shannon pediatrics :: Article CreatorDivision Of Academic General Pediatrics
The faculty and staff of the Division of Academic General Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine, are committed to high-quality, equitable, and patient-centered primary care achieved through evidence-based practice, innovative research, education, and advocacy.
Expert state-of-the-art and comprehensive clinical care is provided in numerous settings and programs: Primary Care Pediatrics at the Palm Center, Pasadena Pediatric and Adolescent Health Center, the Centers for Children and Women (Greenspoint, Southwest), Second Opinion Clinic, Complex Care Program (Main Campus, West Campus), Mobile Clinic Program, and United Healthcare Diagnostic Odyssey Program.
In addition to the breadth and depth of the clinical care provided by the Division of Academic General Pediatrics, we have a strong commitment to scholarly and research excellence. Research activities cover the spectrum of randomized controlled trials, prospective observational studies, multi-centered database studies, quality improvement, and various retrospective analyses. Areas of active study include childhood obesity, social determinants of health, health equity, immunization surveillance, telemedicine, health literacy, disaster preparedness for children with medical complexity, workforce diversity, and medical education. The division is supported by numerous research grant awards from NIH, PCORI, AHRQ, HRSA, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and local funders.
Educational activities and scholarship are critical to the Division of Academic General Pediatrics. Our team is engaged in a wide variety of educational programs with learners of all levels, including medical students, residents, fellows, and our faculty colleagues. We serve as the continuity clinical sites for the majority of trainees in the Baylor Pediatrics Residency Program. We sponsor the Primary Care Leaders Evaluating and Addressing Disparities (LEAD) residency program, a three-year categorical pediatric training program that focuses on Pediatric Primary Care of Underserved and Vulnerable populations. We also sponsor a three-year Academic General Pediatric Fellowship Program that combines masters-level training in education and research methodology with diverse teaching opportunities in a variety of settings.
Advocacy and community engagement also define the Division of Academic General Pediatrics. Our team has been actively engaged in areas of vaccine policy, Medicaid coverage, immigrant health, food insecurity, and e-cigarette use among adolescents.
For These Nursing Grads, The COVID Era Was A Moment Of Truth
Lindsay Naple, left, of Sound Beach, with her twin sister Angela Naple following Lindsay's graduation ceremony from the School of Nursing at Stony Brook University on Wednesday. Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
The horrors that nurses experienced during the COVID pandemic left many of them fatigued and depleted. But Lindsay Naple and Julianna Asaro, Jaclyn Jahn and Sean Arthurs are on their way to help fill the ranks.
They and hundreds of other nursing students are crossing university stages on Long Island this month to be pinned with the badge that signifies their official initiation into the profession.
Jahn has a job lined up in a cardiac-thoracic intensive care unit. Naple, daughter of a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot, wants to be a flight nurse. Asaro loves "the fast-paced, stressful environment" of critical care. And Arthurs wants to work in pediatrics like the nurses he saw care for his best friend growing up.
Melody Yeung, who studied at Adelphi, knew she wanted to become a nurse when she saw the care her ill grandmother received. Shannon Healey, who studied at the Long Island Campus of St. Joseph's University, New York, said she "always wanted to be a nurse."
WHAT TO KNOW
The number of nurses nationally fell for the first time in four decades in the year after the pandemic hit in 2020, a study found. Shortages of nursing faculty and clinical practical skills training placements limit the number of students that nursing programs can accept, according to Stony Brook School of Nursing Dean Patricia Bruckenthal, who said some qualified applicants are being turned away. Nurses can get master's and Ph.D. Degrees to be further specialized, for example, as a nurse practitioner, nurse anesthetist, nurse midwife, or in administration, public health, mental health, and other areas. What they share in common with others drawn to the field is a desire to care for people; a motivation that was intensified by the struggles unfolding on hospital COVID wards.
"The COVID-19 pandemic dominated our education here … both in the classroom and the clinical setting. Yet, here we are, ready to graduate and begin our careers as nurses," said Asaro, 21, of Wading River, addressing fellow nursing graduates at Molloy University Wednesday as a president of its Nursing Student Association.
The new nurses are entering a field that is under stress, with workforce shortages — more retirements are anticipated — and heavy workloads.
An April 2022 study published in the journal Health Affairs, based on census data, found that between 2020, the first year of the pandemic, and 2021, the number of nurses fell by more than 100,000 in the United States after four decades of growth.
That same month, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing published a survey that showed the first decline in four decades in nursing school applications and enrollment nationally, after an initial rise in the early stages of the pandemic.
So it seems like the very thing that made people leave is what has inspired others to join the ranks.
—Lindsay Naple
"It's sort of an interesting dichotomy right now," said Naple, 34, of Sound Beach, who is graduating from Stony Brook's accelerated nursing degree program and preparing to take her licensing exam. "You hear about the mass exodus of nurses due to the pandemic, but you also hear about the rise in nursing school applications. So it seems like the very thing that made people leave is what has inspired others to join the ranks."
Here are some of the graduates' stories.
LINDSAY NAPLE, Stony Brook University
Naple had a career in e-commerce before going into nursing. Credit: Newsday
Naple comes from a family of nurses and teachers. Like her twin sister, Angela, a charge nurse in Denver and a Navy nurse reservist, she always admired the photo of her late grandmother in her nursing uniform and cape. But Naple chose something else when her sister claimed the profession first, she said.
"When COVID hit, I had a moment of clarity. I realized I wanted to be there, too … when I was watching on the news and heard from my sister, all I could think of was, I wanted to be in the hospital helping these patients," she said.
So in 2021, with a career in e-commerce and a degree in economics from Vassar College already on her resume, she took prerequisites for nursing, at night and online. She got a nursing assistant certification "to make sure I could take care of patients' bodily functions and be OK with it." And, to the delight of her family, she began nursing school.
"My sister is ecstatic and just wishes we lived in the same city so we could work together. She's been encouraging me to do nursing the whole time," Naple said.
She said nursing school taught her that nurses don't just carry out doctors' orders "and call it a day."
"Nursing has become its own discipline; they have a lot of autonomy within their own scope of practice," she said.
JULIANNA ASARO, Molloy University
Asaro wants to continue in intensive care. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
At the bedsides of very sick people, amid flashing monitors and beeping alarms, is where Asaro wants to be. She discovered it while working as a hospital nursing assistant in critical care during her studies. She wants to continue in intensive care after passing her licensing exam.
"I feel every day when I come here it reinforces why I want to be a nurse," she said about her work in the hospital. "Just being a person [there] if they want to talk, getting them cleaned up so they can feel like a person again, and providing what they need. My daily tasks and interactions are what is satisfying."
Studying under pandemic conditions was challenging, she said. "It was stressful, but nursing is a stressful career at times, and it really helped us adapt to that, I feel.
"It was just traumatizing for nurses and even doctors who worked at that time," she said. "I think now things are better, we have more answers, just knowing what is going on. We are in a much different place now than before."
Seeing nurses help her family through the deaths of an infant brother, her father and grandparents made her want to be the person giving that support to others, she said.
"To me, this doesn't even feel like a job," she said.
SEAN ARTHURS, Stony Brook University
Arthurs wants to work in pediatrics like the nurses he saw care for his best friend growing up. Credit: Sean Arthurs
Arthurs, 32, of Holtsville, returned to school for a nursing degree with a prior bachelor's in communications and broadcasting. He interned and worked briefly for local stations before settling in as an account services representative and supervisor at a glass-and-polishing company.
He was laid off during the pandemic, but that pushed him toward nursing. He wanted to help in any way he could, he said.
Even before that, his prime motivation was seeing his best friend from childhood go through years of treatment for a chronic condition that eventually led to his death.
"Really providing that patient care was the No. 1 goal for me, actually helping families and sick patients get through the day and get them through those really hard treatments," he said. "My friend had to go through chemo and blood transfusions, and I saw how important the leadership role of a nurse was."
He's applying for jobs, preferably in pediatrics, and said there are more openings now than before the pandemic.
"There was a lot of burnout when it comes to nurses who have been doing this awhile. It worries me a little bit, but I feel very prepared for it," he said.
What worries him more is "just being a new graduate nurse. I know the first year is going to be hard no matter what."
SHANNON HEALEY, St. Joseph's University
"To be able to work in the community I live in is such an honor," Healey said. Credit: Island Photography in Port Washington NY
Healey, 28, of Sayville, knew early on that she wanted to be a nurse, she said. In high school, at Eastern Suffolk BOCES, she obtained a certification in Nurse Assisting and Clinical Medical Assisting, then after a few years of work returned for her licensed practical nursing degree. For the past six years, she has worked at Good Samaritan Nursing & Rehabilitation Care Center in Sayville.
"The main challenge I have experienced is the nursing shortage crisis," she said. "We need more nurses, especially on Long Island. It is so important that the people within our community have adequate patient-to-nurse ratios within our hospital systems."
This summer, she begins her career as a registered nurse in the emergency department at Long Island Community Hospital in East Patchogue, not far from home.
"To be able to work in the community I live in is such an honor to me," Healey said.
JACLYN JAHN, Stony Brook University
Jahn will be working at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset. Her younger brother, Nicholas, has decided to pursue nursing, too. Credit: Jeanne Neville
Jahn knows where she'll be once she takes the NCLEX, or nursing National Council Licensure Exam, in August. A job awaits her in the cardiac-thoracic intensive care unit at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.
"I'm so ready for the challenge and so excited to learn," said Jahn, 21, of Rockville Centre, who was recently named a recipient of the Future Nurse Leader Award from the American Nurses Association — New York.
COVID didn't shake her: "If anything it inspired me more so to enter nursing seeing the sacrifices and the real changes nurses made for their patients," she said.
She is looking forward to helping people, she said, after growing up in a family of nurses. Her grandmother worked in critical care ICUs and emergency rooms, and her mother is a nurse practitioner. "I think there was a point in time I was back and forth about it, but it was always the thing I came back to," she said.
Her younger brother, Nicholas, 17, has decided to pursue nursing, too, she said with a laugh. "It has to be genetic. I truly believe he has the heart for it."
MELODY YEUNG, Adelphi University
Yeung found inspiration in how her grandmother was cared for. Credit: Melody Yeung
Yeung, 22, of Flushing, knew she wanted to become a nurse when she saw how well-treated her grandmother was as she went in and out of hospitals. "I wanted to make a genuine difference in someone's life," she said.
She specifically chose nursing over other health care roles because it centers on direct patient care. Yeung, who was president of the Adelphi Student Nurses Association and recipient of several awards at her graduation, added, "I wanted to be more involved with people and get to know the patients' individualized stories."
While going through her clinical placements during nursing school, her admiration for nurses grew as she observed them putting on personal protective equipment to care for those with COVID while constantly "up and running," tending to multiple other patients.
"I can't imagine how stressful the environment was during the pandemic," she said. "I do know that a good work environment with supportive staff and managers can make a huge difference in the nurse's mental health. I have worked in environments with low support and high support, and the difference in the way I felt about going to work was astonishing."
She believes hospitals should work toward a better work-life balance for nurses, and smaller patient loads. Meanwhile, she has learned in nursing school about the importance of self-care to avoid burnout.
"Now, going into the profession, I know to take care of myself and make time for myself each week," she said.
Carol Polsky writes news and features on wide-ranging topics, from superstorm Sandy, 9/11 and presidential elections to health care and the economy.
What Age Is Right For Kids To Get Smartphones? Parents Debate After Expert Says To Wait Until High School
An ongoing parenting debate about when it's appropriate to give a child a smartphone has been reignited, ironically, on social media.
Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist and professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, shared a post to Instagram on Monday stating his belief that parents should wait until their child is in high school to give them a smartphone.
In calling on parents to wait, Grant, a bestselling author with nearly 2 million Instagram followers, cited his own family's experience, as well as a new report that he said showed a negative correlation between mental health and getting a smartphone earlier in life.
"We were among the holdout parents," Grant wrote in an Instagram post that now has over 130,000 likes. "We know it's not easy, but the evidence is clear: even if kids under 14 need phones for communication, they don't need smartphones or social media. It's time for parents to align on waiting so it isn't just a few kids being left out."
Among the thousands of comments left on Grant's post were people on both sides of the debate, with some agreeing that no kid should have a smartphone until high school, and others arguing the decision is more nuanced than that.
"It's ridiculous to think that it's only a one household decision," one commenter wrote, in part. "When kids are surrounded by peers with some thing like a smart phone, it's impossible for them to not think that they are excluded."
"This is the world we live in now, and I don't understand why so many parents think we can ignore it or put up a united front against phones," wrote another commenter.
Some commenters shared that they want their child to be able to communicate their whereabouts with parents, while others commenters emphasized that mental health struggles cannot be blamed on phones alone.
"Great, another thing to shame parents and make them feel bad about themselves," one commenter wrote. "Why don't we focus on learning more about mental health and how to support those suffering from it rather than blaming parents for letting their child have too much screen time so the holdout parents can feel superior."
STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images
Many parents, however, shared in the comments their own experiences with waiting until their kids were older to give them phones.
"We waited till 18. They had a flip phone before that so they could reach us from anywhere. They hate social media. It worked," one commenter wrote.
"Couldn't agree with this more!," wrote another commenter. "Our 13 year old is not on smartphone or social media and it shows!"
Several commenters also agreed with the idea that parents can have an impact, with one writing, "We need more parents aligned on creating the 'norm' for smartphone use (or lack thereof)."
Grant declined to comment to ABC News.
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Brooke Shannon, a mom of three daughters in Texas, is the founder of Wait Until 8th, a movement in which parents sign a pledge to not get their child a smartphone before 8th grade.
Shannon told ABC News the pledge is important because she believes it has to be a "community effort" to successfully limit young people's screen time on phones, with parents, coaches, schools and kids all on board.
According to Shannon, what started out nearly seven years ago as a small effort among the parents of her daughters' friends has grown into a national movement with over 40,000 families from across the country having signed the pledge.
"I think because so many parents struggle with this same question, it just spread very quickly," Shannon said, adding she believes the movement has also grown because of the growing body of research showing the potential impact of screen time on young people.
"There are so many studies," she said, adding, "'When you look at the amount of research, you just want to shout it from the rooftops, 'Parents just wait. There's no hurry.'"
Shannon said her oldest daughter just received her first smartphone last year, at the start of her freshman year of high school. She does not have access to the internet or any social media apps on the phone, according to Shannon.
"It's basically like a communication device, where she can text, she can call, she can FaceTime, she can listen to music and take photos," Shannon said. "That has worked really well for our family, to just take it very slowly and to keep it very simple."
Dr. Hina Talib, a board-certified pediatrician and adolescent specialist in New York City, said she hears from parents daily with questions about their teens and phones and social media.
She said in her opinion, it's hard to issue a blanket age at which it's OK to give a child a phone and access to social media.
"The reality is just way more nuanced than these headlines," Talib told ABC News. "The best advice is really particular to the child in front of you. There's no doubt that social media for some teens can be harmful, but there are still groups of teens who are able to engage with their friends ... And their interests in helpful ways."
Talib said she believes a better approach is to decide on a more individual level when a child is ready for a smartphone, and then give more access to the phone with "more skills gained and responsibility earned."
"For example, you might start with just using it as a communication tool having text only or music only, and then over time, try out other applications and eventually social media," Talib said. "But even then, it should always be an ongoing, by-way communication between you and your adolescent and young adult as they continue to develop their relationship with technology."
How to know if your child is ready for a phone
Talib said she encourages parents to use a free 10-question tool from the American Academy of Pediatrics and AT&T to help them decide if their child is ready for a smartphone.
The tool asks questions like how often a child would need the phone to communicate with others, how responsible the child is in other activities, like turning in school assignments, and how well the child follows rules about other media, like TV or video games.
If a child is ready for a phone, the AAP also has a free tool where parents can work with their child to create a media plan that works for their own family.
Parents also have a resource through the American Psychological Association, which earlier this month issued the first guidance of its kind on teenagers and social media.
The guidance contains 10 recommendations designed to ensure that teens get the proper training on how use social media safely. For most families, that means starting with an active discussion about which sites teens are using, how often and how those experiences make them feel.
In addition to setting limits, the APA strongly encourages ongoing discussions about social media use and active supervision, especially in early adolescence. Parents are encouraged to model healthy social media use, including taking social media "holidays" as a family.
ABC News' Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
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