Nursing & Healthcare

Biography

Dr.Rose E. Constantino, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN, FACFE, is Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Department of Health and Community Systems. She teaches Forensic Nursing. She is the senior editor of Forensic Nursing: Evidence-based Principles and Practice published by F. A. Davis in 2013. Her pro bono family law practice is founded on her research on the consequences of Intimate Partner Violence on the health, safety and well-being of women, men and children worldwide. Her current research is in comparing the effectiveness of Online and Face-to-Face intervention in women and children in intimate partner violence. She is mentoring students in developing the HELPP Zone app as a training tool for bystanders worldwide in recognizing, responding and preventing relationship violence including domestic and sexual violence.

Research Interest

My research is focused on comparing the effectiveness of online with face-to-face HELPP intervention in women experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) which gave us the impetus to integrate evidence-based studies into the book. HELPP means Health, Education on Safety, and Legal Participant Preferred intervention. HELPP intervention came about after completing a RO1on nursing care of widows whose spouses committed suicide funded by NIH division of nursing. A serendipitous finding in the RO1 was that 63% of the suicide victims were reported as being abusive to their surviving partners immediately prior to their suicide. Because the consequences of IPV are multi-faceted, we are comparing multi-faceted interventions such as comparing the feasibility of online, face-to-face and control HELPP on depression, social support, and other measures using mixed methods methodology with women who have experienced IPV. As a lawyer in Family Law, I see lawyers come too late in helping the survivor of violence because there are now children, parents, in-laws, and workplaces involved in the abusive relationship. For primary prevention to be effective, we need to reach young people before experiencing TDV and provide them with knowledge, social networking, and social support accessible from a product that they use daily (cell phone) during their waking hours in making safe choices and practice safety-seeking behaviors. I am currently working with two undergraduate students in a research project using text messaging as a strategy in building healthy dating relationships and preventing intimate partner violence among college students. Further, I am working with 2 graduate students in developing a HELPP Zone App to prevent IPV. With Robinson’s Diffusion of Disruptive Innovations (DDI) as the framework for both projects, we attempt to diffuse an intervention using an intentionally and deliberately developed product or service, designed as a simple product that enters the transformative research arena as a common activity- text messaging and the App. It OFFERS an inexpensive and convenient service that has the potential to be diffused as a disruptive tool in preventing or stopping intimate partner violence. Our research projects enhanced the evidence-based portions of the book while this book provided robust nursing research questions for future research topics and proposals. I am very interested in collaborating with other mHealth working group members to prevent if not stop violence worldwide through mobile interventions.