School Notes: School of Nursing
March/April 2008

Researchers awarded NIH grant

The National Institute of Nursing Research, an arm of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded nearly $3.5 million to two researchers at the School of Nursing to study the effects of an Internet-based version of the highly effective program called "coping skills training" for children with type 1 diabetes. The program will be compared with a standard Internet-based education program. Dean Margaret Grey and Associate Professor Robin Whittemore serve as the principal investigators on this study for improving diabetes management, metabolic control, and quality of life among adolescents with diabetes.

Rapid advancements in technology and access to the Internet have made it a viable tool for the delivery of coping skills training, a group-based intervention developed at Yale by Dean Grey. The Internet represents a method of training that is potentially appealing, effective, and time-efficient for adolescents living with type 1 diabetes. "The goal of this program is to help teens learn how to manage their diabetes within the context of challenging social situations and to provide a forum for teens with type 1 diabetes to learn from each other," said Professor Whittemore. "Adolescents are much more likely to get online on their own time than go to a clinic for a meeting," Dean Grey added. "Now we are able to connect with them on their own time, and we now reach 90 percent of the eligible children."

Dean's research named a landmark study

Research by Dean Margaret Grey has been recognized in "Changing Practice, Changing Lives: 10 Landmark Nursing Research Studies," a new publication from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR). Her groundbreaking study on coping skills training for children with type 1 diabetes, "Coping Skills Training Improves Teens' Self-Management of Diabetes," was designated as one of the ten most significant nursing research studies in the 22-year history of NINR. According to the booklet, these ten landmark studies helped establish the foundation of NINR's work and illustrate the varied expertise of nurse researchers. The ten studies span issues that continue to be of great importance to nurses and patients, such as symptom management, preventive health measures, health disparities, and enhancing the quality of health care. Dean Grey stressed that this honor "speaks to the importance of the clinical research being conducted at YSN on approaches to improving self-management of chronic conditions," and credited her study's success to an "interdisciplinary team of nurse practitioners, psychologists, and physicians, in addition to the young people with diabetes who participated."