Decker to offer healthcare research luncheons

Weight-loss surgery and the war on cancer are among the topics that will be examined this spring at the Decker School of Nursing’s Kresge Center for Nursing Research “green bag luncheons.”

The research luncheons will take place on seven Mondays this semester from noon-1 p.m. in AB-347.

“As a research university, it seems appropriate for the Kresge Center to have research seminars, lunches and presentations,” said Ann Myers, interim director of the center. “(This semester), we have students, some of our faculty members, faculty from other departments and we have a former faculty member coming back.”

The Kresge Center for Nursing Research’s mission is to support the scientific inquiry and expansion of the knowledge base of nursing and healthcare. The lunch sessions started about five years ago, Myers said, as a way to back doctoral nursing students’ efforts by “immersing them in an atmosphere rich in research and scholarship.”

That atmosphere includes encouraging interdisciplinary research with faculty members, other universities and local healthcare agencies and facilities. While the target audience for the luncheons is doctoral nursing students, all faculty, students and community members are invited to attend, Myers said.

“There’s always been a wonderful array of faculty from other departments,” Myers said of the presenters. “And some outside speakers can offer a topic that we may not be able to provide locally. You’ll see quite a variety of topics on our schedule.”

The spring schedule is:

• Feb. 6: David L. Brown, professor and chair, Development Sociology, co-director, Community and Regional Development Institute, Cornell University, presents “Retirement destination in the countryside: Community development as a path dependent process.”

“Our PhD program has had a focus on rural population,” Myers said. “We are one of the few doctoral programs in the country to have a rural focus. That’s important because half of the world’s population lives in rural areas.”

• Feb. 27: Kristen J. Eriksen, Health and Wellness adjunct faculty member in the Decker School of Nursing, presents “Lesbian-parent families: Perspectives of the non-birth mothers.”

• March 12: Dr. William A Graber, MD, FACS, PC, Faston-St. Lukes Health Care, Utica, presents “Weight Loss Surgery.”

“Bariatric surgery is relevant to all of us because of the health epidemic of obesity in this country,” Myers said. “We’re not saying this is the technique to use, but we want to explore it and look at some of the effects and raise some questions with him.”

• March 26: Olympia Berger, doctoral student in the Decker School of Nursing, presents “The relationship between blood pressure and wandering in patients with dementia.”

• April 16: Gerald Kutcher, history professor at Binghamton University and 2011 Guggenheim Fellow, presents “U.S. War on Cancer.”

• April 30: Margaret Wells, assistant professor in the College of Nursing at SUNY Upstate Medical University, presents “Resilience in older adults living in rural, suburban, and urban areas.”

• May 7: Linda L. Buettner, professor of therapeutic recreation/gerontology in the Department of Community and Therapeutic Recreation at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and a former Binghamton University faculty member, presents “The emerging science of recreational therapy in collaboration with nursing in long term care (LTC).”

Invitations to Buettner’s talk will likely be extended to local nursing-home directors and personnel, Myers said.

Each luncheon features a PowerPoint presentation with time at the end of the session for a Q&A and discussion, Myers said. Light refreshments are also served.

“It’s ‘green bag’ because we are trying to go green and one of the colors at Binghamton University is green,” she said. “So we put out some green lunch bags for people to bring their lunches in.”

Myers said she hopes that the luncheons help students and faculty generate ideas for further research while discovering a “broad spectrum” of topics.

“We are fortunate to have these opportunities for sharing among faculty and students on the campus,” she said. “Just come, have lunch with us, raise questions and find out what’s going on in certain fields. I think each of the speakers will be very exciting.”