The relationship between the Duke University School of Nursing and our nation’s armed forces can be traced back more than 80 years to just prior to the beginning of World War II. Since then, DUSON has built a deep and lasting legacy with the military that distinguishes it within the nursing profession.

Professors, students, and staff in the Duke University School of Nursing are collaborating with other Duke partners including the School of Medicine on an innovative study involving at-home data-collecting and monitoring of patients with Type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.

In April 1941, prior to U.S. involvement in World War II, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) issued a call for schools of nursing to increase enrollment to train more nurses for military, health, and civilian service. Duke responded by admitting 84 students in October 1941, an increase from 58 the previous year.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is typically thought to affect younger white women and often important factors are underrecognized in other populations, including veterans. That is one of the reasons that Duke University School of Nursing postdoctoral fellow and clinical associate Carri Polick, Ph.D., RN, is conducting a study that examines smoking cessation among veterans with MS and how social determinants of health might affect treatment of veterans’ smoking addiction and disease trajectory.