ASU News - Nursing + Nursing

ASU Nursing establishes mental health center for children

rolbrysh — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 09:16:44 -0600

The College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University will open a health center which specializes in the treatment and prevention of child and adolescent mental health disorders, Dean Bernadette Melnyk announced. The center, which is located at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, will open Nov. 2.

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), more than 2.5 million of the 42 million children and teens in the U.S. have suffered from clinical depression in the last year. Due to a critical shortage of child psychiatrists, only 20-25 percent of children with mental health and behavioral problems receive treatment. An IOM and National Research Council report in 2009 said these disorders cost the U.S. $247 billion annually and have become as common as fractured limbs among children and adolescents.

Melnyk, a pediatric and child-family psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner, said primary care providers (PCPs) see 75 percent of children with mental health and behavioral problems and are in a unique position to manage their cases. “However, heavy case loads limit their capacity and time to treat all patients in need,” Melnyk says. “In Arizona, five of the 15 counties do not have child psychiatrists to which PCPs can refer their patients.”

The new center, named the Southwest Health Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child-Adolescent Depression and Anxiety Disorders, is located within the ASU Health Center at 500 N. 3rd Street in Nursing and Health Building One. It is funded in part by a grant from United Healthcare.

The Southwest Health Center has a team of highly experienced psychiatric/mental health child-family nurse practitioners and psychologists to help address this critical health care need.

The center offers:

• Comprehensive mental health evaluation of children and teens for depression and/or anxiety disorders,

• Comprehensive evidence-based treatment, including cognitive behavior therapy and cognitive-behavioral skills building,

• Medication management and monitoring,

• Family and group therapy, and

• Preventive intervention programs for children and teens with high stress levels and those at risk for depression and anxiety disorders.

Melnyk says plans call for tele-health services to be established at the center in the future for families who live outside the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Janet Cooper, MSN, CPNP-PC, Psych MHNP-BC, has been appointed director of the center. She is a pediatric and child-family psychiatric nurse practitioner with 27 years experience working with children of all ages with physical and mental health disorders. Her current interests are children with depression, ADHD and anxiety disorders.

Information on services, insurance coverage, appointments and parking can be obtained by calling the Southwest Health Center at (602) 496-0721.

ASU van brings healthcare to community

rolbrysh — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 07:48:58 -0600

Arizona State University's College of Nursing and Health Innovation is rolling out a new way to treat those in the community who may not be able to seek medical attention on their own. The WoW van, or Wellness on Wheels, makes a weekly trip to the Children First Academy for the homeless, as well as visiting several Head Start programs around the Valley.

"(We) make sure they don't have strep throat or mononucleosis, or some of the other common childhood illnesses, and then we can treat them right from the van," says Leigh Small, a nurse practitioner and the coordinator of ASU's Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program.

See Kyle Burke’s feature on Channel 15’s 10 o’clock news on the WoW van and health services it brings to the community.

Prosumer Mujeres promotes Latinas health

rolbrysh — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:41:08 -0600

Over the past two years, a research group in the Center for Healthy Outcomes in Aging of the College of Nursing and Health Innovation has worked with a local network of older Latina women from Mountain Park Health Center to discuss the strengths, resources and barriers to physical activity, including acceptable types of physical activity and the development of intervention programs. The partnership with this exceptional group of women has resulted in effective recruitment and retention strategies throughout metropolitan Phoenix neighborhoods.

The group’s community advisory board chose the name "Prosumer Mujeres" for their group to reflect “empowered consumer women.” Prosumer Mujeres also has corroborated culturally and contextually relevant strategies and theoretical support for employing a social support model to guide two studies, Mujeres en Accion (Walking in Hispanic Women) and IMPACTO: Intervencion de Motivacion Para Actividad Fisica (IMPACT: Intervention to Motivate Physical Activity).

Eight founding members of the board for Prosumer Mujeres recently worked with worked with local community activist Judy Butzine to support two other board members’ entries into an on-going art exhibit in downtown Phoenix. The exhibit of 20 works of art, titled "Practical Acts of Peace Building: Recognizing the International Day of Peace and Mind-Body Wellness," will continue until January 11, 2010 at University Center on the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus.

Prosumer Mujeres has expanded to include local and national community leaders with diverse professional backgrounds to help raise the visibility of the board’s mission and goals in promoting Latina health, according to Adriana Perez, project director. The first inaugural dinner held in late April was an exciting introduction to the board’s efforts, accomplishments and commitment to Latina health, and an opportunity to discuss the four areas of the advisory board’s participation: 1) monitoring research relevance for Latinas, 2) resource development for Latina health, 3) community integration for research and service-learning opportunities and 4) participatory roles in forming research directions for Latina health.

Prosumer Mujeres will continue to meet annually, where current health issues affecting Latina women can be discussed and will include a series of newsletters to communicate initiatives and activities of board members in order to remain connected throughout the year. The advice, guidance and support of Prosumer Mujeres is evidence that community members are demonstrating support for ASU's College of Nursing and Health Innovation in the interest of sustaining integrity in Latina healthcare as community partners.

The result of their work and the importance of Latina health were showcased on NBC Nightly News, KAET Channel 8 Horizonte program, the NPR Phoenix affiliate station KJZZ-FM, and through Radio Campesina, which serves several Hispanic communities in Arizona, California and Washington state.

Dean urges larger role for nurse practitioners in primary care

jleutha — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:56:16 -0600

Nurse practitioners could help lessen shortage of primary care physicians

Nurse Practitioners can play a larger role in expanding access to primary healthcare in U.S. health reform if limits to their practice are resolved, according to Dean Bernadette Melnyk of the Arizona State University College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Dr. Melnyk made the remarks in a plenary keynote speech at the Summit on the Future of Primary Care in Rural and Urban American sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Primary Care Window of Opportunity

Dean Melnyk noted that the total of nurse practitioners in the U.S. has increased 27 percent to 145,000 since 2000 and is one of the few segments of the healthcare workforce that is growing while the total of primary care physicians has declined. “With NP enrollment and graduates up 55 percent since 2004, we have a window of opportunity to strengthen the healthcare workforce,” Dean Melnyk said. “We need to take steps to take advantage of this opportunity at a time it is critically needed.”

According to the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, the number of physicians who practice family or internal medicine has declined 37 percent compared to 50 years ago and only 30 percent of medical students today are choosing to practice in those areas. Only two percent of students currently in medical school who responded to another survey said they planned to enter primary care practice.

Thirty percent of Americans today lack a regular source of primary care and the 70 percent report they cannot obtain same day appointments with their primary care providers. Seventy million Americans, or 23 percent, are un- or under-insured, which further limits access to primary care, Dr. Melnyk added.

Nurse practitioners (NP’s), who are registered nurses prepared with masters and doctoral degrees and provide a wide range of services as well as chronic and acute healthcare, can help to meet primary care needs of Americans.

Solutions Must Be Part of Health Reform

Despite the important role in primary care that NP’s already play, Dean Melnyk said they could make a larger contribution if certain limits were resolved. She listed the barriers as:

• Only 53 percent of managed care insurance providers credential NP’s as primary care providers and provide equal payment to PCP’s.

• Only 22 states and the District of Columbia authorize full or independent practice authority for NP’s.

• Only 12 states and the District of Columbia permit NP’s to have full prescription privileges.

• NP’s are not permitted to serve as directors of Federally Qualified Health Centers.

• NP-managed Health Centers are not included in Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services demonstration projects to provide data on their patient outcomes.

The ASU dean called for these barriers to be removed, as well as for more funding for NP educational programs by the government and private foundations.

Dean Melnyk is a certified pediatric and psychiatric nurse practitioner. She is one of two nursing leaders who serve on the US Preventive Services Task Force which sets evidence-based screening and behavioral counseling recommendations to guide primary care practice for the nation. She also has served on the Institute of Medicine’s Healthcare Provider Sector for the Roundtable on Evidence-Based Medicine.

About ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation

The ASU College of Nursing and Health Innovation is one of the most innovative colleges of nursing and health in the United States. It was ranked in the top eight percent of graduate nursing programs in the nation in the 2008 U.S. News & World Report College Rankings and is the only college of nursing to have integrated health promotion and sciences programs into its curriculum.

ASU Editorial Contact:
Terry.Olbrysh@asu.edu
Office: (602) 496-0877

Nursing college receives major research grant

jleutha — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 09:29:00 -0600

The National Center of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), a center of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has awarded a $2.5 million grant for research of asthma disparities among Latino children to the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University. The grant, titled “Asthma Disparities in Latino Children: Acculturation, Illness Representation & Contemporary Alternative Medicine” (CAM), is the largest in the history of the college.

Racial and ethnic disparities in asthma health outcomes have been increasing in the United States, resulting in researchers and public health officials calling for studies to determine the causes. Compared with majority-population children, minority children use controller medication less often, have less continuity of care, and visit emergency departments more frequently.

Especially noteworthy has been the increasing prevalence of asthma among Latino, primarily Puerto Rican, children. Individuals of Mexican and Puerto Rican origin constitute 73 percent of the Latino population in the United States. Although these two groups share similar historical origins and cultural values, significant differences exist. Puerto Rican children exhibit the highest rates of asthma prevalence and mortality among all ethnic groups while Mexican children have the lowest rates. Asthma disproportionately affects Puerto Rican children with a 2.33 adjusted odds ratio for lifetime diagnosis compared to non-Latino white children.

Perhaps of critical importance, but not extensively researched, is the role that culture, acculturation and illness representations – such as the way the parent interprets health and illness which influences how he/she manages the child’s asthma – may play in parents’ asthma treatment decisions.

The factors leading to asthma health disparities between Mexican and Puerto Rican children are complex, yet little research has been conducted that integrates, in one explanatory model, the multitude of factors that can lead to these disparities among Latino children. Illness representations and the associated treatment decisions (CAM and controller medication use) are two factors that need additional study.

Kimberly Sidora-Arcoleo, an assistant professor in the Center for Children, Teens & Families at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation and a fellow of the Center of Evaluation of Health Disparities Research & Training, is the principal investigator of the grant.

Flavio Marsiglia and Susanne Cook are co-investigators. Marsiglia is a faculty member in ASU’s School of Social Work where he is the Distinguished Foundation Professor of Cultural Diversity and Health. He also is the director of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC), a national exploratory center of excellence funded by the National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NCMHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Cook is an assistant professor at ASU Nursing and Health, and research consultant for the Arizona Asthma Coalition and the Phoenix Children’s Hospital Breathmobile program. She is a recognized expert in childhood asthma and has spent the past decade working with parents, school nurses, community leaders and legislators on the effects of asthma on children.

According to Sidora-Arcoleo, the study is innovative because the proposed project moves the research from descriptive studies of individual constructs and contexts to testing an integrated, multifactorial model.

“Targeted interventions, aimed at reshaping illness representations, can be developed and implemented to integrate the family’s ethnomedical belief system – a medical system based on the cultural beliefs of specific ethnic groups – into the biomedical model,” Sidora-Arcoleo says. “The proposed interdisciplinary multilevel study will address gaps in the evidence base and expand the framework for assessing disparities in asthma health outcomes among Latino children.”

Longitudinal design

The research will take the form of a longitudinal study of parental illness representations, CAM and controller medication use among a diverse sample of 300 Latino families, primarily Mexican and Puerto Rican, of children with asthma ages five to 12. This age range was selected because children in this age group typically have not assumed daily control for managing their asthma.

Interviews and child assessments will be conducted at five time periods: initial enrollment, then three, six, nine and 12 months after enrollment, for a total data collection period of 12 months.

As data-gathering instruments are being finalized, hiring and training of staff will begin this month at two study locations: the Bronx borough of New York City and Phoenix, Ariz. Recruiting and enrollment of the 300 mother/child dyads is scheduled to begin next April. Study results will be reported in late 2013.

Contact:
Terry.Olbrysh@asu.edu
602-496-0877

ASU researcher addresses caregiver syndrome

jleutha — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:27:22 -0600

Vikki McGuire Turner spent hours reading about Alzheimer's disease after finances forced her to take her mother out of long-term care and into her Anthem home. Turner came to know the disease intimately. Only later would she learn how it threatened her own health.

After taking care of her mother full time, Turner came to realize she was vulnerable to "caregiver syndrome" – the depression, anxiety, financial loss, physical strain and frustration of caring for someone.

Turner is one of the "hidden patients" sought out by Arizona State University researcher David Coon. Coon, who organizes workshops to aid caregivers, says that people often tend to their ailing loved ones without knowing a crucial fact: taking care of the chronically ill can kill you.

Art saves woman with mental illness

jleutha — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:23:55 -0600

A Downtown Phoenix studio, run by PSA Art Awakenings, is a rehabilitation program for people with serious mental illness.

ASU Nursing and Health receives Hearst Foundations award

jleutha — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0600

Funding to support education for researchers on child, teen and family health disparities

The College of Nursing and Health Innovation Center for Improving Health Outcomes in Children, Teens & Families at Arizona State University has received a grant from the Hearst Foundations to fund pre- and post-doctoral fellowships with emphasis on research to address health disparities experienced by children, teens and families.

Bonnie Gance-Cleveland, PhD, RNC, PNP, FAAN, director of the Center for Improving Health Outcomes for Children, Teens & Families, says the goal of the fellowships is to support qualified ethnic and racial minority fellows, who will work with center faculty to focus on reducing health disparities in maternal/child populations.

Hearst Foundations Fellows must commit to teach in graduate and undergraduate academic nursing programs in the United States after completion of the fellowship. The fellowships are for one and two-year terms.

The Hearst Foundations are national philanthropic resources for organizations and institutions working in the fields of education, health, culture and social service. The Foundations’ goal is to ensure that people of all backgrounds have the opportunity to build healthy, productive and inspiring lives.

Terry Olbrysh, Terry.Olbrysh@asu.edu
(602) 496-0877
College of Nursing and Health Innovation

Nursing faculty selected for American Academy of Nursing Fellowship

jleutha — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:00:00 -0600

Carol M. Baldwin, PhD, RN, CHTP, NCC, CT, AHN-BC, has been selected for Fellowship in the American Academy of Nursing for her outstanding contributions and achievements in the profession.

Dr. Baldwin is being recognized for her sustained high profile scholarship in sleep and disparities research, pedagogy that fosters culturally responsive care, and networking abilities to advance global collaborations toward world health promotion.

She will be formally inducted at the national AAN meeting to be held in Atlanta in November (June 2009). Read more

Study focuses on caregiving for elderly Mexican Americans

jleutha — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:00:00 -0600

Update: Recruitment is in full swing in both Phoenix and Tucson, with current caregiver participants ranging in age from 23 to 70 years. As yet, we have accessed caregivers who are siblings, daughters or sons, and nieces or nephews of care recipients, but no spouses. Length of caregiving varies, with 14% in early stage caregiving (1-12 months), 0% in middle stage (13-24 months), and 86% in late stage (25 months and over). Extensive data are being obtained for male caregivers and we are discovering that some families contain either multiple caregivers or care recipients.

The National Institute of Nursing Research has just awarded an additional $113, 259 supplement to the parent grant to support a student from a group under-represented in the biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social sciences research workforce. Ms. Ebere Ume, a College of Nursing and Health Innovation PhD student, will be supported by the award. For two years, this talented student will learn research principles and techniques under Dr. Evans’ direction, with the goal of completing an advanced degree in nursing. The federal grant aims to increase numbers of researchers from diverse backgrounds, in an effort to improve the Nation's capacity to address and eliminate health disparities.

Original Article:

The College of Nursing and Health Innovation at Arizona State University is conducting a research study of caregiving among and for Mexican Americans. The $1.8 million study, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, is titled The Caregiving Trajectory for Community Dwelling Mexican-American Elders.

ASU Associate Professor of Nursing Bronwynne Evans, PhD, RN, principal investigator, said the purpose of the study is to investigate the burden of caregiving in this at-risk population by describing the level, circumstances, and consequences of caregiver burden/strain, and determining the impact of cultural and contextual variables on caregiving and caregiver gain, along with factors that lead to nursing home admission.

Co-investigators include Michael Belyea, PhD, research professor, nursing; David Coon, PhD, social and behavioral sciences professor; and Felipe Castro, MD, psychology professor from ASU; and Neva Crogan, PhD, University of Connecticut College of Nursing.

Caregiving burden among Hispanic caregivers is a little understood and growing problem. As a result, research to address caregiver burden and prevent institutionalization in these populations is critical. It is estimated that there are more than 42 million Hispanics in the U.S. with those age 65 and over expected to grow faster than any other racial or ethnic group, tripling in number by 2050. Thirteen percent of Hispanic households currently provide care to an adult age 50 or older whose life expectancy will increase to 87 years by 2050, surpassing all other ethnic groups. Given this dramatic shift in demographics, a burgeoning number of Hispanic families will be placed in a caregiving role.

The multisite, longitudinal, mixed-methods study will compare and contrast transitions and turning points in the caregiving; identify factors that support caregiving; and determine what factors are most important in delaying institutionalization.

The in-depth, systematic research into the caregiving trajectory should prove useful in designing interventions that are timed to occur simultaneously with known crisis points and help keep elders at home or to help families acknowledge when formal nursing home care should be sought.

Original Article Date: 8/25/08