RESEARCH CENTER FOR SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT

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The goal of the Research Center for Symptom Management (RCSM) is to advance the knowledge in the field of symptom management and, thereby, improve health care providers' practice and individuals' symptom outcomes. Symptoms are the most common reason people seek health care. Symptoms are a major problem for individuals and their families since their management and resulting outcomes are often their own responsibility. Many people wonder if they are "doing the right thing" and if their symptom management strategies are appropriate. If symptom control is not achieved, frequently individuals' valued activities are disrupted and their quality of life adversely affected. At the same time, health care providers have difficulty developing symptom management strategies that can be applied in the acute care, ambulatory care, and home care settings because there are few tested models of symptom management. The overall aims of the RCSM are to: 1. Develop the subdiscipline of symptom management across health science disciplines and across health care settings by elucidating and testing a Model of Symptom Management (Larson, et al. in-press); 2. Improve individuals' health status, by decreasing symptom morbidity and thereby enhance their quality of life, with particular emphasis on specific cultural and ethnic groups; 3. Prepare scientists in Nursing and other disciplines by interdisciplinary training in the area of symptom management; 4. Create mechanisms for synergy, cooperation, and collaboration among interdisciplinary clinical investigators working in the area of symptom management. The immediate strategies to achieve these aims are to: establish the organizational unit of administrative, research support, and research development and dissemination cores; to facilitate the ongoing work of the eleven currently funded grants (see description of Research Base in a later section), and to assist the three pilot studies selected for Year 01 of this grant proposal; to formally link clinical research efforts in symptom management; and to provide accessible central resources to RCSM affiliated faculty. Our grant proposal is responsive to the RFA in the area of acute and chronic disabling conditions that deal with human responses throughout the life span. We have the personnel, the commitment of these personnel, the resources, and the facilities at the University of California, San Francisco to carry out a research center core grant of the size and scope described in this application.