MDNews - Long Island

Share your story in the next issue of MD News. For consideration, please email your press releases to Press@LexMediaGroup.com. The Stony Brook University School of Nursing held its first "Oath Ceremony" for students entering its undergraduate programs. The purpose of the ceremony — devised similarly to Medicine's white coat ceremony — is to welcome students into the profession and highlight the impact that nursing brings to society and patients worldwide. A total of 132 students participated in the ceremony that carried the theme "Keep Healthcare Human." The event was made possible with a grant from the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to support the Gold-AACN White Coat/Oath Ceremony for Nursing. The American Nursing Association predicts more registered nurse jobs will be available through 2022 than any other profession in the U.S. Additionally, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that 11 million additional nurses are needed in the next few years to avoid a further nursing shortage — an issue that has surfaced even more during the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic. The bureau also projects with the aging population and specialized medicine nursing positions will grow at a faster rate (approximately 15%) than all other occupations from 2016 to 2026. "This ceremony marks a milestone in the career path of our students who choose to become professional nurses in the face of a pandemic," says Annette Wysocki, PhD, Dean of the School of Nursing. Dean Wysocki also points out that the need for nurses will only grow, as the pandemic has driven many older nurses to retire, leaving a gap in the workforce in New York State and nationwide. Baccalaureate student Ben Lee receives his pin and packet from faculty member Virginia Coletti, PhD. A new study summarized in a research letter published in JAMA Pediatrics reveals that several factors, including negative impacts from the pandemic during pregnancy, healthcare experiences and reports of discrimination, made it less likely that infants received their recommended vaccinations in the first months of their lives. Led by Heidi Preis, MSW, PhD, of Stony Brook University, the study serves as an indicator that a focus on vulnerable pregnant women, especially during a public health crisis, may help to promote infant vaccination. Data that led to the findings comes from the Stony Brook University COVID-19 Pregnancy Experiences (SB-COPE) study. SB-COPE was launched in April 2020 and monitors 7,000 women across the U.S. who were pregnant during the pandemic. Preis and colleagues collected data from the women over time, investigating a variety of physical and mental health outcomes in mothers and their children. For this study, data on the immunization status of more than 1,000 babies born from April through July 2020 was analyzed. According to the research team's findings, infants born to certain groups of mothers were less likely to receive recommended vaccinations by three-to-five months after birth, including mothers who lost income during the pandemic, those who were dissatisfied with their birth experience, and women who had less education, were younger or cared for additional children. The mothers most affected were those who had their prenatal care provided by telehealth and women who had a briefer hospitalization stay after birth: their infants were 2.6 times less likely to be fully vaccinated by three-to-five months of age. Additionally, the infants of women who experienced discrimination during pregnancy due to their race, gender, sexuality or body size were 2.3 times less likely to be fully vaccinated by this age. The SB-COPE study, which remains ongoing, was funded by a COVID-19 Seed Grant from Stony Brook University's Office of the Vice President for Research and the Institute for Engineering-Driven Medicine. The work is in collaboration between the Departments of Psychology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Applied Mathematics and Statistics, Psychiatry, and Pediatrics. ■ M D N E W S . C O M /// M D N E W S L O N G I S L A N D ■ 2 0 2 2 1 5

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