USF Nursing Alumna & Master’s Student, Rhonda Jackson, Patents Shower Bath Seat

University of South Florida College of Nursing graduate student, Rhonda Gary Jackson, BSN, CWOGN, RPTA, received a patent for inventing a shower bath/seat, which benefits people with impaired mobility. Jackson is completing her master’s degree in Adult Advanced Nursing from USF, and plans to graduate in August 2012. She is an alumna from the USF College of Nursing and received her BS in 2004.

Jackson, a Staff Employee in the Wound Care Center at South Florida Baptist Hospital in Plant City, independently invented the shower bench. She believes her experience with patients contributed to the bench creation.

“I would have these patients with awkward, totally disassembled shower chairs that they would have to drag from one place to the other, and as you can imagine, the shower bench was not the prettiest thing to be dragged around,” Jackson said. “This shower chair is a shower bath bench, in which can be completely broken down without assembly. It folds very much like you would fold a picnic table. You fold it in half, and everything is in compartments. So, when you break it down, it looks like a small suitcase.”

It took Jackson approximately six years to complete the project. Through extensive research, she ensured she was creating a patent that was replicated, but not duplicated. “It had to be something that can be replicated and manufactured, but it had not been made before,” Jackson said.

“Personally, I am delightful to be able to see something I dreamed of coming to fruition,” Jackson said. “It is satisfying to see something that I dreamed of being utilized for the benefit of others. It feels great knowing that it made a difference. That’s what we do as nurses. We get into health care to make a difference, and I feel like I’ve accomplished that.”

In the future, Jackson hopes to sit on a National Pressure Ulcer Advisory Panel (NPUAP) where, through research, she can continue to make a difference in people’s lives.

“The basic principles of nursing should be the basic principles that stem across all humanity…To care for each other,” Jackson said. “I’m hoping that this is one of those inventions that it demonstrated that.”