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New UWM nursing center will study self-management
by: Kathy Quirk
Above: Karen Marek’s research has focused on home care medication-management technology, which may allow frail, elderly patients better manage their own care allowing them to stay in their own homes rather than going to a nursing home.
The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UWM) College of Nursing has received $1.5 million in funding for a research center to investigate the best ways to help families and individuals better manage their own health.
The National Institute for Nursing Research (part of the National Institutes of Health, or NIH) is funding the College of Nursing’s Self-Management Science Center as an exploratory research center for five years. The center, which was funded in the fall of 2007, will research, develop and test self-management interventions for chronic conditions that affect individuals and families.
“With more than 25 million Americans striving to manage one or more chronic health conditions, effective self-management is vital to positive health outcomes,” says Rachel Schiffman, associate dean for research.
“This new center builds on a growing research portfolio in the college and campuswide,” says Dean Sally Lundeen. “This new science in self-management will contribute to the increased well-being of individuals and families, and has the potential to positively impact the economy by reducing the burden of healthcare costs.”
Chronic causes
National statistics show that more than 75 percent of expenditures on healthcare are related to chronic conditions, and these conditions are the most common factors driving people to seek healthcare, says Schiffman.
Karen Marek, associate professor of nursing and director of the new center, notes that managing chronic conditions is challenging because people are complex.
“You can’t just give them information and set them loose,” she explains. “You have to help them change behaviors.”
Numerous factors – the health condition itself, family and community support, medical beliefs and cost of medications, among them – can impact the ability of individuals and families to manage healthcare. For example, says Marek, an inhaler may be useful in controlling chronic asthma, but an individual patient may be too frail to squeeze the device.
A collaborative approach
The center will help the College of Nursing build on already funded research involving self-care management, as well as explore new areas relevant to self-care. The center will also encourage research collaboration with other schools and colleges at UWM and other institutions, offering workshops and seminars.
Christine Kovach, professor of nursing, directs the center’s Methods Core, which will provide researchers with expertise in developing and testing self-management interventions. An advisory committee of local and national healthcare experts also helps guide the center’s work.
UWM’s College of Nursing has already demonstrated its research capacity to NIH with a number of projects that fit with the self-management concept and have been funded by NIH or UWM’s Research Grant Initiative (RGI), says Marek. Among them are:
- Ongoing studies of home care medication-management technology that can help frail elderly individuals remain at home (Marek);
- Interventions to help women increase their intake of calcium and Vitamin D and reduce post-menopausal bone density loss (Associate Professor Polly Ryan);
- A long-term study of women who have been unable to succeed in work-based welfare (Professor Eugenie Hildebrandt);
- Studies of women living with HIV/AIDS and how they manage their condition while dealing with language barriers, poverty and family and community stresses (Professor Patricia Stevens);
- Research on young people with spina bifida and how they and their families adapt to their conditions (Professor Kathleen Sawin).
The center also offers faculty the opportunity to begin new research projects, or to expand on projects still in the early stages. These include:
- Self-management of heart conditions (Associate Professor Sandra Plach);
- Alleviating post-partum depression (Assistant Professor Jennifer Runquist);
- Managing apnea and other sleep disorders (Professor Beth Rodgers);
- Managing chronic physical ailments in individuals with schizophrenia (Assistant Professor Elizabeth Rice);
- Improving home care for individuals with senile dementia (Clinical Assistant Professor Sarah Morgan). Morgan’s research builds on Kovach’s NIH-funded work on pain management for patients with dementia in nursing homes.
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