Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation Announces Winners of 2012 National Pain Management Awards

Bellevue, WA (February 21, 2012) – The Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation (NPHF) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2011-2012 Purdue Pharma Pain Management Awards, designed to further educate and research in the area of pain management.  Five awards of $5,000 each were given to practicing nurse practitioners and students for their projects. 

“Pain is the most common reason to seek healthcare and the leading cause of lost days of work,” said Phyllis Zimmer, President, NPHF.  “We are thrilled to provide these five deserving recipients with the opportunity to address this national public health issue.  We appreciate the funding provided by Purdue Pharma L.P. to support this programming.”

“We are pleased to support the Foundation’s efforts to increase the understanding of scientific, clinical and healthcare issues that contribute to the improvement of patient care,” according to Pamela Bennett, BSN, RN, Executive Director of Healthcare Alliance Development at Purdue Pharma L.P. “The award recipients are to be applauded for their dedication to improving the lives of patients suffering from pain.”

NPHF/Purdue Pharma Pain Management Award Winners

Jessica Cooper, BSN, MSN, CPNP, APRN (Plantsville, CT)

Ms. Cooper practices as a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner who practices at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center general surgery department in Hartford, Connecticut.  This award will provide funding for Ms. Cooper’s research into the pain experience of children after discharge home after a laparoscopic appendectomy.  The research will concentrate on home opioid use to arrive at a protocol for prescribers to make informed opioid analgesic prescribing decisions to provide pain relief while preventing drug diversion.

Lorena Jaimes, RN, BSN, DNP(c) (Seattle, WA)

Ms. Jaimes is pursuing her Doctor of Nursing Practice in Acute Care at the University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.  She works as a Registered Nurse in the Inpatient Spinal Cord Injury Unit at the Veterans Affairs Health Care Center in Seattle, Washington and is a teaching assistant in the nursing skills lab at the University of Washington.  This award will fund Ms. Jaimes’ research into the knowledge of rehabilitation nurses of pain management for combat-related traumatic brain injuries in order to identify gaps in knowledge, propose recommendations and modifications for existing protocols, and improve care.

Rita Marie John, DNP, EdD, CPNP (New York, NY)

Dr. John is an Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing and the PNP/NNP Program Director at Columbia University in New York, New York.  Dr. John is a member of the Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy, which recognizes outstanding educators; she has received numerous other awards and honors as a teacher.  This award will fund research to evaluate the effectiveness of two different buzzers in reducing immunization pain in adolescents between the ages of 10-18.  Her other research interests include informatics, innovative nursing education methods, and childhood obesity.

Denay Mershman, RN, BSN, BA (Walled Lake, MI)

Ms. Mershman is pursuing her Masters degree in the Primary Care Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program at Wayne State University.  Ms. Mershman practices as a Registered Nurse in the Emergency Department of Children’s Hospital of Michigan.  This award will support research concerning the efficacy of needle free jet injections of lidocaine for pediatric acute pain control during venous punctures.  Ms. Mershman hopes to determine if there is a correlation between acute pain control and overall parent/caregiver satisfaction with children’s stay in the Emergency Department.

Michael Wolf, CRNA, APNP (Berlin, WI)

Mr. Wolf is pursuing his Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Mr. Wolf is a certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist.  He is the Vice President/Administrator and Senior Partner of the Central Wisconsin Anesthesia Associates and Clinical Coordinator/Adjunct Faculty for the U.S. Army Program for Nursing Anesthesia and York University Nurse Anesthesia.  In 2010, Mr. Wolf was recognized as the 2010 Clinical Instructor of the Year by the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists.  This award will fund the design of a program of study for both Nurse Anesthesia Programs and currently practicing CRNAs, which will provide training in palliative care and pain control for dying patients.