A Birmingham native, Dr. Christine Feeley received her undergraduate (2007), graduate (2011) and doctoral (2012) degrees from the University of Alabama in Birmingham. She worked as a staff nurse at the Children's of Alabama while she was in graduate school. Post-graduation, Feeley moved to Emory University School of Nursing on a National Institutes of Health training grant (T32 Improving Outcomes in Chronic Conditions) for post-doctoral work on sleep in parent and children with a chronic illness. She joins the College of Nursing after teaching pediatric nursing in the undergraduate program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing.
This spring she will be a guest-lecturer in care of chronic and complex conditions across the lifespan in the professional nursing concepts class. She will also teach evidence-based practice course for graduate students.
“I’m very excited to be teaching in Auburn. I think teaching needs to be a partnership between the student and the teacher. It works best when students feel they are an active part in their learning process, are engaged and challenged, feel comfortable asking questions or having discussions in class. I hope students take away a passion for nursing, an understanding of content and how they can apply it in their practice, and of the importance of patient and family-centered care.”
Her research focus is sleep patterns in parents and children with a chronic illness or condition, especially children with type 1 diabetes. Her interest in sleep started when she was at Children’s of Alabama. “My research was on how sleep may affect other areas, such as stress levels, anxiety, or depressive symptoms. I’ve found that child and parent sleep is usually closely linked — if the child isn’t sleeping, the parent probably isn’t sleeping either. If parents and children aren’t sleeping well, they are more likely to report decreased quality of life and elevated stress,” she added. “For my doctoral research, I examined sleep in maternal caregivers of children with bronchopulmonary dysplasia. At Emory, I started to look at the dyad (parent and child). And at the University of Pittsburgh, I tried to put it all together and examine parent-child sleep using actigraphy (wrist device that measures sleep like a Fitbit). I’m hoping to continue that work here at Auburn.”
“I am enjoying Auburn, exploring the city and surrounding areas. Having my family two hours away in Birmingham is really nice!”
We welcome Dr. Christine Feeley to Auburn!
