Dr. Erla Kolbrún Svavarsdottir, Professor, University of Iceland and Chairman of the Academic Council of Family Nursing at University Hospital was awarded the prestigious Honorary Scientist Award 2014 at a special ceremony on May 7, 2014 at Landspitali University Hospital, Iceland. Dr. Svavarsdottir has studied persistence, resilience, coping, health- related quality of life, well-being, violence in intimate relationships, and adaptation and integration in families who are living with chronic diseases in both Iceland and the United States. Dr. Svavarsdottir served as Principal Investigator of the Landspitali University Knowledge Translation Research Project in Reykjavik, Iceland that took place from 2007-2011. Family Systems Nursing (FSN) was implemented at an institutional level on every unit of a large 900-bed university hospital in Iceland. A Steering Committee of nursing practice leaders and knowledge users collaborated in the implementation of the educational intervention focused on teaching practicing nursing the skill of offering brief therapeutic conversations to families. A quasi-experimental design examined family and nurse outcomes across several populations of families in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Mentoring of research skills also involved master and doctoral students in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Iceland who were included in this knowledge translation research. The project also resulted in the psychometric development of two new research instruments: the Iceland-Expressive Family Functioning Questionnaire [ICE-EFFQ]and the Iceland-Family Perceived Support Questionnaire [ICE-FPSQ]. Dr. Svavarsdottir has written over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and she has co-edited two academic books. In addition, Dr. Svavarsdottir has mentored numerous students in the BS program as well as students in master’s and doctoral studies at the Faculty of Nursing , University of Iceland. For more information or to offer your congratulations, contact IFNA member Erla Svavarsdottir: [email protected]
