Georgia State University News & Events

University Relations Tip Sheet - March 18, 2009

Georgia State to offer nursing innovations, informatics courses of study
Georgia State University will offer a new track in its master’s degree program in nursing, preparing nurses to lead in nursing administration or the growing field of nursing informatics. The Nursing Leadership in Health Care Innovations track begins this fall in the Byrdine F. Lewis School of Nursing at Georgia State’s College of Health and Human Sciences. The 36-credit-hour course of study will be offered on both a full-time and part-time basis. “What our clinical partners, including hospitals, industry and other care providers, have told us is that they need nurses who not only understand nursing care, but who also have a grasp of some of the concepts of finance and technology,” said Barbara Woodring, director of the School of Nursing. To speak with Woodring, contact Jeremy Craig at 404-413-1357 or jcraig@gsu.edu.

Conflicts of interest in clinical research
Although paying finder’s fees to researchers and clinicians to identify study participants could compromise the recruitment process and harm human lives, many medical schools fail to address this conflict of interest in their Institutional Review Board (IRB) policies. Leslie Wolf, an associate professor of law at Georgia State, studied the IRB policies posted on the Web sites of 117 medical schools that received National Institutes of Health funding. The study revealed that less than half of the IRB policies discuss finder’s fees or bonus payments as conflicts of interest, where research sponsors pay members of the research team or clinicians to identify potential participants or for meeting predetermined enrollment targets. “Since IRBs must review research protocols, and also are in a position to educate investigators about these issues, I thought their policies were an important place to look,” Wolf said. “I thought they would have tried to address it more frequently than they did. That’s a gap in IRB guidance.” To speak with Wolf, contact Leah Seupersad at 404-413-1354 or lvh@gsu.edu.

Human rights seen as a luxury in times of threat
In times of military or economic threat, public fear leads to indifference when it comes to human rights issues, says Michael Galchinsky, professor of English at Georgia State University. “People’s fear sometimes makes them consider human rights to be luxuries rather than entitlements,” he says. “We can see this in real concrete ways: Human rights watchdog groups get less money from the public at this time, they are able to place their information in fewer newspapers, and they have the ear of fewer government officials.” To address the ways in which human rights groups can raise public support in times of threat, Galchinsky is coordinating a symposium, “Human Rights in an Age of Insecurity,” from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 27 in the Speakers Auditorium at Georgia State’s Student Center, 44 Courtland St., Atlanta. To speak with Galchinsky, contact Lisa Spires at 404-413-1353 or lspires@gsu.edu.

Happenings at Georgia State University

Center for Ethics to host symposium on economic crisis
Georgia State’s Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics will host “The Economy in Crisis: Causes and Cures” at noon March 18 in rooms 480-485 University Center, 44 Courtland St., Atlanta. Panelists include Steven Horwitz, chair of the economics department at St. Lawrence University, and Carol Osler, program director of the Lemberg Masters in International Economics and Finance at Brandeis University. For more information, contact Andrew I. Cohen at 404-413-6111 or aicohen@gsu.edu.

Daughter of Navajo Code Talker to speak
Zonnie Gorman, daughter of one of the original 29 World War II Navajo Code Talkers, will speak at Georgia State from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on March 19 in the Student Center Speaker’s Auditorium. The specially-trained soldiers from the Navajo tribe developed a code in their native language that baffled the Japanese and helped win American victory in the Pacific. For more information, please contact Liz Babiarz at lbabiarz@gsu.edu or 404-413-1356.

Job advice presentation
For students who are graduating soon and worried about what to do next, Georgia State University is hosting a presentation from 11 a.m. to noon March 25 in the Student Center ballroom by the authors of the best-selling book, Quarterlife Crisis. The authors, Alexandra Robbins and Abby Winer, will discuss steps for career success, particularly in the weak economy. Following the program, two workshops will be held for GSU students in the Ballroom: “Preparing Yourself for Work while on Campus” from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and “Marketing yourself as You Look for a Job” from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. For more information, please contact Liz Babiarz at lbabiarz@gsu.edu or 404-413-1356.

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