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Winifred J. Ellenchild Pinch, EdD, RN, FAAN
Professor, Center for Health Policy and Ethics
Professor, School of Nursing
Inducted to the American Academy of Nursing, 2003
EdD, 1983, Boston University
MS, 1985, Creighton University
MEd, 1973, State University of New York
BS, 1963, Temple University
Diploma, 1959, Harrisburg Hospital, School of Nursing
Dr. Winifred J. Ellenchild Pinch
Creighton University Medical Center
Center for Health Policy and Ethics, 210
2500 California Plaza
Omaha, NE 68178
(402) 280-2042 tel
(402) 280.5735 fax
wpinch@creighton.edu
Biography
As a doctoral student at Boston University in the 1970s, Dr. Winifred Ellenchild Pinch made bioethics her focus of study and envisaged a day when she might be able to devote a major portion of her professional career to this area. Because she heard that an ethics center might be developed at Creighton University with financial support from the Health Future Foundation she came to Creighton University in 1985. In 1989, Dr. Pinch began work at the Center for Health Policy and Ethics as a faculty member—her dream had come true. Dr. Pinch's original and continuing primary appointment is with the School of Nursing but from that year onward, she has held a joint appointment with the Center, which now encompasses a majority of her time.
Since 1989 Dr. Pinch has regularly taught a health care ethics course to undergraduate students. Initially, Dr. Dougherty, the former Director of the Center and course leader for the first year medical students, invited her to participate as a group facilitator for the Medical Ethics course. The course experienced several permutations but the small group discussion continued through all of the curriculum changes. In the late 90s when the School of Nursing revised the graduate program curriculum, Dr. Pinch began to teach a bioethics course to those students as well.
Dr. Pinch recalls, "When I first came to Creighton University, I had a community health nursing practice out of the School of Nursing's Creighton Home Health Care Agency. It was there that I became interested in ethical decision making and high-risk newborns. The stories that families in my case load shared with me did not exactly mesh with the scholarly work I studied as a doctoral student." Based on these observations, Dr. Pinch began a research project investigating the parental perceptions of ethical decision making in the NICU. In 1985 this included a pilot study which was the genesis of a full-scale project that continued to the early part of 2001. A number of publications, presentations, and two videos resulted from the project. The video, I'm Just the Mother, received a Sigma Theta Tau International media award. A book—When the Bough Breaks, was published in the summer of 2002 by the University Press of America.
Dr. Pinch has been involved in numerous other bioethical research projects including the Center's collaborative project on confidentiality and mothers with HIV/AIDS, the healthy elderly perception of ethical decision making, status of ethics committees in state nursing associations, and implementation of the Patient Self-Determination Act in Nebraska. A current collaborative project (book) at the Center on Alzheimer's disease and other dementias includes a paper by Dr. Pinch entitled "Advanced directives and end-of-life decision making in Alzheimer's disease: Practical challenges."
As one with a special interest in feminist bioethics and ethics related to women's health, a number of her publications relate to the general area of feminist approaches to bioethics as well as feminist commentary on selected bioethical issues. Dr. Pinch presented her research findings involving ethical decision making for high risk neonates at the 2003 Women and Health Lecture.
A current project for which Dr. Pinch is serving as director is entitled "Nursing and Health Care Ethics: A Legacy and a Vision." For details about this project, see the article on this project in the Spring 2007 issue of Focus, the Center's newsletter.
Selected publications in the area of bioethics include:
- Pinch, W.J.E. (2004). Advance directives and end-of-life decision making in Alzheimer Disease: Practical challenges. In R. Purtilo & H.A.M.J. ten Have (Eds.). Ethical foundations of palliative care for Alzheimer Disease (pp. 181-199). Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Pinch, W.J.E. (2003). A window into nursing. Intensive care: More poetry and prose by nurses. [Book review]. Medical Humanities Review, 17(2), 23-28.
- Pinch, W.J.E., & Shannon, P. (2003). Ethical and legal issues in nursing. In L.S. Williams & P.D. Hopper (Eds.). Understanding Medical Surgical Nursing (Chapter 2, pp. 11-21). Philadelphia: F. A. Davis.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild. (2002). When the bough breaks: Parental perceptions of ethical decision-making in NICU. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild. (2001). Cord blood banking: Ethical implications. American Journal of Nursing, 101(10), 55-59.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild, & Miya, P. A. (2000). Understaffing and the obligations of hospital ethics committees. HEC Forum, 12(3), 279-281.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild, & Graves, J. K. (2000). Using web-based discussion as a teaching strategy: Bioethics as an exemplar. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 32(3), 704-712.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild. (2000). Confidentiality: Concept analysis and clinical application. Nursing Forum, 35(2), 5-16.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild. (1999). Confidentiality through a feminist lens: Reaction piece. AAOHN Journal, 47(12), 569.
- Pinch, W. J. Ellenchild, & Parsons, M. E. (1997). Moral orientation of elderly persons: Considering ethical dilemmas in health care. Nursing Ethics, 4(5), 380-393.
Snapshot
View of Snapshot of Dr. Pinch's work:
Multiple choice in baby making [PDF]
Women and Health
Lectures (4 pages) [PDF]
(or abbreviated
version of Women and Health Lectures [PDF])