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| Vol. 18, No. 7 | Oct. 15, 1998 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 7 | Oct. 15, 1998 |
Text month, Larry Purnell, nursing, will become the first nurse from the state of Delaware to be inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
"This is a very prestigious honor for me," Purnell said. "It is one of the highest honors a nurse can earn."
According to Purnell, current academy fellows must sponsor a nurse and recommend him or her for membership in the academy. "The academy looks at what the prospective member has accomplished in the field of nursing beyond what is required by their job," he said.
The academy was started in 1973, and currently there are approximately 1,100 nurses in the academy. Purnell and 49 other nurses will be inducted as fellows of the academy at its conference Nov. 1 in Acapulco.
"As leaders in the profession of nursing, the fellows become members of task forces and are instrumental in addressing future issues in health care," he said. "My research work developing a grand theory of health care and the organizing framework I have developed for assessment and intervention with clients from diverse cultures is a significant part of why I was sponsored for this honor."
Purnell's widely used textbook, Transcultural Health Care, written with Betty Paulanka, health and nursing sciences, is based on the Purnell Model for Cultural Competence.
Purnell has presented his research on four continents and spends about four weeks a year teaching at the University of Panama. "I also have helped to develop cottage industries in Central America, including the production of crutches, canes and walkers out of PVC pipe," he said. "This trade is able to be taught to the people in a short time."
Purnell has been to Panama four times in the past two years and spent time with the physicians, nurses and paramedics. Based on his experiences there, Purnell said he developed a collapsible stretcher for jungle rescue.
"It is used to remove the injured or sick person from the jungle and float them down the river to a health care facility," Purnell said. "There are no roads. The rivers and streams are the roads."
At UD, Purnell teaches nursing administration and transcultural health care. His current research focuses on Hispanic health beliefs and the meaning of respect afforded them by health care providers. For example, touch has different meanings in different cultures, and the use of first names versus titles can vary as well.
Purnell, who joined the faculty in 1989, has written five books, 22 articles and 53 chapters in books.
-Gail E. Walford
