Yvonne van Eijk-Hustings, RN, PhD
Doctorate awarding for improving rheumatic disease patient care
Yvonne van Eijk-Hustings, RN, PhD, successfully defended her doctoral thesis in March and was awarded her PhD by Maastricht University in the Netherlands. The thesis addressed “Improving care for patients with rheumatic diseases.”
The first part of Dr. van Eijk-Hustings’ thesis addressed the cost effectiveness of interventions for newly diagnosed fibromyalgia patients with aerobic exercise vs. usual care.
The second part focused on the nurse’s role in caring for inflammatory arthritis patients. A survey of patients, nurses and rheumatologists in the U.S. and 22 European countries established a high level of agreement on several European League Against Rheumatism recommendations for the role of nurses in inflammatory arthritis management, their role in care and management and professional support for those nurses. However, daily practice showed a substantially lower level of the recommendation’s application.
Reasons given for disagreement with the recommendations and barriers to daily practice can serve as guides to develop strategies to improve implementation of the recommendations for rheumatology nursing care.
Gail Riggs, MA, CHES
Educator comes out of retirement—again
In Tucson, Ariz., Gail Riggs has lived with arthritis since she was six years old. With 49-year-old bilateral hip cup arthroplasties and two total knee replacements, the 75-year-old woman is back serving the community. “This is the second time I have come out of retirement (was I ever in it?).”
Ms. Riggs is a retired clinical lecturer in rheumatology and geriatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine and a retired principal research specialist at the University of Arizona Arthritis Center, which she helped found. When she was the president of the Rheumatology Health Professionals Association in the 1980s, she logged “almost half a million frequent-flyer miles for meetings, speaking, teaching and representing RHPA,” she says.
Now, as volunteer chair of the Friends of the University of Arizona Arthritis Center and a patient instructor for the UAAC, Ms. Riggs says, “I also use my old, little body to show first-year medical students how exciting rheumatology is and how it has changed over the past 70 years.” She also serves on the Patient Safety Committee, Patient Care Improvement Committee, Patient and Family Advisory Council of the Tucson Medical Center, Arthritis Introspective, Tucson Arthritis Support League and the Old Fort Lowell Live-at-Home program.
