Two PhD candidates in the Ohio State College of Nursing have been awarded Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award Individual Predoctoral Fellowships, also known as F31 grants, from the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research (NIH/NINR).
Randi Bates, a certified nurse practitioner and PhD candidate, has been awarded an F31 grant for her study, “The influence of early life contexts on child self-regulation: A key to lifecourse wellness.” The study deals with identifying chronic or persistent stress in young children, “with contextual markers, behavior (self-regulation), or with a biomeasure (cortisol) in hair,” Bates said. During her PhD studies at Ohio State, Bates also earned her MS in nursing with a focus in family nurse practitioner. She is sponsored for this fellowship by Jodi Ford, PhD, RN, of the College of Nursing; Pamela Salsberry, PhD, RN, FAAN, of the College of Public Health; and Laura Justice, PhD, of the Crane Center for Early Childhood Education and Policy/College of Education and Human Ecology.
Marliese Nist, who holds a BS and MS in nursing from Ohio State, was awarded an F31 for her study, “Inflammatory Mediators of Stress Exposure and Neurodevelopment in Very Preterm Infants.” The objective of this study is to examine the indirect effect of stress exposure on neurodevelopment, mediated by inflammation, a potentially modifiable factor. “The goal is to provide evidence that can be used to improve the long-term outcomes of preterm infants,” Nist said. Nist's sponsors are Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN; Tondi Harrison PhD, RN, CPNP, FAAN; and Deborah Steward, PhD, RN, all from the College of Nursing.
Another PhD candidate, Lisa Blair, received an F31 grant in August of 2016, making a total of three PhD Nursing students at Ohio State currently supported by F31 grants. Her sponsors are Cindy Anderson, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Rita Pickler, PhD, RN, FAAN, from the College of Nursing.
“Randi and Marliese are carrying on a strong tradition at the [Ohio State] College of Nursing in their successful bids to obtain this highly competitive and prestigious NIH award. As T32 Fellows, they have acquired quite a bit of research training; their new awards provide them further opportunity to develop advanced research skills and knowledge,” said Pickler, PhD Program Director. “These awards are quite an honor for our students and their sponsors as well as the college.”
The NIH awards F31 grants to provide predoctoral students with supervised research training in specified health and health-related areas leading toward the research degree. The NIH states that the purpose of the F31 award is “to enable promising predoctoral students to obtain individualized, mentored research training from outstanding faculty sponsors while conducting dissertation research in scientific health-related fields relevant to the missions of the participating NIH Institutes and Centers.”
