May 15, 2019
Two WJU Faculty Publish Health-Care Ethics Book
Wednesday, May 15, 2019 8:38 AM
WU News
WHEELING, WV
WJU Emeritus Professor, Dr. Beverly J. Whelton developed a wealth of knowledge and experiences over many years in both nursing and teaching that is now recorded in a book being released in July. The title is”Humanity at the Heart of Practice: A Study of Ethics for Health-Care Students and Practitioners,”
Jane Neuenschwander, Ed.D., began as the editor for the book, and shared that Dr. Whelton graciously listed her as a co-author as we worked together over the past year to get it published.
For a glimpse at the book, the opening text jacket reads:
“Humans are the beings in the world who are concerned with what ought to be done. Humans perceive the impact of another human’s action as good or evil, moral or immoral. Health care is human’s caring for other vulnerable humans and ethics evaluates the way humans treat each other so it is natural that this book about ethical- decision making in health care uses humanity as its organizing structure.”
The book is published by Cambridge Scholars in Newcastle, England and is available now as a pre-sale book on Amazon.
Both women have impressive careers in their chosen fields. For Beverly J. Whelton, PhD, MSN, after working clinically for fifteen years with an A.D. in Nursing from Pacific Union College (1964) and then a B.A. in Biology from Northeastern University (1972), she obtained a MSN from The Catholic University of America (1978) and taught Nursing at Columbia Union College for five years. She then returned to the classroom as a student to inquire into the philosophical foundations of practice and research with human subjects. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Philosophy from The Catholic University of America 1996). Her dissertation, “A Philosophy of Nursing Practice: An Application of the Thomistic-Aristotelian Concept of Nature to the Science of Nursing” was directed by the international philosopher of science, William A. Wallace, O.P. She is currently teaching courses in Philosophy of the Human Person as an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Wheeling Jesuit University. She also teaches “Person and Conduct” on-line for graduate nursing students at Gonzaga University and previously as Content Expert for Jesuit Worldwide Learning (Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins), which makes college courses available for students in refugee camps. Dr. Whelton lectures nationally and internationally on human life itself as a foundation for practice. She delivered the lecture, “Being Human in a Global Age of Technology,” on October 10, 2015 at the WVPS, Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pa. This work was published in the international nursing journal, Nursing Philosophy later that year.
Her chapter “The Nursing Act is an Excellent Human Act: A Philosophical Analysis Derived from Classical Philosophy and the Conceptual Framework and Theory of Imogene King,” appeared as the second chapter in the graduate level text, Middle Range Theory Development Using King’s Conceptual System, Christina Leibold Sieloff and Maureen Fry (editors), New York: Springer Publishing Company, 2007, pp. 12-28. Publications have appeared in Linacre Quarterly, Nursing Philosophy, Nursing Science Quarterly, among others. She has served as the Book Review Editor (from 2007) and is on the Editorial Board of Nursing Philosophy. From 2005-2018, she was vice chair of the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS). And has served as President (2011-2013) and as Treasurer (2014 – present) for the King International Nursing Group. The current text takes its inspiration in part from the nurse-theorist Imogene King, who told the author in 2004 that her theory was applicable to all health-care disciplines.
Jane Neuenschwander is a life-long educator. Her teaching career started in 1977 as a middle school teacher upon graduating with degree in an elementary education from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. After years of teaching in public schools, Neuenschwander moved into the area of curriculum and instruction working for the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling, West Virginia. She also worked as a NASA Educator Resource Manager with responsibilities in the areas of educational professional development, as well as designing and reviewing NASA K-12 educational curricula.
Neuenschwander earned a M.A. in elementary education from West Virginia University and an Ed.D. in Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment from Walden University. Currently Dr. Neuenschwander teaches in the education department at Wheeling Jesuit University.