Melanie Lutenbacher, PhD, RN, FAAN, is an Associate Professor of Nursing and an Associate Professor of Medicine (Pediatrics) at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.  As a maternal child health researcher, she has focused her efforts on improving birth, parenting and child health outcomes in families experiencing health disparities, those at risk for abuse and neglect, and/or families with children who have special health needs. She and her team have developed and tested programmatic interventions composed of behavioral, educational, and clinical strategies and delivered in community and home-based settings.  She is currently using a randomized clinical trial to examine the efficacy of the Maternal Infant Health Outreach Worker (MIHOW) home visitation program to improve health outcomes in a sample of pregnant Hispanic women and their children. She and her team are examining birth outcomes, breastfeeding rates, infant feeding practices, maternal stress and depressive symptoms, and parenting styles. .  Preliminary results indicate that women assigned to the MIHOW program had lower levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress, and higher levels of breastfeeding self-efficacy than women in the control group.

Dr. Lutenbacher is currently a member of the IFNA Research Committee.  For more information contact IFNA member, Melanie Lutenbacher.

Marianne Kläusler-Troxler, MScN, ANP, and her colleagues at the University Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland are leading a family nursing knowledge to action research project in which the Calgary Family Assessment and Intervention Models (Wright & Leahey, 2013) are being integrated into practice in mother-child care (obstetrics, gynecology, neonatology). Before- and after-implementation is being examined through an action research process that includes: design of the study, data gathering, data analysis, communicating outcomes, taking action. A multidisciplinary team providing care on the mother-child unit is involved the implementation project and a pilot study on one of the units is being planned to evaluate the implementation process. For more information contact IFNA member, Marianne Kläusler-Troxler.

Nuria Esandi Larramendi, PhD, MSC, RN, is lecturer of Older People Nursing and Family Nursing at the Faculty of Nursing, Department Nursing Care for Older Adults, University of Navarra, Spain.  She is also an investigator at the Navarra Institute for Health Research (IdiSNA).

The philosophy that underpins Dr. Esandi’s research and teaching is that family-centred care is essential for the promotion of health and wellbeing of older adults and their families. The primary focus of her program of research is the family experience of living with chronic illness, with special emphasis on the early stage of Alzheimer`s disease. In her research, she seeks to learn from families how nurses can provide the resources and support their need to “keep family balance” while carrying out long term care activities. For more information contact IFNA member, Nuria Esandi