By Laura Gasque
University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing Associate Professor and holder of the Doreen C. Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN Endowed Professorship in Nursing J. Nicholas Odom, PhD, RN, ACHPN, FPCN, FAAN, is the recipient of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association’s 2024 Distinguished Nursing Researcher Award. The award recognizes a nurse researcher who has demonstrated longevity and consistency in research that advances the mission and vision of HPNA through high-quality research, presentations and publications in peer-reviewed journals. Odom will receive the award during the Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Care in March in Phoenix, Arizona.
“It is an incredible honor and moment of gratitude to be recognized with this award,” Odom said. “It’s a testament to the incredible support I’ve received from my mentors, colleagues, collaborators, research staff, UAB and the UAB School of Nursing, and my family and loved ones.”
Odom is a national and international leader in nursing science, developing and testing early palliative care coaching interventions to improve the coping skills and decision-making of family caregivers for individuals with advanced cancer and heart failure in historically under-resourced populations. He has complementary expertise decision psychology, lay navigation, and digital health. Odom has received more than $9 million in extramural research grants from the National Institutes of Health and other organizations focused on palliative care and caregiving.
In addition to his role in the School, Odom is Director of Caregiver and Bereavement Support Services in the UAB Center for Palliative and Supportive Care and an Associate Scientist in the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer and the UAB Minority Health and Health Equity Research Center.
In 2021, Odom was named a Sojourns Scholar by the Cambia Health Foundation. In 2020, he received the Friends of the National Institute of Nursing Research Protégé Award, was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing and was named a Betty Irene Moore Nurse Leaders and Innovators Fellow. In 2019, he was named a Fellow of the Hospice and Palliative Care Nurses Association.
“My work has been relentlessly driven by a mission to advance how we support family and friends caring for loved ones with serious illness, so many of whom struggle and feel invisible,” Odom said. “I envision a world that recognizes, values and sustains these individuals, for the time comes when each of us will find ourselves in this role.”
