This fall, the Center for Bioethics welcomes Amanda Davis, MSN, RN, as an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellow (IDF). Ms. Davis is interested in exploring the role community health workers (CHWs) play in building trust between community members and healthcare organizations. Her research will also focus on the sustainability of the CHW role and the CHW care model more broadly.
Ms. Davis is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, and her interest in bioethics dates back about 15 years to when she first attended nursing school. Reflecting on her experiences, she notes that bioethics often doesn't receive the attention it deserves in nursing school curriculums—a situation she hopes will change for the better. Ms. Davis understands how nurses have to confront difficult ethical situations with patients and their families constantly. So, she wishes that new nurses be equipped with the tools to navigate these ethical dilemmas effectively. Her interest in bioethics has evolved to encompass more global and structural levels to address these issues on a broader scale.
She aims to examine the ethical implications of addressing health equity in the US. She poses a critical question: “There is a cost to doing the work needed to make changes, and I've been wondering what those costs are and who pays them?” She explains that CHWs are often referred to as tools to increase health equity, but she contemplates, “They aren't tools—they're people, and they're generally underpaid, mostly women, often people of color, and the role frequently comes with little support, recognition, or long-term career development. In my mind, how we address health inequity in this country is fundamentally a question of bioethics.”
As Ms. Davis embarks on her dissertation journey under the mentorship of Jennifer Needle, MD, MPH, HEC-C, she is eager to incorporate the perspectives and expertise of the Center for Bioethics faculty into her research.
