School Notes: School of Nursing
July/August 2021

YSN sleep experts research everything A to Zzzs

National Sleep Awareness Week presented an opportunity to explore the cutting-edge research YSN nurse scientists are conducting across the lifespan. Beatrice Renfield Term Professor of Nursing Nancy Redeker is director of the YSN Center for Biobehavioral Health Research and president of the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science. Assistant Professor Samantha Conley ’16PhD recently published a paper with Redeker and senior research scientist Sangchoon Jeon about the sleep characteristics of people with inflammatory bowel disease. Pediatric nurse practitioner specialty director Alison Moriarty Daley ’94MSN presented her most recent work on adolescent sleep at an international conference in Ireland. YSN also hosted the sixth annual Sleep & Symptom Research Symposium. 

Associate professor of nursing Monica Ordway ’97MSN, ’11PhD, will soon conduct a pilot pragmatic cluster randomized trial to evaluate the feasibility and preliminary efficacy of a behavioral sleep intervention designed for racially/ethnically diverse and economically marginalized toddlers enrolled in Early Head Start programs. The New England Head Start Association, which covers 5,000 children who could benefit from the intervention, wrote a letter of support endorsing Ordway’s project.

Scholars’ Day features student work

Scholars’ Day, an annual celebration of nursing scholarship, featured four student presentations. Postdoctoral fellow Abigail Wilpers ’16MSN, ’19PhD, presented on maternal fetal care. Youri Hwang ’24PhD presented on sleep in young women with breast cancer. Esther Pavlovsky ’21DNP discussed a nurse-led telephonic approach for COPD self-management. And Ron Yolo ’21DNP showcased his work about reducing hospital readmissions for sepsis patients. 

Global need for nurses and midwives

Nurses’ Week and International Midwifery Day took place this year amid global shortages in the labor force. According to WHO, there is a need for 8 percent more nurses educated worldwide and a need for 900,000 more midwives. YSN does its part, as home of the longest running midwifery faculty practice. YSN faculty also launched the Global Quality Maternal and Newborn Care Coursera course last year, Yale’s most completed Coursera offering.