Diane Lauver, PhD, APRN, BC, FAAN

Title: Professor
Phone: (608) 263-5286
E-mail: drlauver@wisc.edu
Support Staff: Kay Martin
Office Address:

K6/350 CSC
600 Highland Avenue
Madison, WI 53792-2455

Education:

Description of Research Focus:

I have studied why people do or do not engage in selected health-related behaviors. Because I am a nurse practitioner in primary care, I am focusing my research on health-related behaviors. At present, I am particularly interested in studying patient-centered interventions and I have written about these. More specifically, I am excited about fostering individuals in reaching their health goals, especially regarding primary preventive behaviors. My hope is to identify factors that nurses can address with clients to help them reach their goals about recommended health behaviors and thus foster their health.  I see a patient-centered approach, with a focus on patients’ goals, as being highly applicable to a number of situations and am excited to see how it may work.      

In the past, to guide some research, I have proposed a theory of care-seeking behavior. Topics I have studied included care seeking for symptomatic conditions (e.g., breast cancer symptoms and follow-up for abnormal Pap tests with colposcopy), and asymptomatic screening (e.g., mammography, CBE, and BSE). To answer complementary research questions, I have conducted descriptive, correlational studies and experiments; I have used data from both quantitative measures and open-ended interview questions. In seeking to explain women’s engagement in health-related behaviors that involve the health care system, I have identified external barriers that women experience in seeking care. I have also done studies to promote women’s wellbeing and to identify good measures of spirituality for use in health care research.

Teaching/Course Responsibilities:
(excluding independent study courses)

Representative Publications:

Lauver, D., Owen, B., Egan, J., Lovejoy, L., & Henriques, J. (2003). Relationships of practitioner communications and characteristics with women’s mammography use. Patient Education & Counseling, 51(1), 65-74.

Lauver, D. Ward, S., Heidrich, S., Keller, M. et al. (2003). Patient-centered interventions. Research in Nursing and Health.

Lauver, D., Settersten, L., Henriques, J. & Kane, J. (2003). Tailored messages, external barriers, and women’s utilization of professional breast cancer screening over time. CANCER, 97, 2724-35.

Lauver, D., Henriques, J., Settersten, L., & Bumann, M. (2003). Psychosocial variables, external barriers and stages of adoption of mammography. Health Psychology , 22(6).

Ryan, P. & Lauver, D. (2002). The efficacy of tailored interventions. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 34(4), 331-337.