School of Nursing professor Margo Brooks Carthon has been named the director of the Barbara Bates Center for the Study of the History of Nursing.
The Bates Center holds the largest collection of primary and secondary resources on the history of nursing in the world and is dedicated to increasing the understanding of nursing and healthcare, according to the Nursing School announcement on Oct. 16. The center’s efforts are centered around using the history of nursing to develop solutions that will improve the current healthcare system.
As director of the Bates Center, Brooks Carthon will address health inequities and honor the nursing profession’s contributions throughout history.
Brooks Carthon’s research explores marginalization and inequalities in healthcare, analyzing how health disparities, such as insufficient nurse staffing, affect minority patients. Aside from her roles as a Nursing professor and an associate director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, she is also the executive director of THRIVE — an interdisciplinary workgroup that supports the needs of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals returning home from acute care admission. Her work with THRIVE helped her receive a $300,000 grant from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation in 2022.
“I look forward to the Bates Center being a home where scholars from diverse perspectives can engage creatively to support bold and transformational ideas to improve population health locally, nationally and internationally,” Brooks Carthon said in the announcement.
As a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar, Brooks Carthon is researching the differing perspectives of nurses and patients on hospital readmission disparities. The three-year $350,000 grant is awarded to junior faculty members showing significant potential as future leaders in academic nursing.
Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing Antonia Villarruel said that Brooks Carthon will bring “expertise” through various research methods, such as historical approaches, implementation science, and health services.
“Her leadership will build on the legacy of faculty who were foundational in creating this important resource for historians of nursing and beyond,” Villarruel told the Nursing School.
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