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Interdisciplinary Training Eases Pain Research
By Susan Middaugh
Sharon Kozachik, PhD, RN had always worked with human subjects until she became a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Training Program in Biobehavioral Pain Research. Now the focus of her clinical research, how analgesics affect sleep and the effects of disturbed sleep on pain, has shifted to animals.
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Sharon Kozachik, PhD, RN |
That's the kind of radical change that the training program engenders. More importantly, being part of a research team that brings together mentors from the Johns Hopkins University Schools of Nursing and Medicine has given her "a broader view of ongoing mechanisms that impact pain," Kozachik said. That's because research fellows like Kozachik, who has been a nurse since 1985, are expected to train in two or more areas of expertise: behavioral/social science, biomedical, or clinical research.
Funding for the program comes from the National Institutes of Health's Roadmap for Medical Research, which fosters new organizational models for team science and aims to better quantify clinically important symptoms and outcomes, including pain, that are difficult to measure. The five-year grant is a first for the School of Nursing, according to Gayle G. Page, DNSc, RN, FAAN, Director of the Center for Nursing Research. Page also co-directs the training program with Professor Jennifer Haythornthwaite, PhD of the School of Medicine.
"Pain is bigger than any single disease," Page said. "Only by banding together will we conquer it."
One of Sharon Kozachik's two mentors, Page is especially pleased about the opportunity to grow new researchers and the chance for members of her profession to take the lead. "Nurses are ideally suited to this work because they see the whole patient, they know who's contributing to care, and they are in a position to coordinate it." Aside from formal qualifications, she thinks curiosity and a willingness to take risks are necessary to succeed in the program.
Kozachik fits the profile. Although still a Fellow, she has recently secured funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research to pursue her own line of research.
