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Panel to address navigating the healthcare system

By Staff | Oct 1, 2012

Shepherd University Department of Nursing and the Shepherd University Common Reading Program announce a panel presentation titled, “Vulnerable Populations: Helping Them Navigate the Healthcare System” to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 3, at 6 p.m. in the Erma Ora Byrd Auditorium on Shepherd’s campus. Panel members include Dr. Rev. Ed Grove, Pastor, Greensburg United Methodist Church and Mt. Wesley United Methodist Church who is actively involved with social ministries aimed at the homeless population in the Eastern Panhandle of WV; Ms. Tina Burns, Director of Professional Recruitment, Shenandoah Valley Medical System who is actively involved with providing healthcare and translation services to the migrant population; Ms. Dava White, RN in Special Populations at Shenandoah Valley Medical System who is actively involved in the provision of healthcare to migrant and seasonal farm workers and the homeless in the Shenandoah Valley.

This professional development opportunity will earn two contact hours through Shepherd University’s Department of Nursing Education, an approved provider of continuing education by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses, Provider Number WV 2001-0343RN.

This year’s Common Reading, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot is the story of Henrietta Lacks, a poor tobacco farmer who died of cervical cancer in 1951 and whose cells (called HeLa) were taken without her permission by doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital. HeLa cells have been and are still being used in science and medicine in the study of cancer and AIDS, vaccinations for polio and HPV, and testing on cells during space missions. The Lacks family never received information or compensation for the use of Henrietta’s cells and are unable to afford healthcare today. The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided after the panel presentation in the lobby of the Erma Ora Byrd Building.

Prior to the panel, a special dinner will be served from 4-7 p.m. in the Shepherd Dining Hall in celebration of the Common Reading. A menu featuring foods of Southern Maryland will be featured and the Shepherd Jazz Band will perform. The cost of the meal is free for students on the meal plan and $8 for the general public. Menu items include: peanut soup; baked Virginia ham; Trout, collard greens, Hoppin’ John, crab cakes, peanut butter pie and many other choices. For more information on either of these events, please contact Judi McIntyre at 304-876-5396 or visit our website at www.shepherd.edu/commonreading.