A faculty member at Memorial’s School of Nursing has won an award for her work in the field of nephrology health care.

Dr. Creina Twomey received a manuscript award at the Canadian Association of Nephrology Nurses and Technologists conference held recently in St. John’s for her paper, Responsiveness of the Patients' Perception of Life on Hemodialysis.

The paper was judged "to have made the most significant contribution to the field of nephrology health care," by the Canadian Association of Nephrology Nurses and Technologists 2013 program committee.

Prof. Twomey’s award-winning paper is of interest to hemodialysis health-care professionals because it looks at quality outcomes in people who are living with kidney disease.

The paper was part of Dr. Twomey’s PhD dissertation, Psychometric Testing of the Patient Perception of Hemodialysis Scale.

Psychometrics is the field of study concerned with the theory and technique of measuring validity, reliability and sensitivity. It may include measuring knowledge, abilities, attitudes, personality traits and educational measurement.

“Complications associated with hemodialysis add additional stressors to an already difficult situation,” said Dr. Twomey. “Kidney disease and its treatment can impact every aspect of a person’s life, including physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and financial health.

“In order to provide optimal care and promote quality patient outcomes, health care providers must develop a greater understanding of how individuals’ perceive illness and treatment experiences, the usefulness of social supports, and how successful they are adjusting to living with a chronic illness and its treatment,” she said.

Dr. Twomey’s research was part of a national study designed to develop a disease-specific instrument to monitor the total experiences of living on hemodialysis and conduct a detailed examination of the instrument's properties.

 The main purpose of the overall research program was to monitor changes in how individuals on hemodialysis adapt to living with end-stage renal disease and its treatment rate the quality of their social supports, and adjust to living with their disease and hemodialysis. 

The paper will likely be published in an upcoming issue of The Canadian Association of Nephrology Nurses and Technologists journal.

Dr. Twomey teaches in the bachelor of nursing and master’s program at Memorial’s School of Nursing. Her research interests include psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness, quality of life, psychometrics, clinical epidemiology, men in nursing, and community health assessment.