Nursing Professors Receive Award

Nursing Professors Receive Award for Research on Children Who Lost Caregivers to COVID-19

Nursing professors Sarah A. Browne-Bradwisch, Erin Murphy-Smith and Catherine Wilson-Mooney have won APEX 2024’s Grand Award in the public concerns and trending topics category for their article “Helping children and adolescents who lost a caregiver during the COVID-19 pandemic,” published in the peer-reviewed journal Nursing2024.

The three were inspired to conduct the research while working on campus during the pandemic. While finding ways to keep their students on track during the lockdown, such as substituting clinical experience in hospitals for on-campus clinicals and adhering to social distancing protocols, they became aware of how their colleagues at the College and the hospitals were faring.

“We were initially impacted by the struggles and grief our colleagues were experiencing during the pandemic,” said Catherine Wilson-Mooney, co-deputy for clinical affiliations and an assistant professor who has been part of the KCC nursing department since 2018. The first article the team wrote together focused on nurses’ prolonged grief during the pandemic.

“This article actually came about during our research of the first article,” explained Erin Murphy-Smith, who joined KCC in 2011 and served as deputy chair during the pandemic, helping guide the department through many challenges.

“We learned from our students that many didn’t have a caregiver to care for their children due to the fear of their elders and family members having or contracting the COVID-19 virus,” shared Sarah A. Browne-Bradwisch, who before joining the KCC nursing faculty in 2006 served as a naval officer and pediatric nurse, providing critical care on ships and overseas duty tours.

“During this time, children and adolescents suffered immeasurably as they were unable to visit their loved ones in the hospital, schools were closed, and there were no funerals,” said Wilson-Mooney. “In addition, our colleagues cared for many children who had lost a caregiver during the pandemic, often a parent or grandparent.”

Learning that COVID-19 left over 140,000 children without a caregiver inspired their research, culminating in a paper that went on to win an award.

The paper discusses how school closures, which impacted education and increased food poverty by removing access to vital services like school lunches, combined with social isolation, have contributed to a significant rise in mental health problems among children and adolescents.

Murphy-Smith, a former pediatric nurse, noted that the KCC nursing curriculum already incorporates mental health and loss-coping skills. Two nursing courses, Nursing the Emotionally Ill (NUR 20) and Nursing of Children (NUR 23), address the role of nurses in supporting children's mental health. "Our students have a lot of experience working with children in clinical settings where they can teach the families of children who have lost a caregiver," Browne-Bradwisch said. "As professors, we make sure that our nursing students understand the ideas that Elizabeth Kubler Ross so poignantly wrote on the stages of grief, and we give them the tools they need to have the courage to talk to their patients' families during this tough time. We then instruct our students on how to collaborate with other healthcare professionals to establish customized care plans for children at each developmental milestone.”

In their paper, the authors provide age-specific recommendations to help children through the grieving process: comfort and loving care for infants and toddlers; reassurance and emotional support for preschoolers; honest explanations and creative outlets for school-age children; and for teenagers, maintaining routines, encouraging open dialogue, and involving trusted non-family adults.

Throughout the paper, strategies based on scientific data are shared, including studies on childhood trauma, the effects of school closures, and the aftereffects of isolation. By grounding their advice in evidence, the authors offer practical, proven ways to support children through loss and potentially improve their long-term well-being.

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