Each month, the Practice Research Integration and Membership Engagement (PRIME) Workgroup, Research Council features a researcher or clinician. This month we are featuring Dr. Kosuke “Ko” Niitsu an Assistant Professor of the University of Washington Bothell School of Nursing & Health Studies. See below for Dr. Niitsu's story and impact on psychiatric mental health nursing!
1. Tell us about your area of research or project topic. What got you interested in this area or topic?
When the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami disaster occurred in 2011, the event got me interested in the stress and trauma research personally and professionally. By interacting with the local people affected by the adversity, I realized that some people are more vulnerable to develop psychological distress, whereas others are less adversely affected by the event, who are often described as “resilient”. My research interest is primarily investigating what contributes to the individual differences in resilience by viewing the resilience phenomenon holistically, including genetics and inflammations.
2. Why is your research or project important?
Traditionally, the majority of stress and trauma studies have focused on only the negative side including development of mental illness by asking, “What is wrong with them?”. I think it is equally important to investigate the positive side as well by asking, “What helps them stay resilient?”. Additionally, the majority of the resilience studies have focused on only the psychosocial factors, and I think it is equally important to investigate the biological variables as well.
3. What are the possible real world applications?
We know that there is no such intervention that works for everybody. Perhaps we can tailor the intervention that may work the best for you based on the research findings as we find out more. My research team and I plan to deliver the mindfulness-based intervention to help college students stay resilient during the pandemic. We hope to find out for whom this intervention can be helpful and add physiological markers of resilience in the future research program.
4. What do you hope to achieve with your research or projects?
I think we the psychiatric mental health nurses want everybody to live a life fully with meaning, purpose, and growth regardless the background, mental illness, and/or many other issues. Mine is the same. I hope to be able to maximize our potential to be resilient by overcoming adversities so that we can have a life filled with well-being and happiness.
Learn more about Dr. Niitsu here:
https://www.uwb.edu/nhs/facultyandstaff/faculty/kniitsu
Posted on behalf of Practice Research Integration and Member Engagement (PRIME) Workgroup, Research Council