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Area Woman Becomes Nurse in Her Late 50's...
And Helps Change Public Health Policy

 
Christine Stainton has always been an activist for causes that she is passionate about.  One of those– public health – led to a major life change in her late 50’s when she entered nursing school… and proceeded to get three nursing degrees: Registered Nurse (RN), Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) and Master of Science in Nursing (MSN).
 
From her younger days, she had a BA degree in English from Arcadia  University in Glenside  (known then  as Beaver College).
 
Stainton has nursing in her blood.  “I always wanted to be a nurse.  In fact, I truly believe it’s CHRISTINE STAINTONgenetic.  There are seven nurses in my family.” 
 
But Christine waited until later in life to become a nurse, though, because she was busy in the years prior… teaching at the West Trenton School for the Deaf, being a research assistant in psychology at Thomas Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia, serving on the board of Planned Parenthood Southeastern Pennsylvania and other local organizations, and more. 
 
All the while, she was raising three children.

Let the Degrees Begin!

Stainton’s pursuit of a nursing career began in 1994 when she enrolled in Gwynedd-Mercy   College , took science courses and continued on in Gwynedd’s nursing school.  After two years, she graduated with her RN and associate degrees.
 
She then decided get her BSN, applied and was accepted as a full-time student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing.  “I was at Penn for about a year when they told me I had to take chemistry.  I never took chemistry and was not going to!” Stainton said.  “So I applied to another outstanding nursing school… Johns Hopkins .” 
 
After being accepted at Hopkins , she had one more thing to do… get an apartment in Baltimore .  That was a bold move for a woman who was happily married and living with her family in Philadelphia .  Still, for four years, Stainton traveled back and forth between cities until she earned her BSN.
 
“I then said to myself, if I’m going to be anything, I need my MSN.”  She stayed on at Hopkins for two more years and got her third nursing degree in 1998.  At the same time, she was working at Hopkins for her master’s in Community Health Nursing.

A Focus on Public Health in Pennsylvania

After graduating from Hopkins in 1998, Stainton devoted her public health activism to the state of Pennsylvania .  Having done volunteer work for the Trust for America ’s Health (TFAH) in Washington , DC , she got more involved with public health in Pennsylvania when that organization assessed the state as being poorly prepared for disaster.  
 
PHONING A COMMUNITY LEADERThe University of Pennsylvania was very supportive of this endeavor and helped her launch a meeting that included the Secretary of Health for the State of Pennsylvania and other decision-makers.  
 
Stainton has continued to call on these people to help her, including in connection with her most current project: working with the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia to get funding for a van to travel to schools and serve as an adjunct to adolescent health.
 
Her priority is to get the van program active and go to schools to talk about sex education, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, drug abuse, obesity and any other teen-related heath issues.

Who’s That?  Why it’s “The Condom Lady!”

In her spare time, Stainton and her family vacation in Antigua , where she has established a program for distributing condoms and conducting seminars on safe sex practices.  Known there as “the condom lady," she works alongside her daughter Lucia St. George, a doctoral student in sexuality education at Widener  University.  
 
“We have everyone’s attention at these community events,” she says, “as they want to wear condoms and do not want HIV.  We stress, ‘You die a terrible death with HIV.’”
 
Knowing how to go through the proper channels, which Stainton attributes to her public health HANDING OUT CONDOMS IN ANTIGUAtraining, greatly helps this volunteer effort.  Her program is part of a formal network sanctioned by the AIDS Secretariat in Antigua and aligned with Planned Parenthood Antigua. 
 
“Nursing and what goes with nursing is a passion.  It’s important for people to understand what an incredible profession nursing is,” Stainton said.  
 
This attitude led her to work with a group of fellow graduate students at Hopkins to start a group called Nursing Advocacy.  The project, which is designed to raise awareness and appreciation of nursing, has become international.
 
A mid-life journey that took a little more than a decade  and is now having international ramifications; that’s the story of Christine Stainton’s transition. 
 
With more very likely to come.  Christine plans to get a post master's certificate at Hopkins in "Health Systems Management: Emergency Preparedness/Disaster Response."
 
The story of this transition, it would seem, is far from over.