It’s 8 a.m. and only high ponies and baseball caps are visible as Texas Christian University Harris College of Nursing & Health Sciences students hunch over their computers, taking quizzes in Rees-Jones Hall. At the front of the room is Carol Howe, Ph.D., the Paula R. & Ronald C. Parker Endowed Professor of Nursing and director of nursing research and scholarship.
Researcher, scholar, teacher, journal editor and now a Big 12 Faculty of the Year honoree, Howe is a busy woman.
“Since the last time I saw you, I’ve had a flat tire, turned in a $2 million grant proposal, and graded your papers,” Howe tells the class. “I’m a little discombobulated.”
Unexpected Connection
Meanwhile, as Howe is teaching, Katalina Considine, a member of the Horned Frogs No. 3-ranked equestrian team, is riding like she does most days. The sophomore strategic communication major in the Bob Schieffer College of Communication is from Los Angeles and has been riding competitively since she was 9. This was also around the time she was diagnosed with diabetes.
“It’s just part of my life. It is something I had to deal with,” Considine said, “but
I have never let it stop me.”
Considine and Howe have never met but their days are connected in ways Howe never could have imagined when she chose to focus her research on organizational health literacy. Years in the field as a clinical nurse specialist and director of diabetes education at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and doing collaborative research through Children’s Health in Dallas taught Howe that patient outcomes are directly related to how well clinicians communicate information.
Her research led to applicable protocols like “teach back” that help athletes like Considine compete at the highest levels of sport possible while managing their diabetes.
“I have been managing by myself pretty consistently since I was 14,” Considine said. “I have a glucose monitor … and some of my TCU trainers and doctors get notified of my numbers. They will remind me: You need to eat something. But I get to do what I love.”
Howe being named Big 12 Faculty of the Year is a reminder that the research happening at TCU doesn’t just change the world. It changes the world of people right here at TCU, people like Considine.
“I feel very fortunate to have a research home and collaborators who are as enthusiastic as me,” Howe said.
‘Nurse Scientists’
Howe recently delivered a talk for the Southern Nursing Research Society meeting on a current project and a paper she is working on about a Community of Practice with nurse champions (who will speak in her class later in the semester) and is using this to better inform the students gathered in her Professional Role III class.
“She gave us a 30-second bio on the first day, and then we looked her up,” said junior nursing student Grace Schafhauser, who came to TCU from Minnesota specifically for Harris College. “She’s a big deal. She’s brilliant. And she’s a great teacher.”
The quiz is done on this Tuesday morning and Howe is directing Schafhauser and her classmates, who are building towers out of paper. Howe has never done this exercise before but believes this will help them better understand QI (Quality Improvement) projects.
The truth is students don’t typically look forward to PRIII, officially named Professional Role III: Member of the Research and Evidence-Based Practice Community. They want clinicals and to learn how to insert PICC lines. They want the action. This is exactly why Howe teaches this.
“I really do believe we need more nurse scientists,” Howe explains. “We need more research initiated by nurses.”
This is why Howe answered Google’s global open call to organizations looking to “harness the power of generative AI to unlock potential for everyone, everywhere.” She very much believes in the power of AI-enabled scientific innovation to help technology be used for good in the world.
What she also knows for sure is the good put into the world changes the world of people right here on campus.