Yale Bulletin and Calendar

May 7, 2004|Volume 32, Number 29|Two-Week Issue

Angela Crowley (left) is one of four School of Nursing faculty members who have received support to create new models of health care. Crowley is developing a model for defining the roleof child care health consultants.

New fund will support YSN faculty's
initiatives to improve health care

Yale School of Nursing (YSN) faculty are developing models of care related to Type 2 diabetes, safe and healthy child care, excessive weight gain during pregnancy and support following breast cancer therapy with help from a newly created fund at the school.

The four projects are funded by the Beatrice Renfield-YSN Clinical Research Initiatives Fund, which was established in 2003 through a gift from the philanthropist. The goal is to support research that examines the impact of clinical nursing interventions on patient care, and disseminate those findings to all relevant audiences.

The four YSN faculty members selected for the awards this year are Deborah Chyun, Angela Crowley, Barbara Hackley and M. Tish Knobf. Their work focuses on the development of models of care that advance nursing practice and improve health care, especially for patients in underserved communities.

Chyun's project is aimed at ethnic minority populations and youth at high risk for Type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. Her pilot study will develop and evaluate a comprehensive risk reduction intervention aimed at optimizing self-management of diabetes and coronary artery disease in these high-risk populations.

Crowley's project is designed to improve child and family health by implementing and evaluating a best practice child care health consultation model that will improve health outcomes for children enrolled in child care programs. The state of Connecticut has standards for child care health consultation, yet there is no universally accepted definition of the role of child care health consultants, she says.

Hackley's project is an exploratory study of the factors related to weight gain and weight retention for pregnant and postpartum African-American and Hispanic women. Rates of obesity are increasing disproportionately among young women of reproductive age, particularly ethnic minority women who are at higher risk for Type 2 diabetes and related cardiovascular disease, she says.

Knobf's project seeks to improve adaptation and promote self-care for survivors with breast cancer after therapy. She says there is a recognized need for interventions to promote better physical functioning, emotional well-being, communication with health care providers, and to provide information on nutrition and physical activity.

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