Carla Jungquist, PhD, ANP-BC, FAAN

Adult/Gerontology Program Coordinator; Associate Professor

Carla Jungquist.

ADDRESS:
School of Nursing
University at Buffalo
312 Wende Hall
Buffalo, NY 14214-3079

PHONE: 716-829-3261

My research program is driven to promote safe and effective pain management. Specifically, my research is about the interdependent relationship among pain, sleep and opioids.

Carla Jungquist has been a nurse for 30 years. She is a family nurse practitioner who earned her PhD in Health Practice Research from the University of Rochester. Jungquist focuses her research on safe and effective pain management. More specifically, her research works on improving how nurses integrate data from electronic monitoring devices into their critical thinking and decision making skills when deciding on the appropriate pain management medications for the hospitalized patient.

The scope of Jungquist’s research and scholarship spans across intervention-based investigations of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) for patients with chronic pain, measurement science, and practice analysis and solutions for safe monitoring of patients receiving opioid analgesics. Jungquist’s NIH funded research on CBT-I generated evidence to support the applicability of a treatment regimen to improve sleep, quality of life and energy in patients with chronic pain. Results from this study and subsequent investigations resulted in revisions to the DSM-5, ICD-10 and ICSD-3 classifying insomnia as an independent disorder rather than a co-existing primary medical or psychiatric diagnosis.

Jungquist’s findings were published in Sleep Medicine, cited hundreds of times in Google Scholar (GS) and included in two meta-analysis published in JAMA Internal Medicine and Sleep Medicine. The study intervention was also published as a treatment manual, “Session-By-Session Treatment Manual for Insomnia.” The manual has been translated into five languages and sold more than 5,000 copies internationally. Subsequent publications in sleep disorders and behavior research therapy strengthened the evidence base for CBT-I.

Jungquist is actively involved with the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). She is positioned to educate nurses and other health professionals in the integration of behavioral sleep medicine interventions into practice. Additionally, Jungquist serves on the AASM Education Committee, which focuses on developing and implementing educational modules to train nurses nationwide in assessing and managing sleep disorders.

In 2012, Jungquist acquired funding from the CDC to validate the five Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System sleeping screening questions, which yielded only two times with acceptable sensitivity and specificity to detect total sleep time and excessive daytime. This finding was disseminated at the AASM's international sleep conference, and published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. This validation study resulted in the construction of questions that will better detect the widespread health problem and further advance sleep science and give basis for the need to increase public awareness of the problem and increase federal funding for research.

In 2008, Jungquist spearheaded work supported by the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) to examine nurses’ monitoring practices of hospitalized patients on opioids for pain management. This practice analysis identified a need for safe monitoring. Jungquist then provided leadership in the development of the first comprehensive evidence based nursing guidelines for monitoring patients for opioid-induced respiratory depression in a hospital setting. 

Jungquist has also led subsequent practice analysis to determine the influence of these guidelines in transforming safe monitoring practices published in 2014. This work was recognized by interprofessional authorities in the field of patient safety, resulting in an invitation to join the CMS e-Measures Working Group for Intravenous Patient-Controlled Analgesia (PCA). Jungquist’s previous work informed the development and testing of core measures for monitoring. She led the distinguished interprofessional working group members in preparation for the publication of a manuscript in the Journal of Nursing Administration on the results of beta testing of the core measures. She continues to work with Sleep Medicine and the Society for Anesthesia to develop educational materials for clinicians to improve safe care for patient with sleep disorders undergoing surgery.

Jungquist also has provided leadership in convening and facilitating industry sponsored nursing advisory boards for Hospira, Inc. and Medtronic, Inc. to establish best practices for monitoring hospitalized patients for opioid-induced respiratory depression, as well as provide advisement for technology enhancements and resources for training nurses.

In 2018, Jungquist was a site investigator for the Medtronic, Inc. sponsored PRediction of Opioid-induced respiratory Depression In patients monitored by capnoGraphY (PRODIGY) study that validated a tool for nurses to use in identifying hospitalized patients at risk for opioid-induced respiratory depression.

Jungquist’s research team has been funded by the UB Clinical Translational Science Institute. This funded research will compare various respiratory monitoring devices for sensitivity, patient comfort and ease for nursing use.

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