Cynthia A. Danford, PhD, CRNP, PPCNP-BC, CPNP-PC, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing in the Department of Health Promotion and Development. She studies obesity in families with young children with the aim of reducing obesity and cardiovascular risk and promoting child health. Dr. Danford employs novel data-gathering techniques with pre-school children who serve as the primary data source. Recently, Dr. Danford was awarded NIH R21 funding to conduct a randomized control trial focusing on self-regulating lifestyle behaviors (e.g., eating, physical activity, and sleep) through a goal-setting intervention based on event history calendar (EHC) retrieval of lifestyle patterns for low-income parent-preschool child dyads.

She currently serves the co-chair of the International Research Subcommittee of the IFNA Research Committee. For more information contact IFNA member, Cindy Danford.  

Debbie Sheppard-LeMoine, PhD, RN, is an assistant professor and serves as the assistant director at St. Francis Xavier University Rankin School of Nursing, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada. Her current, international research focus is on interprofessional learning within a simulated family assessment environment. She is an expert in curriculum design and revision, community/public health/family nursing practice and has recently completed a study on enhanced home visiting practices that surround women and children who live within vulnerability in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Her teaching for the last 20 years has focused on Nursing of Families based upon the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models (Wright & Leahey, 2013) and the Illness Beliefs Model (Wright & Bell, 2009).  She has used simulation with standardized patients and actors for many years in Canada and internationally to develop family assessment and interviewing skills among thousands of BScN Canadian and international students based upon the Calgary Family Assessment Model. She has expanded her work to include an inter professional focus by bringing together medical and nursing students in learning together family assessment and intervention.

For more information contact IFNA member, Debbie Sheppard-LeMoine.

Hanne Konradsen, RN, PhD, is an Associate Professor at Karolinska Institute (KI) in Sweden. She is currently involved in two research projects  with colleagues from KI and Hong Kong Polytechnic University: 1) develop and test a model to explain family nursing practice; and 2) a RCT study where a nurse-moderated mobile application is being tested to alleviate caregiver-stress among families with older members diagnosed with dementia. Dr. Konradsen also has research occurring in Denmark where she is collaborating with Dr. Birte Østergaard, Dr. Erla Svarvarsdottir and Dr. Mahdi Shamali in a study focused on families living with heart failure.  In this research project, data is being collected in Denmark, Iceland, and Iran.

For more information contact IFNA member, Hanne Konradsen.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hanne-konradsen-a6053841/

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hanne_Konradsen

Twitter: @hanne_konradsen

Tara M. Tehan, MSN, MBA, RN, NE-BC, SCRN, is a doctoral  student at University of Massachusetts Medical School Graduate School of Nursing. Her advisor is Dr. Susan Sullivan-Bolyai. Her dissertation research is focused on patient and family centered care in the intensive care unit. She submitted her proposal for approval and will collect data at her study site in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  

Over the last year, she has had the opportunity to work with the IFNA International Research Cluster on a research proposal titled, Nurses’ Descriptions and Practices of Family Engagement in Intensive Care Settings: An International, Multisite Qualitative-Descriptive Study (lead by IFNA member, Dr. Sandra Eggenberger). As a first year doctoral student, Tara reports it has been an invaluable experience to participate in this research cluster and observe, and learn from, experienced nurse researchers on developing a research proposal: “Under Dr. Eggenberger’s guidance, I have submitted the research proposal to my institutional review board and will be conducting a qualitative study within my hospital. My clinical practice is as the Nurse Director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. I am so grateful for this opportunity not only have I gained valuable research experience, but for meeting other nurses committed to family nursing.”

For more information contact IFNA member, Tara Tehan. 

Cristina Alfaro Díaz, PhD, MSC, RN, recently completed her doctoral degree in Family Nursing at the University of Navarra School of Nursing, Pamplona, Spain. Currently, she is an assistant professor at the School of Nursing and investigator at the Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA).

Her doctoral thesis was part of ProyeKTA Family Nursing-UNAV, a pioneering translational research project in Spain, led by Dr. Ana Canga-Armayor and Dr. Nuria Esandi, aimed at implementing family nursing into clinical practice at an institutional level in a University Hospital. The primary focus of her work explored the nurses’ attitudes and beliefs towards the importance of involving family in nursing care, as well as the barriers and facilitators of the context of practice to implement Family Nursing in the oncology division of the University Hospital, Clínica Universidad de Navarra. As a part of her research, she conducted a cross-cultural adaptation and psychometric validation of the Spanish version of the following instruments: Families’ Importance in Nursing Care: Nurses’ Attitudes Revised version (FINC-NA-R); Iceland Health Care Practitioner Illness Beliefs Questionnaire (ICE-HCP-IBQ); and Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire (DCSQ). For more information contact IFNA member, Cristina Alfaro Díaz.

Twitter account: @CristinaCalfaro

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