Wynetta "Bunny" Carl-Matsuura will receive the first University of Hawaii-Manoa doctoral degree in nursing during summer commencement exercises Sunday. UH to graduate
its first nursing Ph.D.The program was established
in 1998 and has 23 studentsStar-Bulletin staff
Her dissertation concerned "Perinatal Correlates of Shaken Baby Syndrome."
The doctoral program was established at UH-Manoa in the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene in the fall of 1998 with seven students.
The program now has 23 students, with seven more starting this fall.
Barbara Molina Kooker, program director and interim school dean, said the goal is to develop new knowledge to improve the health of Hawaii's people.
"This is a monumental occasion for the school to have its first graduate of the Ph.D. program in the year we celebrate our 70th anniversary," she said.
Carl-Matsuura has been in the nursing profession since 1970, working the past 16 years in the area of child maltreatment.
She earned UH nursing and public-health master's degrees in 1978 and entered the doctorate program in 1999.
"I feel it is very important to have nurses educated to conduct research, teach and lead in the community," she said.
With reports of maltreated children growing annually, she said more research is needed on the nurse's role, intervention techniques and prevention education.
Her study on shaken baby syndrome, the leading cause of death in child abuse, concluded that changes are needed in early educational programs and media campaigns to reduce head trauma in infants and children.
She said a greater focus is needed on head trauma in general instead of only on shaken baby syndrome.
University of Hawaii
