Dr. Duffy's Research Activities Using the Quality-Caring Model© Dr. Duffy is currently the primary investigator on a five year Health and Human Services, Human Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded demonstration project in acute care hospitals: one in suburban Maryland and another in Boise, Idaho.  The Quality-Caring Model© is being implemented as the basis of nursing practice which is thought to be the independent variable in improving patient, nurse, and system outcomes.  The overall aim is to improve access to quality care for the vulnerable population of hospitalized older adults and retain a diverse workforce of satisfied registered nurses.  The vision of a caring-healing-protective work environment will enable nurses to spend more time monitoring, observing, advocating for, and being with patients and families.  The five components of the project include: 1) values clarification; 2) an innovative Relationship-centered Caring Course for nursing leadership and staff; 3) a complementary Continuing Education program to sustain program learning outcomes; 4) a supportive career-enhancing professional development program; and 5) a work re-design focused on caring relationships. Dr. Duffy is also the principal investigator for a clinical intervention study, with heart failure patients, investigating the effects of a caring-based intervention on quality of life and hospital readmission rates.  Using telehealth as a tool, the primary nurse initiates daily contact with the patient for two weeks, and maintains bi-weekly contact thereafter through-out the episode of care.  The results of this research will guide the practice of home care nurses and clinical specialists in the daily care of heart failure patients.  Dr. Duffy is the principal investigator on a study examining the psychometric properties of the Caring Assessment Tool (CAT).  In addtion, she is a co-investigator in another study of the Caring Assessment Tool-administrative version. Dr. Duffy is a consultant to a project in Japan where the Caring Assessment Tool has been translated to Japanese and used to assess nurse caring behaviors in two Japanese hospitals.  These data will be used to examine the correlation between nurse caring and patient satisfaction.

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