Posted: 7/13/2009
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) assistant professor Sarah Szanton, PhD, CRNP, is the recipient of a 2009-2011 John A. Hartford Foundation Claire M. Fagin Fellowship in geriatric nursing research.
Over the next two years, working under the close mentorship of JHUSON professor Jerilyn Allen, ScD, RN, FAAN, Szanton’s research will focus on how chronic stress affects the health of older adults. “I’m thrilled to have been selected for this fellowship from the Hartford Foundation,” says Szanton. “As the need for effective approaches to the health of older adults becomes ever more urgent, the Hartford Foundation’s commitment to geriatric research is ever more important.” Through her research, Szanton endeavors to develop nursing interventions that will decrease the health-related stress of poverty and its consequences in older Americans, looking at both physiological and psychosocial outcomes. Szanton’s long-term goal is to identify innovative solutions to decrease health disparities among low income older adults. Says Szanton, “By providing house calls, I have seen the psychological stamp of a lifetime of accumulated stress and inequity. I am hoping that our research can start to decrease these disparities.”
The American Academy of Nursing (http://www.aannet.org) (AAN) announced over $2 million in awards to its latest cohort of fellows and scholars in academic geriatric nursing, including nine Claire M. Fagin postdoctoral Fellows, who will each receive $120,000 to support advanced research training, mentorship, leadership and career development.
The fellowship is part of the Building Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity (BAGNC) program, which began in 2000 through the AAN with support from the John A. Hartford Foundation, and subsequently attracted additional funding partners in The Atlantic Philanthropies and Mayday Fund.