By Emily Kent
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Assistant Professor Erin Currie PhD, RN and co-authors have received the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association Poster Award for their poster, “Access to Pediatric Palliative Care in Minority and Rural Deep South Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Patients: Patterns of Care from 2009-2017.” It was presented at the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care, held in Orlando.
The poster examined pediatric primary care racial and geographical differences for seriously ill infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This was the first study in the Deep South to explore patterns of pediatric primary care in the NICU and associated care disparities. Findings suggest that while there were no racial or geographic differences in pediatric primary care timing during hospitalization, travel time to the hospital was associated with a delay in receiving palliative care.
The Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care is an annual interprofessional conference hosted by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM) and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association (HPNA). The conference allows members and other health care professionals to advance in their fields by educating and sharing research and clinical practices to improve patient care and the quality of life for those affected by serious illness and their families.
Currie’s co-authors included UAB SON Professor and Marie L. O’Koren Endowed Chair in Nursing Marie Bakitas, DNSc, CRNP, NP-C, AOCN, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN; Assistant Professor Peng Li, PhD,; Assistant Professor J. Nick Dionne-Odom, PhD, MSN, MA, RN ACHPN, FPCN; Post-Doctoral Fellow Deborah Ejem, PhD, MA, and UAB SON Office of Research and Scholarship Program Manager Lauren Antia, BS; as well as John Hopkins University School of Medicine Associate Professor Renee Boss, MD, MHS, Director of Pediatric Palliative Care at Boston Children’s Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Joanne Wolfe, MD, MPH, UAB School of Medicine Associate Professor Samuel J. Perna, DO, and Assistant Professor Susan Buckingham, MD, and Creighton University Assistant Professor Kathleen McKillip, MD.
In addition to her faculty appointment, Currie is a 2011 Master’s graduate and 2014 PhD graduate of the School.
