Pictured here: Susan Chapman and Nancy Dudley

Nancy Dudley, RN, PhD(c) 2014-16 Patricia G. Archbold Scholar, presented at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nursing and Health Policy Collaborative conference Integrating Health Policy into Doctoral Nursing Programs: Continuing the Conversation in 2015. Her topic was Health Policy in the Palliative Care Minor Program; Susan Chapman, RN, PhD, FAAN, and DorAnne Donesky, RN, PhD, NP were co-presenters.

Nancy described how individual determinants and system level characteristics influence access to community-based palliative care. Older adults are living longer with advanced illness and want to age in place. Limited access to needed supportive symptom management and care coordination is associated with fragmented care, and unsustainable growth in costs. A workforce not trained or skilled in palliative care may result in late referrals. Interprofessional collaboration and strategies are needed to address individual determinants and health system factors associated with access to community-based palliative care. Integrating health policy into the Palliative Care Minor Program provides an approach for students to explore the facilitators and barriers to access care, to deliver effective and efficient quality care.

At this conference Nancy met leaders throughout the nation in health policy and collaborations established at the conference have led to the submission of two abstracts to the Gerontological Society of America annual conference. Nancy was recently accepted to attend the Hartford Change AGEnt Policy Institute this June to gain a stronger understanding of the complex policy-making environment and to enhance her role to drive policy outcomes to improve health care and quality of life for older adults.