Annette De Vito Dabbs, RN, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Acute/Tertiary Care

Phone: 412-624-5314   
Email: ajdst42@pitt.edu

Research Abstracts
Curriculum Vitae

RESEARCH:
My scholarly interests include health-related quality of life after lung transplantation, active partnerships between patients and clinicians, qualitative research, and mixed-methods analysis techniques. The descriptive studies that I have conducted to date provide evidence that positive outcomes after transplantation are dependent on recipients' abilities to adjust to the challenges that accompany the health transition after transplantation and become active partners in their care. The results of my prior research combined with the work of others suggest that lung transplant recipients experience more transplant-related complications, higher mortality and health care utilization than recipients of other organs. Following transplantation, they must adjust to two simultaneous and somewhat contradictory changes - a dramatically improved health state, and the need to adhere to a life-long regimen of immunosuppression and daily self- monitoring for potential complications. Yet LTR often hold naïve expectations for normalcy after transplant.

I am the recipient of a Research Scientist Development Award (K01 NR009385) titled: Promoting Self Care After Lung Transplantation. My current research involves the designing and testing of pocket PCs with customized data recording, tracking, messaging and decision-support programs to promote lung recipients’ self-care behaviors, including: self-monitoring, adhering to medical regimens, and communicating condition changes to the transplant team.  In the phase I pilot of this project, a fully functional Pocket PATH prototype was developed with recipient participation in usability design and testing sessions. A phase II, pilot randomized controlled trial is currently underway to test the feasibility and estimate the effects of the technological intervention relative to standard care on the performance of self-care behaviors by new lung recipients. Based on the results of these preliminary studies, a full-scale phase III RCT will be proposed to rigorously test the efficacy of Pocket PATH in promoting self-care behaviors and hence better transplant-related health outcomes. In another pilot study supported by the School of Nursing NIH funded Center for Research in Chronic Disorders, “Adherence and the Process of 'Striving for Normalcy' after Lung Transplantation,” I am exploring how patterns of adherence may be influenced by the process of 'striving for normalcy.'

TEACHING:
I teach the undergraduate Ethics in Nursing and Health Care course (NUR 1085) , and am the primary teacher for the web-based, Master’s level course: Ethics for Advanced Practice Nursing (NUR 2008). I also serve as an advisor for undergraduate and doctoral nursing students and have students enrolled in independent study programs.

SERVICE:
Within the School of Nursing, I serve on the following committees: Planning and Budget and Evaluation and Steering, and am a founding member of the Qualitative Research Group. Within the university, I have an adjunct faculty appointment in the Department of Bioethics and Law, and participate in the Interdisciplinary Transplant Investigators Group in the Department of Psychiatry and Epidemiology and the Lung Transplant Research Group in the Division of CT Transplantation. At the local/regional level,I am a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society, Eta Chapter, Pennsylvania State Nurse's Association , and The Eastern Nursing Research Society. At the national level, I am a member of the American Nurse's Association, American Thoracic Society (currently serving on the Program Committee for the Nursing Assembly) and The International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (currently serving a two year term as Co-Chair for the Research Committee of the Nursing & Social Science Council). I am an editorial board member for Qualitative Health Research and a regular reviewer for The American Journal of Critical Care, Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, Heart & Lung, Clinical Nurse Specialist, Journal of Advanced Practice and Critical Care Nurse. I devote clinical time to supporting the activities of the transplant coordinators for the adult lung transplant program of UPMC.