Professor and Nurse Researcher Receives University of Louisville 2016 Florence Nightingale Award
The University of Louisville School of Nursing will honor UK College of Nursing Professor Deborah Reed, PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAOHN, FAAN, as well as five other nurses in Kentucky and Southern Indiana with the 2016 Florence Nightingale Awards for their dedication to improving the lives of patients, the community and the profession.
“For several decades, Dr. Reed has been a driven community health advocate and researcher for rural health and farm safety,” says Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Research Kristin Ashford, PhD, WHNP-BC, FAAN, who nominated Dr. Reed for the award. “Her work has significantly impacted farm safety and improved safety among rural health workers across Appalachia and the nation.”
To get more farmers to think about occupational health, safety and disease prevention on the farm, Dr. Reed designed the Farm Theater Dinner intervention – entertainment for Kentucky and Tennessee farmers that includes a meal and features a farm-friendly theater performance embedded with important health and safety messages.
“What we are trying to do with these plays is empower the local community to change their work behaviors in a way that’s acceptable within the community,” Reed said.
Raised on a Kentucky farm 15 miles outside of Lexington, Reed understands farmers’ attitudes toward traditional forms of occupational safety education. She has conducted community-based research on Kentucky’s farms for more than 25 years. Her research has shown farmers aren’t persuaded by lectures and pamphlets and don’t have time in their demanding work schedule to attend educational meetings. In fact, research has shown that farmers are now thinking more about occupational safety and implementing precautions as a result of attending the forum-style dinners.
“Our farming community is a fairly tight-knit community of people who are always helping each other,” said Marjorie Hunter, a participant of and former actress in the Farm Theater Dinner who developed skin cancer while farming outside. “It’s just being aware of what’s going on in your surroundings.”
The winners of the Florence Nightingale Awards will be recognized at the Nightingale Awards dinner on Nov. 3 at the Mellwood Art Center. Other honorees include: Hilary Deskins, BSN, RN, manager of Cancer Prevention Services at KentuckyOne Health; Anthony Frazier, BSN, RN, former patient care manager at Amedysis Hospice in Jeffersonville, Ind.; Mimi McKay, EdD, MSN, PMHNP-BC, associate professor at Indiana University Southeast School of Nursing; Emily Neal, BSN, RN, SANE, a forensic nurse specialist at the University of Louisville Kosair Charities Division of Pediatric Forensic Medicine; and Laura Ware, RN AND, nurse at Crestview Center in Shelbyville.
Read more about Dr. Reed and the community-based farm theater dinners here.
