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New Study Reveals How BRCA1 Mutations Cause
Nursing Research
| Nursing Project Receives Millions to Help Underserved Manage Chronic Illness The School of Nursing has received a grant of more than $2 million from the National Institute of Nursing Research to continue the Center for Evidence-based Practice in the Underserved for five more years. Led by Suzanne Bakken, RN, DNSc, Alumni Professor of Nursing and professor of biomedical informatics, the center’s research helps underserved populations better manage their illnesses. Center faculty will conduct studies that design and test strategies to enhance self-management for four vulnerable populations: adolescents with diabetes; persons living with HIV/AIDS; people with diabetes who also have hypertension; and community-dwelling elders at risk for injury by falling. In the diabetes study, for example, an interactive educational program will be developed for adolescents with diabetes who have recently been placed on insulin pumps. The program will help them transition from having their care managed by a parent, to managing it themselves. The behavioral outcome that will be measured is the adolescents’ problem-solving ability, while the biological outcome will relate to their control of their diabetes, by measures such as hemoglobin A1c levels. Another project will examine the use of a relaxation technique, device-guided breathing, that helps people with diabetes and high blood pressure slow their breathing; the study will then assess the impact of the technique on their conditions. “These studies are designed to assist people in managing issues related to their own health and they include both a biological and a behavioral component,” Dr. Bakken says. “One of the unique things about our center is that we are trying to promote self-management health interventions through the use of information and communication technologies.” |
