Research into body weight and pain garnered an award for WSU College of Nursing doctoral student Teresa Bigand at a national conference last week.
Bigand’s research poster, “Examining Overweight Status Among Adults with Chronic Pain,” was voted Best Clinical Poster by attendees at the American Society for Pain Management Nursing conference in Phoenix.
The award is an endorsement both of Bigand’s research and the way it was presented, said Dr. Marian Wilson, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing and Bigand’s dissertation committee chair. Wilson and College of Nursing Associate Professor Dr. Kenn Daratha, and emeritus faculty Dr. Ruth Bindler, are co-authors of Bigand’s research.
“It’s really quite exciting,” Bigand said. The ASPMN conference draws hundreds of participants.
Wilson noted that “It’s definitely an honor to receive something like that at the first conference you’ve ever been to with a particular organization. It’s a good sign your research is aligning with what that national group thinks is important.”
Bigand received a scholarship through the Carl M. Hansen Foundation to attend the conference.
Her research concludes that being overweight significantly increases an adult’s odds of suffering chronic pain. She’s collecting data and hopes eventually to be able to identify factors that correlate with pain intensity and overweight status, such as sleep patterns or depression.
For more on Teresa Bigand’s research: https://nursing.wsu.edu/2017/04/22/research-teresa-bigand-overweight-pain/
