Putting a 'nursing lens' on research
By Debra Ruder and Saul Wisnia
Pediatric nurse Ann Deady, RN, MS, chats with Andrew Beals before drawing his blood in the Jimmy Fund Clinic.
Taking off his "Life is Good" T-shirt, 8-year-old Andrew Beals lies down in a Jimmy Fund Clinic procedure room and waits patiently for Ann Deady, RN, MS, to draw his blood. She places the tubes, needle, and other equipment she needs on a nearby table and dons a pair of sterile blue gloves to swab Andrew's chest.
As his mother, Karen, leans over him for comfort and distraction, Andrew waits for Deady to insert the needle into his chest — where a special "Port-a-Cath" device was implanted two years earlier after he was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. This saves him and other patients from repeated needle sticks in their veins; later in the day, he'll receive his chemotherapy the same way.
The procedure goes smoothly, but Deady believes it may involve more steps than necessary. That's why she has launched a research project to compare this "sterile" method for using Port-a-Caths with a so-called "clean" approach in place elsewhere, including Dana-Farber's adult clinics. Deady and her colleagues have long observed that the sterile method is more complicated, costly, and scary to young patients — and may not even reduce infection rates.
Intrigued, she contacted other cancer centers across the country and learned that little research has been done on the topic. So she turned to the Phyllis F. Cantor Center for Research in Nursing and Patient Care Services at Dana-Farber, which promotes and conducts studies by nurses that focus on living with and beyond cancer.
The center helped Deady develop a 40-patient pilot project whose results, she hopes, "will help improve the way nurses practice by identifying a safe, effective procedure that is less distressing to our young patients and their parents." Hers is an excellent example of the type of nursing research that the Cantor Center has been encouraging since it opened in spring 2001. The program has grown to include eight staff members who explore such subjects as complementary therapy use by breast cancer patients, end-of-treatment experiences among young people, and symptom relief for those battling lung cancer.
"The heart of what we do," explains Director Susan Bauer-Wu, DNSc, RN, "is to examine ways to reduce suffering for those challenged by cancer and thus improve their quality of life. Our nurses conduct original research that can help inform their colleagues, here and around the country, about best practices in the field."
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