Barbara Riegel

Barbara Riegel is an American clinical researcher, clinical nurse specialist, academic, and author. She is a professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, a professor emerita at San Diego State University, and co-director of the International Center for Self-Care Research.

Riegel has published over 600 papers on various topics regarding self-care, such as treatment adherence, sleep, condition monitoring, and self-management of symptoms associated with chronic illness. She has developed theory and self-report measures of self-care. Her research in the field is supported by several organizations, including NIH, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, and private foundations. She is the editor of 4 books, entitled Dreifus' Pacemaker Therapy: An Interprofessional Approach, Psychological Aspects of Critical Care Nursing, Improving Outcomes in Heart Failure: An Interdisciplinary Approach, and Cardiac Nursing: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease.

Riegel is an elected Fellow of several professional organizations, including Heart Failure Society of America, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association,

Education After receiving a Diploma in Nursing from Jewish Hospital School of Nursing, Riegel attended San Diego State University and received her Bachelor’s degree in Nursing in 1981. Following this, she enrolled at the University of California Los Angeles, and earned her Master’s and Doctoral degree in Nursing in 1983 and 1991, respectively. In 2003, she obtained an honorary Master’s degree with major in Arts from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2022 she received an honorary Doctor of Medicine degree from Linköping University in Sweden.

Career Riegel started her academic career as a lecturer in the School of Nursing at San Diego State University in 1984, and then served there as an adjunct faculty till 1995, as an associate professor till 1998, and as professor till 2002. She is currently a professor emerita at San Diego State University. She held her next appointment at the University of Pennsylvania as an associate professor in 2002, and was promoted to professor (Professor Emerita) in School of Nursing at University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia in 2008, where she held the Edith Clemmer Steinbright Professor of Gerontology chair until her retirement in 2021. During her tenure at the University of Pennsylvania, she also held visiting appointments at Seattle University, Linköping University in Sweden, and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. She has also been serving as a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University, Mary MacKillop Institute for Health Research since 2016.

From 1991 to 1995, she was appointed as managing director for the Clinical Research Department at Sharp HealthCare San Diego. At San Diego State University, she held appointment as the director of research for the School of Nursing from 2000 to 2002. At the University of Pennsylvania, as interim division chair of the Family and Community Health Division from 2009 to 2010, and as director of the Biobehavioral Research Center from 2011 to 2016. In 2022, she published an article and regarded symptom recognition as a mediator in the self-care of chronic illness, and further highlighted the important role of symptom recognition in self-care monitoring and self-care management behaviors. Furthermore, she highlighted the role of family in terms of facilitating a rapid improvement in self-care self-efficacy and a decrease in depressive symptoms, particularly among women.

Riegel conducts many research projects through her international collaborations with colleagues in Italy, Sweden, Australia, Hong Kong, Brazil, and beyond. These collaborations are facilitated through her International Center for Self-Care Research. Her current project is focused on clinical trial testing to demonstrate the efficacy of a health coaching intervention for caregivers of adults with heart failure, and is funded by the National Institutes of Health in the United States. Another project, funded by ACU, is an effort to identify what patients do to control their symptoms of a chronic illness.

Riegel published her book entitled Improving Outcomes in Heart Failure: An Interdisciplinary Approach in 2001. This book is described by S. Paul as a work which offers "a refreshing, new view on the management of heart failure." She also states that “the notable feature of this work is the presentation of practical examples of programs that have been developed to manage heart failure in the outpatient setting." Her other works are also focused on certain aspects of critical care nursing, and heart failure, and are also reviewed by reputed critics in the field.

Awards and honors 1993 - Elected Fellow, American Academy of Nursing 1997 - Elected Fellow, American Heart Association 1998 - Heart Failure Research Prize, American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing and Otsuka America, Inc. 1999 - Distinguished Research Lectureship Award, American Association of Critical Care Nurses 2000 - Distinguished Faculty Award, San Diego State University, College of Health and Human Services 2000 - San Diego State University Alumni Association Award For Outstanding Faculty Contributions to San Diego State University 2001 - First Annual Nursing Research Award, Heart Failure Society of America 2002 - Research Award, Gamma Gamma chapter, Sigma Theta Tau 2005 - American Heart Association, Council on Cardiovascular Nursing, Katharine A. Lembright Award 2007 - Barbara J. Lowery Doctoral Student Organization Faculty Award, the University of Pennsylvania 2009 - American Heart Association Council on Cardiovascular Nursing (CVN)- Top 10 Scientists in Cardiovascular Nursing 2012 - Claire M. Fagin Distinguished Researcher Award, University of Pennsylvania 2013 - President’s award for Research on Chronic Disease Management & Impact of Nursing in Promoting Self-Care, Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research (FNINR) 2014 - Christian R. & Mary E. Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, University of Pennsylvania 2014 - Distinguished Alumni Award, Barnes Jewish Alumni Association 2015 - Elected Fellow, Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association 2015 - Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame 2015 - Kathleen A. Dracup Lecturer in Exemplary Early Career Mentoring award, American Heart Association and the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing 2015 - Distinguished Scientist Award, American Heart Association 2017 - Nursing Leadership Award, Heart Failure Society of America 2017 - Elected Fellow, Heart Failure Society of America 2018 - SYNERGY Award for the Best Nursing Research Oral Presentation, CHARMS 2018, Canberra, Australia 2018 - Highly Cited Researcher, Web of Science 2019 - Senior Faculty Research Award, Department of Biobehavioral Health Sciences, University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing 2022 - Honorary Doctor of Medicine, Linkoping University, Sweden