Mary W. Stewart

Professor of Nursing Special Assistant to the Dean Director, PhD Program View CV   Contact Phone: (601) 984-6260 Fax: (601) 815-5957 E-mail: mstewart@umc.edu Office: Jackson campus

Biography

Dr. Mary W. Stewart joined the University of Mississippi Medical Center in July 2008. Prior to this, she was dean and professor of William Carey University School of Nursing, where she was responsible for undergraduate and graduate nursing education programs on three campuses in two states. Before joining WCU, she was on faculty at the University of Southern Mississippi College of Nursing.

Dr. Stewart's clinical background is in adult critical care, with special attention to the aging population. Currently, she is working to map health-care resources and identify accessibility to those resources for older adults in Mississippi. She teaches in the Ph.D. program, specifically philosophy of science, ethics of research and nursing phenomena. She is the author of Research News, a regular column in the Journal of Perianesthesia Nursing.

Research overview

Dr. Stewart's research began with an interest in self-esteem and control in older adults. Specifically, her beginning work investigated self-esteem as a function of urinary continence in post-menopausal women. Other adults in transition, including those who receive anesthesia care as they move through the perioperative experience, remain a major research topic.

Currently, she is studying health care access for older adults and conducting focus groups with community-dwelling elders in Forrest County, Miss. She is also collaborating with University of Mississippi Health Care nurses on institution-based research. As director of the Ph.D. program, she is involved closely with doctoral student research projects, dissertations and publications.