VCU news

By Leah Small

Cindy Munro, Ph.D., a Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing alumna and dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies at the University of Miami, has conducted research that has changed nursing practices and reduced life-threatening infections. 

One of her career “strategy points” is to “always work a big problem, because you can make a big impact,” said Munro, who spoke at VCU about the importance of nursing research and her National Institutes of Health-funded initiatives to improve bedside care.

Much of Munro’s work focuses on the connection between oral health and disease prevention during hospitalization. She holds multiple patents, including one for a vaccine to prevent streptococcal endocarditis, an infection of the inner lining of heart chambers and valves. 

Munro, who was a Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor at VCU, spoke last week during activities celebrating the 125th anniversary of the VCU School of Nursing. She received a doctoral degree in nursing at VCU and one in microbiology and immunology from the School of Basic Health Sciences, now the VCU School of Medicine.

Munro talked to School of Nursing faculty and students about the development of her studies linking dental plaque to the development of ventilator-associated pneumonia, a lung infection that occurs during ventilated breathing. Her studies, in partnership with Mary Jo Grap, Ph.D., retired Nursing Alumni Endowed Professor, led to the recommendation that patients on mechanical ventilation receive daily oral health care with chlorhexidine, an antiseptic that disinfects skin before surgery and sterilizes surgical instruments.

“In the 1990s, ventilator-associated pneumonia was the leading cause of nosocomial infection deaths,” Munro said. “It was the biggest clinical problem that was out there on the intensive care unit for nurses to investigate. 

Nursing research improves nursing interventions and clinical practices, she said.

“Every health care professional has to have evidence on which to base practice,” Munro said. “That’s the goal of nursing researchers, to help nurses know what works best for patient care.”