Three new research teams have been selected to receive
pilot funding from the Johns Hopkins
University School of Nursing Center for Collaborative
Intervention Research. This year's recipients
will focus on MRSA infection in mental health patients,
test a health promotion strategy for low-
income, minority older adults and address cancer health
disparities among older, rural-dwelling
African-Americans.
"Nurses are uniquely poised for collaborative
intervention research since we work so closely
with the populations of interest," said center director
Jerilyn Allen, a professor in the School of
Nursing. The center provides funding for faculty early in
their research careers to conduct cross-
disciplinary pilot studies that, according to Allen, "will
be a springboard to larger intervention trials
which contribute significantly to science and their careers
as nurse scientists."
Jason Farley is an expert in the prevention and
management of infectious diseases, though he
began his nursing career as a mental health research nurse
coordinator. "I never dreamed I would be
working again with mental health populations," said Farley,
who now is collaborating with nurses and
physicians at The Johns Hopkins Hospital to learn more
about mental health patients' vulnerability to
Community-Associated Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus
aureus.
"This study could change the long-held belief that
mental health settings present a low risk of
MRSA transmission," he said.
In order to evaluate if transmission is occurring,
Farley and his co-investigators plan to test
patients for MRSA on admission to two psychiatric units at
JHH and again when they are discharged.
The team's findings could pave the way for future
interventions that will help reduce risk of
transmission. "We know that living with a person who has
MRSA increases an individual's risk of
developing an MRSA infection in the community, so it stands
to reason that the same would be true in
a communal health care environment," Farley said.
Sarah Szanton is exploring the effectiveness of a
low-cost, low-tech approach to promoting the
health of low-income minority older adults, a population at
greater-than-average risk for disability and
death. She and her team are building on anecdotal evidence
to systematically evaluate health outcomes
of ElderSHINE (Support, Honor, Inspire, Nurture, Evolve), a
program that trains low-income minority
seniors in mindfulness-based meditation and self-efficacy.
By comparing 25 new participants randomly
assigned to intervention or to social support control
groups on behavioral, social and biological
measures (such as stress hormones, blood pressure, heart
rate, perceived stress, depression and
social support), Szanton hopes to see if ElderSHINE's
meditation and self-efficacy training can help
improve health measures and reduce stress in a high-risk
minority population of elders.
"The pilot has the potential to demonstrate a low-cost
opportunity to delay the development of
disability and decrease health disparities," Szanton said.
"These are key issues confronting the health
care system today and areas of emphasis for both the
National Institutes of Health and Healthy
People 2010."
Jennifer Wenzel is seeking to address cancer health
disparities among rural-dwelling older
African-Americans who are being treated for cancer. By
developing and evaluating a train-the-trainer
program to equip nurse-led community health worker teams in
rural Virginia, Wenzel and her team
hope to provide a culturally appropriate cancer navigation
intervention for this group of individuals at
risk for poorer health outcomes. "This is a truly
collaborative project," Wenzel said. "We are building
upon resources from communities in rural Virginia and each
individual's social network in addition to
drawing on the strengths of a multi-institutional team of
investigators and consultants."
These pilot research awards are part of the ongoing
work of the Center for Collaborative
Intervention Research, which is funded by the National
Institutes of Health's National Institute of
Nursing Research.
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