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Nurse educator takes top award

Judith Herrman (seated), founder and director of Diabetes and You, Kamp for Kids, with camp participants (from left) senior nursing student Katie Rudy, registered nurse Sandy Rodgers, CHNS 2001, camper Victoria and senior nursing student Liz Johnson.
10:47 a.m., Aug. 19, 2004--Judith Herrman won statewide recognition recently from her peers when she received the Delaware Excellence in Nursing Practice Award, as a nurse educator. The award was given by the Delaware State Nurses Association and the Delaware Organization of Nurse Executives at a July ceremony in Dover and was presented by Bethany Hall-Long, associate professor of nursing and a representative in the Delaware General Assembly.

Herrman holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from UD and received her doctorate this past May from the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy.

Research for her dissertation involved policies concerning teenage pregnancy and the factors associated with second and subsequent pregnancies during adolescence.

“Although the overall number of teenage pregnancies in Delaware has decreased, it is still an issue with fringe populations,” she said, pointing out that girls as young as 11 have become pregnant and that many girls under 18 have given birth to two or more babies.

Herrman interviewed 16 of these teenage mothers with multiple children. “They are courageous, frequently have little family support and face difficulties in several areas of their lives. What is needed is to develop effective programs that can help them address the complexities and problems they encounter from their perspectives,” she said.

Herrman works with several organizations that are concerned with this issue and chairs the State Advisory Board for Teen Pregnancy Prevention and the Wilmington Teen Pregnancy Prevention Roundtable.

She also is on the board of directors of Delaware Adolescent Program Inc., which has locations in Wilmington, Camden and Georgetown and offers care to pregnant adolescent girls. UD nursing students work at these centers, she said, teaching pregnant teenagers about prenatal care, childbirth, infant care and parenting.

Juvenile diabetes is another area of interest for Herrman. She is the director of Diabetes and You, Kamp for Kids, staffed by nursing students as a clinical requirement for a class she teaches.

Now in its seventh year, the camp is for children with diabetes with insulin dependence and also their siblings and friends. This year, 49 children were enrolled, and 26 student nurses participated, along with two nurses from the community who serve on the staff.

“The emphasis is on health and wellness, centered on nutrition, exercise and stress management,” Herrman said. “We teach the children how to cope with the disease and, at the same time, offer many fun activities for them. They go swimming at the pool, tie-dye shirts, make stress balls out of balloons and sand, do several craft projects and create their own first aid kits. At the end of the week, we invite parents to graduation,” Herrman said.

Herrman joined the UD faculty in 1993 and also serves on the nursing staff at the Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children. She served as president of Sigma Theta Tau, the international nursing honor society, is cochairperson of the Nursing of Children Network/Society of Pediatric Nurses and is on the editorial board as a pediatric consultant of the Journal of Emergency Nursing.

Article by Sue Moncure
Photo by Kevin Quinlan

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