Pohlman invited to England to weigh in on dissertation

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1/18/12

Maryville University Associate Professor of Nuring Shawn Pohlman, RN, PhD, is heading to the University of Sheffield in England to be an examiner on a student’s dissertation there. Pohlman said she believes the university reached out to her because the student’s work explores a topic similar to Pohlman’s own dissertation, researching the fathers of critically ill premature babies in intensive care, issues that arise and how those fathers handle them. “There’s tons of literature about moms (with premature babies), but not very much about dads,” Pohlman notes.

Pohlman says the student in England used a qualitative research method, as she did, taking an intensive look at a smaller sample of fathers for the research. Pohlman says the research examined, in part, how fathers handle stresses at a time when they have a critically ill infant. Pohlman said she and other examiners will form a body similar to a dissertation committee in the United States. She’s reviewing the student’s work, will meet with other examiners of the dissertation and prepare a final report. Pohlman was greatly surprised when asked to visit the university; she’ll be in England about a week.

“It’ll be neat to be at a different university, see what their system is like and make new contacts,” she says. Pohlman, who teaches Nursing Care of the Childbearing Family at Maryville, says the opportunity to learn more about medical care and university life in England will provide her with more experiences to share with students in her class.