USF Nursing’s Veterans’ Research featured in Venice Gulf Coast Living Magazine

Helping service members and veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan heal from symptoms of combat exposure, including post traumatic stress and mild traumatic brain injury, is the focus of a $2.1-million federal grant awarded to the College of Nursing at the University of South Florida featured in the November, 2012 issue of Venice Gulf Coast Living magazine, page 41.

Research to Improve Emotional Health and Quality of Life among Service Members with Disabilities, was established to develop and evaluate treatments to complement services to the military provided by the VA Healthcare System, TRICARE, and the conventional healthcare system. The article in Venice Gulf Coast Living was based on Restoring Lives, an article originally published in the Spring 2011 magazine Nursing on the Move, page 21. 

Based at the USF College of Nursing, Research to Improve Emotional Health and Quality of Life among Service Members with Disabilities will support five studies designed to help soldiers overcome psychological trauma and other health problems that come from serving in combat operations. The grant is is a collaborative project with the James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and includes national participation by current and former members of the Armed Forces, clinical psychologists, nurse scientists, educators and research support personnel. The grant was awarded and will be administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research & Materiel Command and the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center at Fort Detrick, MD. The grant is composed of five sub studies each researching a different aspect of veterans’s health issues. These sub studies include: Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Empowering Women Veterans, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Tele-rehabilitation, Assessment of Base Rates of PTSD, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT).

“The need is overwhelming,” said principal investigator Kevin Kip, PhD, Associate Professor and Executive Director of the College of Nursing Research Center. “If all the trained therapists worked 24 hours a day, seven days a week, they couldn’t begin to meet the needs of these courageous service members and veterans.”

One of the studies mentioned in the article was the Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), which is being studied as an alternative to traditional PTSD treatments that use drugs or lengthy therapy sessions. The talk therapy uses back-and-forth eye movements as the patient fluctuates between talking about a traumatic scene, and using the eye movements to help process that information to integrate the memories from traumatic events. The first findings of this study appear in an on-line article published June 18, 2012 in the journal Behavioral Sciences.

The magazine article emphasizes the USF College of Nursing’s commitment to address veterans health issues through  RESTORE LIVES: Education and Research to Rehabilitate and Restore the Lives of Veterans, Service Members, and their Families. USF College of Nursing’s continuous efforts to develop life enhancing treatments through nursing research, and educate nurses with the knowledge and skills specific to the needs of the military, veterans, and their families. The ART study is an example of type of innovative research that the USF College of Nursing is developing to improve the health of our honored service members and veterans.

“The research conducted through RESTORE LIVES is unique in the nation and is critical as we now have the largest number of combat veterans reentering mainstream America since the Vietnam era. The cutting-edge therapies tested are designed to literally restore the lives of our honored soldiers and veterans,” said Dianne Morrison-Beedy PhD, RN, WHNP-BC, FNAP, FAANP, FAAN, Senior Associate Vice President of USF Health and Dean of the College of Nursing.

-RESTORE LIVES at USF Nursing –

Through ‘RESTORE LIVES: Education and Research to Rehabilitate and Restore the Lives of Veterans, Service Members, and their Families,’ USF College of Nursing faculty develop life enhancing treatments through nursing research, and educate nurses with the knowledge and skills specific to the needs of treating veterans and service members with innovative solutions, and conduct research specific to veteran and military health issues through training nursing leaders within military, and educating nurses at all levels in the special needs of the military, veterans and their families. For more information on RESTORE LIVES or the other priorities  at the USF College of Nursing visit  health.usf.edu/nursing/priorities