Hard Work and Focus Bring Student's Career Into Full Bloom
Jennifer Dine
Although Jennifer Dine had been exposed to nursing her entire life, it was the introduction to oncology research that has had a tremendous impact on her career choice.
“You could say nursing is in my blood,” says the 23-year-old BSN-to-PhD student with a laugh. “As an only child and the daughter of two nurses — my mom was a med/surg nurse and my dad is a psych nurse — I was exposed to health care at a very young age.”
While on summer break from her undergraduate course work at Truman State University, she returned home to Columbia, Mo., and worked at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center. It was here she met Jane Armer, a nursing researcher studying lymphedema in post-breast cancer patients.
“Working with Dr. Armer introduced me to areas in the nursing profession that most undergrads aren’t exposed to,” Dine says. “Being involved in her lymphedema research made me realize that knowledge is being generated that helps nurses understand how to make this experience better for their patients.”
Until her first degree was completed, she was co-mentored by MU PhD graduate Stephen Hadwiger, who is a nursing researcher and faculty member at Truman State.
Dine sees her personal and professional goals meshing together as she gains research experience and knowledge.
In the summer of 2008, Dine traveled to South Africa with Armer to be trained as a lymphedema therapist.
This past spring, she represented the nursing profession in the interdisciplinary event known as the CLARION competition. This competition brings together teams of health care professionals from across the country who are judged on how they identify problems in a health care-related situation, develop and implement interventions to address the problems, and determine outcomes to reduce health care errors.
“This was a wonderful opportunity to learn about other perspectives in health care but knowing the end goal is to help the patient,” Dine says. “The respect for each unique health care role has always been a part of my nursing education, but this program fosters a greater understanding of why it’s important to have all types of professionals involved in the decision-making process.”
Since this spring, Dine says she’s taken a greater interest in translational research.
“When I read my first study proposal on translational research, it wasn’t like anything I had read before. It was my ‘ah-ha’ moment,” Dine says. “The applications for its use at the bedside, or in the home, were tremendous. It hit me as good, pragmatic research where I could immediately see its application.”
This exposure led her to apply and be selected to participate in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Summer Genetics Institute in the Washington, D.C. area to learn the basics of molecular genetics research.
With bench-to-bedside research rooted in genetics, this experience will help her develop interventions that have a scientific/bench basis that can be used at the bedside.
Due to this experience, Dine applied for and was accepted into the Graduate Partnership Program (GPP) sponsored by the NIH’s National Institute of Nursing Research.
As a GPP scholar, she will complete her initial coursework at Mizzou, then go to the NIH campus in Bethesda, MD, to begin research toward a doctoral dissertation. Her research will be conducted under the guidance of both an NIH intramural investigator and a University mentor.
“This is a tremendous honor for Jenny that she earned with her hard work,” Armer says.
Dine plans to finish her PhD in two-and-a-half years and then work with breast cancer research.
“I want to teach and inspire others — become a mentor like Dr. Armer was for me,” she says. “I believe it’s crucial for students to get support and direction from someone when they want to go into research and make a difference.”