By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 10-6-08
GREENSBORO, NC – Dr. Susan Letvak, a professor of nursing at UNCG, wants to know how working with health problems impacts hospital nurses, their patients and the health care system at large.
And Letvak wants to use what she learns to improve working conditions for Registered Nurses, the majority of whom work exhausting 12-hour shifts, care for too many patients and are expected to compete physically with their younger counterparts.
Letvak’s preliminary research has won her a highly competitive $264,106 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation – grants awarded to only eight research teams across the country this year. She is backed by an interdisciplinary team that includes Dr. Christopher Ruhm, a health economist in the Bryan School of Business and Economics, and Dr. Sat Gupta, director of the statistics division.
While doctors’ health and work environment has garnered a great deal of attention, Letvak says, nurses have been overlooked. “No one has really looked at this before. We’re one of the first teams to look at the link between nurses’ health and the care they provide.”
UNCG awarded Letvak a $5,000 research grant to complete preliminary research. She used the money to conduct personal interviews with 14 RN’s working with their own health problems in North Carolina hospitals. What she found was a proliferation of chronic musculoskeletal problems (caused by lifting patients) alongside depression. Several of the nurses did not disclose their health problems to their managers and even insisted on meeting outside of the towns they are working in because they feared their health problems might cost them their jobs.
“We need research to speak for them, to initiate policies and changes. Nurses at the bedside don’t have the power to change practice,” Letvak says.
Valuing older nurses for their experience rather than their brawn would benefit nurses, patients and hospitals, Letvak says. “We’re losing our experience, and nothing’s being done to assist an older nurse. A healthy work environment for an older nurse is a healthy work environment for a younger nurse.”
Now, armed with the Robert Wood Johnson grant, Letvak will survey 2,500 RN’s working in hospitals across the state. She will also conduct focus groups for nurses working with health problems, their healthy co-workers and nurse managers to get an accurate picture of “the whole dynamic.”
Gupta and Ruhm will analyze Letvak’s data, and Ruhm will look at the financial impact on hospitals and the health care system when nurses work with health problems.
“That should get the attention of hospitals,” she says.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation focuses on the pressing health and health care issues facing our country. As the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to improving the health and health care of all Americans, the Foundation works with a diverse group of organizations and individuals to identify solutions and achieve comprehensive, meaningful and timely change.
For more than 30 years the Foundation has brought experience, commitment, and a rigorous, balanced approach to the problems that affect the health and health care of those it serves. When it comes to helping Americans lead healthier lives and get the care they need, the Foundation expects to make a difference in your lifetime. For more information, visit www.rwjf.org.
