Uncategorized – Page 2 – The Office of Research in the College of Nursing at UMass Amherst

Cheryl Dukes Named to Healthcare Advisory Panel

Cheryl L. Dukes, director of health care outreach and community engagement in the College of Nursing, has been named to the advisory committee of the Massachusetts Community Health Initiative (CHI) Statewide Fund.

The advisory committee provides recommendations to the state Department of Public Health on the operations and use of the CHI fund resources in support of the Determination of Need law, which governs health care facilities.

The committee’s work follows Attorney General Maura Healey’s updated guidelines, published in February, for hospitals and HMOs to address unmet health and social needs in their community and to develop programs to reduce disparities and improve community health.

“It is a terrific opportunity for the College of Nursing to demonstrate our connectedness in community and with our campus colleagues in working to improve health outcomes in a highly engaged, community-drive, collaborative fashion,” Dukes said.

Project Star Bright

Military Family Group
Mondays starting April 9th and ending May 28th, 2018
11:30am to 1pm
CSO Offices at 491 Main St. in Athol

The experiences of the active duty or veteran military member can have an effect on the entire family. Children can have an especially challenging time managing the changes in their lives. Project STAR BRIGHT provides counseling and parent support groups designed specifically for active or veteran military members, their spouses and their children.

This group will focus on providing support to caregivers of children who have been affected by stress, loss, or grief related to their families military status. Caregivers will receive support and skills to respond to their children’s emotional, behavioral, and social needs. The group is led by Clinical & Support Options staff with military backgrounds. Any caregiver of a child with an active duty or veteran family member is eligible. All services are completely FREE and light snacks will be served.

To register for this group, please contact Agnes Browne, PsyD.
413-582-0471 ext. 5087 or
Abrowne@csoinc.org

2017 Rally for Medical Research

College of Nursing Assistant Professor Rachel Walker has been invited by the Susan G. Komen organization to participate in the 2017 Rally for Medical Research, to be held on September 13-14 in Washington, D.C. Dr. Walker is the recipient of a Komen Career Catalyst Research Award to develop what she describes as an “off-the-shelf survivorship support toolkit” for breast cancer survivors.

The Rally for Medical Research has taken place since 2013. It brings together nearly 300 national organizations with the purpose of calling on policymakers to make funding for the National Institutes of Health a national priority and raise awareness about the importance of continued investment in medical research that leads to MORE PROGRESS, MORE HOPE and MORE LIVES SAVED. More information can be found here.

2017 Faculty Honors Dinner

Several faculty from the College of Nursing were recognized last week at the 2017 UMass Amherst Faculty Honors Dinner.

Stephanie Griggs received both a College Outstanding Teacher Award for her teaching accomplishments, and a Fellowship for Innovative Teaching from the Center for Teaching and Faculty Development. Raeann Leblanc was the recipient of a Teaching for Inclusiveness, Diversity and Equity Ambassadors Fellowship, a competitive award program that recognizes the vital role faculty fulfill in creating an inclusive and equitable college experience for all students. The Institute for Teaching and Faculty Development awarded Mary Paterno a Mutual Mentoring Grant, designed to encourage faculty to develop robust professional networks that support their growth as researchers, teachers, and leaders in their field. Dr. Paterno’s Faculty Research Grant was also acknowledged, for her project “Feasibility of a Nurse Led Digital Storytelling Workshop Intervention for Rural Pregnant Women with Substance Abuse Disorder”, as was Kalpana Poudel-Tandukar’s Grant for her project “Identifying Socio-Cultural Barriers to Seeking Mental Heath Services among Bhutanese Refugees in Springfield, Massachusetts”. Finally, Rachel Walker was recognized for her Career Catalyst Research Award from the Susan G. Komen Foundation for Breast Cancer Research.

Welcome to the blog of the Office of Research in the College of Nursing at UMass Amherst

The Office of Research provides support services to faculty, research staff, and graduate students to meet their research goals and compete for external funding.

Here we will be keeping the nursing community informed of upcoming events and grant opportunities, and highlighting the activities of our nurse-researchers.