. Other speakers at the Research Day were:
The seminar was well attended, with around 500 attendees. Other speakers at the Research Day were:
Nelda New, PhD, RN
Jennifer Helms, PhD, RN
Cheryl Slaughter Smith, PhD, RN
Jennifer Helms, PhD, RN
Cheryl Slaughter Smith, PhD, RN
DeeAnn Martin, MSN, APN
Julie Meaux, PhD, RNC
Julie Meaux, PhD, RNC
Angela Green, PhD, RN
Cathleen Shultz, PhD, RN, CNE, FAAN
Johnnetta Kelly, MNSc, RN
Rebecca Matthews, DNP, MNSc, IBCLC, RN
Rebecca Matthews, DNP, MNSc, IBCLC, RN
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