The Connell School of Nursing has long been defined by its mission: training nurse leaders to care for the whole person. But despite its rising profile as a research institution, Connell has yet to identify (or brand) the strengths of its 艾可直播in different areas of inquiry. That is why Professor Christopher Lee spent most of his first year as CSON鈥檚 associate dean for research doing just that. And after interviewing 艾可直播about their research interests and goals, looking back at 15 years of 艾可直播publications, and scrutinizing sources of external funding, Lee determined that the Connell School researchers distinguish themselves in three key areas: health equity for women and children, person- and family-oriented aging, and safety and quality of care.
Lee calls these categories 鈥淧illars of Innovation.鈥 The nomenclature, he says, allows the Connell School to better brand itself while identifying more opportunities for 艾可直播collaborations, recruiting graduate students, and securing grants.
A cardiovascular nurse scientist, Lee began analyzing and categorizing 艾可直播research at Connell soon after arriving at the school in January 2018. 鈥淚t was an important exercise, both to familiarize myself with faculty, and to determine the cross-currents between all of their work,鈥 he said. He had helped conduct similar 艾可直播overviews at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his Ph.D., and at the Oregon Health & Science University, where he worked for seven years, most recently as the Carol A. Lindeman Distinguished Professor, before moving to 艾可直播 College.
In 2017鈥18, CSON 艾可直播received $1.1 million in external-sponsored research funding鈥攎ore than in the previous two academic years combined, Lee said. The support came from the federal government, the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and elsewhere. Projects ranged from Supporting Family Caregivers in Transition, led by Associate Professor Ellen Mahoney, to Associate Professor Jane Flanagan鈥檚 Post-Acute Outcomes in Nursing Home Residents with Dementia, to Associate Professor Holly Fontenot鈥檚 Using Mobile Application Strategies to Increase HPV Vaccination Rates Among Young Men who have Sex with Men.
To find the common thread among them, Lee examined the keywords most commonly used in project abstracts and in the past 15 years of publications and grant applications. Based on these and听what he learned during one-on-one interviews with colleagues, Lee determined that all research-oriented 艾可直播members fit naturally within one of the three categories, or pillars.
Twelve faculty, for instance, fall within the Health Equity for Women and Children category鈥攁 group that includes Associate Professor Joyce Edmonds, who studies cesarean delivery rates; Assistant Professor Nadia N. Abuelezam, who applies mathematical models to understand the impacts of HIV treatment and prevention strategies in Sub-Saharan Africa; and Susan Kelly-Weeder, who researches the co-occurrence of high-risk eating and drinking behaviors, Lee noted.
The Person- and Family-Oriented Aging pillar includes 11 faculty鈥攆rom Lee, who takes a data-driven, 鈥渂iobehavioral profiling鈥 approach to heart disease, to palliative care nurse scientist and Associate Professor Susan DeSanto-Madeya.
The Safety and Quality of Care pillar comprises nine faculty, from Associate Professor Judith Shindul-Rothschild, a psychiatric nurse clinical specialist, to Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess, a pioneer in assessing victims of abuse and trauma.
While other schools often organize their 艾可直播researchers based on the diseases and disorders they study (e.g., respiratory or sexually transmitted diseases), illness 鈥渋s not what binds us,鈥 says Lee. 鈥淥ur bigger mission is improving quality of care, health equity, and treatment of aging, across contexts.鈥
And while Lee admits that 鈥渁lmost every 艾可直播member could fit easily into more than one of these categories,鈥 he said he organized each 鈥減illar,鈥 or sub-group, to create forums of 艾可直播who share themes in their primary research. Each group, says Lee, plans to meet regularly to 鈥渢hink more strategically about what do we, as a group, want to accomplish in the next few years?
鈥淭he categories are extremely helpful,鈥 Lee adds, 鈥渂ecause they can help us recruit 艾可直播with common interests, and even doctoral students. Also, while researchers traditionally have perpetually applied for grants to support their own work, having united fronts makes us eligible for funding as a group of scientists鈥攆rom Institutional Research Training Grants, to Exploratory Centers, to Centers of Excellence, to Cooperative Agreements.
鈥淩esearchers naturally zero in on their own work to get research done,鈥 he adds, 鈥渂ut it can be insular and isolating. Taking the time to see where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts can help 艾可直播have a greater collective influence.鈥
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FACULTY FOCI
Christopher Lee鈥檚 year-long investigation found that 艾可直播at the Connell School fall into three primary categories of research. They are comprised of:
HEALTH EQUITY FOR WOMEN AND CHILDREN
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Assistant Professor Nadia Abuelezam
Research interests: Epidemiology, immigrant health, social networks, biostatistics race
Associate Professor Joyce Edmonds
Research interests: Maternal health, cesarean delivery rates, provider variation, race/ethnic disparities
Associate Professor Holly Fontenot
Research interests: Sexual health, prevention of STDs/HPV/HIV, vaccines, LGBTQ health
Dean and Professor Susan Gennaro
Research interests: Perinatal nursing practice, perinatal education, stress in families with preterm infants, global women鈥檚 health
Associate Professor Allyssa Harris
Research interests: Adolescent sexual risk behaviors, media influences of health behaviors, parentchild sexual communication, urban health and health care disparities
Professor M. Katherine Hutchinson
Research interests: Adolescent and young adult sexual risk behaviors and substance abuse, family and community influences of adolescent risk behaviors, parent-teen sexual communication
Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and Associate Professor Susan Kelly-Weeder
Research interests: Disordered eating behaviors, high-risk alcohol use, Web-based motivational interventions, lifestyle risks for infertility
Assistant Professor Britt Pados
Research interests: Feeding difficulty in infants and young children with medical complexity, biobehavioral methodologies, heart rate variability
Assistant Professor Jinhee Park
Research interests: Feeding difficulties of high-risk preterm infants, biobehavioral methods to study physiologic and behavioral parameters of infant feeding, intervention studies
Clinical Associate Professor M. Colleen Simonelli
Research interests: Prevention of smoking relapse in postpartum women, innovative strategies for perinatal nursing, simulation learning in childbearing courses
Lelia Holden Carroll Endowed Professor Judith Vessey
Research interests: The effect of chronic teasing and bullying on the psychological and physical health of children and adolescents
Clinical Assistant Professor Laura White
Research interests: Integrative health care, mind-body interventions, positive youth development, adolescent mental health in primary care
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PERSON- AND FAMILY-ORIENTED AGING
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Clinical Assistant Professor Stewart Bond
Research interests: Cancer symptom management, neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with cancer, delirium
Clinical Associate Professor Susan DeSanto-Madeya
Research interests: Palliative care, end-of-life care
Associate Professor Jane Flanagan
Research interests: Understanding the human response to acute and chronic illness, transitions across the health care continuum, impact of integrative health modalities
Associate Professor Elizabeth Howard
Research interests: Geriatric nursing, successful aging for community-dwelling older adults
Associate Professor Corrine Jurgens
Research interests: Heart failure鈥攂iobehavioral factors, symptom perception, self-care, cognition; gerontology
Assistant Professor Carina Katigbak
Research interests: Health promotion, immigrant and minority health, chronic illness management, cardiovascular health
Associate Dean for Research and Professor Christopher Lee
Research interests: Improving outcomes for patients with heart disease
Associate Professor Karen Lyons
Research interests: Family and dyadic experiences of chronic illness
Associate Professor Ellen Mahoney
Research interests: Human responses in chronic illness/disability, patterns of behavior in persons with dementia, nursing interventions to promote functional ability in the elderly
Assistant Professor Tam Nguyen
Research interests: Health promotion/disease prevention, chronic disease management, vulnerable/hard-to-reach populations
Associate Professor Patricia Tabloski
Research interests: Sleep disturbances and non-pharmacologic nursing management of agitation in the elderly, palliative care, pain management
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SAFETY AND QUALITY OF CARE
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Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess
Research interests: Psychiatric/mental health response patterns of crime victims, Internet crimes against children
Assistant Professor Andrew Dwyer
Research interests: Genetics/genomics, rare disease, chronic care, digital solutions
Senior Scholar Laura Dzurec
Research interests: Psychiatric and mental health nursing, family nursing, health policy, workplace bullying
Associate Professor Pamela Grace
Research interests: Nursing and health care ethics, problem analysis, philosophy of nursing
Professor Dorothy Jones
Research interests: Investigation of patient鈥檚 recovery at home following ambulatory surgery with local and general anesthesia
Assistant Professor Monica O鈥橰eilly-Jacob
Research interests: Nurse practitioner quality and efficiency of care
Associate Professor Catherine Yetter Read
Research interests: Leadership development, diversity, and innovation in baccalaureate nursing education
Associate Professor Judith Shindul-Rothschild
Research interests: Registered nurse staffing in hospitals, quality of care and patient outcome research, collective bargaining and nursing labor issues
Clinical Assistant Professor Amy Smith
Research interests: Patient safety in labor and delivery, simulation in clinical teaching