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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
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Registration Required
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AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
AAHPM Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner
HPNA Abstract Award Winner

Rachel D. Wells, PhD, RN, CNL, CHPN, FPCN (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Dr. Rachel Wells is an Assistant Professor and Core Mixed Methods faculty in the School of Nursing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. As a nurse and Clinical Nurse Leader with over 10 years of clinical experience in cardiac critical care, palliative medicine, and rural health, her research bridges the fields of chronic illness care and early palliative care and is focused on refining palliative care access for underresourced older adults living with serious illness. Specifically, Dr. Wells has focused on the development and testing of highly efficient and effective models of early palliative care for those living with advanced heart failure. Her emerging program of research focuses on the examination of active palliative care intervention elements and dosing of palliative care to develop optimized interventions that uniquely address palliative care needs, a novel approach to addressing health disparities in underresourced palliative care populations. She has been involved with a number of federally-, foundationally-, and intramurally-funded grants as a PI and Co-I that have involved intervention development and tailoring and clinical trials testing and implementation of models of early palliative care for those living with serious illness and their family caregivers, including the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation-funded Project ADAPT-HF community-engaged optimization pilot that will serve as a case exemplar today. Dr. Wells is regularly engaged in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Heart Association, American College of Cardiology, and the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association, where she has championed efforts to educate clinicians and others to identify, monitor, and intervene early to improve health-related quality of life in adults living with serious illness in the Deep South.

Presentation(s):

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