UIW Hosts Annual Sr. Margaret Mary (Lucilla) Lecture

On Thursday, March 7, the UIW Ila Faye Miller School of Nursing and Health Professions (SNHP) hosted its annual Sr. Margaret Mary (Lucilla) Lecture in the McCombs Center Rosenberg Sky Room. This yearly event welcomes educators and students from the Nursing program to present their original research during poster presentations and to listen to a distinguished Nursing guest speaker.

A crowd of 250 Nursing students gathered in the Ballroom, excited to share their own unique research/findings and eagerly waiting to hear from this year’s guest speaker. Dr. Danuta M. Wojnar, dean of FSOP, welcomed guests to the events, smiling happily at the packed room of attendees.

Sr. Walter Maher, CCVI, vice president for Mission and Ministry, opened the event with an invocation. She invited guests to take a moment of silence as they collectively honored the legacy of Sr. Margaret Mary (Lucilla).

“To be a healing presence is a call to listen more than we speak, to remain calm even when others are in crisis and under chaos, and to stay purely focused even when we have no clear direction,” noted Watler. “To be a healing presence is to be with people who are suffering rather than trying to have all the answers or to explain that which is ultimately a mystery, to let go of temptation and to show only the clinical and professional side … When we enter this vulnerable state of being present to another person who is in pain or in sorrow, we experience and share with them the healing power of God.”

This year’s guest speaker was award-winning scholar and mentor Jeanne L. Alhusen, PhD, CRNP, RN, FAAN, who delivered her lectured titled "Maternal Mental Health: Implications for Maternal, Infant and Early Childhood Health.” The room silenced as Alhusen took the stage, waiting in anticipation to hear her insights and wisdom.

Alhusen has been a nurse practitioner for 25 years. From a young age, her ambitions to be a nurse were apparent. That same passion remained present throughout her career at the bedside and in her research.

Alhusen noted that all her research is influenced by issues and occurrences she witnesses during her own experiences as a healthcare practitioner. Through her experiences, she wanted to improve maternal health and childhood outcomes by researching the effects of perinatal depression, a “mood disorder that occurs during pregnancy and after childbirth” (nimh.nih.gov).

“Nearly half a million infants are born to mothers who are depressed each year,” noted Alhusen. “It affects upwards of one in five women, with rates as high as 60% when we go into concentrating areas of poverty. That’s where my research and my clinical efforts have been for the last 25 years or so.”

She noted a number of her findings from her research regarding how the mental and emotional wellbeing of a mother is tied to early childhood developments and skills such as gross motor, fine motor, problem solving, sociability and communications. The results of her interventional study showed that it helped reduce maternal depression and improved fatal attachment results, ultimately benefiting both mothers and their children. Alhusen also shared how her most recent study places a focus on perinatal depression in women with disabilities, which she was inspired to explore after realizing there was little to no research for this specific group of mothers.

Nursing students took attentive notes throughout the event and interacted with Alhusen as she asked them questions to consider how they themselves can improve the outcomes of their patients within their own careers. The evening was a demonstration of how the next generation of nurses will continue to remain inquisitive, attentive and dedicated to helping those they will serve.