The award honors members of the association who have made strides in scholarly nursing education, contributing to the knowledge base of women鈥檚 or neonatal health.

Logsdon is an international expert in women鈥檚 mental health. She has worked with nurses in the mother-baby unit at聽聽to improve patient education practices regarding postpartum depression and helped create the knowledge base of the role of nurses in preparing new mothers to recognize symptoms of depression after hospital discharge.

Logsdon鈥檚 research has contributed to understanding and improving health literacy in low income and underserved new mothers.

鈥淎s the use of technology to retrieve health information became prevalent, I collaborated with interdisciplinary and clinical partners to conduct studies on how new mothers prefer to receive health information,鈥� said Logsdon, PhD, WHNP-BC, FAAN.

She led a recent National Institutes of Health-funded study that developed an online intervention that helped persuade an increasing number of teenage mothers across 10 Kentucky counties to seek medical help for depression, highlighting an inexpensive way to increase mental health treatment rates for this vulnerable group.

In addition to her research endeavors, Logsdon has mentored numerous nurses and nursing students at UofL. She is editor of the Journal of Advanced Nursing, serves on the editorial board of Archives of Women鈥檚 Mental Health and is co-chair of the Expert Panel on Maternal and Infant Health of the American Academy of Nursing.

鈥淒r. Logsdon is a dedicated scholar for her scientific work in maternal child health and best practices in teaching mothers and families,鈥� said Marcia J. Hern, EdD, CNS, RN, UofL School of Nursing dean. 鈥淪he is a standout in the innovative use of technology and evidence-based application of health literacy to low income and underserved populations of new mothers.鈥�

Marianne Hutti, PhD, APRN, UofL School of Nursing professor, led research and development of the app, which makes scoring of the Perinatal Grief Intensity Scale (PGIS) easier, predicting patients at greatest risk for intense grief after perinatal loss, which includes miscarriage, stillbirth or the death of an infant within 28 days after birth.

The project was funded by a $10,000 grant through the Kimberly-Clark Nursing Research Award from the .

Health care providers use the app to ask a short series of questions related to how a woman perceives her perinatal loss. Based on responses, the app calculates a patient鈥檚 score on the PGIS and gives providers theoretically based suggestions for care.

The app predicts patients most likely to have clinical-level anxiety, depression and continuing intense grief three to five months after a perinatal loss. Providers are encouraged to use the PGIS as a post-hospitalization screening tool to identify women who should be referred for additional mental health evaluation.

Knowing how patients perceived their pregnancy and a subsequent loss is crucial. Responses to perinatal loss vary among women and the point during pregnancy when a loss occurs does not determine a patient鈥檚 grief response, Hutti said.

鈥淲omen with early losses can have very intense grief, just like women with later losses,鈥� Hutti said. 鈥淭he app ensures that health care providers are creating treatment plans that are congruent with how a woman is seeing her loss because some women grieve and other women don鈥檛 grieve, or will have a significantly less intense grief response than others.鈥�

Patients can choose to have their results anonymously submitted to a database, allowing for further research.

The app is available to clinicians free at and .