Campaign for the UW-Madison School of Nursing

“As the locus of health care shifts from institutions to homes and communities, there is an urgent need to develop computer and biotechnology-based tools that can be safely and effectively used outside the hospital, improving health and quality of life”

Patricia Flatley Brennan

The Power of Nursing Kickoff Weekend begins with the 10th Annual Littlefield Leadership Lecture at 8:30 a.m. Friday, October 2, in the Health Sciences Learning Center.

Keynote speaker Patricia Flatley Brennan (’84 MS EGR, ‘86 PhD EGR, PhD, RN), Moehlman Bascom Professor of Nursing and chair of the UW-Madison Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering in the College of Engineering, is one of the nation’s leaders in consumer health information technology. She will address how technology benefits nursing practice and patient care and how nursing education needs to change to ensure tomorrow’s technology-enriched care.

Brennan successfully proposed the Health Technology Design in the Living Environments Laboratory, which will become one of five themes in the new Wisconsin Institute for Discovery. “Nursing has a wealth of knowledge and experience pertinent to this theme,” she writes. Nurses, who understand human response to health and illness and how to work in multiple health-care environments, can collaborate with engineers, designers and computer scientists to develop new health technologies that will empower patients and help them remain in their homes. Read More »