Dr. Harleah Buck Recognized for Scholarly Work on Cardiovascular Caregivers

USF College of Nursing associate professor Harleah Buck, PhD, RN, FPCN, FAAN, was recently awarded a certificate by a European journal for her high impact scholarly work on cardiovascular caregivers.

In late 2013, Dr. Buck and her team of researchers from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, published a paper titled, “Caregivers’ contributions to heart failure self-care: A systematic review.” The paper was part of the groundwork for a funded psychometric study to develop a badly needed instrument to quantify informal caregiver’s contribution to heart failure self-care.

This study was conducted with in-kind support by the Canadian Network and Centre for Trials Internationally (CANNeCTIN) and a $50,000 grant from the Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation.

Dr. Buck’s paper was accepted by SAGE Publications and published in the European Journal on Cardiovascular Nursing (EJCN). Since its publication, interest in the paper has steadily increased. In 2015 and 2016, the paper was one of EJCN’s best cited papers and contributed to increasing the journal’s impact factor – a measurement that tracks how frequently a particular article within a journal has been cited.

Research concerning heart failure caregivers is limited. With the exception of Dr. Buck’s paper, there has been a lack of research study synthesis available in this area. According to Dr. Buck, this review is the first of its kind – leaving her paper to stand on its own.

Systematic reviews summarize the results of previously conducted research studies and provide the evidence on which clinical practice is based. Dr. Buck has conducted four systematic reviews in her career. “They are hard work when done well,” she said. Only one of these systematic reviews was funded by an organization. The other three were driven by Dr. Buck’s passion for advancing research. “I really do believe that is how you grow the science,” she said.

The certificate was presented in August during the European Society of Cardiology Congress held in Barcelona, Spain.

Story by Nicholas Orlando, USF College of Nursing