Introducing CHOPR's New T32 Fellows, Fall RAs, and Aila's new baby sister!
Introducing CHOPR's New T32 Fellows, Fall RAs, and Aila's new baby sister!
 
August 12, 2021
Link to Penn_CHOPR twitter account. Link to CHOPR Website Write to Andrea Barol to add your story in the next issue.
An insider's guide to what's happening at the Center for Health Outcomes
and Policy Research, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

CHOPR Breaks own publishing records with research findings focused on how hospitals can save lives. 

Aiken LH, Simonetti M, Sloane DM, Cerón C, Soto P, Bravo D, Galiano A, Behrman JR, Smith HL, McHugh MD, Lake ET. Hospital nurse staffing and patient outcomes in Chile: a multilevel cross-sectional study. Lancet Global Health 9(8):e1145-e1153. 

Differences in nurse staffing across public hospitals were found to be associated with avoidable deaths and higher than necessary costs, “Nursing has been overlooked in Chile as a solution to healthcare quality and access problems; this study shows investments in improving hospital nurse staffing would result in higher quality of care and greater productivity which could improve access to public hospitals,” said lead-author Dr. Linda H. Aiken. More
McHugh MD, Aiken LH, Sloane DM, Windsor C, Douglas C, Yates P. Effects of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay: a prospective study in a panel of hospitals. Lancet 397(10288):1905-1913. 

The research team evaluated Queensland Health legislation enacted in 2016 as a safety measure. The new policy limited the average number of patients per nurse to four, similar to pending legislation in New York and Illinois. “The positive results in Queensland should inform policies in the U.S. and elsewhere,” said lead-author Dr. Matthew D. McHugh. More
Brom H, Carthon JMB, Sloane D, McHugh M, Aiken L Better nurse work environments associated with fewer readmissions and shorter length of stay among adults with ischemic stroke: cross‐sectional analysis of United States hospitals. Research in Nursing and Health 44, 525–533. https://doi.org/10.1002/nur.22121
Creating good work environments for nurses is especially important so that they have adequate time to spend with stroke patients. “All of these aspects of the nurse work environment facilitate an effective and efficient discharge planning process, which has the potential to decrease delays in discharge and avoidable readmissions,” says Dr. J. Margo Brooks Carthon. More 
Kutney-Lee A, Brooks Carthon M, Sloane DM, Bowles KH, McHugh MD, Aiken LH. Electronic health record usability: associations with nurse and patient outcomes in hospitals. Medical Care 59(7):625-631. 

The study found that employing EHR usability may be more important to nurse job and patient outcomes than comprehensive EHR adoption. “When the EHR system does not allow work to be performed efficiently and effectively, nurse burden increases, and patient outcomes are threatened,” says Dr. Ann Kutney-Lee. More
Lasater KB, Aiken LH, Sloane DM, French R, Anusiewicz CV, Martin B, Reneau K, Alexander M, McHugh MD. Is hospital nurse staffing legislation in the public's interest?: An observational study in New York State. Medical Care 59(5):444-450. 
The new study finds hospital deaths and costs of care are significantly lower in hospitals with better nurse staffing. Lead author Dr. Karen B. Lasater said, “Results show that improving nurse staffing in New York hospitals could substantially reduce deaths and save money that could go to funding improved staffing.” More
More CHOPR Publications
Get free access to The New York Times via the Penn library by following this link.
CHOPR Researchers in the Media
  • Dr. Linda Aiken's important Op-Ed in today's New York Times makes the case for meaningful safe nurse staffing standards. Her recent study in Lancet Global Health got full page coverage in newspapers across Latin America and was the Nursing Times' "Top Story."
  • Dr. Eileen Lake, in collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Clark and predoctoral fellow Kathleen Rosenbaum, discussed the pandemic, longstanding health inequities, and one way to potentially decrease them in Penn News Today. More
  • Dr. Matthew McHugh's prospective study on the effects of nurse-to-patient ratio legislation on nurse staffing and patient mortality, readmissions, and length of stay in The Lancet has sparked 16 news stories, two blog journal reviews in The BMJ, and nearly 8,000 social media interactions. More
  • Dr. Margo Brooks Carthon lays out the process of design thinking as a framework to develop THRIVE, the clinical systems innovation that improves outcomes for socially at risk patients, in the American Nurse Journal. The official journal of ANA boasts a circulation of 175,000 nurses and 4 million yearly website visitors. More
  • Dr. Karen Lasater wrote an editorial titled, "Safe nurse staffing matters – everywhere," for JBI Evidence Synthesis. The Wolters Kluwer online journal is well known to disseminate rigorous, high-quality research.
  • Gloria Mpundu's mental health summer internship at Trinity College was featured yesterday in Penn Today. She returns to CHOPR in the fall to work for Dr. Eileen Lake.
"Congratulations Drs. Karen Lasater and Olga Jarrín Montaner
on their induction into the American Academy of Nursing!"
Jacqueline's dissertation work at Duke University School of Nursing examined how chronic pain management in the VA differed between provider groups.

New postdoctoral fellow joins the CHOPR Team.

Dr. Jacqueline Nikpour's (pronounced "nick-poor") research centers around nursing’s role in primary care transformation, and the roles, values, and patient outcomes associated with investments in nurses in primary care and other community-based settings. Key priorities of her work include nursing’s role in addressing unmet social needs, integrating primary care and behavioral health, and promoting equitable outcomes for historically marginalized populations. In her free time, she enjoys running, weightlifting, crafting, and going on hiking and camping trips with her fiancé and their two rescue dogs.
L.-R.: Drs. Eileen Lake, Rebecca Clark, and Rachel French;
Sana Amanullah and Kathleen Rosenbaum meet on the Penn campus to mark three completed R01 submissions.

Summer Intern finishes up research with CHOPR Associate Director.

Sana Amanullah is a rising sophomore at Rutgers University-New Brunswick studying Nursing with a minor in Spanish. As a Douglass STEM Scholar at Rutgers, she has researched physical activity promotion within Latina populations and will be an RA investigating the relationship between interprofessional teamwork and health disparities next semester. Sana worked on two projects this summer as an RA for Dr.  Lake: the translation and meta-analysis of the PES-NWI, and also examined COVID-19’s impact on nurses’ moral distress.
Welcome New T32 Predoctoral Fellows
Kathy Sliwinski, BSN, (pending RN), recently graduated from the University of Michigan. During her undergraduate education, she was accepted into the nursing honors program where she was introduced to the research process. She began performing research that focused on the evaluation of maternal waiting homes in Nicaragua. This research experience along with various others sparked her interest in becoming a nurse researcher, with a focus on increasing access to healthcare and creating interventions to tackle the barriers to doing so. In her free time, she enjoys traveling, with her favorite places to visit being Switzerland and England. She also enjoys figure skating, watching movies, and playing with her new Aussie doodle puppy, Loki. 
Aleigha (pronounced a-lee-ah) Mason, BSN, RN graduated from Thomas Jefferson University in 2021. She will be joining CHOPR as a predoctoral fellow this Fall. She has clinical experience as an extern in the Cardiac ICU at Thomas Jefferson University. She has worked as a research assistant on a study that aimed to increase the breastfeeding support for Black women in Philadelphia. Her research interests include exploring how nursing care has the potential to influence infant and maternal outcomes among Black women. In her leisure time, Aleigha enjoys being with family and friends, exercising, and exploring new fun activities in the city.  
Introducing CHOPR's New RAs
Christina Sauveur is a third-year nursing student and is considering either sub-matriculating into the nurse practitioner program here at Penn or pursuing a nursing administration degree. She also wants to do travel nursing before going back to school to get a second degree. Aside from being a research assistant Christina is actively involved in other programs at Penn. She is on the CAPS advisory board, the VP of administration for the Caribbean American Student Association, and the West African Vibe dance team.
I realized that I wanted to be a nurse at a very young age after watching the 2010 Haitian Earthquake on the news. Seeing how devastated my parents were and how it was the help of international healthcare personnel coming to help the Haitians captured my attention and I was hooked on nursing ever since!" 
Dianne Garcia is set to begin work at CHOPR for Dr. Margo Brooks Carthon. She graduated from San Francisco State University in 2015 with a BS in Health Education. She is currently in the ABSN program and is sub-matriculated into the MSN-Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Program. Inspired by her prior work of health coaching patients at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center, Dianne plans to support and lead the movement to integrate mental health into primary care. As a first-generation immigrant Filipino American who grew up with a sister with complex medical conditions, Dianne is passionate about serving vulnerable populations. She likes to spend her free time with her husband and two young children.  
Welcome to the World little Liesel!
b. 7/31/21 @ 10:36 am, 7lbs, 9oz, 19.5"
Irene, Len, Aila and Liesel 
are all doing well!
Looking for more CHOPR papers?
Check out our Google Scholar Library
for lots of publishing info. Link

August 11, 2021
Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research 
Andrea Barol, ajb@nursing.upenn.edu
powered by emma
Subscribe to our email list.