Catherine C. McDonald, PhD, RN
Injury, which is largely preventable, is the leading cause of death in adolescents in the U.S.
As a pediatric intensive care, emergency department, and school nurse, Dr. McDonald saw the effects of the risky behaviors that teens engage in firsthand. Now, she’s studying ways to address these risky behaviors, such as texting while driving, to prevent injuries and promote health.
Currently, Dr. McDonald is developing a web-based intervention for teens to reduce inattention to the roadway and risky driving, under a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from the National Institute of Nursing Research.
“Injury is the leading cause of death in adolescents and addressing behaviors that contribute to injury is of vital importance in promoting later adult health. ”
- PhD , University of Pennsylvania , 2010
- MSN, Monmouth University, 2006
- BSN, Villanova University , 200
Dr. McDonald began this line of research as a postdoctoral fellow at Penn Nursing and the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She collaborated with researchers at CHOP to develop a Simulated Driving Assessment (SDA), which gave teens an opportunity in a simulator to drive in the most frequent serious crash scenarios. Dr. McDonald collaborated with researchers there to validate the SDA, and found that 43% of new drivers crashed. They also found that, advanced driving skills, such as braking in hazardous situations, proved difficult for newly licensed drivers. In her work to develop a web-based intervention to reduce teen driver inattention, Dr. McDonald identified perceptions of inattention among newly-licensed teen drivers through focus groups and then designed the intervention to prevent risky driving.
Tailored Interventions to Help Teen Drivers Pay Attention
Since joining the Penn Nursing faculty in 2014, Dr. McDonald has been working on a feasibility study funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the web-based intervention. She plans to enroll about 60 teens, and compare the intervention on risky driving to a control group. Through a grant from the University of Pennsylvania’s Dorothy Mereness Endowed Research Fund, she’s also collecting data from study participants about depression and ADHD, to study the relationship between these problems and their driving behaviors.
Dr. McDonald has collaborated with Penn researchers across the campus and with researchers at CHOP’s Center for Injury Research and Prevention. She has also involved a number of undergraduate and graduate students in this research, and is proud to have the opportunity to expose them to research early in their careers. Her future research will focus on how best to tailor interventions to help teens keep their attention on the roadway.
Opportunities to Learn and Collaborate at Penn Nursing
Penn Nursing displays the diversity of pathways that nurses can take in their career. Dr. McDonald is excited to be able to help shape the next generation of nurses, and to be in a research-intensive environment where her research is well supported. She teaches introductory seminar courses for nurses and guests lecture on adolescent health. She also mentors students on conducting research.
Selected Career Highlights
- Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Leonard David Institute of Health Economics
- Senior Fellow, University of Pennsylvania Center for Public Health Initiatives
- “Rising Star Research Award,” Eastern Nursing Research Society
- Ann Wolbert Burgess Endowed Student Award for Excellence and Leadership in Nursing, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing
- “Emerging Scholar Award,” Villanova University Nursing Alumni Award
- McDonald, C.C., Kandadai, V., Lee, Y-C., Loeb, H., Seacrist, T., Bonfiglio, D., Fisher, D.L., & Winston, F.K. (in press). Evaluation of Risk Awareness Perception Training Program on novice teen driver behavior at left-turn intersections. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (NIHMSID: 691723).
- Loeb, H., Kandadai, V., McDonald, C.C., & Winston, F.K. (in press). Emergency braking in adults versus novice teen drivers: Response to simulated sudden driving events. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, (NIHMSID: 691725).
- Kandadai, V., Jean-Gilles, G., Winston, A., McDonald, C.C. ,Loeb, H., Seacrist, T., & Winston, F.K. (2015). LiveMetrics: Providing individualized feedback on driving performance. SAE Technical Paper, Number, 2015-01-1390.
- McDonald, C.C. & Rivara, F. (2015). Capitalizing on research - industry partnerships to advance injury prevention. Injury Prevention, 21(3), 214.
- McDonald, C.C., Kandadai, V., Lee, Y-C., Loeb, H., Seacrist, T., Winston, Z., & Winston, F.K. (2015). Simulated Driving Assessment (SDA) for teen drivers: Results from a validation study. Injury Prevention, 21(3), 145-152. (NIHMS: 679891).
- McDonald, C.C., Goodwin, A.H., Pradhan, A., Romoser, M.R., & Williams, A. (2015). A review of hazard anticipation training programs for young drivers. Journal of Adolescent Health, 57(1), S15-S23. (NIHMSID: 669084).
- McDonald, C.C. & Sommers, M.S. (2015). Teen drivers’ perceptions of inattention and cell phone use while driving. Traffic Injury Prevention, 16(S2), s52-s58.
- Sommers, M.S., McDonald, C.C., & Fargo, J.D. (2015). Emergency department-based brief intervention to reduce risky driving: A life course perspective. Clinical Nursing Research, 24(5), 449-467.
- Onta��n, S., Lee, Y-C., Snodgrass, S., Bonfiglio, D., Winston, F.K., McDonald, C.C., & Gonzalez, A.J. (2014). Case-based prediction of teen driver behavior and skill. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 8765, 375-489.
- Winston, F.K., McDonald, C.C., Kandadai, V., Loeb, H., Tanenbaum, J.B., Seacrist, T., Scarfone, S.R., & Winston, Z. (2014). Headway time errors, safe driving skill, and experience: An initial validation of the Simulated Driving Assessment. Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers, Washington, DC., Paper Number, 14-4867.(NIHMSID: 569590)