Page 25 - Johns Hopkins Nursing Magazine Fall 2020 - Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

NEWS FROM JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING A Pause to Reflect Same with the groundbreaking, National WE ARE ALL EAST BALTIMORE NEWS FROM JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING
Institute of Nursing Research-funded DOVE
(for Domestic Violence Enhanced Home
Visitation) program she developed to keep
Even as she eagerly looks ahead,
women in abusive or potentially dangerous
relationships safe simply by checking in—
community advocate Phyllis Sharps is
letting them know they aren’t alone and that
they have choices to keep themselves and
making sure she hasn’t missed anything
their children safe. And it has carried through
to her work with the Wald Center, providing
care to underserved East Baltimore residents,
BY STEVE ST. ANGELO
and the House of Ruth Baltimore, shielding
and offering a safer path forward to women
rofessor Phyllis Sharps’s career has included 30 years as and children fleeing violence.
P an Army nurse and 20 years as a Johns Hopkins School
of Nursing faculty member. Those 50 years haven’t included Though she knows that in her nursing career
much free time. Recently, she’s found herself pondering how she will not see the end of the need among
she will transition from her academic career to a different women and children, or of the inequity that
phase of life with more adventures and new opportunities. “In plagues residents of East Baltimore, Sharps
all of my career as a nurse, it was not until 2018 that I ever is not done making a difference. Still, she
took two weeks of vacation at one time, for a cruise with my feels a tug of responsibility in her own family,
husband. It got me to reflecting about what is next.” remembering how her mother sacrificed
to help Sharps earn a PhD. “There is a
Sharps knows that her cruise ship is about to come in, as long tradition in my family of mothers and
she looks toward one day soon hanging up the white coat grandmothers helping the daughters reach
on a brilliant career—serving not only an East Baltimore their professional goals. My mom was there
22 community that has become home away from her home in for me. I could not have earned the PhD 2323
Howard County but building programs to keep women and without her help. Now, it is my turn to help
children safe from intimate partner violence across the U.S. my daughter reach her professional goals”
Yet, Sharps also knows that the work is not done. As the Elsie as a physician and program director for a
M. Lawler Endowed Chair and associate dean for community residency training program.
programs and initiatives, she is determined to build a legacy
at Johns Hopkins, in Baltimore, and in communities prone to Even as she steals a few moments from
the burdens of health disparities. Her work is a keystone, her a busy schedule to look ahead, Sharps
success not an epitaph but a call to do more. is “grateful for a fabulous career as nurse-
researcher.” Call her seasoned. Call her a
So, just as Sharps wasn’t the first to recognize a problem and trailblazer on health equity, on IPV research,
act, or to recognize the value of mHealth (mobile technology or on building bridges to the East Baltimore
to expand nursing’s reach), she’s determined she won’t be community. Call her someone who looks
JOHNS HOPKINS NURSING FALL/WINTER 2020
the last. “In the Army, I established a major training program forward to volunteering for her church and
that continued after I left,” she explains of her approach to spending more time with “two beautiful
program building. “It’s a testament to your work if something granddaughters.”
you started continues to flourish after you’ve moved on.”
And leave it at that. She will let you know she
Sharps has left no stone unturned, then, as she has worked is done on her way out the door. ◼
to turn the Henderson-Hopkins School into a gathering
place not just of healthy students but of parents and
grandparents who learn wellness from those children. MAGAZINE.NURSING.JHU.EDU

“It’s a testament to youR WORK if something you started

continues to flourish after you’ve moved on.”
PHOTO BY CHRIS HARTLOVE