College of Nursing Faculty Part of $3.5 Million Research Grant

College of Nursing faculty member Joel G. Anderson and colleagues have been granted a research award totaling over $3.5 million from the National Institute on Aging. The grant is a testament to the team’s groundbreaking work and commitment to advancing research in the field of caregiving for people living with dementia.

Anderson, an associate professor known for his exceptional contributions to caregiver support in dementia care, has demonstrated a profound dedication to advancing knowledge in his field. This recent grant award recognizes his leadership and expertise in the pursuit of meaningful research that addresses critical challenges faced by society.

The project, titled “Enhancing Measurement and Characterization of Roles and Experiences of Sexual and Gender Minority Caregivers of Persons living with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias,” is set to span a five-year period. In collaboration with co-principal investigators Jason Flatt from the University of Nevada-Las Vegas and Maritza Dowling from George Washington University, Anderson and his team will embark on a comprehensive study to understand the experiences, roles, and dynamics of LGBTQIA+ caregivers of people living with dementia.

“We still don’t know a lot about the experiences of LGBTQIA+ caregivers of people living with dementia, so existing measures are unlikely to be sensitive to their unique needs and experiences,” said Anderson. “Some of the critical gaps we aim to address with this study are how current definitions of families can be broadened to better reflect changes to family structures, how different relationship types affect caregiving dynamics, how caregiving and gender roles affect the type of care provided, and how discrimination may represent a barrier for LGBTQIA+ caregivers toward seeking the help and support the need.”

The project aims to identify existing domains and develop new measures that accurately capture caregiving constructs and experiences of LGBTQIA+ caregivers. By testing and validating, the team will ensure these measures are inclusive and effective in portraying the unique challenges and experiences faced by LGBTQIA+ caregivers in the context of dementia care.

Individuals who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and/or other identities remain underrepresented in dementia caregiving research. Estimates suggest that nearly 1 million LGBTQIA+ adults in the U.S. are caregivers, with nearly half providing care to someone living with dementia. Previous research conducted by the team highlighted health disparities experienced by LGBTQIA+ caregivers, such as caregiver stigma, depressive symptoms, and discrimination, necessitating an inclusive approach to caregiving research. The proposed study, guided by a community-based participatory approach, will leverage the expertise of advisory boards and caregiving experts to identify and explore domains of caregiving for LGBTQIA+ caregivers, develop and refine new measures, and test these measures among a diverse sample of caregivers.

Research reported in this press release was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health under award number 1R01AG083177-01. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

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CONTACT:

Kara Clark (865-9749498, [email protected])

Newnam Selected as Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing

Associate Professor of Nursing Kathy Newnam has been named an American Academy of Nursing Fellow.

Fellows represent nursing’s positive impact through representation in a variety of roles and settings from governmental positions to executive and entrepreneurial leadership in practice, nonprofits, and higher education. Through a rigorous and competitive process, the academy’s Fellow Selection Committee, which is composed of elected and appointed fellows, reviewed nearly 400 applications.

Induction into the academy is a significant milestone in which past and current accomplishments are honored by colleagues within and outside the profession.

“I am incredibly honored to have been named as a Fellow in the Academy of Nursing,” said Newnam. “This accomplishment is the result of unwavering mentorship, teamwork, and nursing leadership that has paved the way to achieve both personal and professional goals. As a nurse scientist and neonatal nurse practitioner, it has been a gift to work with the smallest humans and their families as I strive to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes through my multidisciplinary program of clinical research. The Academy of Nursing supports all areas of nursing excellence to improve global health, improving healthcare for all. I am so proud to contribute to this worthy mission.”

Newnam’s current research addresses parental engagement through purposeful language to reduce biophysical markers of stress and support cognitive development in medically fragile high-risk infants.

She leads interdisciplinary studies, funded by the National Institutes of Health and other sources, that examine predictors of neonatal risk and resilience through longitudinal exploration of communication patterns and language trajectories over the first 36 months of life. Her clinical expertise, informed by experimental research, has supported practice changes in neonatal respiratory management and human milk promotion.

“Dr. Newnam’s selection as an American Academy of Nursing Fellow is a testament to her exceptional contributions in advancing the health of infants and their families and her unwavering dedication to the nursing profession,” said Dean Victoria Niederhauser. “Induction into the academy is a remarkable milestone that recognizes the remarkable achievements of individuals like Dr. Newnam, who have made a positive impact through their roles in various settings and leadership positions. We congratulate Dr. Newnam on this well-deserved recognition and look forward to her continued contributions to the field of nursing and the betterment of health care outcomes for children and families.”

Newnam’s collaboration with NEC-Zero and the University of Arizona NeoECHO team supports evidence-based interventions to improve timely recognition and reduce the incidence of necrotizing enterocolitis. The impact of her research is far-reaching, with published findings in journals of nursing, speech therapy, psychology, and early childhood development. She holds section editor and editorial board positions for Advances in Neonatal Care.

Newnam received her BSN and MSN from Old Dominion University, her post-master’s certification as a neonatal nurse practitioner from East Carolina University, and her PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Newnam will be officially inducted on October 7 during the academy’s Health Policy Conference in Washington, DC.

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CONTACT:

Kara Clark (865-9749498, [email protected])

From Cells to Society

The best career advice Joel Anderson, associate professor at the University of Tennessee, College of Nursing ever received was to do what makes your feet dance.

Anderson’s career started at the lab bench in a cancer research lab. His work focused on testing new chemotherapy agents for brain tumors.

“During that time, my grandmother was the primary caregiver for my great-grandmother who was living with dementia,” said Anderson. “I watched as she and my mother worked to provide care for my great-grandmother, putting their own health care needs and well-being aside.”

Following the death of his great-grandmother he realized the impact caregiving had on his family. This is what inspired Anderson’s work with families caring for someone living with dementia.

“Now I do community-focused research,” said Anderson. “Going from cells to society was only possible because I was willing to take the leap and follow my passions. I have been fortunate to have mentors along the way to support and encourage me, but it started with making the decision to dance.”

In the U.S., nearly 42 million people are providing billions of hours of unpaid care for an older adult. This number has increased dramatically over the past five years, with more caregivers reporting a negative impact on their finances and own health and many younger adults taking on caregiving roles.

“My research is about supporting families living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” said Anderson. “I want to understand what it means to be a family caregiver so that I can work to develop family-centered strategies to reduce caregiver strain and improve quality of life for the caregiver and their family member with dementia.”

Anderson has several ongoing projects that support his research. RISE (Research Inclusion Supports Equity) is a project funded by the National Institute on Aging that launched in 2022. It is the first national collaborative effort to ensure engagement and inclusion of LGBTQIA+ people living with memory loss and LGBTQIA+ caregivers of people with memory loss in research. The project includes a national network of LGBTQIA+ community members, service providers, clinicians, and researchers from Emory University, the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, George Washington University, the University of Kansas, and Columbia University.

Another ongoing project funded by the National Institute on Aging is called Robotic Caregiver to Comprehend, Assist, Relieve, and Evaluate for Persons with Alzheimer’s Disease (Robotic CARE for AD). The CARE project is a collaboration with faculty in the Tickle College of Engineering to develop potential support for caregivers and people living with dementia using social robots and artificial intelligence.

Anderson is also a part of a project in the United Kingdom funded by the British Academy to harness social media to support people living with dementia.

“We’re developing a framework to guide training and resource development for this population,” said Anderson. “The project includes collaborators from Bournemouth University, the University of Liverpool, and the University of Birmingham.”

In one of Anderson’s first studies, he recalls interviewing a caregiver who was looking for information to aid them in taking care of their family member. This caregiver could never find the right answers.

“That stuck with me because I had the information, they were looking for at my fingertips by virtue of being a researcher,” said Anderson. “I gave them the information and they were overjoyed, reporting back to me later how that had made such a difference. It cemented in my mind the reminder that I’m doing what I’m doing to help families. And if I’m not getting the findings from my research, or research in general, into the hands of those who need it, I’m not doing my job well.”

Anderson continues to dance in his research and is honored for his contributions to society. He was recently awarded the LGBTQ Advocate Award at UT.

“My goal is to improve the quality of life for families living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia,” said Anderson. “If my work in any way makes that possible then I have succeeded.”

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CONTACT:

Kara Clark Cardwell (865-974-9498, [email protected])

Graduate Student Spotlight, Steven Moon

Steven Moon is in the DNP nurse anesthesia program at the College of Nursing. He received his BSN from the University of Michigan in Flint and worked in the Medical-Surgical Intensive care unit at Hurley Medical Center in downtown Flint, MI for over two years before returning to CRNA school. He has been the vice-president of Sigma Theta Tau-Pi Delta Chapter for two terms and has been a student member on two UT faculty committees. Moon will graduate in August of 2023.

Read more about Moon and his time at UT below:

Why do you want to be CRNA? I wanted to be a CRNA to take my skills as a critical care nurse to the highest level while still being able to provide advanced individualized care to a patient during surgery, which can be the scariest days of their life. Being able to care for a patient from the beginning to the end of their surgery and have them wake up and thank you for keeping them safe and comfortable is very rewarding.

What inspires you? Learning new skills, leadership, accepting challenges to learn new things, giving back to others, service, leadership, professional advocacy, and enhancing the education of others.

Tell me about your research/area of interest: My groups DNP project was focused around creating an education module to provide education to current anesthesia providers about the prevention, recognition, and treatment of local anesthetics systemic toxicity and looking at internal data to determine if patients may have been receiving higher than recommended doses of local anesthetics putting them at risk for toxicity.

Why has your time as a Volunteer been memorable? I have been able to embrace what it means to be a Vol Nurse by continuing to have new opportunities to develop and improve my leadership skills and I have also been able to meet many new friends.

What are your career goals? I plan to become board certified as a CRNA in August and will begin working later this fall. I would like to become more involved with quality improvement and clinical informatics one day and hope to find a way to further incorporate informatics with anesthesia. Additionally, I hope to be able to return to UT to teach in the anesthesia program.

The most influential element of my UT nursing education has been … learning how to become a CRNA and all the opportunities I have had to travel to state and national conferences to network with other CRNA/SRNA leaders and advocate for my new profession.

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CONTACT:

Kara Clark Cardwell (865-974-9498, [email protected])

College Receives HRSA & NIH Grants

Associate Professor Lisa C. Lindley has received a four-year award of $1.5 million from the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Nursing Research for her project “Effectiveness of Concurrent Care to Improve Pediatric and Family Outcomes at End of Life.” The study will investigate the impact of concurrent hospice care compared to standard hospice care in improving continuity and quality of pediatric end of life. Lindley will be working with an interdisciplinary team of pediatric end-of-life scholars from nursing, medicine, and health care economics to conduct the first-ever concurrent care study with children and adolescents in hospice care, using nationally represented Medicaid data from 2011 and 2013. The study will compare the effectiveness, potential burdens, and cost of concurrent care compared to standard hospice care for children and adolescents. The findings will expand our understanding of pediatric concurrent care and will inform clinicians and families of the value of this intervention for children and adolescents. This line of investigation is ultimately expected to improve care and outcomes for children, adolescents, and their families at end of life.

Sandy Mixer Associate Professor Sandra Mixer has received a four-year award of $2.6 million from the US Health Resources and Services Administration for her project “Transforming RN Roles in Community-Based Integrated Primary Care through Academic Practice Partnership.” The project supports the expansion of the academic practice partnership between the College of Nursing and Cherokee Health Systems (CHS), a nonprofit organization that provides primary care, behavioral health, and addiction services to more than 70,000 people throughout Tennessee. BSN students will be recruited and trained to provide integrated services to culturally diverse rural and underserved populations at four CHS sites in East Tennessee. The program includes both an innovative undergraduate nursing curriculum change and advancement of the RN workforce through professional development in primary and preventive care. It will provide the region’s first comprehensive community-based integrated primary care (CBIPC) training for students and RNs, with a focus on primary care, population health, and interprofessional education and practice and an emphasis on chronic disease prevention and control, recovery-based mental health and substance use, and childhood obesity. Faculty and clinical partnership liaisons and clinical coaches will serve as role models, preceptors, and mentors to students through more than 300 hours of clinical experiences in CBIPC teams over two years. Nursing workforce projections for the next decade forecast an unprecedented need for nurses to expand their roles in preventive, primary, and chronic care, and CBIPC training will uniquely qualify our BSN graduates to meet those challenges.

Faculty Spotlight: Kim Powell

Kim Powell joined the college in August as an assistant professor. She received her PhD along with a graduate certificate in health policy from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, an MSN from Spalding University and a BSN from Purdue University.

Powell’s research interests are in the areas of health information technology and self-management of patients with multiple chronic conditions. As part of her dissertation research, Powell conducted a multiple methods study and formed partnerships with UT’s Haslam College of Business and private-sector organizations in order to investigate the use of electronic patient portals.

In January 2018, Powell was awarded a post-doctoral appointment with the University of Missouri Sinclair School of Nursing. As part of her post-doctoral appointment she will work on a grant funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to examine information technology adoption in nursing homes and the impact of technology on quality measures.

The ultimate goal of Powell’s research is to use technological tools such as the electronic patient portal to improve outcomes. “In order to make a significant impact on patient outcomes and to improve delivery of health care services in our country, we must think differently about how we engage patients and empower them to be partners in their care,” said Powell.

As a nurse researcher, Powell is passionate about leading change through improved partnerships between patients and providers as well as partnerships between researchers and health care organizations. During her doctoral studies, she was able to partner with the nation’s largest provider of post-acute care and another large primary care organization in mutually beneficial ways. They supported her in her research and she helped them by giving them insight into their processes and potential areas for improvement.

Speaking Up for the Speechless

By Kathleen Christie Photography by Shawn Poynter

“Where does it hurt?”

Such a simple question. Yet many of us struggle to precisely verbalize a description or the extent of our pain. Now imagine how difficult it would be if you had no voice to communicate. Continue reading “Speaking Up for the Speechless”