Elizabeth Beam, PhD, RN, will accept the UNMC Impact in Education Scholar in Education Research Award on March 30.
The award, worth $5,000, “recognizes an individual who has advanced the science of teaching and learning through research of educational pedagogy,” according to award criteria.
Dr. Beam said the award stems from years of work through the HEROES program to educate health care providers and develop educational interventions to allow for more effective application of personal protective equipment. Her research focus has been on safe use of NIOSH approved N95 respirators.
“When we teach someone safety behaviors, we want to make sure that they do them consistently and correctly, particularly with things like respirators, because the rules are pretty specific,” she said. “We want to make sure they’re breathing through the material and protecting their airway.”
Part of Dr. Beam’s work includes a 2021 National Strategic Research Institute grant to work with a biocontainment course taught with the Center for Sustainment of Trauma Readiness Skills (C-STARS) Omaha. The course teaches active military health care workers the concepts of infection control as they relate to biocontainment for the next epidemic or biological threat. The grant allowed Dr. Beam and her team to test learning interventions and measure critical safety behaviors for several respiratory protection devices in both classroom and simulated biocontainment care situations.
Just prior to the pandemic, Dr. Beam used a seed grant from the UNMC College of Nursing to conduct longitudinal educational research on respirator use in health care workers. That study resulted in timely publications on respirator education as the pandemic raged in the United States. The publications from that grant were published in the American Journal of Infection Control and Workplace Health & Safety.
Dr. Beam said the learning modules and trainings provided by the HEROES program are focused on all-hazards because it helps medical professionals be prepared for everything from trauma to a chemical event, or even such weather disasters as floods or storms.
“For many years the focus in health care has been on patient safety, and that is still important,” she said. “It’s a human challenge to ensure that we prepare all health professions students and current health care workers with a safety mindset for their own protection.”
Dr. Beam noted her appreciation for the support of Joyce Black, PhD, RN, FAAN, with the UNMC College of Nursing, and Lt. Col. Elizabeth Schnaubelt, MD, C-STARS Omaha director, in her nomination for the award. She also thanked Jocelyn Herstein, PhD, MPH, Kevin Kupzyk, PhD, and Shalea Cotton, DNP, RN, for their support of her work. The Impact in Education Awards ceremony will be March 30, from 3 to 5 p.m. in the Durham Research Center Auditorium.