Skip to content
UW School of Nursing

Category: What’s Happening at the School of Nursing

Scholar Spotlight: Mariyam Arifova

Mariyam Arifova is a first year BSN student. During winter quarter in 2020, she traveled to Japan as part of the Keio University Short-Term Nursing and Medical Care Studies Program to learn about challenges of an aging society. UW students attending the program were supported by the Center for Global Health Nursing and the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging.

All interviews have been edited for length and clarity.

Find all scholar spotlight interviews here.

Why did you choose nursing?

When I was in middle school, my mom was very sick. Home visit nurses used to come every day. I saw exactly what the nurses did and watched them with curiosity. That was when I first became interested in this profession. At that time, I was a kid and wanted to be a nurse just for my mom. Growing up, I learned more about my religion’s morality and realized that since all people are creatures of God, I have to love and help everybody.

In high school, I was deciding between nursing and being an interpreter, as I was passionate about learning new languages and using the three languages that I spoke. I went to Kazakhstan to visit my aunt and four cousins, who were also nurses, and they told me a lot about nursing. They inspired me to fulfill my childhood dream.

I’m also passionate about biology — human anatomy is my favorite class — and I like to work with people, so nursing is the best fit for me.

How has your experience at nursing helped with your career trajectory?

I am learning all the essential knowledge and skills that a nurse needs to work in the world. I’m very excited about my future clinicals, and the BSN rural immersion program in Montesano that I am participating in this summer. I am sure these new experiences will open up new nursing paths that I may get interested in.

What’s been an unforgettable experience during your time at the school of nursing?

The school of nursing provides a lot of opportunities for the students to find their path in nursing. I was very fortunate to go to Tokyo, Japan, for Keio University’s 2020 Short Term Nursing and Medical Care Program to learn about and discuss challenges for an aging society. I studied Japan’s aging population, went to the robocare center, did home nursing visits, shadowed nurses in Keio Hospital, and learned about nursing home models present in Japan. The experience gave me a lot of new ideas, skills, and knowledge that I will apply in my future nursing career and increased my interest in aging.

What interested you about this program?

I am a CNA in a nursing home, and I enjoy working with older adults. My goal is to run my own nursing home. Japan has a growing elderly population and high life expectancy, so I thought I could learn something from them to implement in my nursing home model.

Why are you interested in healthy aging?

As a CNA, I really it enjoy when I see the grateful faces of my residents and see how they appreciate me for being their caregiver. I also love building meaningful relationships with my residents. They share a lot of personal stories, and I learn from their life experience. Each shift, I make a difference in their daily lives. That inspires me to serve older adults as a future nurse.

Why do you want to start your own nursing home?

I feel like there are some changes that I can make to the nursing home models in the United States to improve them. First of all, I want to emphasize post-stroke patients because I personally know the challenges that stroke patients and their families face. My father had a stroke two years ago, and my grandmother passed away after her third stroke a couple of months ago. I also believe by incorporating elements from care models in other countries with an aging population, like Japan, I can provide better preventive care. I would also like to import technology and equipment that makes caring for the elderly safer and more effective.

What was the most interesting experience of your trip?

I went to Japan hoping to see how they use robots in healthcare. And I was very lucky to actually go to a robocare center and see patients using the technology for rehabilitation and communication. There are robots that can help people who lost function in their legs after strokes or other diseases move their legs so they can learn to walk again. They also have an assist suit to help caregivers, like CNAs, lift patients without hurting their back, or to help patients who are unable to stand up or sit down by themselves. I was fortunate to actually try it. I lifted different weights while wearing the assist suit and without it – it definitely helped me lift heavy weights easily.

Did anything surprise you while you were there?

We had nursing students from Japan, the UK, and South Korea. One difference that surprised me is that physical restraint, limiting the freedom of movement of patients, is illegal in the UK, but allowed in Japan, South Korea, and US. In the UK only sedatives are allowed to control movement or behavior of a patient. After discussing ethical concerns and fundamental human rights with the mental health nurses from the UK, I realized that physical restraint alternatives might be a better way to provide safe and quality care.

What was the most interesting thing you learned?

A new model of nursing home. They have nursing homes where residents live together with caregivers and the caregiver’s families. It was interesting because I had never seen a nursing home like that. They showed us videos of older adult residents cooking traditional food together with small kids and teaching them. I think it can be an ideal approach to aging for some older adults because it has a home environment and the assistance that a typical nursing home provides.

What are your plans after graduation?

I plan to spend a few years of my nursing career as a travel nurse. My main goal is to work and volunteer in rural areas of both the USA and third world countries, caring for underserved populations and improving nursing care. After that, I want to work with older adults and eventually run my own nursing home. I want to get a graduate degree from UW, but I have not decided yet if I want to go straight to grad school or work for a few years and come back.

Highlights from Dr. Kate Lorig’s Talk

Lorig talks to a graduate student and post-doctoral fellow after her talk.

Over half of adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease, according to the CDC. Symptom self-management can be a key part of helping people with chronic diseases live a healthy and longer life.

“I don’t look at self-management so much as a theory, rather as something someone does,” said Dr. Kate Lorig, partner at the Self-Management Resource Center and professor emerita at Stanford University, in her February 6 talk at the UW School of Nursing.

Lorig walked the audience through her career developing self-management programs, from her dissertation to the current day, highlighting the groundbreaking work she has done and sharing her insights on navigating the world of research and academia.

Lorig prefers the Institute of Medicine’s 2014 definition of self-management, which defines it as “Tasks that individuals must undertake to live with one or more chronic conditions. Tasks include having confidence to deal with medical management, role management, and emotional management of their conditions.”

The management programs she developed involve groups of people meeting regularly with a facilitator and creating their own action plans for how they want to manage their chronic diseases.

“We never tell anyone what to do,” Lorig said. “Every class someone is doing something different.”

For her dissertation, Lorig developed an arthritis self-management program, hypothesizing that improving knowledge and behaviors would improve participants’ health. However, while there were improvements, the statistics didn’t show a strong benefit of the program – the improvements didn’t seem connected and may have been due to chance. But, encouraged by her mentors, she stuck with the work and eventually it paid off.

Since then, the programs she’s developed have shown success across numerous chronic diseases, improving participants’ energy levels, depression levels, self-rated health, and reducing the days they spent in the hospital. That last one is key, Lorig said, as showing lower health care usage can help get research translated into policy.

Lorig emphasized the importance of “thinking outside the box, but not too far outside the box” for researchers. Stick with novel research, but work within the system. Make studies that can be replicated and pick outcomes that policymakers care about. Know what major funders and organizations in the field are looking for and collaborate with people who know the field well.

When she and her team ventured into diabetes management, they knew early on it would be controversial. So they worked with a respected person in the field, the former president of the American Diabetes Association, who contributed her extensive knowledge and wisdom about diabetes research to help them develop and gain support for the program in the diabetes health community.

“If you’re going to leap into the firestorm, have a friend,” Lorig said.

During her talk, Lorig also shared advice that the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging’s namesake and benefactor, Dr. Rheba de Tornyay, once gave her about the secret to success: ask people what their problems are, reflect back to them what you heard, and carry a briefcase.

NINR Director’s Lecture Recording

On November 19th the de Tornyay Center held a screening of the National Institute of Nursing Research Director’s Lecture ‘Informing Health Policy Through Science to Improve Healthcare for Older Adults’ by Patricia Stone, PhD, RN, FAAN.

Stone’s research aims to enhance the quality of care for older adults including preventing healthcare-associated infection and improving infection management and end-of-life care. Her program of research has contributed to policy changes, such as state and federal legislative mandates that hospitals report infections.

Couldn’t make it? Find the lecture recording here.

2019 – 2020 Healthy Aging Scholars Announced

The de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging is pleased to announce the 2019-2020 Healthy Aging Scholarship recipients.

There were a limited number of scholarships available.  We extend our thanks and high regard to all who applied.  Scholarship recipients receive funds and support for research projects related to healthy aging and older adults.  We look forward to hearing the results of their work at the Nurses of Influence Banquet on April 30, 2020.

Please join us in congratulating these exceptional scholars and their faculty mentors!

 

PhD RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP:

Boeun Kim, Healthy Aging Doctoral Scholar

Topic:  Walkable Neighborhoods and Cognitive Health in Older Adults

Faculty Mentor:  Basia Belza, PhD, RN, FAAN

 

DNP RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIPS:

Catherine Munene, Myrene C. McAninch Doctoral Scholar

Topic:  Fall Prevention and Harm Reduction in Ambulatory Settings at a Local Health Care Organization

Faculty Mentor:  Hilaire Thompson, PhD, RN, CNRN, ACNP-BC, FAAN

 

Isadora Yi, Healthy Aging Doctoral Scholar

Topic:  Developing a Dementia Care Toolkit for Caregiving Staff in Memory Care Units at a Local Retirement Community Company

Faculty Mentor:  Hilaire Thompson, PhD, RN, CNRN, ACNP-BC, FAAN

 

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP:

Kristi Louthan, Germaine Krysan Undergraduate Scholar

Topic:  Aging Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) Dementia Project

Faculty Mentor:  Basia Belza, PhD, RN, FAAN

Highlights From Ignite Aging 2019

The Ignite Aging Symposium is an annual event hosted by the de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging, featuring a sampler of outstanding healthy aging research by University of Washington School of Nursing faculty, students and alumni. Each speaker gets five minutes to present their work, followed by a question and answer session.

Presenter Azita Emami with guest Ethlyn McQueen-Gibson from Hampton University, Virginia.

Below are highlights of the Ignite Aging symposium from September 27, 2019. Or, view 2020 Ignite Aging here.

Kicking off with Executive Dean Azita Emami on the potential of music to help individuals with dementia and their caregivers, the program was interspersed with music performed by several student musicians. Music has proven to have great potential in reducing agitation and improving communication in people with dementia. Emami is investigating music’s potential in reducing caregiver stress.

PhD in Nursing Science student, Yan Su, presented her analysis of the blog, Engaging with Aging, written by 97 year old retired nursing faculty. Her analysis of the blog identified major themes including discussion of age-related changes and how the blogger responded to those changes. Over 18 months of writing the blog, the author seemed to gain insight into her experiences and derive pleasure in sharing them.

Audience members speak during a break

Our brain waves are sometimes fast or slow, depending on what we’re doing. The fast waves are conducive to hard tasks, like solving a puzzle, but slow waves are important for resting and sleep. Chronic insomnia can come from having too much of the fast waves and not enough of the slow, said Associate Professor Jean Tang. She’s developing a device to help fight insomnia, which uses light and sound to coax the brain’s activity into slow waves. The device has shown promise in pilot studies.

Poor diet is one of the leading causes of death, Assistant Professor Oleg Zaslavsky shared. Low consumption of healthy foods like whole grains, nuts and vegetables can be dangerous to your health. Previous research has identified the Mediterranean diet as having numerous health benefits. Zaslavsky and his colleagues are developing an app to help older adults follow the diet. The app will include, among other things, food and ingredient recommendations, information about the diet, and a way to talk with health care professionals.

High School student Marina Sanchez performs.

Chemotherapy physically changes the body in ways that can correspond to a decade or more of aging and can lead to earlier development of chronic conditions, such as heart failure, in cancer patients. Associate Professor Kerryn Reding spoke on her team’s work, which found that the amount of fat around the organs could predict heart failure in cancer survivors, but not overall weight. Next she wants to investigate if the fat around the organs could be causing accelerated heart aging from chemotherapy.

As we age, we grow more likely to have chronic illnesses, but our detection system is getting worse. Our perception of chronic disease symptoms, like pain, fatigue and shortness of breath, decreases as we age, Post-Doctoral Fellow Jonathan Auld told the audience. Sometimes these symptoms can also be misattributed to age. Tracking symptoms and getting in tune with our bodies can help us understand what is a natural part of aging and what is worth reporting to your health care provider.

Presenter Oleg Zaslavsky speaks on nutrition.

Alumna and Clinical Faculty at Pacific Lutheran University, Kelsey Pascoe, presented her dissertation research on the barriers homeless individuals recently released from jail face in accessing health care. Inmates in jails have higher rates of many health conditions. Many individuals leave jails with unmet health needs. Pascoe found that one of the problems was these individuals have higher priorities: needs like food, housing, and clothing. There were also cost barriers, including access to the internet and a phone, and transportation to and from health care appointments, in addition to emotional concerns, such as distrust of the health care system.

Join us for our third annual Ignite Aging on Friday, October 2, 2020, over Zoom. Learn more at events.uw.edu/IgniteAging2020.

Photos by SON LIT Media Group.