OSU Flashcards
Why do I want to be in this Lab (Summarized)?
A child with autism/epilepsy who had significant mental and physical health challenges. I saw firsthand how interconnected these two factors were to one another.
I often spent weeks at the hospital supporting my client.
Her family was from a very low SES. And felt they had a significant lack of resources.
I became very passionate about finding methods to help improve mental and physical wellbeing for my client.
Additionally, I became very passionate about disseminating resources to clinical populations, that truly benefit from such work, like my client.
Throughout my undergraduate degree, and post bacc research experience, I had research, academic, and clinical experiences where over time I developed an interest in examining interventions, including sleep based interventions that target stress reduction strategies for individuals who have faced health-related challenges, in the hope of reducing stress and promoting overall wellbeing.
Clinical opportunities: to work with individuals from underserved communities And had several opportunities to share resources with these clinical communities that benefited
One clinical experience I’d like to highlight:
At OHSU, I had the opportunity to be a part of the UCEDD (University Center of Excellence in developmental disabilities) which connected me with the family-to-family department there at OHSU. (help families navigate health care system and connect families to various resources and support systems they may benefit from).
At that point, I had a serious interest in working with individuals with disabilities (like my client) which included finding ways to reduce chronic pain.
I was able to conduct a literature review there and examine the impact opioid bans have on those with chronic pain and cancer.
My mentor, Shauna, set up a panel of Doctors and nurses for me to present my literature review to (many of which worked closely with clients addicted to opioids).
I also had the opportunity to facilitate a discussion about the need for non-addictive methods for pain management.
This experience led me to become interested in investigating non-addictive interventions that could be used to improve the quality of life/promote well-being for individuals in pain and health related challenges.
ACE: Studied the impact adverse childhood experiences have on college students
-Analyzed data using SPSS by conducting a reliability analysis and bivariate correlation
-Students with higher ACEs have a negative correlation to college satisfaction and quality of life
-Students with higher ACEs have a positive correlation to anxiety and depression.
From this study, I realized research was something I’m very passionate about and wanted to pursue in graduate school.
For my post bacc, I sought out intervention research work, with the hope of improving well-being for various clinical populations,
It got me very interested in examining intervention-based research work, and looking at interventions that may support individuals who have experienced significant adversities.
I joined SHAID lab as a research coordinator and developed excellent project management skills. I Had the opportunity to work on several projects but primarily worked on the SITY,
investigate sleep health before, during, and after the initiation of gender-affirming hormone therapy. This experience ignited my passion for working with underserved and marginalized communities that are often overlooked in research.
However, I really wanted to focus more on the intervention aspect so Dr. Dietch connected me with Dr. Casement at OSL.
At OSL- I helped launch 2 NIH-funded projects, that will be going on for the next 5 years. Now my time is primarily spent running participants through all of our various procedures.
We have two studies:
examined if implementing an earlier bedtime and increasing sleep duration could lead to the reduction of anhedonia and depression symptoms in adolescents or reduce risky alcohol use in young adults.
………….
In this lab, I had the opportunity to work on some papers, protocol papers. But since this is a long-term study, we currently don’t have much data to examine.
So I was worked on some projects outside the OSL. I sat down with my mentor and discussed my interest in applying interventions in a community setting. So She connected me with a researcher intrested in cooperative learning. We looked at integrating CL techniques into middle schools (and HS)? We found that when teachers integrated CL techniques into their classroom, it reduced stress and in turn, improved sleep quality.
I became very interested in interventions that can be disseminated at a community-based level.
In graduate school I would like to examine interventions that lead to sleep improvement or sleep based interventions. I’m particularly intrested in disseminating these resources to individuals who may have disproportionate access to care: low SES, rural, individuals of color. I believe sleep is very much interconnected with mental and physical well being, and I’m very passionate about finding methods to reduce overall stress and improve quality of life.
My mentors often ask me to reflect on your “why” for conducting research. Especially when you get into the thick/weeds of a challenging project.
I am very enthusiastic about your lab because it directly aligns with my research interests and my “why”.
What’s a recent paper you read (relevant to lab) that you found interesting?
Chorpita.
Paper looking at sleep and stress reactivity in nurses. Examined daily assessments for 2 weeks. Found Baseline stress reactivity and sleep reactivity independently as well as jointly predict greater insomnia symptoms 11 months later. The findings delineate processes underlying the stress-diathesis model of insomnia and highlight the utility of longitudinal and naturalistic measures of sleep and stress reactivity.
Research Idea #1
Dr. Dietch work with stress/ sleep reactivity
There is a reciprocal relationship where pain during the day affects the quality of that night’s sleep and poor quality sleep increases pain levels the next day1. Improving insomnia/ short sleep associated with favorable prognosis.
______
Dr. Dietch and I have a joint interest in athletes ( I worked on student athlete project: that examined the daily sleep of athletes in the pac-12).
___
I’d be interested in examining athletes who experience pain due to injury among other reasons (perhaps chronic pain condition). And have difficulty falling or staying asleep.
Baseline:
Do qualitative interview survey to get a better idea of how they perceive their personal relationships between
stress/ pain/ sleep.
14 days: Baseline daily surveys: examine daily sleep diaries (sleep quality, duration, onset sleep latency) wear actiwatch
Daily pain diaries
Daily stress diaries
Intervention: improve sleep duration via cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia, and multicomponent relaxation therapy for insomnia. (What were using for OCIN).
Followed by 14 more days of daily assessments.
Having insomnia symptoms for more than 10 years in combination with short sleep were at an especially high risk of experiencing recurrent spinal pain, and improvement in insomnia symptoms was associated with a favorable prognosis
Same study as above but increase sleep duration through sleep hygine intervention.
Why are you interested in working with me?
Our interests directly align. I’ve worked with Dr. Dieth before and really enjoyed her mentorship style.
OSHIN: implementing interventions (CBTI, relaxation for sleep) that I am very excited about the prospect of learning more about.
SITY: working with marginalized community
What appeals to you about this program?
OSUs focus on diversity
Dr. Dietch’s focus on dissemination/ sleep based intervention work.
