University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing Post-Doctoral Fellow J. Nicholas Dionne-Odom, PhD, RN, has received a two-year, $154,000 Junior Faculty Career Development Award from the National Palliative Care Research Center. The award provides Dr. Dionne-Odom with protected time to develop and conduct pilot research, and also has a training component consisting of coursework, workshops, mentorship, and research immersion in clinical trials.As part of the award Dr. Dionne-Odom’s will develop a culturally relevant intervention to promote self-efficacy, competency, and decision-making in family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer in the rural south. He will conduct interviews of patients with advanced cancer, their family caregivers, and the lay healthcare navigators who regularly work with this population in order to learn about their needs and feelings about potential interventions.
“Family caregivers often provide as much as eight hours of care each day for patients with advanced cancer, frequently exacting a physical and emotional toll on themselves,” he said. “The stress on family caretakers has been recognized as a public health crisis and is a priority focus in palliative care. However, rural populations, patients and caregivers, suffer from marked disparities in access to palliative care.”
At the conclusion of this two-year award, Dr. Dionne Odom will be well positioned to apply for NIH, PCORI, or foundation funding to conduct a randomized controlled trail of a newly developed intervention as a fully independent researcher. His long-term goal is to become an independent nurse-scientist with a research program in developing and testing palliative care interventions for family caregivers of patients with advanced cancer.
Dr. Dionne-Odom’s mentors are UAB School of Nursing Professor and Marie L. O’Koren Endowed Chair Marie Bakitas, DNSc, CRNP, NP-C, AOCN, ACHPN, FAAN and UAB School of Medicine, Division of Preventive Medicine Associate Professor Michelle Martin, PhD.
