YCCI Collaborates with YSN to Bring Research Results to the Community

June 11, 2009

Margaret Grey, Dr.P.H., R.N., Dean of the Yale School of Nursing conducting research with a teacher in a New Haven school.

Because the vast majority of health care happens not in hospitals or doctors’ offices, but in the community, one of YCCI’s most important goals is to bring discoveries and improvements in health care to area residents and beyond. To do that, YCCI has recently broadened its community engagement focus by restructuring its Community Engagement Core in which the Yale School of Nursing (YSN) plays a vital role. “The School of Nursing is a full partner with YCCI in making strategic decisions about clinical and translational research at Yale,” said Margaret Grey, Dr.P.H., R.N., dean of the Yale School of Nursing. “We share a collaborative vision to promote interdisciplinary research that has the possibility of actually changing the health of people in New Haven and surrounding areas.”

YSN boasts a research-intensive environment with well-established biobehavioral and community-based research initiatives. In keeping with its mission of Better Health Care for All People, YSN established the Advanced Practice Registered Nurses’ Research Network (APRNet), the first practice-based research network for advanced practice nurses to be funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. APRNet has served as a model for engaging community-based health care practitioners in research and facilitating the translation of research findings into clinical practice.

Martha Swartz, Ph.D., R.N., YSN associate dean for clinical affairs, and Laurie Bridger, M.D., medical director of the Fair Haven Community Health Center are working together on NetHaven, a new practice-based research network.

YCCI and YSN are now collaborating to form a new, larger, interdisciplinary practice-based research network known as NetHaven. This effort is led by Martha Swartz, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN, YSN associate dean for clinical affairs, Laurie Bridger, M.D., medical director of the Fair Haven Community Health Center and Nancy Redeker, Ph.D., R.N., FAHA, FAAN, YSN associate dean for scholarly affairs. Funded through a Clinical Research Network Feasibility Award from the National Center for Research Resources as part of the National Institutes of Health Roadmap Initiative, the new organization will merge APRNet’s infrastructure and community practices with YCCI resources and expertise in study design, analysis and regulatory support. This will pave the way for larger, more sophisticated clinical research studies within the community that will help bring Yale’s cutting-edge research into clinical practice in the community. Based on the prevalence of obesity and diabetes in New Haven, and YSN’s extensive experience in addressing the prevention of these conditions, the first proposed study will build on pilot work conducted through APRNet to translate a diabetes prevention program into primary care settings.

YCCI and YSN are also expanding their efforts to address the major health issues identified by the community through community-based health research. Led by Lois Sadler, Ph.D., PNP-BC, YSN assistant dean for academic affairs, YSN faculty are lending their considerable clinical research expertise to address health priority areas identified by community members such as smoking, violence, asthma, obesity, diabetes, the elimination of health and health care disparities and the mental health needs of children and families. Their efforts are part of a broader initiative to link evidence-based methods and new research findings from researchers at Yale who are leaders in their respective fields to improved outcomes for health issues that are critical to the community.

Through the support of the Yale Clinical and Translational Sciences Award and significant investments by the institution, YCCI has made the training, mentorship and education of the next generation of scientists a top priority. The School of Nursing has been very active in this endeavor, with senior faculty members acting as mentors to trainees and serving as part of the review committee and the career oversight committee. Additionally three of the Scholars are YSN faculty members who are conducting clinical research studies based in the community: Juliette Shellman, Ph.D., APRN-BC, is studying depression in community-dwelling elders; Karen Bearss, Ph.D., is working on a manual for training parents of children with autism and behavioral conduct disorders; and Sarah Jaser, Ph.D., is conducting a study on depression in parents of children with type 1 diabetes.

The expertise in training developed at YSN has the potential to be of use to other institutions with Clinical and Translational Science Awards. Efforts are underway to obtain funding to establish a mentorship program for nurse researchers at the Mayo Clinic, which doesn’t have a nursing school, but which could benefit from collaboration and consultation with YSN. Closer to home, YCCI shares with YSN a desire to foster a multidisciplinary approach to bringing cutting-edge clinical and translational research to the community. “No single person has skills that go from basic science to clinical trials to community research,” said Grey. “Everybody brings something different to the table.”