Riegel Explores Intersection of Self-Management, Symptom Science
Dr. Barbara Riegel recently presented the NINR Director’s Lecture, “At the Intersection of Self-Management and Symptom Science.” Like many events originally scheduled to take place on campus, Riegel’s lecture was presented online in response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Professor of gerontology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and codirector of the International Center for Self-Care Research, Riegel described her research program in adult chronic illnesses such as heart failure.
She began studying heart failure after finishing her Ph.D., when, as a clinical nurse researcher, she was tasked with determining which patients in a health care system were repeatedly admitted and what could be done to reduce these readmissions.
After discovering that it was heart failure patients who were repeatedly readmitted, Riegel began a series of heart failure disease management trials, marking the start of her research in this population.
“I never saw myself as a theorist when I went into this,” Riegel admitted, describing how her research led to a series of theoretical developments. She considers her major area of impact in measurement, however, including the Self-Care of Heart Failure Index, as well as self-care inventories for hypertension, coronary heart disease, diabetes, COPD, chronic illness and others available at http://self-care-measures.com.
View Riegel’s full lecture at https://www.youtube.com/NINRnews.