Herr receives 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society - The University of Iowa College of Nursing

The University of Iowa College of Nursing

Herr receives 2009 Distinguished Contribution to Research Award from the Midwest Nursing Research Society

Dr. Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, AGSF, Professor and Chair of the Adult & Gerontology Area of Study, Research Director for the John A. Hartford Foundation Center for Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow was presented with the prestigious Distinguished Contribution to Research Award at the Midwest Nursing Research Society (MNRS) Annual Conference on March 28th in Minneapolis.

For over 20 years Dr. Herr has been engaged in a program of research and scholarly and professional activities focusing on the problem of pain in older adults for which she has earned regional, national and international recognition. Dr. Herr’s sustained program of research has evolved from exploratory studies that established the significance of the previously unrecognized problem of pain in elders, to interventional research aimed at identifying best practices for facilitating adoption of research-based pain management strategies in clinical practice. Identifying that a major contributor to the lack of recognition of the problem was the lack of pain assessment methods appropriate for use with older persons, Herr focused her efforts on establishing psychometric properties of tools that could be used for future studies and clinical practice. This research led to validation of The Faces Pain Scale for older adults, creation and validation of the Iowa Pain Thermometer, and demonstration of most effective pain scales for use with older adults that has served as the foundation for recommendations in many national and international clinical practice guidelines including the AGS Guidelines for Persistent Pain in Older Adults (2000) and the International Interdisciplinary Expert Consensus Statement on Assessment of Pain in Older Persons (2007).

Dr. Herr’s research has been widely disseminated in scientific journals, newsletters, websites and health care bulletins aimed at educating direct care providers and the public about the phenomenon of pain and methods of treating it. Her passion for expanding the development of nursing science related to pain encouraged her to take a leadership role in the Pain Research Section of MNRS in 1992, and in the American Geriatric Society, American Pain Society, American Society of Pain Management Nurses, and the International Association for the Study of Pain.

Dr. Herr’s work on pain assessment and management in older adults has developed new knowledge and introduced into nursing science significant advances in the practice of gerontological nursing. The depth and breadth of her program of research will continue to advance the care of vulnerable elders experiencing pain for decades to come.

Past UI College of Nursing recipients of the Distinguished Contribution to Research Award are Kathleen Buckwalter and Joanne McCloskey-Dochterman. Dr. Herr’s acceptance of this award included a presentation entitled “Pain In Older Adults: Improving Evidence-Based Practices with Greatness.”

March 30, 2009