Spotlight on Teaching (September 05)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Erin Kilburn, Coordinator of the Accelerated Option, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
As the coordinator and an instructor of Clinical Nursing for the Accelerated BSN option she has taught in all the required clinical areas, but focuses on Mental Health and Community clinical areas.

Goals for Your Students
My goals for the aAccelerated students are for them to successfully complete the rigorous 15-month program and NCLEX exam! I really want these students to value their previous educational achievements and see how their prior experiences influence and enhance their role as a professional nurse.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
I have found my most successful teaching strategy to be that of listening to my students. They help me to identify what their needs and challenges are and assist me in modifying my approach to help them meet their educational needs. Because the accelerated students come from a variety of educational backgrounds, I have found them to be helpful in augmenting and assisting each other (and myself) with learning.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Trying to stay at least one step ahead of the students! Because of their diverse educational backgrounds, I have wider ground to cover in order to anticipate the types of questions they may bring to the table. It definitely keeps me on my toes, but challenges me to continue to learn more.

Greatest Satisfaction
Just knowing that I have had some small part in passing on my love and dedication for the profession of nursing to another. Seeing every student walk across that graduation platform and receiving their degree reminds me of how proud I was, and still am to be a nurse!

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Spotlight on Teaching (October 05)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Shari Kist, Coordinator of the RN/BSN Option, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
Coordinator and Instructor in RN-BSN Option teaching teaching Communication and Computer Skills, Nursing Theory and Research, and Evidence-Based Nursing Practice. Also teach Nursing Theory and Research to a large class (200+) of traditional undergraduate students.

Goals for Your Students
I want to generate enthusiasm for the nursing profession through knowledge. For the RN-BSN students, this can be challenging as they may be practicing in less than ideal situations and don't really see that their coursework has much to offer. My goal for them is to see how the knowledge they are gaining benefits them professionally. For the traditional students, I want them to start thinking about a professional identity.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
One of my favorite activities is having the students be subjects in their own study. I have them complete a generic sort of survey, then I summarize the data and have them evaluate it for thoroughness and accuracy. This helps pull together many of the research concepts we have already discussed. And since I have done this for several years, they can compare their class to previous ones.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Teaching 180-200 students about nursing theory and research.

Greatest Satisfaction
My greatest satisfaction is when a student has an “ah-ha” moment. For some it comes quickly, for others it requires hours of study.

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Spotlight on Teaching (November 05)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Cheryl Bausler, Coordinator of the Adult II course and Undergraduate Curriculum Chair, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
To provide the students the access to knowledge and the tools required to become a professional nurse.

Goals for Your Students
To prepare students to be able to critically think while taking care of their assigned patients.  They need knowledge and time on task to prepare for this level of practice.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
I love the Socratic and coaching methods of teaching.  If the faculty member provides the proper direction in questioning and hints, the student will be able to identify the most relevant solution for their patients' problems.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Teaching 180-200 students about nursing theory and research.

Greatest Satisfaction
The faculty member has to try and find the right teaching level when you have a diverse group of students with different learning styles, abilities, and experiences.  You have to teach at level that is somewhere in the middle.

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Spotlight on Teaching (December 05)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Jane Bostick, Mental Health Nurse Practitioner area of study coordinator, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
Undergraduate: Mental Health Nursing (MHN) lecture and clinical

Graduate: Restoration and Promotion in MHN, Brief Individual Psychotherapy, Advanced Nursing Clinical Practicum (MHNP section)

Goals for Your Students
My main goals for students are to: 1)be the best possible nurses they can be; 2)gain a solid foundation of knowledge and compassion for their patients; 3)further their education in an area of nursing they love; and 4)develop a dedication and love for nursing that will always be evident in their daily practice.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
During the past 23 years I’ve tried every teaching strategy there is, however I feel the most successful strategy is listening to my students and be a partner in their education. I don’t think I should answer every question, but I should turn it into a learning experience and encourage them to find the answer on their own. I also think I should incorporate techniques that keep their attention and interest. I have performed skits, played games in class, shown video clips from movies and told a few jokes now and then.

Biggest Educational Challenge
For my students, the biggest educational challenge is the delicate balance between family, work and going to school. Our students’ lives are much more complicated today than when I attended nursing school. Everything is moving at a faster pace, and the internet has opened up a world of opportunity for teaching and learning that didn’t exist 25 years ago. The reading, studying and clinical experiences we expect students to fit into their busy lives is definitely an educational challenge. Personally, my biggest challenge was finishing my PhD and getting advanced practice certification while working full time, building a house, having two kids in college and spending time with my grandkids.

Greatest Satisfaction
Working in a career I love, being a part of the school, and seeing our students become successful and respected members of the nursing profession are some of my greatest professional satisfactions. Being “the best grandma” (according to my granddaughters when they spend the night) is my greatest satisfaction of all.

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Spotlight on Teaching (January 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Gina Oliver, who teaches in all of the undergraduate options and coordinates the educator area of study in the MS program, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My teaching focus is varied. I primarily teach the nursing introduction course to traditional undergraduates; health assessment and pathophysiology to RN to BSN students; pathophysiology and adult health clinicals to accelerated students; and the nurse educator courses to graduate students.

Goals for Your Students
My goal for students is for them to acquire a strong knowledge base on which to begin practicing nursing while developing the motivation and professionalism to continue learning throughout their careers.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
My most memorable teaching strategy was when I was teaching critical care at a former collegiate institution. One of the learning units was on dysrhythmias, encompassing etiology, clinical manifestations, ECG interpretation and treatment based on ACLS protocols. To bring the content together, I had groups of students work through mock codes. They had to interpret the rhythm and begin care for the patient mannequin, including implementing CPR, using an ambu bag, inserting an IV, administering medications, recording and managing the code. Emergencies occur in every area of the hospital and students need to be prepared.

Biggest Educational Challenge
The biggest educational challenge I face is attempting to accommodate student's multitude of learning styles. I want to ensure students are successful in reaching their educational goals, which can be challenging with the variety of learning needs.

Greatest Satisfaction
My greatest satisfaction is seeing students grow in their potential to be a nurse who provides high quality compassionate care. I strongly believe we should provide the same type of care we would wish for our family members or ourselves to receive. It makes me proud when I see our students achieve this goal.

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Spotlight on Teaching (February 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Constance Brooks, who teaches in both the public health and mental health graduate areas of study, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My current teaching focus includes courses in the public health nursing and mental health nursing graduate program. These include Concepts and Trends in Public Health Nursing, Developing and Evaluating Health Programs, Nursing and Health Policy and Mental Health Interventions for Families. I also provide guest lectures to other graduate and undergraduate courses on program evaluation, social marketing, health promotion, community development, health policy and facilitation skills.

Goals for Your Students
I have several goals for my students:

• To facilitate a learning environment that helps them become effective advanced practice nurses and inspires them to be life-long learners;
• To provide information that will assist them in attaining certification as an advanced practice nurse;
• To support them through positive reinforcement, kindness, flexibility, unconditional positive regard, critical feedback, navigating the school and university system, and in any other ways that I can as they continue in the program of study.

Most Interesting or Successful Teaching Strategy
I think my most interesting and successful teaching strategy is the use of focused conversation questions. I try to model this method in my discussion questions, in my responses to students, and through my conversations with them. I find it engages students and encourages critical thinking more than any other technique I have used. This semester, I plan to weave in another effective communication tool that is now used in health-care settings to improve patient safety; the SBAR technique. I have modified this tool for other settings and am looking forward to using with students.

Biggest Educational Challenge
My greatest educational challenge is to package the course material into a 16-week semester. I always want to add more and I keep thinking "Well, they need this to..." I have to stop and remember I am encouraging them to be life-long learners and they do not have to learn all the information on the course subject in 16 weeks!

Greatest Satisfaction
My greatest satisfaction in teaching is the Aha! moments students experience. I love it when they expand their thinking, teach and learn from each other, try out their learning in their practice setting and report their success stories. The Internet venue has enhanced all these aspects in a remarkable way. In fact, I did not experience this nearly as often in the classroom face-face.

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Spotlight on Teaching (March 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Glenda Nickell, who coordinates the mental health nursing undergraduate nursing course, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
I coordinate the mental health nursing undergraduate nursing course, and teach in the classroom and clinical areas. In the summer, my teaching focus is community health nursing for the on-line RN-BSN students. This is a wonderful focus for me because my passion is really for community mental health with a focus on prevention and early intervention.

Goals for Your Students
I hope to nurture empathy for people who are afflicted by mental health problems and other issues such as poverty. This includes understanding the political nature of funding for adequate health care. Since the students are either RNs or senior undergraduates, I hope to increase their knowledge base, encourage a love of life-long learning and promote evidence-based practice.

Most Interesting or Successful Teaching Strategy
Although I have been an RN for 30 years, I am really a novice in my role as an academic teacher. Through my years of experience and passion for care delivery, I share examples of issues that surfaced throughout my career. Experiential learning, including small group interaction, is gradually being infused into my classroom teaching, using student feedback to find what improves learning. The history of mental health is extremely interesting and actual photos of treatment modalities, nurses and buildings from the 1800 and 1900s add some liveliness to the classroom lecture.

Biggest Educational Challenge
The biggest challenge is bringing the best education to diverse students with different styles of learning. The mental health classes are three hours long, trying to keep anyone's attention for that long can be difficult especially at 8 a.m. This challenge brings opportunities for improvement in my classroom teaching style.

Greatest Satisfaction
Without a doubt, my greatest satisfaction is when students grow personally, develop empathy for patients, improve interpersonal communication skills and develop and implement teaching classes for patients. For the on-line class, the greatest satisfaction is when a student is able to work with preceptors to plan and implement interventions that improve the health of the community.

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Spotlight on Teaching (April 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Tonya Eddy, clinical instructor of nursing, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My primary focus is clinical instruction in obstetrics for both the traditional undergraduates and the Accelerated option students, and Community Health Nursing for the Accelerated Option.

Goals for Your Students
The most important goal I have for my students is that they actually LEARN. I feel it is most important for students to learn where to access information they may need and resources available for their continuing education throughout their careers. I also feel strongly about incorporating an appreciation for diversity in their practice, since obstetrics is rich in diverse ethnic/religious practices.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
I like to teach with humor. A fun atmosphere tends to help most people retain more information. I use my son as an example - he can remember pages of jokes better than one page of science.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Remembering which hospital to go to for clinicals each morning, as well as where each group is in their learning experience.

Greatest Satisfaction
Having students tell me after OB rotation that they still want to go into OB as a career.

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Spotlight on Teaching (May 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Pam Evans-Smith, instructor of clinical nursing, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
I realize that not all students are going to love OB or critical care, however, I would like them to feel a basic level of comfort when dealing with patients from these areas.

Goals for Your Students
My goals for the students are to develop a level of comfort, be able to provide competent care to patients in these areas, and to pass NCLEX.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
My most interesting teaching strategy is to provide the students with a topic and have small groups present information. I have interesting presentations in OB with this technique.

Biggest Educational Challenge
My biggest educational challenge is to get students interested in OB when they have no desire to work in this area.

Greatest Satisfaction
My greatest satisfaction is when I have tutored a student throughout their last semester and they finally graduate. To watch these students walk across the stage and receive their diploma makes me glad that I have chosen to teach at MU.

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Spotlight on Teaching (June 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Sarah Breier-Mackie, assistant clinical instructor of nursing, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My primary teaching focus is instruction on Nursing Ethics and Law for the RN to BSN, Accelerated option and traditional undergraduate courses. My secondary teaching focus is health-care ethics instructions to the elective graduate students within the Department of Health Management and Informatics, in which I am adjunct faculty.

Goals for Your Students
The most important goal for my students is ultimately to recognize the importance of THEIR contributions not only to nursing jurisprudence but also to the clinical ethics decision making process.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
Making it interesting, timely, confronting, challenging and fascinating – quite a challenge when online, but "do-able" with a sprightly interactive electronic bulletin board!

Biggest Educational Challenge
Maintaining a passionate commitment to life-long learning and juggling my own student status (post-doc fellowship in process) with teaching college students, and instilling confidence in them to engage in confronting (if not controversial) professional issues.

Greatest Satisfaction
Being here and plugged into a fantastic network of support and inspiration. Also, seeing my students develop their own critical insights into nursing professional issues, and engage in professional practice ... and watching my kids swim their first lap of the pool!

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Spotlight on Teaching (Sept. 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Denice Mendenhall, instructor of clinical nursing, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My primary focus is on teaching N3670 Nursing of Adults I, or (informally) Medical/Surgical nursing to 6th-semester juniors.

Goals for Your Students
I believe the responsibility for learning falls to the students. I provide the content and the assignments by which they learn, but they must do the work. I encourage them to be free-thinkers and not “conform to the pack,” if they can logically support their actions with rational thinking. I believe my students come through with a stronger self-awareness and confidence from these interactions. I believe in good patient outcomes in my students' patient care, not exactness of procedures and task accomplishments. I tell my students that I do not expected them to know everything before each clinical. This is why they have the title “student nurse” after their names. I encourage them to ask questions now, while they are still students, because after graduation, they will be expected to know. I tell my students to not be afraid when they make mistakes and to learn from them while they are still students.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
I believe I am the facilitator for the students' learning and should question their knowledge in order for them to gain more insight. I challenge students to use critical-thinking skills whenever they ask me questions during clinicals. I always ask them what they think they should do before I give them my answer. If they have a good solution, I tell them so and then offer my thoughts as further choices they can make - not as a directive. If they do not have any ideas, I try to think of a related topic I can question them on that will lead them in the right direction, so they can eventually come to a good solution for the current question by using their own knowledge base. They can then see how critical thinking works in reality and feel inspired to continue to probe and find solutions in the future.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Dealing with conflicts between students and staff and/or patients is the biggest educational challenge in my opinion. I believe each situation provides an opportunity to learn - if I can just figure out the lesson that can be learned! It's stressful to overcome negative feelings to get the problem resolved, while trying to make a positive outcome for everyone involved. I always try to keep the focus on the patient's safety and then on the student's learning. Most of the time it is a misunderstanding or miscommunication that is the issue; so, while assessing the problem, the solution becomes clear.

Greatest Satisfaction
I enjoy seeing my students' faces when they begin to see the “whole picture” in their patient's care and when they see the role they play in this care, despite the end outcome for patients with incurable diseases. This is my reward for teaching!

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Spotlight on Teaching (Oct. 06)

Spotlight on Teaching highlights a teaching faculty member in the MUSSON. Kathryn Burks, assistant professor of clinical nursing, is this month's faculty member.

Teaching Focus
My teaching focus includes community health nursing in the undergraduate program and a variety of courses in the graduate program including nursing theory, research, symptom management and APN role acquisition. In addition, I provide mentoring for both residential and foreign students in the PhD program.

Goals for Your Students
The most important goal I have for my students is to recognize the importance of their learning to their nursing career. If students don't find the material I'm teaching to be relevant to their practice, they really don't learn.

Most Successful Teaching Strategy
The teaching strategy I have found to be most successful is having students share their personal experiences and relate them to the topic being discussed. Almost everyone likes to think their experiences are the best, so when we share with others not only do we get recognition but others learn from our experiences.

Biggest Educational Challenge
Teaching students how to express themselves in written format.

Greatest Satisfaction
My greatest satisfaction is getting to know the students I teach as individuals. It is especially rewarding when a student is struggling and I can help them to succeed. Their success is a joy for me.

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Sinclair Scientist (September 05)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Dr. Linda Bullock.

Focus
The focus of my research is on low-income rural mothers, both during pregnancy and up to two years post-delivery. I am conducting two randomized controlled trials. Baby BEEP (Behavioral Educational Enhancement of Pregnancy), funded by NINR, is designed to help women stop smoking during pregnancy. The new NICHD-funded study is called Baby BEEP for Kids. It focuses on the child, parenting, and smoking cessation. The intervention for both trials is a nurse-delivered telephone social support to help this group of vulnerable women cope with the many stressors they face. Participants in the study can call their research nurse any time they need support.

Most Interesting Finding
I have been amazed at how receptive women have been to our project nurses. Few smoking cessation trials during pregnancy have been conducted with women living in rural areas. So far we have recruited more than 600 women and we have lost a total of seven women to follow up. The women are voicing their pleasure about being in our research studies through their participation.

Biggest Challenge
There are two big challenges. The first is the incredible number of miles that we drive to rural areas. In the first 28 months of the study, we drove more than 120,000 miles. The second biggest challenge is keeping track of the many addresses and phone numbers that these women accumulate while participating in the study. 

Greatest Satisfaction
It is very rewarding to see the bonds that have developed between the research nurses and the participants. We have women that finished the study more than two years ago still contacting us to provide updates on what is happening in their lives. Many participants will send letters to their research nurse with notes telling them how much the nurse had helped them during a very difficult time. Our nursing intervention has touched the lives of many of Missouri 's most vulnerable population. Our success is due to the commitment and outstanding work of the research nurses and the entire research team who work on the grants.

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Sinclair Scientist (October 05)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Dr. Eileen J. Porter, PhD, RN, Professor.

Focus
My research is focused on exploring and describing the health-related experiences of older women who live alone at home. Having finished a study funded by NINR to describe the experience of home care for older widows, I am currently conducting a descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of reaching help quickly. The work is funded by NIA.

Most Interesting Finding
In the home-care study, we learned that women were either hesitant to purchase a personal emergency response system or hesitant to use it, if they had one. In the current study, we have been somewhat surprised to discover that the women think first of the person who they would want to reach, rather than the device they would use to reach that person. As we are in the process of concluding the three interviews with some women over a period of 18-months, we have been somewhat surprised to learn that the women's decisions about how they might reach help quickly have been influenced simply by being asked questions about the experience.

Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge I face as the principal interviewer in these projects is to walk to fine line between obtaining information and assessing the woman's need for on-the-spot nursing interventions. The latter is inconsistent with my purpose, of course, but we are careful to write into the informed consents that if the women ask questions about reaching help quickly, we will not deny that information to them. This protocol has been extremely helpful. 

Greatest Satisfaction
The descriptive work that we are dong is a superb foundation for further exploratory studies as well as studies of interventions that might better enable older women to fulfill their basic intention: to live at home alone for as long as possible.

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Sinclair Scientist (November 05)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Jeffrey Gage, doctoral candidate.

Focus
The focus of my dissertation research is the participation of male partners in smoking cessation of women during pregnancy. I have interviewed 23 low-income Mid-Missouri men. Using grounded theory method, I am developing a mid-range theory to describe and explain the smoking behaviors of male partners, and how these behaviors affect smoking cessation of their pregnant partners. This study is funded by the Robert Wood-Johnson Foundation.

Most Interesting Finding
Pregnancy is described in the literature as a teachable moment to help women attempt smoking cessation. Male partners also described pregnancy as a time to reevaluate their smoking behaviors in the context of protecting their partner and baby. Men described pregnancy as the catalyst to promote protective behaviors in early pregnancy, while becoming a father provided their motivation in mid to late pregnancy. Men also described a negotiated process by which they could legitimately protect their babies while continuing to smoke, which has implications for their partners' potential relapse post-partum.

Biggest Challenge
The biggest challenge has been the process of recruiting men to the study. Before I was able to talk directly to potential participants I first had to obtain their written consent to contact them. I then called men on the phone to explain the study and to invite their participation. At this time most men consented to meet with me for a one-time audio-taped interview. Prior to the interview taking place the process was completed with another written consent. This three-step recruiting process was very time consuming. 

Greatest Satisfaction
It has been a very rewarding experience for me to meet with men in their own homes, and to be invested for a time, in their lives, listening to their stories and perceptions of smoking, pregnancy, and fathering. This has provided me a unique opportunity to explore a phenomenon which has received little research attention to date.

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Sinclair Scientist (December 05)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Dr. Cindy Russell, assistant professor.

Focus
The focus of my research is on helping people keep their new kidneys so those who are waiting for new kidneys will have more available to them for transplant.

Specifically, my program of research focuses on immunosuppressive medication noncompliance in adult renal transplant recipients by examining patterns, predictors, and outcomes of this important behavior. Using a quantitative descriptive longitudinal design, I am using electronic medication caps to measure immunosuppressive medication adherence over a one year period. Outcome data are collected at one and two years. I have collected data on 75 subjects with small grant funding. I currently have funding from NINR to collect data on 150 additional subjects and Hartford-Atlantic post-doctorate funding to collect similar data on 50 older renal transplant recipients. These preliminary projects are an important step toward gaining knowledge to guide identification of patients at risk for medication noncompliance, and to implement interventions to decrease the risk and enhance medication noncompliance to save precious kidneys and lives.

Most Interesting Finding
If you think about how you take your medications -- you can be on time, early, late or miss a dose. In a cluster analysis of 44 renal transplant recipients' medication taking, four distinct timing patterns are emerging. Many subjects have adopted the desirable timing pattern of taking medications on time. A second group takes some medications on time, but is late with quite a few doses. A third group is late and misses many doses. The final group has adopted the unfortunate pattern of missing many medications.

How I Became Interested in this Area
My personal and professional interest in transplant nursing developed from my practice and research background with cardiac and renal transplant recipients. As a Clinical Nurse Specialist at University Hospital caring for these patients, I became acutely aware of the unique issues that challenge transplant patients, in particular adherence to immunosuppressive medications, which must be taken for the life of the transplant and are crucial to survival of the transplanted organ and recipient. While in this role, I completed my dissertation in 2000 from Saint Louis University, where I evaluated the effectiveness of a nursing intervention on hope and uncertainty with adults waiting for a renal transplant.

Greatest Satisfaction
Working with those who have received “the gift of life” is extremely rewarding in that they are so willing to “give back” to others through participating in research.

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Sinclair Scientist (January 06)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Dr. Diedre Wipke-Tevis, assistant professor.

Focus
My program of research centers on skin microcirculation in adults, with a particular emphasis on individuals with chronic, non-healing wounds. We are in our last year of an NINR funded study that uses a 2 group quasi-experimental design with partial repeated measures to determine the effect of leg/body position changes and compression bandaging on four key parameters of microvascular responsiveness and function in the lower limbs of venous ulcer subjects and healthy adults. Each subject comes to our laboratory where we measure skin temperature, skin oxygen, skin carbon dioxide, and skin blood perfusion at 5 different sites while they are in 3 different positions, with 2 different levels of oxygen, both with and without a compression bandage on one of their legs. We have completed our 6 hour protocol on 48 adults.

Most Interesting Finding
As part of our AHA study, we examined the effect of oral hydration (500cc) on non-invasive measures of skin microcirculation. We found that in middle-aged subjects only, the concentration of moving blood cells (a measure of skin blood perfusion) increased more in the Hydrated than Control group.  To the best of our knowledge, these are the first data to suggest that subtle differences in hydration exist between healthy, community dwelling young and middle-aged adults. In addition, these data support the practice of hydrating subjects prior to microcirculation studies to help to improve the ability to detect responses in microvascular function.

Biggest Challenge
For a variety of reasons, the biggest challenge has been recruiting venous ulcer subjects for the study. The pool of subjects has been less than anticipated because the University lost 2 vascular surgeons and has not yet replaced them. Once potential subjects have been located, however, many do not meet our inclusion criteria. Of those that do meet the inclusion criteria, some refuse because of the time commitment required and/or transportation problems. To combat these problems, we have added recruitment sites, increased advertising, and placed flyers at senior centers in the counties surrounding mid-Missouri. 

Greatest Satisfaction
One of the unique aspects of being a student at a Research 1 university is that students have the opportunity to be exposed to research. It has been a very rewarding experience for me to be able to provide research opportunities for students at all educational levels. Although it is exciting to teach them the technical and data management skills associated with the research process, it is particularly thrilling to have them say, “You have shown me a whole side of nursing that I didn't know existed!”

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Sinclair Scientist (February 06)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Karen Courtney, doctoral candidate.

Focus
My research uses informatics tools for evaluation and re-design of health-care delivery systems. Sometimes my research is at the population level, such as my evaluation of Missouri's nurse recruitment and retention policy using geographic information systems and county level aggregate data. Other times, my research is has an individual level focus such as my current project looking at factors that influence an older adult's adoption of “smart home” technologies such as gait/fall monitors, emergency communication devices, kitchen sensors or bed sensors.

Most Interesting Finding
In a recent interview with an older adult on what influenced his decision to participate in smart-home technology research, the issues of communication, independence and control were cited. Our participant described communication as an active two-way process in which his knowledge, opinions and choices would be respected.  These elements have implications for future smart-home research as investigators may need to compromise on tightly-controlled research designs to allow for individualization in participation and installation choices in order to attract and retain participants.

Biggest Challenge
Currently my biggest challenge is time. There are more questions than time! So planning each study with an understanding of how it fits into a larger research program is important. My research plan is still a work in progress, but luckily I have had some great examples from faculty across the University to guide me in its development. 

Greatest Satisfaction
The collaborative nature of my research (nursing and informatics) provides a great deal of inspiration. It's exciting to work on projects which are re-envisioning the way health-care services can be delivered.

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Sinclair Scientist (March 06)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Dr. Larry Ganong, Professor at the MU Sinclair School of Nursing and Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

Focus
My research is focused primarily on post-divorce families, including stepfamilies. I just completed a multiple-study project funded by the National Institute of Aging (NIH) in which we examined beliefs about intergenerational assistance in families that experienced marital transitions in the oldest generation (i.e., divorce and remarriage). I am starting a study in which I am examining how inferences about an individual's responsibility for having a problem effects attitudes about helping that individual resolve or cope with the problem (that is, do we think a family member should be helped if he/she caused the problem or does responsibility not make any difference when kin need help?). I am also interested in co-parenting issues after divorce, particularly when a child has chronic health problems. Finally, I also have been assisting Eileen Porter in her study of older women and their experiences of reaching help quickly.

Most Interesting Finding in the Intergenerational Obligations Project
I was surprised to find that older adults consistently think that less help should be given to older family members than middle aged and young adults. This was true regardless of the type of help that was needed. I am still trying to figure this out.

Biggest Challenge
Finding time to do all of the research that I want to do. I have tons of research questions yet to answer, which I look at as job security and a way to prevent boredom. 

Greatest Satisfaction
I love to find the answers to questions that interest me, and then to share those answers with other people. It is also gratifying when someone tells me that something I once wrote helped them in some way – this does not happen often, but is cool when it does.

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Sinclair Scientist (April 06)

Sinclair Scientist is about faculty or students conducting research at MUSSON. This month we are highlighting Pamela Newland, doctoral candidate.

Focus
My research is focused on the symptoms of pain, fatigue, depression sleep disturbance and quality of life in women with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and healthy women. I am conducting research funded by a grant from Sigma Theta Tau Omicron Psi to examine the intensity of symptoms and how these symptoms impact quality of life between RRMS women and healthy women.

Most Interesting Finding in the Intergenerational Obligations Project
Depression intensity was different in women with RRMS with pain compared to women with RRMS without pain. The presence of pain increased the intensity of fatigue, depression, and sleep disturbance in both RRMS women and healthy women. Fatigue intensity significantly decreased health-related quality of life in women with RRMS.

Biggest Challenge
Making a decision on appropriate measurement tools and synthesizing the findings. 

Greatest Satisfaction
I find it very gratifying to gather new knowledge to assist nurses and others researchers to design interventions which will minimize symptoms and improve quality of life for patients with MS.

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