YSN Doctoral Student Receives Prestigious Scholarship from the Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative
New Haven, CT — June 5, 2006
The Hartford Geriatric Nursing Initiative (NGHI) recently selected YSN doctoral student Janet Van Cleave as a Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) Scholar. She and other scholars were chosen through a rigorous national competition, and will each receive up to$100,000 over two years to subsidize their studies.
HGNI is a multi-faceted investment aimed at enhancing the care of older adults through innovations in nursing practice, education, research, leadership and policy. The 2006 Scholars and Fellows join 106 BAGNC colleagues selected since the program began in 2000. To date, the Hartford Foundation has invested more than $15 million in scholarships for nurses through this program.
Van Cleave enrolled in the doctoral program at YSN in 2004 to pursue her career goal of developing a program of research to identify symptoms that may predict changes in functional status during cancer treatment, and to design and empirically test nursing interventions which aim to prevent or delay changes in functional status. "I chose the doctoral program at YSN because the faculty and curriculum will equip me with the scientific and analytical skills that I will need in order to build a research career in gero-oncology," said Van Cleave.
Van Cleave's mentors at YSN are Drs. Ruth McCorkle (right in photo) and Meg Bourbonniere (left in photo). Dr. McCorkle is an expert nurse researcher whose work has provided evidence that advanced practice nurse interventions can lead to decreased symptoms and improved survival. Dr. Bourbonniere is an expert in geriatric nursing research whose work is concerned with improving nursing care of older adults with cancer in long term care facilities. Van Cleave's studies at YSN have included the fields of geriatrics, oncology, and quantitative methodology. In the context of this coursework, she examined the concepts of symptoms and functional status in older adults with cancer in terms of susceptibility, loss of functional reserve and reduced ability to compensate for the physical and psychological stress during cancer treatment.
"My faculty mentors, Drs. McCorkle and Bourbonniere, are providing research and scholarly opportunities for me," said Von Cleave. She is currently working with Dr. McCorkle on her federally funded randomized clinical trial investigating the impact of nursing interventions on the quality of life in women with ovarian cancer. Van Cleave and Dr. Bourbonniere co-authored the article "Cancer Care in Nursing Homes" for the journal Seminars in Oncology Nursing, and have collaborated on a presentation concerning the role of nursing homes in gero-oncology care that was delivered as part of a Presidential Symposium at the 2005 Gerontological Society of America's annual scientific meeting.
