Catherine (Kit) Chesla, RN, PhD, FAAN, is a Professor and Shobe Endowed Chair for Ethics and Spirituality, Department of Family Health Care Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, USA. For over 20 years she has taught family theory, intervention, and research methods to doctoral and Family Nurse Practitioner students. She is engaged in multiple research projects that involve past, present and future work. First, she and her colleague, Dr. Kevin Chun, are working on finishing up their analysis of interpretive phenomenological data regarding couple and family processes of care, support and conflict in living with type 2 diabetes (NIH R01 NR009111). Intensive narrative study of foreign born and US born Chinese couples are being contrasted and described. They believe that culturally-specific forms of couple relations apparent in Chinese couples have the possibility to broaden our ways of thinking about and delivering care to couples living with chronic illness in the U.S.
In a separate project, that is just beginning, Dr. Chesla is working with a nephrologist, Dr. Vanessa Grubbs, to learn about the concerns and considerations of elderly patients with end stage renal disease (ESRD) and their families, regarding treatment options (NIH R21 DK112100). They aim to articulate the particular concerns and social context variables that patients and families bring to a decision to start dialysis or conservative/ palliative care management. The aim of this interpretive project is to develop a decision tool to assist nephrologists in working with elderly patients with ESRD and their families in the future.
Finally, (and distinct from her family work) Dr. Chesla is starting pilot work on a lifestyle + sleep intervention program to prevent or delay type 2 diabetes in women with prediabetes or metabolic syndrome. She is conducting this study with funding from the National Center of Excellence in Women’s Health at UCSF, and with co-investigators Dr. Kathryn Lee and Dr. Melinda Bender.
Dr. Chesla has a long been a strong advocate and champion for family nursing. She served as member of the Coordinating Committee that helped establish IFNA in 2009 and served as the President of IFNA from 2013-2015. She is currently a member of the IFNA Board of Directors. For more information, contact IFNA member Kit Chesla.
Website: https://nursing.ucsf.edu/faculty/catherine-chesla
