Developing a Program of Research in Nursing

Cheryl Tatano Beck, DNSc, CNM, FAAN, is a distinguished professor at the University of Connecticut School of Nursing. She also has a joint appointment in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the School of Medicine. Her bachelor of science degree in nursing is from Western Connecticut State University. She received her master's degree in maternal-newborn nursing from Yale University. Dr. Beck holds a certificate in nurse-midwifery, also from Yale University. Her doctor of nursing science degree is from Boston University. She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and has received numerous awards, including the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nursing's Distinguished Professional Service Award; the Eastern Nursing Research Society's Distinguished Researcher Award; the Distinguished Alumna Award from Yale University; and the Connecticut Nurses' Association's Diamond Jubilee Award for her contribution to nursing research. She has been appointed to the President's Advisory Council of Postpartum Support International.Over the past 30 years, Dr. Beck has focused her research efforts on developing a research program on postpartum mood and anxiety disorders. Based on the findings from her series of qualitative studies, she developed the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS), which is published by Western Psychological Services. She is a prolific writer who has published over 140 journal articles covering such topics as phenomenology, grounded theory, narrative analysis, metasynthesis, and qualitative secondary analysis. She is coauthor, with Dr. Denise Polit, of the textbook Nursing Research: Generating and Assessing Evidence for Nursing Practice. Editions of this text received both the 2007 and the 2011 American Journal of Nursing (AJN) Book of the Year Award. Their Essentials of Nursing Research textbook won the 2013 AJN Book of the Year Award. Dr. Beck coauthored, with Dr. Jeanne Driscoll, Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders: A Clinician's Guide, which received the 2006 AJN Book of the Year Award. Her recent books include Traumatic Childbirth and The Routledge International Handbook of Qualitative Nursing Research.