Therese S. Richmond, PhD, RN, FAAN
Whether they are shot, hit by a car, or suffer multiple stab wounds, some injured patients heal well, physically and mentally. Others may heal physically, but suffer depression or post-traumatic stress disorder. Therese Richmond’s work on injured patients demonstrates that the psychological effects of trauma, rather than physical injury alone, drive the quality of recovery. Today, she has an NIH-funded grant to study psychological outcomes of trauma in urban black men, identifying patients at high risk for poor recovery in order to precisely target interventions to those who need them most. She is also Site PI in an NIH-funded study examining acute trauma as a portal to chronic pain.
Dr. Richmond is passionate about using nursing science to prevent injury and violence and improve outcomes, particularly in patients from vulnerable urban populations worldwide – those who live on the margins of society, have limited resources, or live in pervasively violent communities. An early clinical position in a Washington, DC, trauma ICU and resuscitation unit sparked Dr. Richmond’s interest in preventing injuries, and her curiosity about survivors’ quality of life. This experience led to specialization in nursing care for victims of injury and violence, including co-founding the Firearm & Injury Center at Penn two decades ago and which now is a vibrant interdisciplinary research center: the Penn Injury Science Center.
“It’s a privilege to work with vulnerable populations to prevent injury and violence and improve recovery from serious injury.”
Education
- PhD, University of Pennsylvania, 1995
- MSN, Catholic University of America, 1982
- BSN, University of Delaware,, 1978
- Diploma, Thomas Jefferson University School of Nursing, 1975
Innovation
In her role as Associate Dean for Research & Innovation, Dr. Richmond helps shape the research and innovation-focused environment that is Penn Nursing. She facilitates systems to enhance research, scholarship, and innovation productivity. She led efforts to create a strategic vision for innovation at Penn Nursing - infusing new courses in the curriculum, developing a Penn Nursing Faculty Fellow in Innovation, and facilitating efforts to create new solutions to solve important problems.
Teaching
In her role as Associate Dean for Research and Innovation, Dr. Richmond helps shape the research-focused environment that is Penn Nursing, facilitating systems to help faculty increase their scholarship and productivity. Along with geographers, criminologists, attorneys, nurses, psychologists and other experts, Dr. Richmond’s research involves all levels of students, including undergraduate research assistants who work with her research staff and doctoral and post-doctoral members of her research teams. She has received many awards for teaching and mentoring at Penn, including the Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching. Dr. Richmond teaches and mentors undergraduates and doctoral students.
Research
A collaboration between nursing, medicine, and criminology, the Penn Injury Science Center brings together university, community, and government partners around injury and violence intervention programs with the greatest potential for impact. The center promotes and performs research, provides training, and translates scientific discoveries into practice and policy.
Dr. Richmond’s research examines the disparate impact of injury, violence and recovery on vulnerable populations. She works effectively across interdisciplinary teams. She works closely with colleagues funded by the US Department of Justice to study youth and school violence in Philadelphia. She works globally to study trauma recovery with colleagues from Australia and the United Kingdom and to train injury and violence scientists in Guatemala.
Selected Career Highlights
- Elected, National Academy of Medicine
- Sigma Theta Tau International Episteme Laureate Award
- Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame
- Appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee to the Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services for National Health Promotion & Disease Prevention Objectives for 2030
Selected Publications
Richmond, T.S., & Foman, M. (In Press). Firearm violence: A global priority for nursing science. Journal of Nursing Science
Culyba, A.J., Miller, E., Ginsburg, K.R., Branas, C.C., Guo, W., Fein, J.A., … Wiebe, D.J. (2018). Adult connection in assault injury prevention among male adolescents in low-resource urban environments. Journal of Urban Health, 95, 361-371.
Jacoby, S.F., Rich, J., Webster, J., & Richmond, T.S. (2018). ‘Sharing things with people that I don’t even know’: Help-seeking for psychological symptoms in injured Black men in Philadelphia. Ethnicity & Health, Published online 4/1/2018.
Ulrich, C.M., Zhou, Q., Ratcliffe, S.J., Knafl, K., Wallen, G.R., Richmond T.S., & Grady C. (2018). Development and preliminary testing of the perceived benefit and burden scales for cancer clinical trial participation. Journal of Empirical Research on Human Research Ethics, 13, 230-238.
Giordano, N.A., Bader, C., Richmond, T.S., & Polomano, R.C. (2018). Complexity of the relationships of pain, post-traumatic stress & depression in combat-injured populations: An integrative review to inform evidence-based practice. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 15, 113-126.
Bruce, M.M., Kassam-Adams, N., Rogers, M., Anderson, K.M., Sluys, K.P., & Richmond, T.S. (2018). Trauma providers’ knowledge, views and practice of trauma-informed care. Journal of Trauma Nursing, 25, 131-138.
Jiang, T., Webster, J.L., Robinson, A., Kassam-Adams, N., Richmond, T.S. (2018). Emotional responses to unintentional and intentional traumatic injuries among urban Black men: A qualitative study. Injury, 49, 983-989.
Smith, R., Seamon, M.J., Kumar, V., Robinson, A., Shults, J., Reilly, P.M., & Richmond, T.S. (2018). Lasting impression of violence: Retained bullets and depressive symptoms. Injury, 49, 135-140.
Jacoby, S.F., Richmond, T.S., Holena, D.N., & Kaufman E.J. (2018). A safe haven for the injured? Urban trauma care at the intersection of healthcare, law enforcement, and race. Social Science & Medicine, 199, 115-122.
Flynn, K., Richmond, T.S., Branas, C., Wiebe, D.J. (2017). Neighborhood social trust and youth perceptions of safety during daily activities. Injury Prevention, Published online 10/7/2017.
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Therese Richmond, PhD, CRNP, FAAN, GR’95
“Around 1980, I worked in a 14-bed trauma ICU in Washington DC as a primary nurse leading a team of 7 nurses who provided care to our primary patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. One primary patient was a 19-year old man who had survived a serious motor vehicle crash. He had a brain injury and was slowly emerging from a coma and had complex wounds over his entire body. He was in isolation and my team and I spent hours each shift in his isolation room without a break to manage his wounds over several months.
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The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing) retains its top spot for research funding for the 2019 fiscal year, among other schools of nursing, with $11.3 million in awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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