Martha Driessnack, P.h.D., P.P.C.N.P.-B.C.

  • Associate Professor, School of Nursing

Biography

My program of research revolves around the active engagement of children both in health care research and practice through the development of child-sensitive approaches to data collection and assessment. To date, much of my work has centered on the integration of children's drawings into the interview process, or what I refer to as the Draw-and-Tell Conversation (DTC). This journey has taken me into conversations with children about fear, disease causation, risk, and/or inheritance, and health-related literacy. I am currently focused on how we engage children in the assessment and management of their pain experiences, both acute and chronic, and how current approaches impact children's life and future pain experiences. I am always in awe of the degree to which children are able to communicate and the nuanced insights they provide. To learn more about my work and focus:

Listen to my talk, entitled Understanding Genetics: With a little help from Harry Potter and friends, at The University of Florida's Health Science Center Library who was hosting "Harry Potter's World: Renaissance Science, Magic, and Medicine," a traveling exhibit from the National Library of Medicine. The talk uses characters and stories from the Harry Potter series to explain complex genetic concepts, including patterns of inheritance, variable expressivity, incomplete penetrance, epigenetics and eugenics.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • B.S.N., 1977, The Ohio State University
    • M.S.N., 1979, Yale University
    • Ph.D., 2005, Oregon Health & Sciences University
  • Fellowship

    • Post doctoral Fellowship in Clinical Genetics - University of Iowa
  • Certifications

    • NIH/NINR - Summer Genetics Institute

Publications

Selected publications

  • Driessnack, M. (2017). “Who are you from?” The importance of family stories. Journal of Family Nursing, 23(4), 434-449. doi: 10.1177/1074840717735510  
  • ONLINE FIRST - "Who are you from?" - The importance of family stories. Journal of Family Nursing. Download and share - http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1074840717735510
  • Furukawa, R., Driessnack, M., & Kobori E. (2018). The impact of video-mediated communication on separated perinatal couples in Japan. Journal of Transcultural Nursing doi: 10.1177/1043659617692394 [Epub 2017 Feb 17]
  • Lassetter, J.H., Macintosh, C.I., Williams, M., Driessnack, M., Ray, G., & Wisco, J.J. (2018). Psychometric Testing of the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Self-Efficacy Questionnaire and the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Behavior Recall Questionnaire for Children. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 23(2), e12207. doi: 10.1111/jspn.12207 [Epub 2018 Jan 5]
  • Barfield, P., & Driessnack, M. (2018). Children with ADHD draw-and-tell what makes their life really good. Journal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing, 23(2), e12210. [Epub 2018 Feb 28] doi: 10.1111/jspn.12210
  • Carney, P.A., Bearden, D.T., Osborne, M.L., Driessnack, M. Stilp, C.C., Baggs, J.Gedney, Austin, J.P., Tonning, K., & Boyd, J. (2018). Economic models for sustainable interprofessional education. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 32 (6), 745-751. doi: 10.1080/13561820.2018.1509846 [Published online before print Aug 15, 2018]  
  • Driessnack, M. (2018). Interprofessional Practice & Education: A Primer. Journal of Nursing  Science, 36 (3), 4-8.
  • Hershberger, P.E., Driessnack, M., Kavanaugh, K., & Klock, S.C. (2019). Oocyte donation disclosure decisions: A longitudinal follow-up study at middle childhood. Human Fertility. doi: 10.1080/14647273.2019.1567945.

Publications