Allan is new nursing dean
Janet D. Allan, PhD, RN, CS, FAAN, co-developer of California’s first adult nurse practitioner program, an American Nursing Association-certified nurse practitioner, an investigator for numerous research studies on obesity, a former professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing and a nationally recognized contributor to the care of people with AIDS and HIV, took the reins of the School of Nursing as new dean in September.
After completing a master’s degree in community health nursing at the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF), she joined the faculty in 1969. There she and a colleague developed California’s first adult nurse practitioner program.
In 1981 she went to the University of California at Berkeley to pursue a doctorate in medical anthropology (a joint program with UCSF) and began studying obesity from an anthropological perspective. Her interest in the topic later prompted a move to UT Austin’s School of Nursing, where she conducted an ethnographic study on 37 obese women and completed her dissertation on "Euro-American Women and Patterns and Processes of Weight Management." Joining the school’s faculty in 1986, she continued to study women and weight management. She received a five-year, $450,000 grant from NIH/NINR for a "Cross-Ethnic Nursing Study of Weight Management in Women."
Also she established and became program director of the Community-Based Family Nurse Practitioner Program and later helped initiate a pediatric nurse practitioner program.
In 1997 Dr. Allan was facilitator for a national task force, funded by the Division of Nursing of the Bureau of Health Professions (Health Resources Administration, Department of Health and Human Services), which completed evaluation criteria for nurse practitioner programs.
Dr. Allan has been elected president of two nursing organizations, the 800-member Southern Nursing Research Society (1992-94) and the 850-member National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (1996-present).
"Community partnerships are critical with the direction the health care system is taking--less tertiary care and more health care in community and ambulatory care settings," Dr. Allan commented while discussing the school’s future. "This creates a shift in educational agenda.
"To meet the demands on baccalaureate graduates to work in community settings and the increased focus on health promotion and disease prevention, a new undergraduate curriculum proposal is being reviewed by faculty," she added. "The school already has demonstrated a community leadership role in the development of two nurse practitioner master’s programs. The newly funded [by the Department of Health and Human Services] pediatric nurse practitioner program, with a focus on South Texas, will prepare nurses who will provide primary care to infants, children and adolescents. There is a shortage of nurse practitioners in South Texas," she said.
