Linda Aiken, top healthcare policy scholar, to speak at Purdue

Linda Aiken Download Photo

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Linda Aiken, the nursing scholar best known for research that influenced the way hospitals staff nurses to care for patients, is speaking at Purdue University on Nov. 9.

Linda Aiken, the Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor of Nursing and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania, is the keynote speaker for the School of Nursing's fall semester conference.

Aiken, who also is director of the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, is a member of the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine and former president of the American Academy of Nursing.

"Her research in 2002 was truly groundbreaking, with findings that showed the quality of nursing care affected patients' morbidity," said Laura P. Sands, Katherine Birck Professor of Nursing. "She continues to be consulted nationally and internationally on patient safety, satisfaction, and quality of hospital care."

The Data-Driven Evidence to Inform Improvements in Healthcare Practice and Policy conference is open to nurses and health care professionals and administrators. The fee is $125 for those who register by Oct. 19. After that date, the registration fee will be $150. This event also counts for continuing education credit. Registration and more information is available at http://www.purdue.edu/aiken

"The goal of the conference is to bring together key professionals whose shared interest is to improve health care systems," Sands said. "In addition to Dr. Aiken's presentations, examples of similar research and applications will be highlighted. Presenters will describe clinically-driven studies that evaluate health care delivery and inform health care policy."

Aiken will present a talk titled "Linking Patient Outcomes to Nurse Education, Staffing and Work Environment" and then participate in an interactive question-and-answer session with the audience titled "Implementing Data-driven Evidence to Influence National Policy." This session will be led by Ambassador Carolyn Curiel, a clinical professor in Purdue's Brian Lamb School of Communication and director of Project Impact. She is a former senior White House aide and U.S. ambassador to Belize.

Aiken has received numerous awards including the Episteme Award from Sigma Theta Tau, Individual Ernest Codman Award from the Joint Commission, Academy Health Distinguished Investigator Award, Baxter Foundation Health Services Research Prize and Inaugural Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.

The event also is co-sponsored by the Regenstrief Center for Healthcare Engineering and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing.

Writer: Amy Patterson Neubert, 765-494-9723, apatterson@purdue.edu

Source: Laura P. Sands, 765-494-6506, lsands@purdue.edu