Julie McCulloh Nair PhD, RN, APHN-BC and Dr. Susan Birkhoff PhD, RN
West Chester University of Pennsylvania

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The co-investigators seek to gain understanding of nurses’ lived experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic by documenting their stories during this period of time via written and digital narratives. Through these COVID-19 stories, nurses will share their voices and images to document their challenges, relationships, practice changes and personal feelings during this historic period in time. A brief and optional demographic survey section will be included to assist study investigators with the characterization of the study participants (i.e. years of experience, age, nursing role, etc.). Collecting these stories and demographic data allows investigators to document the nursing experience in an effort to inform future generations of nurses.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
Julie: Thus far, my program of research incorporates a variety of nursing focused investigations that include substance use, negative behaviors in the workplace, the DAISY nurse, mentorship and complementary health approaches in oncology and obstetrics. I have experience with qualitative, mixed methods and community based participatory research and plan to continue building my program of research in the community setting focusing on health equity and vulnerable populations.

Join NINR for the next open session of the National Advisory Council for Nursing Research. 

May 19, 2020 | 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET
Virtual-only meeting via VIDEOCAST

Tener Goodwin Veenema, PhD, MPH, MS, RN, FAAN
Johns Hopkins School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic. 
I am the Co-chair of the COVID-19 Health Care Worker Protection Research Group at Johns Hopkins Medical Center.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
I am a Professor of Nursing at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and in the Department of International Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. As an internationally recognized expert in disaster nursing and public health emergency preparedness, I have served as senior scientist to the DHHS Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR), Department of Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). I have sustained career funding over 2.2 million dollars, a member of the Forum on Medical and Public Health Preparedness at the National Academy of Medicine, and an elected Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice, and the Royal College of Surgeons, Faculty of Nursing & Midwifery, Dublin, Ireland. My research is directed towards informing policy related to public health emergency preparedness and response for catastrophic events such as pandemics and radiation/nuclear disasters.

NINR is participating in a recently issued Notice of Special Interest (NOSI) that highlights the urgent need for social, behavioral, economic, health communication, and epidemiologic research relevant to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and COVID-19.

This NOSI encourages urgent competitive revisions and administrative supplements to existing longitudinal studies that address key social and behavioral questions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, including adherence to and transmission mitigation from various containment and mitigation efforts; social, behavioral, and economic impacts from these containment and mitigation efforts; and downstream health impacts resulting from these social, behavioral, and economic impacts, including differences in risk and resiliency based on gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other social determinants of health.

Jane Muir
University of Virginia Health

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am an emergency department nurse.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
As a current second year PhD nursing student at the University of Virginia, I study nurse burnout in the emergency department setting. My research interests relate to developing economic models assessing nurse burnout costs, understanding nursing shortages, and optimizing health care work environments to support nurse resiliency.

Shanina C Knighton PhD RN
Case Western Reserve University, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
During COVID-19 I have am using science to advocate for, develop, and implement infection prevention policies, standards and guidelines to entities including public officials on state and federal levels, local leaders, small businesses, essential businesses, grocery stores and the local community. I have used platforms such as webinars, in-person trainings, science to inform legislation, but to also fundraise and mobilizing churches and others to get practical education resources out to lower-income communities. From a scientific innovative standpoint, I am partaking in innovation efforts such as hackathons and group meets utilizing machine learning/artificial intelligence to develop digital solutions to improve hand hygiene among consumers and tracking of COVID-19. 

Ellen Smithline
University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic. 
My current role is to develop effective PPE compliant face shields - process to produce large quantities with small footprint for storage.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist. 
I am currently a PhD(c) and nurse innovator for 35 years of which 26 years as Emergency Nurse. I am involved in multiple collaborative research and innovative teams.

Ann Deerhake, DNP, RN, CNL, CCRN 
The Ohio State University

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic. 
As a Doctor of Nursing Practice, my goal is to apply nurse scientist-generated research to current practice. This research shows that communication is key during times of crisis and change. My role as an online educator and nurse scientist during the COVID-19 pandemic is to facilitate healthy communication among everyone I interact with, including my students, colleagues, family and friends. I have worked in close online contact with faculty to continue our supportive online learning environment for students, as well as create new opportunities for exchange of information and stress relief. Many of our students are currently working within difficult healthcare conditions at present, so reassuring them both academically and professionally translates into supporting American healthcare as a whole.

My coursework as an online instructor changed little with the transition to all online learning at my university, which has allowed me to work with other faculty to make changes to existing courses. Additionally, by creating simple online mini-courses, I have worked to educate my grandchildren, their friends and other members of my family regarding ways to communicate face-to-face via the internet and how to use these fun learning environments as stress-reducers and relationship builders in this time of social distancing. One of my most enjoyable activities has been creating and sending a daily ""Cabin Song and Dance Fever"" video to my community choir friends, encouraging them to be well, exercise their bodies and communicate positively with one another. COVID-19 has certainly taught us much about the importance of being communication innovators!

Jill Byrne MSN, RN, CNOR, PhD student
CWRU FPB School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The focus of my dissertation research is occupational heat stress. I am a frontline trauma OR nurse at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. I am terrified by what I am witnessing - with the mandate to cancel all elective surgical cases, one would assume the case load in the operating room would drastically drop, instead the stress and anxiety the general public are experiencing is impacting overall health, igniting a need for emergency surgery. This is a key area for further global-health research. We don't know the COVID-19 status of these patients who need emergent surgery and the entire healthcare staff have to wear full-PPE in these situations, reducing the availability of the limited supplies we are currently challenged with.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist. 
I have provided a video link that quickly describes my work as a nurse scientist in my plight to bring awareness to occupational heat stress while wearing PPE.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_sMHeJm6y8

Scott Emory Moore 
Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic. 
My colleague (Kelly Wierenga of IU) and I developed a survey to examine the influence of perceptions and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic on health promoting behaviors and symptoms. Due to the high importance of safety during the pandemic we developed the survey entirely online so potential participants do not have to meet in person. Using both social media and professional network-based recruitment we are hoping to reach 5000 participants in the cross-sectional phase of our study. Further, we will be following a subset of the participants who are willing over the course of the coming weeks and months to determine the longer term influences the pandemic is having on adults. We are particularly interested in those who might be considered at risk for COVID-19 or vulnerable to social disenfranchisement and disparate health outcomes. These are two groups where we believe individuals' perspectives related to social distancing practices and their responses to the pandemic may negatively impact behavioral health outcomes. The purpose of this initial study is to identify areas where we may leverage valuable intervention resources to improve health outcomes.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist. 
I am an assistant professor at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Originally from South Carolina, I earned my BSN from the University of South Carolina Upstate, and my Master of Science in Nursing and PhD at Clemson University. I completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing in Multiple Chronic Conditions. My program of research focuses on increasing understanding of biological, psychological, and social influences on health outcomes among sexual and gender minorities. Additionally, my research incorporates the study of sex and gender identity, sex as a biological variable, and sex-based differences in health. My clinical nursing expertise includes emergency and trauma nursing at a level 1 trauma center, acute and chronic stroke care, complex chronic diseases, and care of LGBTQ+ and other vulnerable populations.

Marlon Garzo Saria
Providence Saint John's Health Center

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I have a dual-hatted role as a nurse scientist and oncology clinical nurse specialist. With the Professional Development (Nursing Education) team, I took on responsibilities to strengthen and sustain our ministry's COVID-19 workforce by supporting (instructor) cross-training and rapid onboarding to med/surg, ED, and ICU for procedural nurses (pre-op, OR, post-op, ambulatory surgery, ambulatory care and clinics). I was tasked to provide information on the "science" of SARS-CoV-2, including epidemiology, modes of transmission, and strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19. I drew from lessons I learned from my Professional Military Education courses from the Air Force to discuss emergency response and actions to take for the worst case scenario. 

I am also on-call for direct patient care, particularly for any oncology patient who may need systemic treatment during these times. I wear scrubs and am ready to administer chemotherapy for any patient who will need treatment.

Betty Bekemeier 
University of Washington School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a nurse scientist, my scholarship is about advancing the evidence, policy development, and workforce capacity needed for state and local governmental public health systems to effectively promote and protect the public’s health. In the face of this pandemic, I have been communicating every day with state and local public health practice partners in Washington State and around our region as they have come to me with requests for help from our academic and student partners. As Director of the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice at the University of Washington, I also lead a training team of talented staff who are being tapped to meet public health practice needs. Finally, my research team is also being asked by a national organization to help support and monitor the equitable distribution of federal COVID-19 financial resources from states to communities in greatest need. 

All of these activities include coordinating requests from public health practice to the academic community, linking student volunteers to health departments in their home communities, making existing and appropriate emergency preparedness training most accessible to practice, adapting my research to include preparedness and response measures desired by the public health leaders, communicating the depth of our nation’s public health practice needs through a published editorial and interviews with national news outlets, and advocating for resources to go to ‘upstream’ solutions that will promote equity in response to this pandemic crisis and the prevention of disparities.

Marilyn Rantz, Amy Vogelsmeier, Lori Popejoy, and Shari Kist
University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Our research team has a study underway in 40 Missouri nursing homes with APRNs working full time in 16 of them to improve care and reduce avoidable hospitalizations. In this pandemic, the APRNs are there every day, working side by side with direct-care staff, helping leadership and staff take better care of residents. They help reassure staff, residents, and families that everyone is doing their best to keep people healthy. All staff are very worried about supplies and doing what is best to prevent spread of COVID-19. 

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.

Lucia Wocial
Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am working on triage protocols, identifying resources to address and alleviate moral distress and have been approached by international colleagues wanting to use my instrument (moral distress thermometer) for real time assessment or front line provider moral distress. 

What else would you like the public to know about your role or the role of nurse scientists in the fight against COVID-19?
The ethical challenges for nurses on the front lines are real. People can help us by being patient, and be engaging in difficult conversations about what matters most to them if they were to get sick with COVID-19 and die from it. This is especially important for people with serious illness.

Candy Wilson
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are focusing on research topics for COVID-19 to support nurses caring for patients.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
I am a military nurse scientist for 12 years. My research background is on symptom science.

Kelly L Wierenga
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Please describe your work with the COVID-19 pandemic.
I am currently a PI on a behavioral health study. The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of the COVID-19 infection on people during a time of increased social distancing and prevention measures.

Please give us information about your background and history as a nurse scientist.
My program of research focuses on improving recovery and secondary prevention. My research interests lie in how improving abilities to adaptively regulate emotions during a stressful period of recovery can improve symptoms of depression and anxiety. These improvements in psychological symptoms paired with traditional recovery and treatment programs may increase the uptake and sustaining of healthy behaviors long-term. I have developed a treatment using mechanisms of emotion regulation to support recovery and improves weekly physical activity in the cardiovascular rehabilitation population. This treatment has demonstrated early efficacy in a small pilot sample and was recently refined by my team for testing in rural populations with remote access.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented global challenge – one that NINR and the nursing science community are poised to address. While we all know that everyone’s participation is essential in limiting the spread of this novel coronavirus, nurses represent the front line of health care. We are grateful for the dedication of those nurses who have cared for COVID-19 infected patients, and for the commitment of all those who will in the coming weeks and months. We are also proud of the research done by nurse scientists, some of it supported by NINR, that has helped to provide a foundation of evidence and guide best practices in clinical settings, including advances in infection control.

We recognize that many of you will have to balance clinical responsibilities related to the pandemic with your research responsibilities. If you are a current grantee, or if you are planning to submit an application for funding, we urge you to visit https://grants.nih.gov/grants/natural_disasters/corona-virus.htm for the latest NIH guidance. If you have any questions, please contact your NINR program director.