Honors Student, Allison Erby, smiling under her mask after receiving her first dose of the coronavirus vaccine

Hello! My name is Allison Erby and I am an honors senior nursing student with the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing. In this picture, I am receiving my first dose of the coronavirus vaccine in the week it came out. I was fortunate to receive this vaccine because I have been working on an OB unit of a local Northwest Arkansas hospital for over a year now. Mentoring me is Clinical Assistant Professor, Dr. Ballentine, whose doctoral research examines the nutrient, choline, as it relates to the prenatal diet. In Fall 2020, I finalized the data collection phase of my research and will move forward with analysis and completion during Spring 2021.

My research investigates perceptions of prenatal dietary execution and importance through a survey using tactics such as the Likert scale, distributed to healthcare professionals in Ireland and the United States. Participants noted in the survey which country they reside, hopefully allowing for accurate distinction of between each cultures. Ireland is used as the comparison because midwifery (a nurse with a master’s degree who takes a holistic approach to pregnancy with low levels of medical intervention) is the cultural norm there, compared to the U.S. where an obstetrician (a medical doctor for the pregnancy and delivery phase) is the main health provider during pregnancy. As healthcare disparities more clearly develop in the United States with the coronavirus pandemic, this kind of research becomes even more important. Lower intervention means lower cost and more accessibility for the majority pregnancies, which are not considered high-risk, requiring higher intervention of an obstetrician.

I chose this topic because I could never get bored learning about perinatal care or health prevention, and this is the perfect combination of the two! Thankfully, my honors mentor for nursing school, Dr. Ballentine, graciously agreed to also oversee my thesis work. Her experience as a midwife and experience publishing research have been invaluable in moving this project forward.

In the data collection phase, I have learned that almost every healthcare professional will prioritize prenatal dietary education, but which nutrients each participant values vary greatly. I look forward to further translation of survey results. I have also been heavily impacted by the irony of my research during the pandemic. I have learned just as much about the dos and don’ts of public health education by watching the news as I have working on my research. While prevention can be very difficult to maintain, as we have learned, it is proven over and over to be the best medicine. The most impactful idea I have developed while working on my research in Fall 2020 is the same reason I chose the above picture, no matter if it feels like I am talking to the wind, I will always provide my patients with every tool possible to prevent illness – whether that be coronavirus or dilutional anemia related to a prenatal nutritional deficiency.

I have faced many challenges, mostly associated with reaching healthcare professionals in Ireland. It really hurt my chance to reach Irish healthcare professionals when my summer 2020 study abroad to Ireland was canceled. My hospital job provides connections for many participants in the United States, but there was a very low response rate to the hundreds of emails I sent to Ireland, even with the IRB approved distribution email template. However, enough Irish participants submitted the survey for Dr. Ballentine to approve closing it and moving into analyzation. Next, I will compose the thesis paper, present, and submit for review during the spring thesis review day with hopes of publishing.