Leadership in Action: Alumni, Faculty, Staff and Student Milestones
Valerie Yerger Applauds Proposed Ban on Menthol and Flavored Cigarettes
Valerie Yerger Associate Professor Valerie Yerger was quoted in an SFGATE story about San Francisco’s proposed ban on selling menthol or flavored cigarettes.
The legislation, proposed to the city’s Board of Supervisors on April 18, was celebrated by anti-tobacco activists, including Yerger, as a potential victory for public health, particularly for young adults, African Americans and LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) people, who they believe are targeted by tobacco companies marketing flavored tobacco products.
In the article, Yerger, who researches tobacco industry marketing at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, notes that more than 80 percent of African Americans who smoke use menthol cigarettes, and 45,000 African Americans die from tobacco-related diseases every year.
SFGATE reports that similar legislation is slated to be introduced to the Oakland City Council this month.
Glenn-Milo Santos to Study Medication to Combat Cocaine Use Disorders
Glenn-Milo Santos The National Institute on Drug Abuse has awarded a grant to Assistant Professor Glenn-Milo Santos for a study that will investigate a medication to treat cocaine use disorders among men who have sex with men (MSM).
Cocaine use is a significant public health issue, particularly among MSM, but there are currently no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications to treat cocaine use disorders. The grant will allow Santos to conduct a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to test a new medication for feasibility, tolerability, acceptability, adherence and preliminary efficacy in reducing cocaine use among 45 MSM with cocaine use disorders. The study will also assess subjects’ human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-related sexual risk behaviors, which studies suggest are associated with substance use.
Barbara Burgel and Miranda Surjadi to Examine HCV Knowledge Among Occupational Health Nurses
Barbara Burgel (left) and Miranda Surjadi The National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable and the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses (AAOHN) have awarded one-year funding to Barbara Burgel and Miranda Surjadi of the Department of Community Health Systems to study occupational health nurses’ competence surrounding the hepatitis C virus (HCV), which affects an estimated 2.7 million to 3.9 million people in the United States.
HCV can lead to chronic liver disease, cirrhosis or liver cancer, and is most often spread through needle sharing, from mother to infant at birth, or via accidental needlestick injuries in the health care setting.
Burgel and Surjadi will conduct a survey of AAOHN members to assess their knowledge, attitudes and confidence regarding HCV, as well as their worksite outreach strategies, such as education, screening and linkage to care. Their findings will be highlighted in a webinar and two sessions at the AAOHN 2018 National Conference in Reno, Nev.
Audrey Lyndon and Joanne Spetz Publish Study on Stakeholder Views on Nursing Care in Childbirth
Audrey Lyndon (left) and Joanne Spetz In a paper published in the April 20, 2017, issue of the journal BMJ Quality & Safety, Associate Professor Audrey Lyndon and Joanne Spetz, associate director of research at Healthforce Center at UCSF and professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies, along with Kathleen Rice Simpson of Mercy Hospital St. Louis, explored the perceptions of nurses, new mothers and physicians regarding the influence of nursing care on birth outcomes.
They found that stakeholders viewed nurses’ support of and advocacy for women as important to health outcomes in childbirth. Types of nursing support included keeping women and families informed, setting the emotional tone and advocating for women’s wishes.
The investigators suggest that quality measures related to emotional and informational support should be included alongside measures of clinical aspects of care, and that care models that ensure labor nurses have time and resources to engage in such support could contribute to better outcomes and improved patient experience.
Barbara Drew Featured in NINR Milestones Timeline
Barbara Drew Barbara Drew’s work on a modified electrocardiogram (ECG) technique is featured in a timeline of milestones in the history of the National Institute of Nursing Research. Drew, professor emerita in the Department of Physiological Nursing, is an internationally recognized expert on ECG monitoring. In 2011, she led an NINR team that developed a technique that allows emergency responders to administer ECGs in the field and transmit results electronically to hospitals via cell phone.
Meg Wallhagen Receives Distinguished Researcher Award
Meg Wallhagen On May 10, the University of Washington School of Nursing honored Professor Margaret (Meg) Wallhagen with the 2017 Distinguished Researcher Award, in recognition of her four decades of research focused on meeting the needs of the growing population of older adults in gerontology, caregiver health, chronic illness management, healthy aging and hearing loss.
UCSF Students and Faculty Stand Up for Science
Faculty and students from the School of Nursing joined hundreds of other members of the UCSF community to show their support for science during the April 22 Earth Day rally and March for Science in San Francisco.
The event began with a “Stand Up for Science” teach-in featuring a panel of eight UCSF faculty, who spoke on their experiences as researchers and the need for scientists to also be advocates.
Among the School of Nursing faculty who also attended the march were Abbey Alkon, Pilar Bernal De Pheils, Barbara Hollinger, Teresa Scherzer and Elizabeth (Libby) Smith.
Rosalind De Lisser Receives Grant to Increase Psychiatric NP Education
Rosalind De Lisser The California Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development has awarded Assistant Clinical Professor Rosalind De Lisser a three-year grant to help increase educational capacity for psychiatric nurse practitioners in the state.
De Lisser’s project, which builds on a similar grant from 2014, aims to provide psychiatric/mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) in California’s public mental health system with educational opportunities by identifying and funding additional supervisory staff time.
Recent Publications
The Relationship Between Maternal Responsivity, Socioeconomic Status, and Resting Autonomic Nervous System Functioning in Mexican American Children (Abbey Alkon), June 2017
Spirituality/Religiosity, Substance Use, and HIV Testing Among Young Black Men Who Have Sex with Men (Annesa Flentje), May 1, 2017
The Behavior Pain Assessment Tool for Critically Ill Adults: A Validation Study in 28 Countries (Kathleen Puntillo), May 2017
Trauma Exposure Among Women in the Pacific Rim (Pilar Bernal De Pheils), May 2017
Factors Associated with Short-Term Transitions of Non-Daily Smokers: Socio-Demographic Characteristics and Other Tobacco Product Use (Yingning Wang, Hai-Yen Sung, Tingting Yao, Wendy Max), May 2017
Policy Coherence, Integration, and Proportionality in Tobacco Control: Should Tobacco Sales Be Limited to Government Outlets? (Elizabeth Smith, Patricia McDaniel, Ruth Malone), April 21, 2017
How California Prepared for Implementation of Physician-Assisted Death: A Primer (Lindsay Forbes, Benjamin Scribner, Barbara Koenig), April 20, 2017
Thematic Analysis of US Stakeholder Views on the Influence of Labour Nurses’ Care on Birth Outcomes (Audrey Lyndon, Joanne Spetz), April 20, 2017
Comparing Asian American Women’s Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, and Perceived Risk of Heart Attack to Other Racial and Ethnic Groups: The mPED Trial (Yoshimi Fukuoka), April 18, 2017
The Risks of Opioid Treatment: Perspectives of Primary Care Practitioners and Patients from Safety-Net Clinics (Christine Miaskowski), April 10, 2017
Association of Intraoperative Cerebral and Muscular Tissue Oxygen Saturation with Postoperative Complications and Length of Hospital Stay After Major Spine Surgery: An Observational Study (J. Xiao), April 8, 2017
Confidence with and Barriers to Serious Illness Communication: A National Survey of Hospitalists (Wendy Anderson), April 4, 2017
Alcohol Use Patterns and DSM-5 Alcohol Use Disorder on Both Sides of the U.S.-Mexico Border (Anne Lown), April 2017
Self-Care in Rural Residents with Heart Failure: What We Are Missing (Michele M. Pelter, Kathleen Dracup), April 2017
Performance Measures of Diagnostic Codes for Detecting Opioid Overdose in the Emergency Department (Glenn-Milo Santos), April 2017
Infant Feeding Decision-Making and the Influences of Social Support Persons Among First-Time African American Mothers (Ifeyinwa V. Asiodu, Catherine M. Waters, Dawn E. Dailey, Audrey Lyndon), April 2017
Social Media Awareness and Implications in Nursing Leadership (Monica McLemore), March 13, 2017
Exposure to Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Volatile Organic Compounds Among Recently Pregnant Rural Guatemalan Women Cooking and Heating with Solid Fuels (John Weinstein, Lisa Thompson), March 10, 2017
Modifiable and Non-Modifiable Characteristics Associated with Sleep Disturbance in Oncology Outpatients During Chemotherapy (Sueann Mark, Janine Cataldo, Steven M. Paul, Kathryn Lee, Christine Miaskowski), March 9, 2017
Prevalence of Substance Use in an HIV Primary Care Safety Net Clinic: A Call for Screening (Carol Dawson-Rose, Yvette P. Cuca, Kellie Freeborn), March-April 2017
Early Learners as Health Coaches for Older Adults Preparing for Surgery (Helen Horvath), March 2017
Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Update: An Emphasis on Safe and High-Quality Care (Hildy Schell-Chaple), Spring 2017
Continuous Renal Replacement Therapies: Raising the Bar for Quality Care (Hildy Schell-Chaple), Spring 2017
Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy: Case Vignettes (Charlotte Garwood, Cass Piper Sandoval), Spring 2017
Participation in Cardiac Rehabilitation Among Patients with Heart Failure (Linda G. Park), February 13, 2017
