Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing Council Science in Review

T his paper summarizes the scientific presentations during the Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing Council’s (CVSN) Sunday morning special session, “Nursing Science in Review. ” The meeting took place during the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Annual Scientific Sessions in 2018. The goal of this special session was to highlight the breadth and depth of CVSN research through presentations from top-funded CVSN nurse researchers. Each spring, the CVSN Council’s Programming/Scientific and Clinical Education Lifelong Learning committee members extend invitations to CVSN nurse researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health with a R01 or K grant mechanism or by the AHA (any mechanism). The AHA Scientific Sessions 2018, held in Chicago, IL from November 10 to 12, featured a new 2-day programming format for all CVSN sessions. The Nursing Science in Review session included 5 CVSN researchers: Gia Mudd-Martin, PhD, MPH, RN from the University of Kentucky; Erin Ferranti, PhD, RN, MPH, FAHA (Fellow of the American Heart Association) from Emory University; Anne M. Fink, PhD, RN, FAHA from the University of Illinois at Chicago; Dawn Aycock, PhD, RN, ANP-BC, FAHA from Georgia State University; and Nancy A. Pike, PhD, RN, CPNPAC/PC, FAAN from the University of California Los Angeles. Their studies encompassed a variety of methods including: community-based participatory research, metabolomics, preclinical animal research, clinical intervention studies, and the use of magnetic resonance imaging scans to measure brain volumes and function. Dr Gia Mudd Martin’s work focuses on the public health impact of cardiovascular disease in vulnerable populations and testing interventions to educate those individuals on risk prevention. She presented preliminary findings from her study, “Corazon de la Familia (Heart of the Family)” (R01NR16262-01A1, UL1TR001998). The primary study aim is to compare the shortand long-term impact of an 8-week family-focused intervention and an individual-focused intervention to decrease cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) risk factors in Hispanic adults. A secondary aim is to determine whether the family dyad member’s engagement in healthy lifestyle behaviors affects their or their family member’s health outcomes. Dr MuddMartin is actively engaged with the Hispanic community outside Lexington, KY. The community has helped in translating her research and pilot-testing components of the National Heart Lung & Blood Institute’s Su Corazon, Su Vida program. This study was initially driven by requests from the Hispanic community to use their Promotores de Salud or Community Health Workers, to educate community members about their higher than normal risk of cardiovascular disease and T2D. One of the challenges was how to revise favorite Hispanic recipes into heart healthy dishes that follow AHA dietary recommendations. Dr Mudd-Martin’s team includes a coinvestigator who is from the community and a dietician who consulted on multiple revisions of recipes into healthier dishes that tasted similar to the cultural favorites. New recipes were then taste tested by study participants during the intervention sessions. Dr Mudd-Martin included tips on how to include community experts as co-investigators while meeting National Institutes of Health grant proposal requirements. She worked collaboratively with her community expert to develop a strong biosketch that demonstrated that partner’s qualifications, as well as making a strong case throughout the grant application of the community expert’s contributions to the study design, successful recruitment of participants, and intervention delivery. As a public health nurse, Dr Erin Ferranti, is focused on cardiovascular and T2D health prevention in black women of childbearing age. She uses metabolomic data to aid in the mitigation of cardiometabolic risk in women who have experienced, or are at risk of experiencing, cardiovascular disorders during pregnancy. Her presentation focused on From the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Atlanta, GA (K.A.W.); Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing, Charleston, SC (G.S.M.); University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing, Chicago, IL (H.A.D.). All abstracts published in conjunction with the American Heart Association’s 2018 Scientific Sessions can be found at https://www.ahajournals. org/toc/circ/138/Suppl_1. Correspondence to: Kathryn A. Wood, PhD, RN, FAHA, FAAN, Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, 1520 Clifton Rd NE, Room 420, Atlanta, GA 30322-4207. E-mail: kathryn.wood@emory.edu J Am Heart Assoc. 2019;8:e012522. DOI: 10.1161/JAHA.119. 012522. a 2019 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.