American Nurses Foundation and ASHP Foundation Announce the Recipients of the 2024 Collaborative Care Grant
MEDIA CONTACT: Newsroom@ana.org
SILVER SPRING, MD – The American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2024 Collaborative Care Grant for Nurses and Pharmacists. This competitive grant program, offered in partnership with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists® (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 ASHP Foundation is the philanthropic arm of ASHP, a national professional organization that represents pharmacists who serve as patient care providers in acute and ambulatory settings.
The 2024 recipients are Dana Burns, DNP, FNP-BC, BC-ADM, and Evan M. Sisson, PharmD, MSHA, BCACP, CDCES, for their proposal, “Feasibility Study for the Comprehensive Overweight/Obesity Management Pre-Kidney Transplant (COMPKT) Program.” According to Burns and Sisson, “Approximately 30% of patients waiting for a kidney transplant at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System have delayed evaluation for the procedure because they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) greater than 35 kg/m2, putting them at high risk for serious comorbid health complications and poor post-transplant outcomes, and those with a BMI greater than 40 kg/m2 are not eligible to proceed.” This project expands the team with a clinical pharmacist, a family nurse practitioner, and a dietitian in the VCU Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism. The team will then create a treatment program to reduce a patient’s BMI using medications for weight loss, patient education, and technology tools for making healthy lifestyle choices.
“On behalf of the American Nurses Foundation, I am honored to congratulate this year’s recipients of the Collaborative Care Research Grant. The work of Dr. Sisson and Dr. Burns is both inspiring and revolutionary. Together they created an innovative solution to dangerous comorbidities that impact a patient’s ability to receive lifesaving treatment. I am excited to see how they will use this grant to continue their research and expand the utilization of this program. This is going to make a considerable, positive impact on many lives in the foreseeable future,” said Adriane K. Griffen, DrPH, MPH, MCHES®, Interim Executive Director and Vice President of Programs at the Foundation.
“The ASHP Foundation congratulates Dr. Burns and Dr. Sisson as the 2024 recipients of the Collaborative Care Research Grant,” said Barbara B. Nussbaum, vice president for research and education at the ASHP Foundation. “Their research will ensure a patient’s eligibility for a kidney transplant and improve their health outcomes, post-transplant and beyond. Obesity is a chronic disease that affects a significant portion of the population. Therefore, the findings and insights from this research could have a broader impact on patient care."
Burns is a clinical associate professor at the VCU School of Nursing and an affiliate faculty member at the School of Pharmacy. As the director of practice-based interprofessional education (IPE) with the VCU Center for IPE and Collaborative Care, she has collaborated with several health science teaching institutions to help create innovative practice models to meet the unique needs of their institutions. In more than 25 years as a nurse practitioner, she has worked in mental health, family and primary care, and clinical education.
Sisson is a professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science at the VCU School of Pharmacy. He has a clinical background in ambulatory care pharmacy practice, with an emphasis on the management of cardiovascular risk factors, including hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes, and obesity. His research focuses on the efficacy of team-based care models that incorporate pharmacists in improving cardiovascular risk factors and evaluating the implementation of evidence-based practice.
Additional information about the grant is available here.
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About American Nurses Foundation
American Nurses Foundation is the charitable and philanthropic arm of the American Nurses Association (ANA), with the mission to transform the nation’s health through the power of nursing. The Foundation supports research, education, and scholarships, which improve health, wellness, and patient care. For more information visit www.nursingworld.org/foundation.
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 www.ashpfoundation.org.