Faculty in the School of Nursing take multidisciplinary approaches to their research. Whether in the Department of Adult Health, the Department of Integrative Systems or the Department of Maternal Child Health, faculty choose to focus on healing, risk and resilience, biobehavioral clinical or immunocompetence research. Their areas of clinical interest include chronic illness, critical illness, high-risk infants and HIV-AIDS.

VCU School of Nursing Faculty:
Research Focus Areas and Funded Research Programs

Dr. Mary Jo Grap

• Optimizing pulmonary function in the critically ill
• Funded Program: “SToPP-IT Study”
  Strategies to Prevent Pneumonia – In Trauma– Peri-intubation intervention to reduce oral flora and VAP
• “SToPP” Study with C. Munro
  
• Sedation effects in mechanically ventilated patients
• Effect of backrest elevation on skin integrity in mechanically ventilated patients

Dr. Nancy McCain

• Psychoneuroimmunology, stress management, biobehavioral clinical research
• Funded Program: PNI-based stress management
  – In persons with HIV disease
  – Complementary approaches in HIV disease
• Complementary strategies for stress management in women with early breast cancer

Dr. Cindy Munro

• Oral health and associated systemic illness
  – Ventilator associated pneumonia
  – Endocarditis
• Funded Program: “SToPP Study”
  Strategies To Prevent Pneumonia
  – Oral care intervention in mechanically ventilated adults
• SToPP-IT with M.J. Grap
• Streptococcal virulence factors and gene regulation in endocarditis

Dr. Rita Pickler

• Children and families at risk
• Funded Program: RCT of feeding readiness in preterm infants
  – Maternal responsiveness
  – Transition to home
• Maternal infection and infant neurodevelopment
• Disordered feeding in children born preterm

Dr. Debra Lyon

• CAM research in serious illnesses such as HIV-disease or cancer and depression
  – Correlates of Depressed Mood in HIV Disease
  – Examining lipodystrophy in persons with HIV
• Funded Program: Cranioelectrical stimulation in women with breast cancer
  – Cytokine comparisons of women with breast cancer & women with a negative biopsy

Dr. Jacqueline McGrath

• Neonatal research, testing of developmental supportive interventions
• Funded Program: Feeding Readiness and Progression in Preterms Scale
• Parent-delivered gentle infant massage in NICU

Dr. Rita Jablonski

• Gerontology, oral health
• Funded Program: Improving oral care of nursing home elders by nursing assistants

Center for Biobehavioral Clinical Research (CBCR), Pilot Investigators:

2004-2005

• Dr. Sadeeka Al-Majid, Effects of Structured Endurance Exercise Training on Biobehavioral Outcomes Related to Fatigue in Women with Breast Cancer
• Dr. Anne H. Boyle, Measures of Oral and Pulmonary Health in COPD Patients
• Dr. Rita A. Jablonski, Measuring the Oral Health of Nursing Home Elders

2005-2006

• Dr. Debra E. Lyon, Cytokines, Fatigue, and Depressive Symptoms
• Dr. Jeanne Salyer, Lifestyle and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Liver Transplant Recipients
  2006-2007
• Dr. Martha W. Moon, Stigma Intervention with Nurses and Other Clinic Staff in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
• Dr. Lois C. Howland, Biobehavioral Correlates of Maternal Stress Appraisal
• Dr. Lisa Brown, Behavioral and Physiological Measures of Mother and Infant Feeding Interactions