Valerie Toly
Associate Professor, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
The Carl W. and Margaret Davis Walter Professorship in Pediatric Nursing, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing
Area of focus: Families of children who are technology dependent; children with chronic illness; normalization and family functioning in families of children with chronic conditions; resourcefulness training as an intervention for parents of children who are technology-dependent
Years ago, while caring for children reliant on ventilators, tracheostomies and feeding tubes in their homes, Valerie Toly began to notice a dramatic range in how caregiving impacted families, even when they faced similar challenges.
That question became the foundation of her research—and ultimately led her to pursue a PhD degree and a career as a nurse scientist. She joined Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing because of its “academic rigor, professionalism and the pursuit of excellence.”
A national leader in pediatric nursing research, Toly’s studies focus on mental and physical health plus health promotion behaviors—particularly sleep—in parent caregivers of children with long-term medical complexity.
Her research has already shaped clinical guidelines around the world, particularly when it comes to preparing families for life after discharge. She developed the acronym EASE—Educate, Assess, Support, Encourage—to guide providers in working with caregivers. That includes everything from walking parents through care routines in the context of their daily lives to checking in on their mental health using accessible tools like the CES-D, a common screening scale for depressive symptoms.
“You would be surprised how many parents told me no one had ever asked them how they were doing before,” she said. “They did not want to seem like they had mental health issues like depression for fear their child would be ‘taken away,’ so they put on a brave face.”
A typical day might include chairing the Faculty Senate Research Committee, collaborating on manuscripts with the American Academy of Nursing, or working on plans to share the findings of her NIH/NINR-funded randomized controlled trial. That study—which followed parent caregivers over nine months—examined the effects of a cognitive-behavioral Resourcefulness Training© intervention designed to reduce depressive cognitions and stress and promote sleep among those raising children with complex medical needs who require lifesaving medical technological devices.
The results were promising: Parents in the intervention group saw significant improvements in their mental and physical health, as well as their quality of sleep. Findings from this work are in the process of being published—including what Toly believes will be the largest longitudinal study of sleep among this population.
Toly’s program of research integrated seamlessly with her teaching interests in primary care and chronic conditions. She also believes in the power of interdisciplinary collaboration thus includes physicians, social workers, and statisticians as integral study team members. Through the Sleep and Circadian Science Collaborative she co-founded at CWRU, she shares knowledge and resources with other nurse scientists—ensuring diverse perspectives guide every phase of her work.
For Toly, helping families thrive is more than a professional goal—it’s a calling.
“Advances in technology have saved the lives of countless children, but now they are dependent on the technology,” she pointed out. “So what can we do to help these children and families thrive? That’s my main question and motivator to continue this research.”