Opening Eyes and Hearts: Dr. Kathleen Murphy on Global Health, Equity, and the Power of Vision
Hey, it's your eye health experts, Prevent Blindness Texas, and welcome to Eyespiring, a conversation about all things vision and life. Welcome to Eyespiring with Prevent Blindness Texas. I'm your host, CEO, Heather Patrick. Today we are super excited to have Dr. Kathleen Murphy join us, but before we get there, I'm going to tell you a little bit about Prevent Blindness Texas and what we do.
Heather Patrick:We are a public health agency focused on vision and overall health and connecting people to the care they need and helping people understand why eye health is so important as part of their overall health. It's a critical step to ensure that you are living the best life you can have, and that's why we're here to support everyone across the state in their eye health needs. All right, so with that, as I said, I'm Heather Patrick. I've been here for about eight years, but I've been in the public health space for about twenty, give or take.
Heather Patrick:And one thing that always stands out to me is the need for education and empowerment and advocacy. And so another thing that we really believe in is advocating for change and access and giving people, those that don't have a voice, a voice in this process. And so that's one of the reasons we do all of this and why we have these conversations, so that people can learn and know where to go and who to call and why iHealth is so important. So with that, I am super excited to introduce my friend and mentor and role model, Dr. Kathleen Murphy.
Heather Patrick:So let me tell you just a little bit about her and then I'll turn it over to her. She is professor and associate dean for global health and community engagement at UTMB School of Nursing. She is also a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and a certified global nurse consultant. So with that, Kathleen, tell us more about who you are and then we'll get into some of the questions that we have for you.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Okay. Well, thank you so much, Heather, for that introduction and for giving me a lot of titles I didn't know I had as far as mentor. So thank you for that. It's been an absolute joy to work with you since I've had the opportunity to work with you, and I appreciate you inviting me today. There's really not a lot to tell about me.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I'm actually kind of an average person, probably just like everybody listening to this podcast right now. I come from a very large family, Midwestern family, and some of what you talked about with advocacy and that sort of thing was instilled in us at a very, very young age by our parents. Lots of volunteering, lots of giving, lots of understanding, different capacities that people in our community had to meet their own needs and, how to step in and and do that. So I am a nurse now, but I was actually a social worker before I was a nurse, which kind of lines up with all of that. And my mother was a nurse, and, I'm happy to stay.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:She is still a nurse, although she's she's not licensed at this point since she's 96. But she's living her best life, and good vision is part of what's allowing her to do that into the mid nineties and past. But, after I worked in social work for a while, I became a nurse and then eventually a nurse practitioner and typically have always worked with historically excluded or underserved communities.
Heather Patrick:So, tell me a little bit more about, you know, global nursing and how did you get into that? Because I know you travel all across the world. So, what does that look like? How did you get into that?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I won't give you more history than you need, but the Reader's Digest version is I had always wanted to be in the Peace Corps. And for various reasons, when I got out of college, they didn't need people with the skills I had or more to the point didn't have. So sometime later after I became a nurse, I thought, Oh, I've got real skills now. You know, I could do that. I was old for a Peace Corps volunteer at the time.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I was in my mid-30s when I went, so I was already in the midst of a career. But it was something that I had really always wanted to do, and the space opened up in my life for me to be able to do that. So, I worked on public health projects in Senegal, West Africa, with a lot of people who were really younger than me, but had a wonderful time beginning to understand more about culture, not just the obvious things, but, an example I can think of is in my head, I was signing up for National Geographic Africa. Where I went was really the Sahel. It was Sub Saharan Africa.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It was a desert. It was you could not have convinced me there was anything beautiful about that lunar scape I was living in. And yet, if I was open to it, which I was, I came to really see value and understand the beauty in that environment. And I I couldn't have done that without help from my Senegalese national friends.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. It's a great example. So why is health, specifically eye health, so important to you? Because you've been an advocate for it for a long time.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, it's it, you know, all politics is local, right? So first thing is it hits home. I have family members who, one who has a serious eye illness, and I have many family members who had uncorrected and undiagnosed refractive errors. Now the uncorrected refracted errors, hopefully, that's an easy fix. Right?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:We have the skill and technology to diagnose it and then, create a pathway through contacts or glasses or patching or whatever we're gonna do. But I will tell you, one of the people who had the uncorrective refractive error was my son, and I was with him at his annual checkup. And, he passed passed the vision exam. And I realized it was that the providers, meaning at that point it was the medical assistants, were doing the absolute best they could with everything they had, but they truly hadn't been trained because he, like most young children, was not trying so hard to please them and pass that, you know, he was leaning right way forward. He was turning his head like that.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And although I wish that hadn't happened for him that I would have caught it earlier, it was great because we caught it then, and it also gave me a chance to talk with people about some different ways to think about approaching that. So that was one thing, family members. And then the other thing is for many, many years, I worked in school health and public health. And in both those assignments, we did a lot of care for all kinds of care for students. But one of the districts I worked at was in a low resource area, lots of families with less income, not very the city wasn't super ethnically diverse, and the school district definitely wasn't.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It was, mostly under represented folks. And so I walked in there my first day, and I was like, oh, there's so many great things we could do. And the first thing I realized was these kids are having so much trouble with reading and some of the achievement issues that was just so obvious so obvious to be low hanging fruit. And, honestly, I there was a bit of naivete with how I approached that, I think. But it could never have launched the way it did and still be successful, honestly, without partnering with Prevent Blindness.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And that's how I became involved with the organization. I called them up, and I was like, I I know you're the premier folks in this. Here's my situation. I've got a 125 schools and, you know, over a 100,000 students. Can we figure this out together?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And so it wasn't just one of those, yeah, we're partners and we're each doing our own thing. It was a true collaboration and a true partnership that's lasted for many, many, many years.
Heather Patrick:That's good. That's one of the reasons I think I love this job, because I really do believe, and I think it's across the affiliates and the national organization of collaboration, true collaboration, true partnership, really sitting down to talk about what are the best solutions and how do we work together to bring them to the community. And that's something I think that we do really well.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I agree. It's a true strength of the organization.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Okay. So, what are you passionate about professionally and personally?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, that makes it a little harder, of course. Are we PG-thirteen, or what's our designation?
Heather Patrick:All right. We'll go with PG-thirteen.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Okay. Professionally, it's about basically trying to do everything I can to make things as equitable as I can for everyone. And and when I say equitable, I'm not necessarily talking about income or ethnicity, although those are clearly involved. But I'm even thinking about, we know so much now about loneliness and social isolation and its impact on all aspects of health. So when I talk about equity, it's sort of trying to level set all the things that impact somebody's life.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And nursing is a very good place to do that because we work across so many domains. We're often the only health care clinician that people see for an extended period of time, whether it's an RN or a nurse practitioner. So my whole career, really, it's been about that. And also recognizing that I have the teeniest, tiniest of parts in doing that, that there are so many doing so much more.
Heather Patrick:I don't know. I think I'd have to challenge that. You've done quite a bit, Katherine.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Personally, I try to evade personal. Well, I thought I made a note for myself. Was checking my paper, but I really didn't. Honestly go ahead.
Heather Patrick:My observation and one of the things that's both personally and professionally important to you is opening the door and helping those that are coming after you, especially women. But to really help empower people, teach them. I believe teaching is important to you, mentoring. And so when I think of you, both personally and professionally, that is something that comes to mind is that you are an amazing teacher, but it really learning and teaching matters to you.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It does. And thank you for saying that because I don't think I would have thought to say that about myself or necessarily noticed it, but I think it's accurate. I think you articulated it very well. You'll have to go with me everywhere I travel.
Heather Patrick:That means I get to travel with you across the world. I'll sign up for that.
Heather Patrick:Perfect. All right. What makes you work hard every day? And I know you work hard every day.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Yeah. I think these days, everybody does really. There's so much to do and so much less resource to do it with. And I just feel like, well, at the very basic level, I love that feeling at the end of the day when you worked really hard and you're tired and it's a good tired, whether that's physical labor or, you know, head labor or working with people. But I really do feel like there's a limited amount of time to make a difference.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And we only have however many hours in the day that we're working. And somebody who perhaps sits in a place of privilege can put some things off until tomorrow. But persons who don't have that same privilege, sometimes stuff needs to happen now, or it needs to even happen yesterday. And that, I think, is, a very important motivator, and it's why a lot of the people I work with work so hard. We just want to do what we can to make everybody live better longer, wherever that is, and whatever that looks like.
Heather Patrick:Mhmm. I love that. Live better longer. So who inspires you?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Definitely, the people that I hope I'm serving well. I work, in a free clinic with unhoused persons and, work with a transitional living, supportive living situation for people exiting homelessness. When I see people I work with show up every day no matter what is happening in their lives, and I'm talking about the patients really, not the other providers, I can't even say anything else about that except what it is. Yeah. It's really important to do whatever it is you can in the time you have.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Just make the time count. I think most people in the public health space and the vision care space and health care in general, teachers, I've seen this tremendously with teachers, they are just trying to get that last little, what can I give today that, you know, is going to change things for somebody?
Heather Patrick:And I love that because I think it's interesting because outside of the vision world, don't feel like there's necessarily this urgency. If you're in the vision space, the eye health space, you understand if we operate with urgency, if we put these interventions into place, if we can change the path now, we can change significantly the outcomes in the future. And that for me is why I love it's another reason I love this space and this job because truly we actually can change the outcomes if we do it now, if we act now, if we put those interventions in place right now. So I think that it's really on point to do what you can now.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It's absolutely true, and I think you expressed it beautifully. I mean, vision issues that aren't paid attention to or corrected, if they're correctable, hopefully. I mean, that that goes to the social isolation I was just talking about. You know, developmentally, can you interact with your peers in the way that you would if you had your full abilities? Is it impacting your reading, which could impact further education?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Further education is going to affect perhaps what career you might pursue and your economic development. And that personal economic development affects the whole community. Because if we have a number of people who've missed that opportunity to get better so they could do better, it affects the whole community.
Heather Patrick:So, did you always want to do this? Did you always know, Okay, this is the field I want to be in?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:As I mentioned, my mother is a nurse and one day I sort of asked her what a nurse does. I mean, I knew generally, but I wanted the detail. Do they empty bedpans?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:She told me and I was like, Well, mom, you're never going to catch me doing that.
Heather Patrick:Never say never. Right.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I wanted to be so many different things, which I think is wonderful because I grew up in the sort of the beginning of feminism, and so it was wonderful to be able to contemplate so many possibilities and probabilities. But I think that early training from my parents about some of the most important, personally important, and community wide important work you can do involves helping others meet their own goals. It it always sat with me. So, yes, I I became a social worker and, I worked primarily in long term care. And then I realized, social workers and nurses actually do a lot of the same activities.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:The only ones that are different are the physical care. Case management is a big part of nursing. I thought, I'm gonna put on my thinking cap here, and I bet you I can do all of this, and I'll have probably more opportunities to do different kinds of that care, which, again, is one of the benefits of nursing. You can you can try so many different areas and types of care and ways of being with people. So, came to it the long way.
Heather Patrick:What was some of the best advice you received during your career?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Honestly, I was kind of mid career when I got this advice, but I thought it was really sound. Somebody said to me, Stop all this stuff you're doing. If you want to last, you've got to pace. And I said, I I don't even know what that means. What are you trying to tell me here?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:But I think it was really good advice because it's not about laying back and not doing things. What it really does is give you that however many seconds or minute pause you need during the day, during the week, during a career to be really thoughtful about where your time and energy goes and not chasing email, you know, every time something pops up on your screen, to that and the next shiny object that goes through the the space. So I really began to understand it in a way of how to shape work and that you're more productive and can offer more to your colleagues and your community if you're strategic about your time.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, that was great advice. Great advice. So, now you've been doing this a little while, what advice would you give?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Definitely that. I would definitely give that advice. Advice I often give people that are early or late early career is to shape what you want for yourself. Because I think sometimes we're in a culture where we're waiting for a superior or an organization or somebody to tell us how our life is gonna look that year or in this assignment. Or and, of course, we all need to respond to those pressures and requests.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Of course, we to have some organization. But I think it's really powerful to think through for yourself what it is you want and what you want it to look like. Because you might have some brilliant idea to involve yourself in the organization and something that nobody's ever thought of. And so you thinking about that for yourself allows you to come to the table with some ideas and how you see this work life looking for you. And then, of course, it's always a negotiation, but it's important to at least verbalize for yourself what's important to you and how you can contribute.
Heather Patrick:Those are very wise words, Kathleen. So, we know that you met Prevent Blindness early in your career. How did you get to Prevent Blindness Texas?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Okay, well, I had worked with Prevent Blindness Wisconsin and the national team at Prevent Blindness, and I moved to Texas to work at the University of Texas Medical Branch. And of course, know they say prevent blindness is a big family, but it really is because right away, I was contacted saying, Hey, you know, you're in Texas now. Yeah. It was very easy for me to say yes to that because I believe truly in the mission and the organization. And I have been amazed and honored to be able to watch the organization's growth and change that, you know, when you think many, many years ago, it was pretty much screening, which is so important as we've already discussed, but screening.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:But now it's about how do we help our community with resource management? How do we advocate for sufficient resources at the state and national level to meet eye health needs of our community? How do we partner with people? To your point, how do we build collaborative so that none of us small not for profits are trying to shoulder the burden ourselves? We have the buoyancy of being part of a collaborative.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And I love that about the organization. Absolutely love it.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, I really I mean, I deeply believe, you know, it's those group of minds that come together that we may have thought should be this way, and then an idea comes forward and it's so much better and so much more doable. But you don't get there if you don't have those conversations. What I really love and what has been really fun to watch over the last almost a decade is we started out with these partners, very specific, okay, makes sense. But now we've gone with all different partners across communities and I love that. I love that we stepped outside this box, but really because vision touches everyone.
Heather Patrick:And so being able to find those partners who could get creative too and innovative has been really exciting. And I think it's been part of one of the reasons we've grown so much, but also why the demand has grown because people now understand and want to invest in iHealth in their community and we can help them do that. Exciting.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I think it's so important, and exactly what you said, it affects everybody. There are some diseases or conditions that don't affect everybody. I personally have seen one thing that I found very interesting that I didn't have an awareness of this before, and I should have, is I think a lot of people go through life that if they don't have something diagnosed in childhood or adolescence, they think they're good for the rest of time. And then to have that horrible awakening of, wow. I'm advanced middle age right now, and I've got a condition with my eye that I never thought would happen to me, that I didn't think about, that I don't understand.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So so much of the work Prevent Blindness does with community and multiple partners all spreading the same message is so valuable.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Because basically, if you age, you pretty much are going to deal with some kind of eye issue. Now, most of them are solvable, but you are going to deal with an eye issue at some point. Yeah. All right.
Heather Patrick:So you were on the board for us and then you've been the chair of the national organization for their board. So just a little bit about what those experiences were like for you. But then I'm really interested when you serve in those leadership roles. And I know you, so I know it's something you took something away from that you learned, right? Because that's how you are.
Heather Patrick:That's who you are. But I'm just curious, like, what did anything shape you or you look back and you think that really changed something about my leadership? Well,
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I think both at Prevent Blindness Texas and in my national role, and I've been on multiple committees at the national level too, but I think it is very hard to be one of the few women, if not the only woman in the room in a leadership position with not all men. But and I'm not I want to be absolutely certain to say none of those individuals made me feel unwelcome, unappreciated. Everybody was so gracious and wonderful. So it's it's not the individual people. It's the societal and sociological feeling you have as a woman in charge of a large organization.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:That was very intimidating to me, and, I'm not easily intimidated by this.
Heather Patrick:I'm going to say, no, you are not.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:But I was like, how can I manage this so that I only speak when I need to, but that when I do, there's something meaningful that comes out of that hole in my head where my voice is? That was a struggle for me. And one of the things I and and sometimes I had to discuss unpopular things.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I don't necessarily shy away from that, but I also want to make sure I always try to frame it in the way that doesn't distance other people from the issue so we can come together and talk about it even with differing opinions. But honestly, that was something big that I took away. I was in every educational environment you can think of where women were celebrated and it was, you know, you can do this. You have all these skills and abilities. But when you're actually there and you might not have been in that role before, you have to do a little inner reckoning.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And so I did, and it was all fine. But, honestly, that's advice that I give to other women stepping into maybe a bigger role than they've had before in some capacity that, your fear shouldn't be about doing it. Your fear should be about not understanding why you have fear and then work on that to get it to the place you want it to be.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, that's good. That's kind of shocking to me. I'm really I'm surprised that you're So from the outside, I would have never guessed that because you certainly led always with confidence and direction and knew exactly what you wanted to say and where you wanted to go. At least that's what it seemed like when we were in those meetings. That's really interesting, but it is true.
Heather Patrick:I think it is great advice. Is. Think when you well, with all things, right? When you do something that's a little scary, right? Why is it scary?
Heather Patrick:Is it because you don't think you can do it? Or is it, you know, where does that come from? But I, you know, I think I, well, you do know that I worked with an executive coach for this past year and it has been incredible. She's incredible. But we talked about some of those things when I was thinking about really where does the organization go next and do I have what it takes to go there?
Heather Patrick:And there were some really tough conversations about, I have all these skills, but it was me. It was in the back of my head, right? Well, I don't know if I can do this. Well, why? Why wouldn't I have been able to do this?
Heather Patrick:And so it really is, I think that is great advice, great insight. Of a little reckoning is required when you step into those bigger roles, but take them because they're amazing.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Absolutely take them and reach out to your trusted friends and colleagues. They're the folks that will tell you the truth. You're overthinking this. Do it or step back. You might want to think about that for a minute.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, I'm glad it looked so seamless. That's the goal. Eventually, of course, I did get there. It was a tremendous opportunity to have and I was so grateful to do it.
Heather Patrick:You did it beautifully. Alright. So let's talk a little about eye health. And so what comes to mind for you when we say eye health? And what do you think comes to mind in the average person when we talk about eye health?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So, I don't know if I've ever been asked what the average person thinks. So excuse me, humanity, as I'm speaking for you without your input. Honestly, I think when most people think vision, they probably think two things, eyeglasses or contact lenses or correction or not having any vision
Heather Patrick:Yep.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:You know, and not being able to see anything. When I think about it, I think about it very differently. I as I said, I work primarily with unhoused persons, and they're we're in Galveston. We're in Southern Texas right by the Gulf. There's nothing but sun and reflection off the water and reflection off buildings.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Most of our community members don't have eye protection. You know? They're Yeah. They're out there all the time. Mhmm.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And you know there's a definite long term impact from that. Yeah. Not only just the, the immediate impact. We, were able to cobble together some funds to get, eclipse glasses because we were in the pathway, for the big, big eclipse. So so that was a benefit.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I see people trying to do so much. Now we all have the benefit, many of us, not all of us, many of us, to have an iPad or some tablet and a phone and a computer. And so whatever our eyes are feeling that day, we can use which device is more comfortable. Yeah. Most of the people I work with, if they have anything, they're working off a phone.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So imagine trying to fill out government forms like that on a phone or that sort of thing.
Heather Patrick:Yeah.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It's so difficult, you know, for their eyes. Employability is affected if they don't have readers and they're of a certain age, you know, and they've got presbyopia. That's what I think about. It's about how does this, you know, affect someone's not just someone, all of us, me, you, everyone. How does not having good vision when we need it affect our ability to care for ourselves, to interact with others, to keep ourselves safe.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:You know? If you're walking I actually literally saw this one time. It was many years ago, but I I was walking, and there was a person with a white cane who was walking. And, I didn't even realize what had happened till it happened. But there was apparently some sidewalk work going on, and there was a giant hole in the sidewalk.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:No cones. Nothing. That person fell in that hole. I mean, we don't think about it if we're sighted. So there's just so many ways it impacts, you know, how you live.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:If something as simple as I want a can of soup. Well, I'm sighted, so I can just get in my car and drive to the grocery store because I can see all that. I know which door to push or pull to get in. Yep. Yeah.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I can look at the 80,000 cans of soup on that shelf and decide what I want, and I can look at the fine print to see what's in it. Something as simple as having soup. There's so many steps where Vision is involved in different ways.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. It's a great example of all the different things that your vision does that we take for granted. To your point, from walking and being able to see what's in front of us or being at the grocery store. I think it's a great example of just the daily things, the normal things we do, and how when your vision is impacted. That all changes for you.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. So what advice would you give someone about taking care of their eyes?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, don't wait for one. I think a lot of us feel like we're busy and so we'll put that off or something else. We we tend to be very good with making sure other people in our lives get taken care of, you know, children or a partner or parents or somebody elder, but we're often not as generous with ourselves in terms of meeting those needs. So one is don't delay. And don't delay means both for your annual checkup because as we've said before, it can change just like everything else in your body can change.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And just like you go to the dentist every six months, eye exam every year. So one is don't delay, and then two is to really reach out to all the resources that are available. There's many. Prevent blindness is a great one. What should I be eating?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Should I be taking any particular supplements or not? Would and prevent blindness is not a health care provider. They're not giving health care provider messaging, but they do present on the website some of the best evidence based strategies for maintaining and preserving eye health. So are you, making sure that when you're working on your computer fifteen hours a day that every twenty minutes, you take twenty seconds and look at least 20 feet away so that your eyes are not impacted? We have a tremendous problem with myopia now that is only getting worse because people are on screens too much without allowing the eye to refocus.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. So talk a little bit about, I mean, we've alluded to it, but talk really about kind of overall health and really the connection division, but kind of through the lifespan, right? I mean, just high points. So early on, the importance of eye health is development, right? So kind of talk just from that frame a little bit of what I think, calling to your earlier point, but not everybody connects all these different pieces throughout their life to their vision health, right?
Heather Patrick:But depending on what medication you take could impact your vision, right? Depending on what disease you have. So just talk a little bit kind of of those components that the audience has an understanding of kind of why it's so important to go every year because of all these different factors.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Okay, well, starting with development, of course, I think we've talked a little bit about how important eye screening is for not only for uncorrected refractive error, but for amblyopia, of course, with if caught early treatment is very, very successful. And it does interact with all other aspects of yourself. I I I think of brain health. You know, there's so much, careers in the future will be so different because it's going to be all knowledge based. And imagine if you can't see some of the earliest developmental things, right, are matching or fitting shapes together.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:That starts that whole process of kind of organizing thinking and being able to see systems and how things work together. If you cannot see, it's gonna take you longer to develop that, or you might have some deficits there. For adolescents, you know, they have such growth spurts, and they can definitely have vision changes, related to that even if they're a child who hasn't had any problems before. The shape of the eye changes. It It's incredibly important.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And then getting more into people I resonate with later adulthood. Some of the things that we can treat very effectively chronic conditions that lots of people have, diabetes, heart disease, thyroid disease, or people might think of it as Graves' disease, which is the one that primarily affects the eyes. Those illnesses have serious consequences for your eyes apart from the other systemic issues that they cause. So diabetes, of course, affects the kidneys, the heart, the circulatory system. Well, of course, we have circulation in our eyes.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Mhmm. And if that disease is not managed well, there there is a significant possibility of loss of vision because of retinopathy in the back of the eye, when that's not well controlled. And with thyroid eye disease, it's, people may have seen photos of bulging or that sort of thing. There is true pressure on the eye. All of those things sort of prevent you from being who you are until they're corrected.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And development this is grossly oversimplified, but development from little all the way to the end is about you figuring out how to be truly who you are. That's what all this stuff is. And so anything that gets in the way of that, you learn something about yourself because you figure out how to work around it, but you don't want something that's going to stop it or halt it.
Heather Patrick:Especially something that can be helped, right? Something that can be solved. That's that's
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Or prevented.
Heather Patrick:Right. Absolutely. Absolutely. Alright. So kind of the last section.
Heather Patrick:Tell me about talk to me about, you know, health care in general. I mean, you've been in the healthcare world for a long time, and what do you think the biggest difference is kind of from global health to kind of our healthcare system? What could we learn from global health or implement into our health care system based on what you've seen?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, it's interesting because no matter where you are, some of the things that we've talked about ring true in low resource environments across across the globe and here at home. Collaboration. Like, true collaboration. So we have a lot more resources than some other places, but sometimes we still don't have enough. So how do you use a true collaboration to figure out how to meet a whole community or a whole area's or a whole nation's need?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:That is number one. Number two is, just figuring it out on the fly. Clinicians who typically work in underserved areas, there's a lot of that. There's a lot of MacGyvering. And, of course, we would never want to and never would sort of just be cavalier about what somebody needs.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:But we if we have the ability to fabricate something that's going to help a condition and be safe, we do it. And I think that happens here as well. I think some of the access to care is better in other places. I think some of the preventative service aren't at the level we have, but one thing that I think every country is really trying to do is help people practice, health care providers, practice at the top of their license. Right?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So if you're licensed to be an RN, there is a lot you can do. So let's not collapse that down to you're only gonna do this or that. And and that's true for everybody, not just RNs, you know, PAs, physicians, nurses. Practice at the top of your license because we'll all be able to do more for people who need it, if we can do that. That that I think is something everybody's working on.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I will say there's a term, glocal, that's used now, global and local, because so many of the issues that, people work within global health are right in our own backyards here. And it's, you know, a community that doesn't have access, who has limited resources, who doesn't have a lot of health care providers. So I think it's really a lesson to high income countries that and and I think it's definitely changed. You know, in the sixties or seventies or probably even eighties, it was about the big countries going in to save the little countries, and now it's much more of a recognition. We all have problems.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:We have them right in our own backyard. How do we solve them together?
Heather Patrick:So what stands out to you, one of the challenges you've had through your career that kind of shaped you? You thought, I don't know if I can get through this, and you did, and now looking back, you really kind of shaped you know, your path.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:We only have forty five minutes, right? Well, think one was deciding to be a nurse. That is a big decision, and it's a lot of responsibility. And I wasn't sure I was ready for it. I think you have to be in the right kind of place to understand what you're taking on.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And I will say some of what has always been a challenge to me is I personally have never practiced in a hospital. My entire career has been in public health or in free clinics or I teach now and participate in this, free clinic once a week. So I have a very different background. And, often in nursing, you'll hear people say, well, I need that one year of hospital experience. And I always say, well, tell me let's start with what what do you really want to do.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Tell me what you really want to do. Because sometimes that would be the answer, but other times, it it's not. I I don't even know if I can say this on the podcast. I'll say it, and you can cut it out if it's not right. I think one of the biggest challenges I had in my career was, I was working in a school district, and we had data from both the CDC and the Youth Risk Behavior Survey about the significant issues with sexually transmitted infection among our students, the age of sexual debut in our students, and there really was nothing we were offering at the school level, in terms of process and product to help them.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Of course, they all get health education and all of that. And so I actually embarked on a project to bring, prophylactics into the school, all schools, all high schools. And I was very clear that it was not about pregnancy prevention. It really was about this public health intervention. And that was really, the frame we put on it.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:But that was a very long process, ultimately successful. But people many people told me I should have not have taken that on. And there were times I I thought, oh, yeah. Maybe I shouldn't have, but, you know, you can't unsee. If you see something, you cannot unsee it.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And, you know, then you're kind of compelled to keep doing it.
Heather Patrick:Problem. Yeah. Great. Yeah. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:Looking at our industry in both eye health and kind of overall health, so two things. What do you see over the next five years? And then the follow-up to that is, you worried about the nursing shortage as we look over the next five to ten years?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So for eye health specifically, I think so much is going to be done with technology and AI. My brain explodes when I think about all the possibilities, especially for vision. I mean, for lots of health issues and organs and systems, they'll come up with things. But vision is ripe for that, because of all the work that's already been done and how life changing that can be. I am very worried about the nursing shortage.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:We had a lot of nurses leave the profession during COVID. And everybody worked hard. So I don't wanna say only you know, everybody worked hard. The physicians, the lab techs, the nurses' aids, the nurses. But I think there's something fundamentally in our system that hasn't helped us understand how to best appreciate and compensate their value to the health care system.
Heather Patrick:Wow.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:And when people have so many more career opportunities now, know, sixty years ago, it was nurse, teacher, nun, or secretary. Now it's astronaut, biosafety engineer. There's so many wonderful things that people can do. So I think we need to help really the community at large understand the value and benefit of nursing to the whole health care system and think about ways to keep people engaged in it. Yeah.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:It's very important. I will say something about Texas. I we have so many young men come in as students, and I've not seen, that level. It's certainly not gender balanced at this point, but it's very much different than other parts of the country as far as the number of men. And Texas also, well, I won't say Texas.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I'll say the school I work at. We have a very diverse student body, which I love because the Houston Metro is such a diverse metro with so many people culturally, ethnically, linguistically needing so many things that it will be great as a community if we can provide all that. Yeah.
Heather Patrick:Great. Great. So, if there's one thing you could change for our industry right now, what would it be?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Well, it's super pie in the sky, but it would be complete access for everyone to have a basic level of care. And if something is identified in that basic level of care, that there's an opportunity and a mechanism for a person to have that resolved.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. A pathway forward. Any last pieces of advice or parting words for our audience? If they remember nothing else, what's the one thing you want them to take away?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Donate to Prevent Blindness Texas. Because you're the ones getting the work done, you know?
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Honestly, that is something I would tell people. I love working with the organization, but I also love supporting the organization. And Mhmm. They're doing amazing things. So that's what I I don't think I have very much sage advice, but, no.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I'm just so grateful to have the opportunity to work with your team and the national team. There's so much need. There's so much need, and you are meeting it with so few resources. I can only imagine what you could do with more.
Heather Patrick:Yeah. Too. I'd like to I'd like to find out.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Yeah. Right. My dream. Yes. That would be a very good problem to have.
Heather Patrick:It would. Do think that you said that was incredibly important in the value of nursing and how important they are not only to the systems, but even especially like the school systems. I think most families don't realize how much those school nurses do every single day that help our students find success. So I agree with you. Nursing, I think, is so incredibly important.
Heather Patrick:And we have to find a way to really honor the value they bring to the table across the board in whatever community, however they're serving, but they are so critically important.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Absolutely. And I think you really touched on it with school nurses. You know, if you're a nurse in a hospital and we need them there too, so I'm just saying don't work in the hospital but if you see something that you don't think is quite right, or you want a second opinion, all you have to do is go down the hall and ask somebody to come and take a look. When you're in a school, it's you. That means you have to be an expert clinician, expert diagnostician, expert case finder, expert case manager.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:So you're right, they do an incredible amount.
Heather Patrick:Yeah, and a really strong communicator, right? Because a lot of times it's that nurse that helps parents understand what the issue is, why it's so important, how to solve it, and then continues to follow-up until it gets solved. And I think that's what worries me is looking at the shortages that are happening across the board in the school districts too, where you now have nurses handling three campuses, four campuses, and they're still responsible for everything at all of those campuses. So I think anything we can do to help support our nurses is incredibly important.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:I agree. I agree.
Heather Patrick:Well, thank you so much for being here for everything you do in the space, especially for Prevent Blindness and for Prevent Blindness You are incredibly valuable and just a great person, Kathleen. Really just are. I have learned so much from working with you personally and professionally. So thank you for all you do and for the difference you make all every day.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:Thank you so much. And thank you for asking me to be part of this, even though I don't like talking about myself.
Heather Patrick:I know. I know it's a stretch, but we don't don't take those leaps.
Dr. Kathleen Murphy:That's right. It was a growth experience.
Heather Patrick:It was. It was. Alright. So thank you to everyone who who's joining us. As Kathleen said, you can always support us, but there are so many ways to get involved with PBT.
Heather Patrick:You can volunteer, you can come to an event, you can become a screener, you can become an advocate, you can help us educate in your communities. We are always happy to meet with you and talk about how you can be a part of the PBT family. So don't hesitate to reach out. And remember, we always want to know what your vision is. So don't forget to follow us.
Heather Patrick:We are Eyespiring Prevent Blindness Texas. Thank you. Have a great day.
