School Notes: School of Nursing
May/June 2008

NIH funds study of exercise intervention for women with cancer

A Yale researcher has been awarded $2.2 million by the National Cancer Institute to devise new ways of making a woman's post-cancer years healthy and fulfilling. M. Tish Knobf, a professor and lecturer in the nursing school and a member of Yale Cancer Center, is the principal investigator for an exercise intervention trial aimed at improving physiologic health outcomes in an at-risk early post-menopausal cancer survivor population. "Cancer survivors face persistent physical symptoms as well as psychological distress when treatment ends," said Professor Knobf. And for long-term survivors, she added, there are "additional concerns related to cancer therapy, such as bone loss."

The intervention is designed to preserve bone mass and body composition, to improve metabolic risk profile, and to improve functional status. Weight gain, changes in body composition, decreased physical functioning, bone loss, and menopause (induced or natural) in women treated for cancer may increase risks for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and osteoporosis. With an estimated 64 percent of cancer survivors now living longer than five years, interventions are needed to reduce the risk of cancer recurrence, secondary cancers, and health risks for other chronic illnesses.

YSN professor leads teen pregnancy program for Health Week

Alison Moriarty Daley ’94MSN, associate professor at YSN, recently led an intensive and interactive teen pregnancy program for ninth-graders at New Haven's High School in the Community. This program, part of New Haven's "Health Week," was the kick-off event for the mayor's Task Force on Teen Pregnancy Prevention, which Moriarty Daley co-chairs. The task force implemented "Health Week" as a way to educate city students. Topics included reproductive anatomy, sexually transmitted infections, birth control, and decision-making. Moriarty Daley used an interactive Jeopardy! PowerPoint game to engage the students with questions and discussions having to do with sexuality and issues facing ninth-graders.

YSN's new center hosts first convocation

The School of Nursing's new Center for Enhancing Outcomes of Vulnerable Populations hosted its first convocation on April 3. This initial convocation served as a transition whereby the former Center for Excellence in Chronic Illness Care and the Center for Health Policy were integrated into the new center, which has a broader mission. The mission of the new center is to "promote the creation of knowledge that will lead to the understanding, development and testing, and dissemination of interventions to promote health in vulnerable populations . . . through nursing research, care, and education." Vulnerable populations are individuals, families, and communities who are potentially at risk for developing health problems by virtue of their age, gender, chronic illness, low socioeconomic or minority status, cultural barriers, or poor utilization of or lack of equal access to care.