QA with Nurse Scientist Tolu Oyesanya

Associate Professor Tolu Oyesanya, PhD, RN, who joined Duke University School of Nursing in 2018, researches care of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) in acute and post-acute treatment settings, as well as support of their family caregivers.

Dr. Oyesanya, whose research has been supported by grants including an NIH R01, shared the inspiration for her career, the importance of mentorship, and the role of Duke in her career trajectory as a nurse scientist.

What first inspired you to become a nurse scientist and pursue your areas of research?

I was first inspired to do nursing by my mother, who is now a retired neurological rehabilitation nurse after 30 years of practice. I excitedly listened to her stories about caring for patients and supporting their families while growing up and became interested in the profession. I followed in her footsteps and became a neurological rehabilitation nurse. My clinical experience led me to become a nurse scientist with the research interest of developing and testing interventions to support patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their families during the transition home from acute hospital care.

During my early nursing clinical practice in rehabilitation care, I witnessed the difficulties that patients with TBI and families faced in preparing for life after discharge. I was frustrated with the limited time that nurses had for patient/family education on post-discharge expectations and medication management, and nurses’ limited knowledge of TBI-related chronic cognitive impairments. I also discovered the paucity of published research on non-acute nursing management of TBI. As my clinical practice experience in TBI acute care increased, I found additional gaps in care and support of patients with TBI and families. I witnessed the challenges patients with TBI faced transitioning home from acute hospital care, including poor support from providers (including nurses), poor outcomes, and high readmission rates. Published research on transitional care programs demonstrated effectiveness in other non-TBI populations to support and educate patients and families during the transition from hospital to home and improve patient outcomes, but few were available for patients with TBI. These gaps in knowledge spurred my desire to pursue a PhD in nursing to obtain training in research methods. Subsequently, I integrated my clinical practice experience, research training, and empirical findings to inform development of a TBI transitional care model to address these issues.

What has been the impact of mentorship on your career?

Mentorship has truly defined my career. I am certain I could not be where I am today in my career without mentors past and present. I have been blessed to have amazing mentors along the way. One mentor in particular stands out: Dr. Janet Prvu Bettger. Dr. Bettger has served as my primary mentor since I arrived at Duke University School of Nursing in 2018. She has invested countless hours in supporting me to be successful and has been truly instrumental in my success. I learn so much from working with her and am grateful for the opportunities for us to continue collaborating.

How do you approach mentorship and fostering the next generation of nurse scientists?

Having received great mentorship, I try my best to pay it forward. I truly enjoy mentoring and do my best to meet my mentees where they are, learning about their personal and professional needs while working collaboratively to support their progress. Having served as both a mentee and a mentor, I try to always keep both perspectives in mind as I mentor students, postdocs, and junior faculty at the School of Nursing, Duke University, and beyond.

Beyond the School of Nursing, I have supported mentoring on a national scale. I’ve led the development, launch, and facilitation of multiple research and leadership mentoring initiatives, including the inaugural organization-wide American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) Career Development Networking Group (CDNG) Mentoring Program, which is now five years running. We offer an interdisciplinary, rehabilitation-focused, mentoring-match program using a matching algorithm. The mentoring program aims to decrease the burden of securing a mentor or mentee and to increase the number of individuals well-positioned to lead. With the support of ACRM past-president Dr. Pamela Roberts and CEO Jon Lindberg, the ACRM CDNG Mentoring Program I’ve led has resulted in 224 applicants and 92 mentoring pairs matched since 2022.

How has being at Duke impacted your work?

Support from Duke has been unparalleled in my career. Duke has offered me countless opportunities for collaboration, research-related support for grant writing and funding, access to patients, administrative supportive, mentorship, and more. Without Duke, I could not have made the same level of progress at this point in my career.