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News Release

Last modified: Thursday, March 18, 2010

Work on epilepsy self-management, care unit safety earns IU nursing professor national award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2010

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana University associate professor in the School of Nursing's Department of Adult Health has received the Clinical Nurse Specialist Researcher of the Year award from the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists (NACNS).

Janice Buelow received the award for leadership in the field of epilepsy research, where her work has focused on understanding self-management in adults and children with epilepsy and their families. She heads one of the few research teams in the country that is examining and testing a parent-centered intervention for children with normal to borderline IQs who have epilepsy. Buelow also conducted one of the first studies describing epilepsy monitoring unit practice, and that work was the foundation for a large Delphi study designed to provide consensus-proposed patient safety standards for those units.

"Janice has a profound commitment to the education and development of future research scholars and clinical nurse specialists," said NACNS president Melanie Duffy. "At the same time she has also provided outstanding leadership in research and evidence-based improvement of care. She is a superb role model of a researcher who is truly making a difference."

Buelow is a clinical nurse specialist with an expertise in caring for people with chronic neurologic disease and specifically epilepsy. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship at IU after working clinically with people with epilepsy for 10 years at the Rush Epilepsy Center in Chicago. She has expertise in working with both children who have intellectual delay and epilepsy and their parents, and is currently funded to study an intervention for families through the National Institutes of Health.

Her research has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing, Epilepsy and Behavior, and Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. She serves on the boards of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America and the Epilepsy Foundation of Indiana (the local affiliate), where she is a volunteer grant writer raising funds to support local outreach efforts for the underserved in Indiana. She is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing and Clinical Nurse Specialist, is active in the National Association of Clinical Nurse Specialists, and holds leadership positions in the American Association of Neuroscience Nursing and the American Epilepsy Society.

Buelow has been recognized extensively for her work in epilepsy as a nurse advocate, as a clinician and as a researcher by respected nursing organizations like Sigma Theta Tau and the Midwest Nursing Research Society, and by Indiana University. She has conducted six funded research studies targeting patients with epilepsy and their families.

She has a BA from Concordia University, a BSN from Northwestern University and earned an MS and PhD from the University Illinois at Chicago.

The Clinical Nurse Specialist Researcher of the Year award was created to recognize an NACNS member for outstanding professional achievement as a clinical nurse specialist who has conducted original nursing research that has significantly enhanced the science of autonomous nursing practice, patient and family outcomes, and/or health care systems. The award acknowledges a nurse for an accomplished program of research that has significantly contributed to advancing the nursing profession.

To speak with Buelow, please contact Steve Chaplin, University Communications, at 812-856-1896 or stjchap@indiana.edu.

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