SON researchers awarded $2.4 million

esearchers at the School of Nursing have been awarded a total of $2.4 million in grants for studies that consider the long-term benefits of home health visits for young mothers, end-of-life issues in hospital intensive care units, and improving the health of children with asthma.

A $1.7 million grant was awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health to supplement a successful ongoing study of how prenatal and infancy home visits by nurses improve the lives not only of the children, but also the mothers who are visited and their partners.

The program, developed by researchers at Rochester and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, is one of only a handful of programs that have been shown to promote self-sufficiency among young, struggling families, said Harriet Kitzman, Loretta Ford Professor of Nursing. Findings showing the long-term positive effects of the program were featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (For more information on this program, refer to the story that appeared in the May 1 issue of Currents by logging on to www.rochester.edu/pr/Currents/V28/V28N09/story08.html.)

In addition, a grant of $712,000 was awarded by the NIH National Institute of Nursing Research to study interaction between patients, families, and clinicians regarding end-of-life issues and the effectiveness of communication among all those involved in a patient's case.

During the three-year study, researchers will spend time in four Strong Memorial Hospital adult intensive care units, observing how caregivers and family members interact, and interviewing families and medical staff members--including nurses, medical residents, and social workers--about their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of communication.

Finally, a grant of $79,000 was awarded to Kitzman; Hannelore (Lorrie) Yoos, associate professor of clinical nursing; and Ann McMullen, associate professor of nursing, by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to identify barriers to appropriate medication use in childhood asthma.

An important strategy recommended by expert panels to improve outcomes in childhood asthma is early use of medications to prevent asthma symptoms, Yoos said. This one-year study looks at why children may not be using the medications as effectively as they could.

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