Dr. Maria do Céu Barbieri-Figueiredo is a pediatric nurse and a foundational leader of family nursing in Portugal.  Her interest in family nursing was inspired by Dr. Dorothy Whyte who supervised her Master of Science studies at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Dr. Barbieri-Figueiredo currently serves as coordinator professor at the Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto (School of Nursing of Porto) and University of Porto, Portugal where she is involved in undergraduate and post-graduate nursing education. She has led the Research Group in Family Nursing of Escola Superior de Enfermagem do Porto since 2004 and supervises Master’s and doctoral students specializing in families with children. In her current research, she is focusing on families of preterm infants and investigating continuity of care after discharge from hospital.  Dr. Barbieri-Figueiredo is currently a member of the IFNA Practice Committee and IFNA Awards Committee. For more information contact IFNA member, Maria do Céu Barbieri-Figueiredo.

Rie Wakimizu, RN, PHN, PhD, is an Associate professor, Department of Child Health Care Nursing, Division of Health Innovation and Nursing, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, JAPAN. She teaches family nursing to undergraduate students at University of Tsukuba and is also involved in the Certified Nurse Specialist (CNS) Family Health Nursing program leading to a Master’s degree (pre-doctorate program). Her primary research focuses on family empowerment of child-rearing families, with an emphasis on family functioning, family cohesion, and family resources. In addition to numerous publications, Dr. Wakimizu is also a certified facilitator by The Triple P International (Positive Parenting Program) and has examined the usefulness of The Triple P interventions in her research. Dr. Wakimizu was nominated for a 2015 IFNA Rising Star in Family Nursing Award. For more information contact IFNA member, Rie Wakimizu: [email protected]

Websites:

http://triplepblog.net/japanese-researcher-turns-to-triple-p/

http://www.tsukuba.ac.jp/notes/046/index.html

Nancy Moules, RN, PhD, Professor, University of Calgary, Canada and recipient of the prestigious 2015 IFNA Excellence in Family Nursing Award has recently been awarded a $1 million dollar research chair: The Kids Cancer Care Foundation Chair in Child and Family Cancer Care. This is the largest donation received by the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Calgary and will be awarded over 5 years for Nancy to continue her program of research around the relational ways that childhood cancer affects children, families, and larger systems. Nancy has also received numerous teaching and research awards. She is the Founding Editor of the Journal of  Applied Hermeneutics and co-founded the Canadian Hermeneutic Institute in 2009. She and her colleagues have published a new book:

Moules, N. J., McCaffrey, G., Field, J. C., & Laing, C. M. (2015). Conducting hermeneutic research: From philosophy to practice.  New York, NY: Peter Lang.

For more information contact IFNA member, Nancy Moules.

Dear IFNA Colleagues,

The IFNA Board of Directors met on September 10, 2015 and one of our topics of discussion is the terrible trauma and suffering being lived out by so many families in our global community who are displaced and separated by war, violence, and poverty. Not only is this happening in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe; Central American families are choosing to send unaccompanied children across many countries to the United States to escape death by violence. As we learned at our 12^thInternational Family Nursing Conference during the remarkable plenary given by Dr. Stevan Weine, such trauma and suffering has long-term implications for family health. We also learned that family is the foundation for interventions to alleviate suffering.

What can we do as an organization to support families and soften suffering? Let us learn from each other how to work most effectively. We propose to gather evidence-informed resources about approaches and interventions that address trauma and have the potential to alleviate suffering. Many of us do not have expertise in this area. Yet as families move within our world to find a safe and welcoming haven, we may meet them in our practice.

As a committed community of family nursing scholars and clinicians, how can we respond in a meaningful way? Let’s begin by sharing ideas and resources with each other. Let’s see if we can grow our understanding of what works, what doesn’t work, and the circumstances in which family nursing assessment and intervention may work best. We are also beginning this conversation within our IFNA Standing Committees and hope to develop a respository of useful resources which will be posted on the IFNA website.

Warmest regards,

Carole Robinson, PhD, RN, IFNA President