Beyond the Bedside: A Look at Spartans in Nursing | Page 19

Generating Knowledge
It was in her role as a Clinical Nurse Specialist
in neuroscience that Paula Sherwood
worked with an upbeat 22-year-old man
with a primary malignant brain tumor.
Besides supporting their son with cognitive
dysfunction, his parents as family caregivers
had to navigate the healthcare system and a
host of specialist providers. They also had to
deal with money, lawyers, and all the demands
of everyday life. These challenges impacted
their own mental and physical health.
She later learned from the family how much
she and the neurosurgical team helped
them with the challenges they faced. In this
moment Sherwood discovered her “what
next”…the need to investigate the impact
of brain tumors on the patient and family
and the biobehavioral interactions that can
occur in caregivers as a result of the stress of
providing care.
She found brain cancer to be an “orphan”
in most research, largely because subjects
who are not cognitively intact are typically
excluded from studies. Beginning her quest
to fill this vital gap in the research, she chose
to study with national leaders in cancer and
caregiver research, Professors Barbara Given
and William Given.
Her research addresses the challenge of
working with cognitively impaired subjects

using a dyadic approach. Both patients and
caregivers are recruited to participate, making
it possible to compare their outcomes. She
also pairs oncology intervention expertise with
her own knowledge of the neuro-oncology
population and the behavioral effects on
physical and emotional health.

asked to do something. But I always said
‘yes,’ and it always ended up teaching me
something. Always say ‘yes’.”

Mentors—Having Them,
Keeping Them, Being One

Sherwood is fond of quoting Albert Einstein;
“If we knew what it was we were doing,
it would not be called research." In addition
to her NIH/NINR and NCI funded research,
she promotes nursing science in her work
with junior faculty and students in the
schools of nursing and medicine, as well as
internationally as a consultant.

Sherwood emphasizes that the common
thread in her career is the continued
involvement of her PhD and Post Doctorate
mentors. The Givens “pushed me to think
about things in a new light, never accepting
the easy way out, never letting me off the
hook, always challenging me,” Sherwood says.
She describes it as “standing on the shoulders
of giants.” The key to building a nationally
funded portfolio of research, according to
her, “is to surround myself with a team of
scientists, more accomplished and more
experienced than myself to share expertise,
challenge ideas, and push things forward in
a way that’s never been done before.”
Mentors opened doors for her professionally,
involving her in ways that elevated her
experience and exposure to push the
boundaries of nursing research discovery.
This translates to advice she gives to her
students, “Never turn down an opportunity.
You may not understand why you’re being

Pushing the Boundaries
of Bioresearch in Nursing

Her Fulbright project, “Promoting Nursing
Science and Evidence Based Practice across
the Care Curriculum,” introduced the concept
of biologic research by nurses at the University
of Eastern Finland. She shared her experience
of fusing biological and behavioral nursing
to create effective interventions to improve
outcomes for patients and their families.
Sherwood considers her greatest research
outcome to be the voice it gives to
the “forgotten,” the “orphans” in neurooncology research.

MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF NURSING • NURSING.MSU.EDU

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