By Jamie Nicpon | Office of Communications & Marketing | 3-1-2018
Lisa Segre, PhD, associate professor, is dedicated to ensuring the mental well-being of new mothers in Iowa. For more than 10 years, her research has centered on evaluating a nurse-delivered depression treatment for new mothers via an intervention called Listening Visits, which was first developed in the United Kingdom before being implemented and evaluated for clinical practice in the United States.
To date, hundreds of Listening Visits have been conducted, gaining a great deal of acclaim for successfully improving interventions and outcomes in the community and in the NICU. Although she is listed as the Primary Investigator (PI), Dr. Segre fully recognizes the essential contributions from UI students, who have played a vital role in conducting these clinical trials, making the program an advantageous two-way street.
“The Healthy Start program in Des Moines, for example, was one of the home-visiting programs participating in the U.S.-based clinical trial, and 87% of Healthy Start clients do not speak English,” said Dr. Segre.
To meet recruitment goals, she needed a bilingual (Spanish speaking) research assistant. Sara Stasik, a graduate student in Clinical Psychology “saved the day” and traveled with Dr. Segre to the homes of the participants.
“Let me paint a clear picture. There we were … Sara talking to the woman (in Spanish) with me crawling around behind her, having a good time occupying the kids,” described Dr. Segre. “After the data was collected, Sara also played a key role in data analysis and ultimately became a co-author on the resulting publication. I could not have completed the study without her.”
Undergraduate students have also been vital to Dr. Segre’s research program. Many of the women enrolled in her study were poor and not familiar with research. To help them feel more at ease, after each of the study interviews Dr. Segre left small, wrapped gifts. This important “personal touch” was time-consuming and challenging to implement.
Megan Leibforth, an undergraduate nursing student, filled this complex role of managing the gifts. She had to track the age of the children at each interview and make sure gifts were not duplicated. She kept the gift cabinet stocked, and selected and wrapped gifts for each interview. “It was like Santa’s workshop,” noted Dr. Segre. “Because of students like Megan, I could provide this type of personal touch. Our participants were at ease and we had awesome participant retention.”
Dr. Segre firmly believes that the experience gained by working on the Listening Visits research team greatly enhanced the students’ educational experience … potentially improving their career trajectory in the process.
For example, Stasik (the bilingual interviewer) is now an assistant professor at Knox College. She continues to collaborate with Dr. Segre as she works toward her own tenure. Megan Leibforth (gift manager) completed her BSN, works as a clinical nurse, and is currently enrolled in the college’s graduate level Family Nurse Practitioner program.
“In general, students who become involved in faculty research feel valued and engaged. Working with a faculty member and a research team creates an important personal connection in a large university setting. Students learn to work on a team, develop a sense of responsibility and, knowing that the faculty member depends on them, makes the student feel valued,” said Dr. Segre. “The faculty-student research partnership is a win-win. It’s the ‘hidden part’ of education—the part that makes a big university feel small, and the part that students should not miss.”
To read about more Hometown Hawkeyes from the College of Nursing and other UI departments, click here
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