Our Beginnings

Growing Up With Us... A Newsletter For Those Who Care for Children, was first written in early 1995 to meet the age-specific learning needs of pediatric staff at a large tertiary University Medical Center in Durham, NC.  Mary Myers Dunlap, RN, MAEd, our founder and Editor-in-Chief, recognized the need for population/age-specific training from her own practice as a clinical educator. Her 25 years in nursing education served her well.  She recalls a poignant conversation during a chart review with a career ladder "expert" pediatric staff nurse:

 In chart reviews she identified that, on admission, for EVERY pediatric patient, "knowledge of drugs and treatments" was identified as the learning need. When speaking to the staff nurse she offered, "Rather than identifying knowledge of drugs and treatments as a learning need for this 6 month old, let's look at the subjective and objective data collected on admission. This 6 month old is over the 95th percentile in weight, drinks sweet tea and cola in her bottle, and solid food intake consists primarily of mashed potatoes and gravy.  Do you see a teaching need individualized to this patient and family?"  After much silence, our founder asked, "How about teaching this baby's parents about proper infant nutrition?"   The response by the "expert" staff member - "You'll have to teach us, before we can teach parents."

Our pediatric newsletter, Growing Up With Us Caring for Children, was soon in publication, nationwide.

Progress:

Growing Up With Us..., Inc. now offers 5 continuing education packages to cover the lifespan. Besides Growing Up With Us... Caring for Children, which was first published in 1995, Grown Up | Caring for Adolescents, Adults and Aging Adults was added in September, 1996 and Growing Families... Caring for the Childbearing Family & Neonate (maternity and neonatal) was introduced in April, 1997.  In 1999, Personal Growth | A Newsletter for Ancillary & All Staff, was first published addresses customer service and personal development topics that benefit all staff, including those who provide direct, as well as indirect, care.  In 2006, Growing Numbers... Caring for Ambulatory Patients was added and is our newest publication. 

Thousands of facilities, including hospitals - community, veteran and trauma centers, home health care facilities and surgery centers, are served by Growing Up With Us, Inc. Many of our customers have been with us since 1995, and are simply amazed, as are our new subscribers, that they get so much for such a low cost!