Karen A Monsen, PhD, RN, FAMIA, FAAN 
University of Minnesota School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic. 
Together with 300+ participants from 10 countries and 35 states, I am leading the rapid development and deployment of encoded, evidence-based COVID-19 Response Guidelines. These guidelines are publicly available at omahasystemguidelines.org and are available in our Omaha System Guidelines App available now at iTunes (and in review by Google). This guideline synthesizes evidence from over 100 sources, primarily from CDC, WHO, and other highly credible organizations; within 90 interventions for 25 roles from triage to midwifery. We are actively updating the guideline as new evidence emerges, which is a constant challenge. This is a great opportunity for nurses, scientists, students, and community members to have a role and a voice in ensuring that we have a way to describe, disseminate, and document evidence-based care to defeat COVID-19. 

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist. 
My research uses standardized nursing data and systems to improve the quality of care in home visiting interventions and outcomes. This research has been informed by 20 years of experience as a public health nurse and manager. I have developed a novel practice-based research network based on standardized nursing terminology data through the University of Minnesota Center for Nursing Informatics. This Omaha System Partnership research has been conducted by multidisciplinary research teams and international research teams with student principal- or co-investigators and community partner principal- or coinvestigators. This work forms the basis for comparative effectiveness research, to shape policy in knowledge management, and to educate students in contemporary health care practices. This uniquely situated research blends clinical and scholarly perspectives, adding rigor to clinical processes and relevance to scholarly inquiry, which results in a powerful and sustained impact on health care quality. 

Research!America and partners are hosting a virtual roundtable discussion on Thursday, June 18 at 2:00 pm ET. This roundtable will be focusing on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public and private sector-fueled medical progress. Participants will explore the pandemic’s influence on the impact on federally funded research, our nation’s R&D infrastructure, the private sector investment climate, technology transfer and other key variables influencing the pace of medical progress, and opportunities to quickly reboot R&D as we move forward. You can find more information here.

Register

These are challenging times for healthcare professionals and scientists, and for the people and communities we serve. Likewise, we are experiencing insights, innovation, and a deeper sense of community. As a member of the FNINR community, please know that you have been in my thoughts.

The work you do and the work you support are critical, and are more important now than ever. Many in our communities are on the frontlines engaging with COVID-19, others supporting direct care givers, and others devoted to discovering safe practices, and all of us committed to expanding our knowledge and transformation of healthy communities.  FNINR is sharing your stories, stories of nurse scientists on the frontlines of the pandemic, advancing the health of communities. FNINR honors scientist heroes by telling their stories and by advocating for them at the federal level as we support the National Institute of Nursing Research.

Robin Austin, PhD, DNP, DC, RN-BC 
University of Minnesota, School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
This COVID-19 project is titled “Social Determinants of Health and COVID-19: Implementing Community Outreach Data Collection Tool to Engage Vulnerable Individuals with Low Socioeconomic Status and Inform Decision Makers on Needs of Population” using virtual outreach through web-based MyStrengths+MyHealthTM application. This project identifies and addresses the needs of this population to understand individual and community strengths, challenges, and needs (S-C-N) during the pandemic. We recognize there are multiple factors that influence individual and community health (i.e. social determinants of health); this often missing perspective is critical to provide a more complete picture of individual and community health. We will engage community voices and perspectives via a community advisory board to interpret and determine response to the data we collect.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
My dissertation research highlighted the use of consumer-generated health data from the web-based health application, MyStrengths+MyHealth (MSMH). Along with my colleague and PhD advisor, Dr Karen Monsen, MSMH was developed to enable self-report of strengths, challenges, and needs using a simplified version of the Omaha System, a multi-disciplinary standardized health terminology. The feasibility and acceptability pilot test of the MyStrengths+MyHealth (MSMH) application at the Minnesota State Fair (2017) with over 380 participants was completed. The results showed it was feasible to collect participant self-report of strengths, challenges and needs data using MSMH. Participants found MSMH easy to use and liked the idea of being able to share health information from their own perspective and include strengths (assets) as part of that process. One of the most recent MSMH projects, Shifting the Opioid Conversation from Stigma to Strengths (S2S) showed that community members are interested in obtaining and using data that reveal a whole-person perspective, in order to facilitate communication and dialogue regarding opioid use disorder. This research provides a foundation to advance knowledge in the emerging field of whole-person strengths-based healthcare.

Dr. Amy Knopf 
Assistant Professor, Indiana University School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Project 1: Pandemic Parenting Study 
We examine how Indiana mothers are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and how it impacts the family. Specifically, Dr. Jessica Calarco (IU, Department of Sociology) and I are identifying mothers’ preferred and trust sources of information about COVID-19, examining their understanding of the illness and its prevention, and documenting the extent to which they are following public health guidelines and Indiana’s stay at home orders. There will be three waves of data collection between April 2020 and February 2021. The first wave is now complete and data analysis is underway.

Project 2: Ethical considerations for digital contact tracing in the context of COVID-19: Implications for sexual and gender minority youth
I identify key ethical issues in digital contact tracing, especially for sexual and gender minorities. I am working with Simone Skeen to identify the ethical complexities that must be addressed to balance safety and privacy against public health goals, especially for marginalized LGBTQ adolescents. Knopf and Skeen are Co-chairs of the Adolescent Medicine Trials Network for HIV/AIDS Interventions Bioethics Working Group, whose members are serving as expert informants for a paper.

Lisa C. Lindley, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN
University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a health services and policy researcher, my work during COVID-19 is to understand the new approaches to delivering pediatric end-of-life care.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist. 
My nurse scientist career started in the doctoral program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Under the mentorship of Dr. Barbara Mark, I gained critical skills as a health services and policy researcher with the support of a NINR T32 predoctoral scholar and AHRQ R36 dissertation award. I found my passion for ensuring children at end of life have quality, accessible hospice care. NINR funding has assisted me in advancing the science of pediatric end-of-life care with K01 and R01 research awards. This work has improved access and quality of pediatric hospice care in an environment of federal and state regulations.

Forty-seven members of the Nursing Community Coalition sent a letter to the Administration  supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Directive 1899 to remove barriers to practice and allow for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to practice to the full extent of their education and abilities.

Read the full letter here. (PDF download from www.thenursingcommunity.org website)

Cathleen Wheatley, DNP, RN, CENP
President, Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center

What advice would you give your younger self?
Stop worrying. It serves no purpose.

Where is your favorite vacation spot?
The Caribbean - any island, any time.

For immediate release: May 19, 2020
For more information, contact: AANA Public Relations

Park Ridge (AANA)—In a letter today to U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and leaders of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and Veterans Health Administration, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) partnered with 47 national nursing organizations to request support for the Veterans Affairs’ (VA) Directive 1899 to permanently remove barriers and allow Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) to practice to the full extent of their education and training. 

According to the Nursing Community Coalition signatories, “allowing CRNAs to practice independently … illustrates CRNAs’ extensive education and training, as well as their expertise in providing high-quality care for their patients and our nation’s veterans.”

Holli DeVon PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA
University of California, Los Angeles

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I co-authored a manuscript that went to press on April 29, 2020 on "Current perspectives on Coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) and cardiovascular disease: A white paper by the JAHA editors." This paper may be informative for nurse researchers studying cardiovascular diseases at the basic, clinical, or epidemiological level.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
I am the Associate Dean for Research at the UCLA School of Nursing. My research focuses on the symptoms of acute coronary syndrome. I have received more than $7 million in grant funding and received a Fulbright Scholar Award to Rwanda in 2018. I have been honored with several research and writing awards and has published more than 100 journal articles and am a founding editorial board member for the Journal of the American Heart Association.

On June 22 from 12:00-3:30 p.m. ET, NINR’s Division of Intramural Research (DIR) will hold a virtual symposium to mark a milestone anniversary — celebrating 20 years of its Summer Genetics Institute (SGI). Please join us to examine how omics methodologies are improving symptom measurement and characterization. We will explore how this research is guiding approaches to biobehavioral interventional methods. This event is free of charge, but registration is required.

Objectives:

• Address how omics methodology has advanced symptom science research.
• Define approaches to developing biobehavioral interventions that modify symptoms.
• Feature interdisciplinary and innovative research that has impacted nursing research and practice.

*Continuing Education Units (CEUs) will be available for this symposium.

Ann H Cary PhD MPH RN FANP FAAN 
Florida Gulf Coast University,Marieb College of Health and Human Services

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I initiated the idea of assembling a University panel of health care faculty to address the public weekly in print, digital and broadcast media on separating facts from fears and working with our University communications department. Since doctorally-prepared faculty are part of this panel for weekly broadcasts on prime time news, it amplifies the role of nurses in health communication and health care.

2020 Summer Genetics Institute

To limit spread of the COVID-19 virus, NIH has urged staff to postpone, cancel, or convert upcoming meetings to virtual events. Based on this guidance, the 2020 Summer Genetics Institute (SGI) has been cancelled. 

20th Anniversary Symposium

To limit spread of the COVID-19 virus, the SGI 20th Anniversary Symposium scheduled for June 22 has been converted to a virtual-only event. More information will be shared as it becomes available. 
 

Jeannie Burnie
Bethesda North Hospital

As the emergency department (ED) clinical nurse specialist, I was asked to guide COVID19 pandemic preparation for a large hospital system in Southwest Ohio with six EDs (critical access, free-standing, urban and suburban) to identify processes involving screening, triage and testing patients. Executive ED leaders worked with the organizations attorney to revise the medical screening exam (MSE) policy. There was concern, with the expected surge, that physicians or advanced practice providers would not be available to provide the MSE. An interdisciplinary team developed standard operating procedures to guide ED nurses in providing the MSE for patients meeting specific, pre-established criteria. Nurses required straight forward tools to document screening, testing if indicated and consistent discharge instructions.

The team determined the need for an alternate care area (ACA) in the ED. Using guidance from the Center for Disease Control, patients presenting with fever, shortness of breath, new onset cough, malaise but stable vital signs would be evaluated in the ACA.  A screening process using pulse oximetry to determine saturations above 92% and heart rate below 110 meeting COVID-19 symptoms would be evaluated by a nurse to determine if testing was indicated.

Join NINR for the next open session of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research (NACNR), which will be held on May 19, 2020 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET via videocast. The public is welcome to view the open session virtually, and registration is not required. This meeting will also be archived at https://videocast.nih.gov.

The session will include presentations on: