Nurse researchers, nurse practitioners and nursing students continue to spend more time at the bench conducting lab science, which not only contributes to the advancement of health care research, but also helps them achieve a deeper understanding of their patients\u2019 condition, improving the care they provide.<\/p>\n
University of Rhode Island College of Nursing<\/a> Assistant Professor Dr. Amy D\u2019Agata<\/a> spent much of her early career as a neonatal intensive care nurse at the bedside of her patients, assessing their condition and caring for their every need. As she transitioned into academia, she took on a research role, which she said is a natural transition for a nurse or nurse practitioner.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are nurses whose entire careers are focused on bench science research and it\u2019s becoming more and more important for nurses to consider incorporating biobehavioral science into their research questions,\u201d D\u2019Agata said. \u201cWhile this type of research science is relatively new in some colleges, including URI, other schools of nursing have this focus on bench science research integrated into their faculty research and curriculum.\u201d<\/p>\n The URI College of Nursing provides students access to a state-of-the-art Nursing Education Center<\/a>, which opened in Providence in 2017. It houses URI\u2019s graduate nursing programs, from its master\u2019s degree offering<\/a> \u2014 which U.S. News & World Report ranks in the nation\u2019s top 100 \u2014 to doctor of nurse practitioner<\/a> and Ph.D. degree<\/a> tracks. The NEC contains multiple research and practice labs, including advanced simulation labs, where undergraduate and nurse practitioner students hone their skills in a lifelike hospital or in-home setting.<\/p>\n In addition to the educational clinical opportunities offered by the NEC, URI nursing students should soon have an opportunity to study in a state-of-the-art nursing research lab in Providence. The lab will be funded by both the College and grant funding, which D\u2019Agata recently submitted to the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n \u201cStudying in this type of environment and with these capabilities will give nursing students a different way to look at the patient and patient problems,\u201d D\u2019Agata said. \u201cBeing able to understand what\u2019s happening to patients from a molecular perspective will help them ask different types of questions to improve nursing practice.\u201d<\/p>\n The recent grant application and lab are part of D\u2019Agata\u2019s program of research focused on biobehavioral research into the stress experience of NICU infants and how it may influence neurodevelopment. Treatment received in the NICU can be stressful and painful for the patient, particularly premature newborns, D\u2019Agata said. She has measured the stress experience of infants using an instrument that organizes many procedures commonly performed on NICU infants into four categories \u2014 extremely stressful (such treatments as intubation or chest tube insertion); very stressful (blood work and IV insertion); moderately stressful (diaper changes and position changes); and a little stressful (everyday activities like taking a bath).<\/p>\n \u201cWe measure these types of daily stress and pain exposures over a period of time in the NICU,\u201d D\u2019Agata said. \u201cWhen babies are very premature or very sick, even routine care like diaper changes can be perceived as pretty stressful. When you consider all the stress experiences infants have over the course of care, you wonder what all that stress means to an infant\u2019s brain development.\u201d<\/p>\n In the new bench lab, D\u2019Agata and her team will continue to measure different biomarkers to understand their relationship to infant stress and neurodevelopment. D\u2019Agata has studied biomarkers like the stress hormone cortisol, the gut microbiome and genes associated with stress exposure.<\/p>\n \u201cThe end goal is to understand how stress impacts infants and to look for opportunities to modify practice in ways that decrease stress exposure at such a vulnerable time,\u201d D\u2019Agata said. \u201cReally, all the work is focused on finding ways to better support infants.\u201d<\/p>\n In addition to continuing her research, D\u2019Agata teaches pediatrics and pediatric simulation to undergraduate students, as well as a new online course in genetics and precision medicine. While D\u2019Agata\u2019s research is focused on NICU infants, she is also open to working collaboratively with other faculty members and students on biobehavioral research in other patient populations. D\u2019Agata believes that working in a research lab helps expand the students\u2019 learning experience and exposes them to new opportunities in the field.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many different ways faculty members can expose students to different aspects of the nursing profession,\u201d D\u2019Agata said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about providing a well-rounded growth experience for students.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Neonatal expert Dr. Amy D\u2019Agata spearheads efforts for new lab, increased research experience Nurse researchers, nurse practitioners and nursing students continue to spend more time at the bench conducting lab science, which not only contributes to the advancement of health care research, but also helps them achieve a deeper understanding of their patients\u2019 condition, improving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1710,"featured_media":12051,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1710"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13899,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions\/13899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/nursing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}