May 1, 2013

Karen Adamson, MSN, WHNP-C '09, donated $6,000 from her BAYADA Award for Technological Innovation in Nursing Education and Practice to two teen mothers she works with in her practice who are pursuing degrees in the health professions.

“I work in the family practice office and I feel like sometimes the teen moms get forgotten. Since I believe in education, there were a couple of teen moms that I see in my practice who were doing really well in trying to improve their lives. I offered them an opportunity to go back to school,” Adamson said.

Adamson is a 2009 graduate of Drexel’s MSN for Women’s Health Nurse Practitioners and is a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner in the Pueblo City and County Health Department of Pueblo, Colorado. She won the BAYADA Award last year for developing a public health program that uses social media to educate sexually active teens. The initiative uses teen-friendly tools like text messaging to provide answers to their anonymously-posted questions about contraception and STDs from a Nurse Practitioner within 24 hours.

“Winning the BAYADA Award for Technological Innovation in Nursing Education and Practice was an incredible honor.  Winning this prestigious award renewed my faith that sometimes simple ideas can make a big difference,” Adamson said.

Adamson used part of her winnings to fund advertising for her project, GOASKTARA, and to educate and influence other health services to further utilize texting, email and social networking to disseminate information and answer health questions.

She offered two of the teen mothers she works with $3,000 each to pursue higher education. Both mothers are currently taking pre-requisite courses at the local Colorado Mountain College.

“I feel strongly that if we’re going to make a difference, we need to educate these families so they can better their lives and not perpetuate the cycle of teen pregnancy and poverty,” Adamson said. “It is exciting and they’re so excited, which makes me happy!”