Hello, I'm Madeleine Kerr
. . . Nurse educator, researcher, and outdoor enthusiast. I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Minnesota in the
School of Nursing. I have been here for one year, and I have stayed because I love to cross country ski in the cold weather during the winter and canoe on the beautiful lakes and rivers in the summer.
I teach an undergraduate nursing class N5448, which concentrates on public health nursing. The official title of the course is "Practicum: Nursing Care of Individuals, Groups, and Populations in the Community" (whew!). This is a clinical course in which students have experiences with clients in a public health agency. In Spring Quarter 1997, my students were located in Dakota County, which is south of the city of Saint Paul. Two service/learning experiences in which the students participated were a hearing and vision screening of preschool age children in South St. Paul and the First Annual Health Fair at Mary's Shelter in Eagan.
Links to sites related to N5448:
- Health promotion interventions with workers
- Health Promotion Model
- Research with Mexican American and other ethnic/racial groups
- Occupational health: health protective behaviors
- Public health nurse - sensitive outcomes
My research program goal is to design effective health promotion and health protection interventions for workers. I am concerned with special populations of workers such as Mexican American and other ethnic/racial groups, migrant agricultural workers, and construction workers. My current research projects are:
- Intervention to Prevent Construction Worker Hearing Loss
- Development of an Instrument to Measure Noise Annoyance
- Development and psychometric testing of the Spanish Health-Promoting
Lifestyle II
Occupational hearing loss was listed among the priorities in the National Occupational Research Agenda (NORA) recently set by NIOSH. Consistent with this priority the purpose of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of an individually tailored predictor-based intervention and booster interventions on construction workers' use of hearing protection and to test the Predictors of Use of Hearing Protection Model (PUHPM) as a model for behavior change. The approach used in this program of research serves as a prototype for development of occupational safety and health interventions. Through testing of the Health Promotion Model (Pender, 1987) as a causal model the investigators' program of research identified the predictors of construction workers' use of hearing protection and tested a group intervention to prevent occupational hearing loss. The proposed study builds on results of the previous studies in this program of research, uses innovative new technology to deliver the intervention in an individually tailored, interactive format, and contrasts the effects of individually tailored and control interventions.
A proposal recently funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), uses an individually tailored computer-based training program to promote the use of hearing protection. Collaborators are Sally Lusk and David Ronis who are both at The University of Michigan School of Nursing, and Leslie Baer at Mountain Muse Publications in Colorado.
Other consultants include:
Funded by the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota, is developing and testing an instrument to measure workers' noise annoyance. The resulting survey instrument will be used in research on worker stress and health behavior. Collaborators are Rosemary Ziemba at the University of Detroit Mercy and Sally Lusk at The University of Michigan.
The researchers developed the concept of noise annoyance using survey data from factory and construction workers (Kerr, Lusk & Ziemba, 1996). Items will be generated using this data, the literature, and existing focus group data (Kerr, 1994). A panel of experts will review the proposed items and suggest revisions to the researcher. The items will be tested by surveying workers and conducting item analysis. This work is expected to contribute to theoretical models relating noise annoyance to worker stress and to hearing protection use. Application of these models will result in effective health promotion programs for hearing protection and stress management among workers.
Translation was completed in August, 1997 and plans are underway to administer the Spanish HPLP-II to 520 Hispanic adults in order to evaluate its psychometric properties.
The HPLP-II consists of six subscales measuring healthy lifestyle: health responsibility, physical activity, nutrition, interpersonal relations, spiritual growth, and stress management. It can be used in primary health care to provide information about client health patterns or in descriptive or evaluative health research.
With collaboration with Susan Noble Walker of the University of Nebraska to translate this recently revised instrument. Opportunities are available for researchers and students to assist us in testing this instrument with Spanish-speaking populations.
The instrument, scoring instructions, and psychometric information on the English version can be obtained from:
Dr. Susan Noble Walker
College of Nursing
Unversity of Nebraska Medical Center
600 South 42nd St.
Omaha, NE 68198-5330
voice:402/559-6561
fax:402/559-7570
Links to sites related to my research:
- Sigma Theta Tau, 1984.
- Ella E. McNeil Memorial Award for Excellence in Scholarship in Community Health Nursing, The University of Michigan School of Nursing, 1991.
- Who's Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. Selection to honors program. 1994.
- Kerr MJ. (1996). Mobile worksite programs. In: Lusk SL, ed. Linking practice and research. AAOHN Journal. 44(6):316-318.
- Lusk SL, Kerr MJ, Baer LM. (1995). Psychometric testing of the reduced Laffrey Health Conception Scale. American Journal of Health Promotion. 9:220-224, 219.
- Lusk SL, Kerr MJ, Ronis DL. (1995). Health-promoting lifestyles of blue-collar, skilled trade, and white-collar workers. Nursing Research. 44(1):20-24.
- Lusk SL, Ronis DL, Kerr MJ. (1995). Predictors of hearing protection use among workers: Implications for training programs. Human Factors. 37(3):635-640.
- Lusk SL, Kerr MJ. (1994). Conducting worksite research. AAOHN Journal. 42(4):177-181.
- Lusk SL, Ronis DL, Kerr MJ, Atwood JR. (1994). Test of the Health Promotion Model as a causal model of workers' use of hearing protection. Nursing Research. 43(3):151-157.
- Kerr MJ. (1993). Review of "Improving the driving practices of pizza deliverers." In: Lusk SL, ed. Linking practice and research. AAOHN Journal. 41:155-56.
- Walker S, Kerr M, Pender NJ, Sechrist K. (1990). A Spanish version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile. Nursing Research. 39(5):268-273.
- Kerr M, Ritchey D. (1990). Health-promoting lifestyles of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Mexican American migrant farm workers. Public Health Nursing. 7(2):80-87.
- Kerr MJ. (1995). "Factors related to Mexican American WorkersÕ Use of Hearing Protection." Dissertation Abstracts International-B,Vol. 55-08, p. 3238, AAC9501083.
- Kerr MJ, Brunelle DJ. (1995). "A Community with HIV/AIDS: Community Health Nursing Case Study." A Clinical Computer-assisted Simulation Exercise. The University of Michigan School of Nursing and Office of Instructional Technology.
- Health-promoting lifestyles of Mexican American migrant farm workers in Northern Illinois. P.I., Northern Illinois University School of Nursing grant. 1987.
- Psychometric evaluation of the Spanish version of the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile. P.I. Northern Illinois University School of Nursing grant. 1988.
- Predictors of Health-Promoting Lifestyle among Mexican American Workers. P.I. Individual National Research Service Award, National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Nursing Research. 1991-1994.
This is how you can reach me:
School of Nursing
University of Minnesota
6-101 Weaver-Densford Hall
308 Harvard Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Voice: 612/625-2669
Fax: 612/626-2359
E-mail:
kerrx010@gold.tc.umn.edu
This page is maintained by: Madeleine J. Kerr.
URL: http://www.nursing.umn.edu/faculty/Keerr)
Last update: 15 Oct 1997.
The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been approved by the University of Minnesota.