Sharon Kozachik: School of Nursing Faculty Directory

Overview

"Those who do not feel pain seldom think that it is felt."
– Dr. Samuel Johnson

"Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together."
– Thomas Dekker

Dr. Sharon Kozachik's research focuses on the relationship between pain and disturbed sleep and the mechanisms that underlie their co-occurrence. Dr. Kozachik, who was involved in direct nursing care for a number of years, is committed to relieving suffering through scientific exploration of the clinical phenomena that she observed as a clinician. She currently conducts bedside-to-bench translational research to determine: 1) the antecedents and consequences of pain and sleep disturbance, and 2) whether alterations in HPA axis responsivity serve as a mechanism linking sleep disruption to increases in pain. Dr. Kozachik has received funding to conduct her studies through the National Institutes of Health, the American Nurses Foundation, and the Oncology Nursing Society. She also is invested in the education and training of future pain scholars. In her role as a nurse educator and researcher, she sits on the steering committees for the NIH Roadmap Initiative Postdoctoral training grant to prepare interdisciplinary researchers to address the complex challenge of pain, and for the Pain Education curriculum in the Hopkins School of Medicine.

Areas of Scholarly Expertise and Interest

Bi-directional association between pain and sleep disturbance and the mechanisms involved, cancer and chemotherapy-induced symptoms and side effects, symptom management, aging, geriatrics.