BgcN mEP FmfF pX

CTR seminar to focus on behavioral intervention research









picture disc.


Nancy Fahrenwald, Ph.D.

Today’s Clinical and Translational Research (CTR) seminar will focus on a project that helped raise awareness and willingness in terms of organ donation among members of northern plains American Indian Tribes.

During the seminar, which will be held at noon in the Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater, Nancy Fahrenwald, Ph.D., associate professor in the South Dakota State University College of Nursing, will discuss her team’s efforts to increase willingness of tribe members to donate.

Dr. Fahrenwald and her team have developed and implemented a plan to increase the intention of members of four northern plains tribes to donate organs — namely kidneys — in the face of high type 2 diabetes rates among American Indians.

While there was little talk among tribe members about organ donation, Dr. Fahrenwald’s group did find that what little talk there was often focused on kidney donation and other issues related to diabetes.

To increase awareness and intention, brochures, videos, public service announcements and Web sites were designed using the American Indian tradition of storytelling to recount the tales of those who had donated, who were in need of a donation or who didn’t get a needed donation.

The push worked. Of 1,500 people who participated in the study, 57 percent expressed an increased intention to become donors.

Dr. Fahrenwald is lecture is part of an ongoing series of CTR seminars that are typically held on the third Monday of each month.

The seminar will be recorded and available for investigators who cannot attend.

It also will be televised at the following sites:

  • College of Dentistry in Lincoln, Room 7;
  • College of Nursing in Lincoln, Room 307;
  • College of Nursing in Scottsbluff, Panhandle Station Room 203;
  • College of Nursing in Kearney, CMCT 216; and
  • College of Nursing in Omaha, Room 4078.