Chronic Illness Consortium                                    

The Chronic Illness Consortium (CIC) network of nurse researchers and clinicians recognize chronic illness as the nation’s greatest public health problem and advocate for a paradigm shift from a focus on acute illness intervention to the prevention and management of chronic disease – from disease and technology to people and the quality of their lives. This shift will occur only through collaboration among the nursing education, research, and care systems.

The CIC endeavors to reexamine the state of nursing knowledge in the care of persons living with a chronic illness. It charges nurses to attend to the wholeness of the chronic illness experience in a fragmented health care system and to the patient experiences that the nurse can impact. It looks at how to redirect nurses’ collective energy and strengths to make nursing knowledge and practice more effective and to enable a positive impact on the illness experience. The CIC spotlights the health needs of chronically ill persons and their families and renews/affirms the nurse’s role in promoting health among people living with chronic illness.

Facilitators:

Kimberly Christopher, PhD, RN kchristopher@umassd.edu,
Nancy M. Dluhy, PhD, RN ndluhy@umassd.edu,
Gail Russell, EdD, RN, CNAA grussell@umassd.edu

Connection Methods:

Face-to-face meetings: To be announced