The American Nurses Foundation and the ASHP Foundation Award $75,000 in Research Grant Funding
SILVER SPRING, MD - The American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation) announced the recipients of the 2021 Collaborative Care Grant for Nurses and Pharmacists. The competitive grant program, offered in partnership with the ASHP Foundation, supports innovative projects co-led by nursing and pharmacy to stimulate and demonstrate the impact of team-based care that enhances the safe and effective use of medications.
The 2021 recipients are Jennifer Kliner, CRNP, ACNP-BC, and James C. Coons, PharmD, FACC, FCCP, BCCP, for their proposal, “Achieving Medication Optimization for Patients with Heart Failure through an Innovative Nurse Practitioner-Pharmacist Collaboration.” Kliner and Coons proposed an innovative clinical service that aligns with and advances the collective vision of the American Nurses Foundation and the ASHP Foundation. It combines both nurse practitioner and pharmacist directed care to optimize medication-related and clinical outcomes for patients with heart failure having a reduced ejection fraction.
Ms. Kliner is an Advanced Practice Nurse Practitioner at the Heart and Vascular Institute of the University of Pittsburgh (UPMC). Her focus is on acute care/critical care, and she has spent the last 11 years in the sub-specialty of Advanced Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension. Dr. Coons is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy and Therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and a clinical pharmacist specializing in cardiovascular medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
“The pandemic has illuminated the need for even greater collaboration among clinicians. Collaboration among funders is needed too. We are delighted to partner with ASHP Foundation to support the best research from nursing and pharmacist teams,” said the Executive Director of the American Nurses Foundation, Kate Judge.
“We congratulate Dr. Coons and Ms. Kliner as the inaugural recipient of the Collaborative Care Research Grant. Their research will demonstrate the value of pharmacists and nurses working together to optimize the safe and effective use of medications and to improve outcomes for patients with heart failure,” said Chief Executive Officer of the ASHP Foundation, Steven A. Rubloff.
The funded research is piloting a telemedicine-based Medication Optimization Clinic (MOC) to enhance optimal medical therapy using an innovative nurse practitioner-pharmacist collaboration, to determine scalability, and to determine if the MOC practice model decreases hospitalizations due to heart failure and mortality. The teams’ collaborative research began in late 2021, and we look forward to sharing the impact of their collaboration in 2023.
Additional information about the grant is available here.
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About the American Nurses Foundation
American Nurses Foundation was founded in 1955 as the charitable affiliate of the American Nurses Association, and our mission is to transform the nation’s health through the power of nursing. America’s 4.3 million nurses comprise the largest body of healthcare professionals and they are ideally positioned to be the best role models, educators, and advocates of health, safety, and wellness. The Foundation invests in advances in research, education, and clinical practice that empower nurses to transform healthcare and improve lives. Our programs strive to elevate the image of nurses and the improve their overall health; ensure that nurses can practice to the full extent of their training; strengthen nurses’ leadership skills to serve as full partners in healthcare decision-making and improvement; and generate new knowledge and policy through nurses’ scholarly research and practice. To learn more about the Foundation’s programs, visit givetonursing.org.
About the ASHP Foundation
The ASHP Foundation was established in 1968 by ASHP as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization. As the philanthropic arm of ASHP, the Foundation shares ASHP’s vision that medication use will be optimal, safe, and effective for all people all of the time. Our mission is to support ASHP by advancing the professional practice of pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce by funding research and education that improves health outcomes through optimal, safe, and effective medication use. To learn more about the Foundation’s programs, visit ashpfoundation.org.