Susan Hickman, PhD, and professor at the IU School of Nursing and IU School of Medicine, and her team received a $3.3 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research.
This grant is for a five-year study on “Mapping the Complex Processes and Outcomes of Care Planning.” The study will use implementation science and human factors engineering to map the complexity of care planning through the experiences of diverse key informants and identify patient/caregiver centered and implementation outcomes.
The long-term goal is to set the direction for future care planning policy, research, and implementation, and to decrease health disparities in care planning and medical care during serious illness and at the end of life.
Dr. Hickman, the Cornelius and Yvonne Pettinga Chair in Aging Research and Director of the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute, has been educating and conducting research on advance care planning and end-of-life decision making with a focus on the nursing faculty since 1998. She has previously been nationally recognized for her work to help ensure that patients’ end-of-life treatment preferences are known and honored as well as for her work translating research into policy, which includes championing three Indiana statutes focused on advance care planning.