Aging and Gerontological Nursing Research HUB

The U.S. Census Bureau projects that the number of older Americans will rise to 95 million by 2060, shifting the proportion of those aged 65 years and older from 16% to 23% of the population within just a few decades.  As such, the need for a robust and rigorous evidence base to promote healthy aging and optimize the care of those with aging-related comorbidities has never been greater.

The Aging and Gerontological Research HUB has been designed to spur more Pitt Nursing faculty to take advantage of promising funding opportunities including not only NIH’s unprecedented investment in ADRD research, but emerging calls for proposals to address other timely issues like race-based health disparities. This HUB brings together both established leaders and rising stars whose research programs address a broad range of issues related to aging and gerontological nursing and encourage untapped opportunities for collaboration. Participating faculty are currently conducting research focused on osteoarthritis, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease, palliative care, health disparities, mobility, Parkinson’s disease, and caregiving.

HUB meetings are structured to foster the appreciation of synergies and identification of collaborative opportunities to advance our science. Our speaker series allows HUB members and other faculty to keep their “fingers on the pulse” of cutting-edge research in progress and new directions for the future. Pilot funding provides just-in-time opportunities to gather and/or analyze the data needed to inform hypotheses and bolster the care for feasibility in support of federal grant applications. The HUB also allows faculty to identify barriers to research productivity and work to mitigate them, whether through HUB activities or, as appropriate, in concert with other research faculty at the School of Nursing (SoN).

The overarching goal of this HUB is to establish Pitt Nursing as a leader in high impact research on aging and gerontological nursing. Toward that end, our short-term goal is to develop a shared vision of goals, priorities, and an action plan for leveraging our collective strengths to aggressively pursue NIH and other funding for nurse-led research on gerontology, aging, and care of the older adult.

The recordings of the Hub presentations for Spring 2023 can be accessed at:

https://pitt.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Sessions/List.aspx?folderID=4f57cbe9-37ec-4e1b-83b9-afab011d5b21

For more information about this research HUB, please contact:

Jennifer H. Lingler, PhD, CRNP, FAAN
Professor, Vice Chair for Research
Health and Community Systems
Phone: 412-383-5214
linglerj@pitt.edu