Pegge Bell became the new director of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in July.
October, 2012
Pegge Bell considers the state of Arkansas? former nickname, ?the land of opportunity,? very fitting in her case.
The new director of the?Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas worked previously at another institution in the University of Arkansas System, spending about 11 years at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. Beginning in 1991, she was an assistant professor there, then was promoted to associate professor of nursing, specialty coordinator of the women?s health nurse practitioner track, department chair of nursing practice and associate dean of the College of Nursing. She left UAMS in 2002.
Bell moved on to Barry University in Miami Shores, Fla., where she spent 10 years, initially serving as dean of the School of Nursing and later as dean of the College of Health Sciences.
?She and her husband, Tex, were looking for their next adventure when she heard about the opportunity at the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. One of her former UAMS colleagues who was now working at the nursing school in Fayetteville told her of the opening for the director?s position.
?The more I heard about the program and what we were doing, the more excited I got," she said. "We have resources, the faculty in place, and, while a lot of universities around the country are cutting back, we have community and university support for the program."
Pegge Bell, center, speaks with students Nikki Sailer,
left, and Justin Partin.
Nan Smith-Blair, associate professor of nursing, returned to the faculty this summer after serving as director of the school since 2008. In addition to teaching, Smith-Blair returned to her research on effects of exercise on diaphragm fatigue. In March, Smith-Blair was named co-chair of a new Health Research Initiative on campus.
With the director?s position, Bell also was named the holder of the George M. and Boyce W. Billingsley Endowed Chair in Nursing. Mrs. Billingsley and her late husband funded several endowed chairs and scholarships across campus as well as supporting the libraries and Razorback athletics.
?I am inspired by the Billingsleys? vision of Arkansas as the land of opportunity,? Bell said. ?This will be my second opportunity in Arkansas, and I have seen how important it is to provide educational opportunities to men and women in a rural state. After completing their education, they return to their communities and spend their lives in chosen careers as registered nurses, nurse practitioners, nurse educators, nurse researchers and clinical nurse specialists.?
Bell became a registered nurse in 1973 and a nurse educator in 1979. She has spent most of her professional career in the South and earned degrees from the University of Virginia, the University of Alabama, Georgia Southwestern College and Columbus College. She also completed post-graduate work at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
During her career, Bell has held numerous faculty leadership positions, chaired the Advisory Council on Policy of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing, and founded the Independent Colleges and Universities of Florida Nursing Council. She has published research on numerous topics, including the use of technology in clinical settings, academic leadership in nursing and overcoming barriers to research-based practice.
Bell also has made numerous presentations to state, regional and national nursing organizations. Of all her professional and academic experiences, she continues to draw on lessons she learned while working on her doctorate at the University of Virginia. She discovered how, through research, academics can tell the stories of pioneers in their field and paint a picture of that field during various times in history. She learned the impact one nurse can have.
She was required to take two semesters of nursing history courses.
?Since I?m a perinatal nurse, I wrote my first paper on the history of nurse midwives in the United States,? Bell recalled. ?I narrowed my view on the second paper and returned to my roots, focusing the next paper on the Tuskegee School for Colored Nurses during World War II. As a native of Alabama, I was proud to learn of Tuskegee Institute?s influence on public health and savored my experience going through their archives.?
After completing her degree, she went to UAMS to interview for a position in the College of Nursing and was drawn to a midwife bag displayed in the medical library there. The bag had belonged to Mamie Odessa Hale, a nurse-midwife who graduated from Tuskegee Institute.?
?The challenges for a black woman during the 1940s in the South at a time of racial discrimination made her story even more compelling,? Bell explained. ?She became my heroine and I became her storyteller. I was fortunate to have her story published in the first edition of Nursing History Review and have continued to share her story at professional conferences and with students who need to learn how historical research is conducted.
?My experience with Mamie Hale?s contributions to Arkansas during a time when medical and nursing staff were compromised by a global war and the rural state relied heavily on elderly, illiterate midwives has contributed to my appreciation of how even one nurse can make an impact on a community,? Bell continued. ?I challenge students to look for the story behind the experience ? it will provide insight into how nurses have continued to shape this nation?s health care.?
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Source: http://coehp.uark.edu/colleague/11457.php
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