Areas of Scholarly Expertise and Interest
Dr. Gaston-Johansson’s specific research expertise and interest include symptom management with a special focus on pain, coping strategies for pain, management of other symptoms (fatigue, psychological distress, nausea) at end of life and quality of life. Her work has included patients undergoing autologous bone marrow transplantation and their primary care givers, breast cancer, and other cancer diagnoses. Her works also includes the development, evaluation and testing of the Painometer in a variety of patient populations. The Painometer is a pain assessment tool especially designed for use in clinical practice.
Programs initiated by Dr. Gaston-Johansson with doctoral students in Sweden include: symptom management and quality of life in cancer patients at the end of life, for breast, prostate, and lung cancer. Study of fatigue in cardiovascular patients, symptom management in lung, prostate, and breast cancer and unexplained chest pain, critical pathways and quality of care. Currently, Dr. Gaston-Johansson is the Principal Investigator for The Center on Health Disparities Research (NIH/NINR) - mission of the Center is to advance the understanding of health disparity across the lifespan through the establishment of an infrastructure that supports health disparity research. She is also the Principal investigator for the Global Health Promotion Research Program (NIH/Fogarty) – an international research/educational program for Nursing, Medical, Public Health and Arts & Sciences students that has an international exchange of faculty and students for the purpose of expanding research experiences for all involved.
Dr. Gaston-Johansson is the Co-Principal Investigator for a Training program in Breast Cancer Research to Decrease the Disparity of Morbidity and Mortality in Undeserved/Minority Women (Department of Defense) – A post-doctoral program in collaboration with Winston-Salem State University. Dr. Gaston-Johansson served as an elected Board of Directors member for Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society. She is also the recipient of the Links INC International Trends and Service Award, National Black Nurses Association’s “Trailblazer Award”, and has received a citation from the US Congress for her international and research endeavors.
Publications
Henoch, I., Bergman, B., Gustafsson, M., Gaston-Johansson, F., Danielson, E. (In-Press). The impact of symptoms, coping capacity and social support on quality og life experience over time in lung cancer patients. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
Browall, M., Ahlberg, K., Danielson, E., Gaston-Johansson, F. (In-Press) Symptom experience, psychological distress, and perceived health in postmenopausal women with breast cancer. Journal of Scandinavian Nursing.
Ryman, D.G., Nanda, J.P., Reddick, B.K., Gaston-Johansson, F. (In-Press). Time differences between acceptance into an ABMT program and date of ABMT procedure as predictors for psychological morbidity. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing.
Browall, M., Gaston-Johansson, F., Danielson, E. (2006). Postmenopausal women with breast cancer: their experiences from the period of adjuvant chemotherapy treatment. European Journal of Oncology Nursing. Vol 10 (3). pg. 228-229.
Jakobsson, E., Bergh, I., Gaston-Johansson, F., Stolt, C-M., Ohlen, J. (2006). The turning point: clinical identification of dying and reorientation of care. Journal of Palliative Medicine. Vol 9(6) pg 1348-1358
Wickstrom-Ene, K., Nordberg, G., Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006). Pain, psychological distresss and health related quality of life at baseline and 3 months after radical prostatectomy. BMC Nursing Vol 5(8) pg. 1-7
Jerlock, M., Gaston-Johansson, F., Kjellgren, K., Welin, C. (2006). Coping strategies, stress, physical activity and sleep in patients with unexplained chest pain. BMC Nursing, Vol. 5(7)pg. 1-10.
Kenne-Sarenmalm, E., Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006). Coping with recurrent breast cancer-predictors of distressing symptoms and health-related quality of life. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management.
Henoch, I, Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006). Validation of a Swedish version of the Cancer Dyspnea Scale. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management Vol. 31 (4). Pg. 353-361.*†
Jakobsson, E., Johnsson, T., Persson, L-O., Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006). End-of-life in a Swedish population: demographics, social conditions and characteristics of places of death. Scand J Caring 20 (1) pg. 10-17*†
Browall, M., Gaston-Johansson, F., Danielson, E. (2006). Postmenopausal women with breast cancer: their experiences of the chemotherapy treatment period. Cancer Nursing 29 (1) pg. 34-42 *†
Morgan, P.D., Gaston-Johansson F., Mock, V. (2006). Spiritual well-being, religious coping, and QOL among African American women undergoing breast cancer treatment: A Pilot Study. The ABNF Journal, 17(2)pg. 73-77.
Lindstrom, I., Gaston-Johansson, F., Danielson, E. (2006). Documentation of patients' participation in care at end of life. Nursing Ethics, 13(4) pg. 394-403.
Falk, K., Swedberg, K., Gaston-Johansson, F., Ekman, I. (In-press) Fatigue and anaemia in patients with chronic heart failure. The European Journal of Heart Failure.Vol 8(7) pg. 744-749.
Falk, K., Swedberg, K., Gaston-Johansson, F., Ekman, I. (In-press) Fatigue is a prevalent and severe symptom associated with uncertainty and sense of coherence in patients with chronic heart failure. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing.
Jerlock, M., Welin, C., Rosengren, A., Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006) Pain characteristics in patients with unexplained chest pain and patients with ischemic heart disease. European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing. (available online 8/1/06)
Jakobsson, E., Bergh, I., Ohlen, J., Oden, A., Gaston-Johansson, F. (2006). Utilization of health-care services at the end-of-life in a Swedish population. Health Policy. (available online 11/13/06)
Lindstrom, I., Gaston-Johansson, F., Danielson, E. (In Press). Patients’ participation in end-of-life care– Relations to different variables as documented in the patients’ records. Journal of Palliative and Supportive Care.
Funded research, training grants and/or programs
July 2005 - June 2009 "Minority Global Health Disparities Research Training Program," Fannie Gaston-Johansson, PI (30%) Funded by NCMHD / NIH. Awarded $900,000.00
2002-2007
Principal Investigator and Project Director for Johns Hopkins University, "Center on Health Disparities Research' in collaboration with North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Funded by NIH, Awarded $2,300,000.00
2001-2006 Co-Investigator and Project Director for Johns Hopkins University, " Developing a Training program in Breast Cancer Research to Decrease the Disparity of Morbidity and Mortality in Undeserved/Minority Women." Funded by the US Department of Defense (Grant# DAMD 17-01-1-0458), $998,658.00. July 2001-June 2005. Awarded to Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), Sylvia Flack serving as Principal Investigator and Project Director for WSSU.
1999-2004 Principal Investigator, "Global Health Promotion Minority Research Program" (Collaborating countries: Sweden, South Africa, Australia and South Korea)Funded by NIH/Fogarty International Center. Awarded September 1999, $685,365.00 Grant# 1T37TW00108. Additional funding from NIH ($231, 292) for year 2003-2004.
