Sue E. Gardner, PhD, RN, CWCN is Associate Professor, Systems and Practice Area of Study, University of Iowa College of Nursing. She received her doctorate in nursing with a focus on aging and methods/statistics from the University of Iowa. Her dissertation was nominated for the D.C. Spriestersbach Dissertation Prize in the Biological and Life Sciences. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Nurse Fellowship through the Department of Veteran’s Affairs Office of Academic Affiliations. Dr. Gardner’s research interests include chronic wounds, wound infection, and pressure ulcer prevention and treatment. She has been principal investigator of studies that have examined the identification of chronic wound infection and the effectiveness of electrical stimulation to promote healing of chronic wounds. Currently, Dr. Gardner is Principal Investigator of a study that is examining the diagnostic validity of wound cultures obtained from three wound swab techniques, funded by the Nursing Research Initiative, Health Services Research and Development, Department of Veteran’s Affairs. She has authored and co-authored several papers and book chapters related to chronic wounds, wound infection, and pressure ulcers. Dr. Gardner is certified as a Chronic Wound Care Nurse by the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nursing Society and is a member of the American Nurses Association, Sigma Theta Tau, and the Midwest Nursing Research Society. Her primary area of nursing practice has been in the acute care setting, including surgery and cardiac intensive care. BSN, The University of Iowa MA in Nursing, The University of Iowa PhD in Nursing, The University of Iowa
Articles
Clinical signs of infection in diabetic foot ulcers with high microbial load (with S. L. Hillis and Rita A. Frantz), Biological Research for Nursing (2009)
One proposed method to diagnose diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) for infection is clinical examination. Twelve...
Wound bioburden and infection-related complications in diabetic foot ulcers (with Rita A. Frantz), Biological Research for Nursing (2008)
The identification and diagnosis of diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) infections remains a complex problem. Because...
Diagnostic validity of semiquantitative swab cultures (with Rita A. Frantz, S. L. Hillis, H. Park, and M. Scherubel), Wounds-a Compendium of Clinical Research and Practice (2007)
Swab cultures of wounds are noninvasive and most laboratories are capable of semiquantitatively processing these...
The inter-rater reliability of the clinical signs and symptoms checklist in diabetic foot ulcers (with Rita A. Frantz, H. Park, and M. Scherubel), Ostomy Wound Management (2007)
The Clinical Signs and Symptoms Checklist is a tool designed to measure 12 clinical signs...
Diagnostic validity of three swab techniques for identifying chronic wound infection (with Rita A. Frantz, Charles L. Saltzman, S. L. Hillis, H. Park, and M. Scherubel), Wound Repair and Regeneration (2006)
This study examined the diagnostic validity of three different swab techniques in identifying chronic wound...