Vital Contributions

When Gloria Donnelly was growing up on the 2200 block of Latona Street, her Aunt Ann lived with the family for about a year. Just 3 years old at the time, Donnelly was fascinated by the fact that her mother’s sister was a nurse in World War II.

Aunt Ann’s job took her all over the world, recalls Donnelly. The nurse was stationed on a hospital ship off the coast of Africa, and even got married in a M.A.S.H. unit.

So in the late 1950s, when Donnelly graduated from St. Maria Goretti High School and was trying to choose a profession, she decided to follow in her aunt’s footsteps.

"I’m sure my Aunt Ann had a lot to do with my choice of nursing," she says, reflecting on her 40-plus-year career as a nurse and administrator.

Donnelly added the field was one of few options for female professionals.

When she was ready to enter college, Villanova and the University of Pennsylvania were the only two area schools with collegiate nursing programs.

So Donnelly chose them both — first earning an undergraduate degree in nursing from Villanova, then a master’s in the same from the University of Pennsylvania and, finally, a doctorate in human development from Bryn Mawr College.

The 62-year-old recalls well her nearly two-hour commute to Villanova from South Philly. The coed would take the Route 17 bus to 15th and Market streets and then hop the El to 69th Street, where she’d board a train for the Catholic university on the Main Line.

"It was a whole different era and that’s how everybody got around. My parents didn’t have the means to buy me a car," she says.

Donnelly, who now lives in Wynnewood with her retired husband, 94-year-old father and 92-year-old mother-in-law, is still in school — only on the other side of the desk. She’s the dean of the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University (formerly MCP Hahnemann University) and a leader in nursing education both regionally and nationally. Before her current post, she served as founding dean of the School of Nursing at La Salle University.

Donnelly also serves as chairman of the board of directors for Horizon House Inc., an organization that serves the indigent mentally ill and mentally retarded in Southeastern Pennsylvania and Delaware.

In 1982, she was elected to a fellowship in the prestigious American Academy of Nursing, a group of 1,000 nationally distinguished nurses.

The dean lectures across the country on trends in nursing and nursing education, particularly the use of new instructional formats and technologies.

Donnelly loves to write and has authored four textbooks that won her two American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year awards. She’s currently the editor of Holistic Nursing Practice, a journal published by local medical publishing house Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins.

The modest professional says she views her career accomplishments simply as "projects."

One of her recent projects was establishing a nursing award with New Jersey-based Bayada Nurses founder Mark Baiada and his brother Mel, a medical technology leader. (Mark Baiada changed the "I" to a "Y" in his company’s name for easier pronunciation.)

"I got an idea to establish an award for innovative use of technology in nursing practice or education, and I thought that would be interesting to them," she says.

The Baiada brothers loved the idea and agreed to fund the award, calling it the Bayada Award for Technological Innovation in Nursing Education and Practice.

The inaugural competition drew 41 applicants from across the globe, including one from Singapore.

California nurse Mary Kay Bader won the award for using a cutting-edge technology that helped save a boy with a 1-percent chance of survival.

Bader led the neurosurgery unit of her hospital in designing guidelines for monitoring the use of the LICOX oxygen monitor.

After a boy was admitted with injuries from an SUV running over his head, it looked as if he would die, Donnelly says. But by inserting the LICOX monitor into his head, doctors were able to get life-saving readouts for cranial pressure and oxygen levels in his brain, the nurse explains.

Bader stayed with her patient for two weeks, taking only short breaks to go home.

"He pulled through the crisis period with use of the LICOX," Donnelly says.

That was three years ago. Today, the accident victim leads a perfectly normal life, she adds.

Bader received her award June 12 at Adam’s Mark Hotel on City Line Avenue. The nurse lectures on the merits of LICOX nationally — an instrument used by only 50 hospitals in the country.

Donnelly’s other pet project has been developing online education programs at Drexel and encouraging faculty to teach online.

"I think it’s such a powerful way to learn. There’s an anonymity when you teach on the Web that frees up students to say what they want because they’re not getting visual feedback that could be negative," she says.

Donnelly also notes that the Internet is a way to reach out to people who want to learn but don’t have the means to physically attend a school.

Although the nurse’s profession has taken her far and wide, she has a soft spot for South Philly and returns when she is able.

"It’s a place that is difficult to leave but such fun to return to," she says. She still has family on the 1500 block of Rosewood Street, the 1700 block of South Bancroft Street, the 2300 block of South Woodstock Street and the 1900 block of Durfor Street.

Donnelly’s best friend is originally from South Philly, but has since moved. The two pals often return to the area for dinner.

"I love the restaurants. I just love South Philly," Donnelly says. "It’s friendly and the people are real. Everybody watches out for one another."

After she leaves her current position as dean, Donnelly plans to do more writing and watercolor painting.

But her immediate goal is to build a strong team within the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University.

"So that when I step away, they take it to the next level," she says. "And that they do much better than I did because there are so many opportunities coming down the pike … so that the school sustains success — because success never depends on one person."