News
April 2025
Several of our team members showcased their work - PhD students including Anju Wadhawan and Kristen Berryman, MSN, RN, CCM presented insightful research through poster presentations. We’re so proud of their contributions and the knowledge they brought to the national stage!

October/November 2024
New paper published in The Gerontologist, first author Dr. Hyosin (Dawn) Kim from Oregon State University.

November 2024
Presented now published abstracts:
Methods to construct and analyze cognitive function trajectories using claims and assessment data.
Harmonization of Medicare beneficiaries’ cognitive function data.
End-of-life care disparity for Asian American Pacific Islander and White Americans with dementia.
Racial/ethnic and sex differences in late-life cognitive trajectories.

July 2024

February 21, 2024
Home health care use in the last three years of a patient’s life is associated with a higher likelihood of hospice care at the end of life, according to a Rutgers Health study. Researchers, whose findings are published in the Journal of Palliative Medicine, examined the home health care and hospice care experiences of more than 2 million people.
“In addition to benefits for the patient, hospice care also provides resources and support to help family caregivers cope with the physical, emotional and practical challenges of caring for a loved one at the end of life,” said Olga Jarrín, senior author of the study, the Hunterdon Professor of Nursing Research at the Rutgers School of Nursing and director of the Community Health and Aging Outcomes Laboratory within the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.

January 26, 2024
A Rutgers Health analysis of millions of Medicare records has laid the groundwork for improving end-of-life care by demonstrating that nearly all older Americans follow one of nine trajectories in their last three years of life.
“Identifying which paths people actually take is a necessary precursor to identifying which factors send different people down different paths and designing interventions that send more people down whatever path is right for them,” said Olga Jarrín, the Hunterdon Professor of Nursing Research at Rutgers School of Nursing and corresponding author of the study published in BMC Geriatrics.
December 15, 2021
School of Nursing’s Olga Jarrín leads $5.2 million in NIH-funded studies. The question of how environmental factors including systemic racism impact the quality of health care is a concern long-held by Olga Jarrín Montaner (PhD, RN, FAAN). Beginning with her early experience as an EMT, and later as a community health nurse, she learned firsthand how racism and discrimination, and other environmental and socioeconomic factors impacted health and quality of life in the low-income neighborhoods and Spanish-speaking families she worked with.
July 6, 2021
If you’re not yet over 65, you may well be caring for someone who is. Over the last decade, the number of Americans 65 and older jumped from 39.6 million to 54.1 million, and it’s expected to reach 80.8 million by 2040. The predicted increase in Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s disease is equally dramatic, projected to grow from 6 million to 15 million by 2060.
May 21, 2021
Older adults with diabetes are at elevated risk of complications following hospitalization. Home health care services mitigate the risk of adverse events and facilitate a safe transition home. In the United States, when home health care services are prescribed, federal guidelines require they begin within two days of hospital discharge.
April 20, 2021
Huge thank to Brionna Robinson for all her work this semester as part of the NJ ACTS Workforce Development internship program! Brionna has been working behind the scenes to help organize more than 20 years of program records for the Rutgers Minority Nurse Leadership Institute and set up a social media presence as the program transitions into the digital era.
April 19, 2021
Congratulations, Mary Velahos and Nishat Poppy on your Senior Honors Research Presentations and upcoming graduation! Check back for updates on the book chapters they co-authored on Caregiver Role Strain, Impaired Memory, and Wandering which will be part of the Nursing Diagnosis Handbook: An Evidence-Based Guide to Planning Care, 13th ed.
April 16, 2021
The National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging has awarded Rutgers School of Nursing a multi-year, $2.3 million grant to create a unique and comprehensive research repository of aging trajectory datasets, related resources, and analytic methods that can be used to answer new and important questions in aging and related sciences. Check back for updates!
April 5, 2021
Older adults with diabetes are at elevated risk of complications following hospitalization. Home health care services mitigate the risk of adverse events and facilitate a safe transition home. In the United States, when home health care services are prescribed, federal guidelines require they begin within two days of hospital discharge.
March 23, 2021
Racial and ethnic disparities exist in diabetes prevalence, health services utilization, and outcomes including disabling and life-threatening complications among patients with diabetes. Home health care may especially benefit older adults with diabetes through individualized education, advocacy, care coordination, and psychosocial support for patients and their caregivers.
March 16, 2021
For each Medicare-certified home health agency, families can use Medicare’s Care Compare to see what percentage of patients are seen within 0-2 days of referral. How important is this? A recent study out of Rutgers, the Keck School of Medicine, and Thomas Jefferson University shows that programs can vary widely in responsiveness to referrals.
November 12, 2020
The National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging has awarded Rutgers School of Nursing a four-year, $2.6 million grant to investigate how skilled home health care can reduce racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities in palliative and end-of-life care among people diagnosed with dementia.
May 11, 2020
The COVID-19 crisis has uprooted the health care sector and done away with most norms that existed beforehand. That goes for the workers who make up the sector, too. One developing trend to keep an eye on as home-based care plays a bigger part in keeping at-risk seniors safe is the migration of more nurses into the home setting.
April 25, 2019
At-home care organizations across the country are grappling with how to attract and retain staff. Moorestown, New Jersey-based Bayada Home Health Care has tried to solve the industry-wide pain point by exploring creative solutions, including university partnerships. Reasons for at-home care workforce challenges are numerous.
January 17, 2019
The number of people over the age of 60 is expected to at least double by 2050, with the over-80 population projected to grow at an even faster rate in many countries. To keep national health care spending down, countries will need to figure out ways to support and encourage care that is delivered in the home, the lowest-cost and oft-preferred setting for older adults.
December 11, 2018
Available free from the publisher for 50 days, get a copy of our latest article:
Jarrín OF, Pouladi FA, Madigan EA. International priorities for home care education, research, practice, and management: Qualitative content analysis. Nurse Education Today, 2019, 73:83-87. doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2018.11.020.
October 18, 2018
The initiative fosters a platform to ignite interdisciplinary and transnational aging research initiatives across Rutgers University. Dr. Jarrín, PhD, RN presented on newest findings regarding the impact of home health care on survival for people living with dementia. Keynote Speaker: Dr. Robin Barr, National Institute on Aging, Director, Division of Extramural Activities.
November 06, 2018
The Institute of Medicine concluded in To Err Is Human in 1999 that transformation of nurse work environments was needed to reduce patient harm. We studied 535 hospitals in four large states at two points in time between 2005 and 2016 to determine the extent to which their work environments improved, and whether positive changes were associated with greater progress in patient safety. Survey data from thousands of nurses and patients showed that patient safety remains a serious concern. Only 21 percent of study hospitals showed sizable improvements in work environment scores, while 7 percent had worse scores. For hospitals in which clinical care environments improved, patients and nurses reported improvements in patient safety indicators. These included increases in percentages of patients rating their hospital favorably and stating that they would definitely recommend the hospital and in percentages of nurses reporting excellent quality of care and giving the hospital a favorable grade on patient safety. Where work environments deteriorated, fewer nurses gave a favorable grade on patient safety. Failure to improve hospital work environments may be hampering progress on patient safety.
October 10, 2018
Olga F. Jarrin, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor of Nursing at Rutgers, is a co-investigator (and the Rutgers sub-award principal investigator) of an NIH-NIA Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (AD/ADRD) administrative supplement to the NIH-NINR R01 grant “Panel Study of Effects of Changes in Nursing on Patient Outcomes” Principle Investigator: Linda H. Aiken, PhD, FAAN, FRCN, Claire M. Fagin Leadership Professor in Nursing. Co-investigators are Douglas Sloane, PhD, Adjunct Professor of Nursing at Penn, and Irina B. Grafova, PhD, Assistant Professor at Rutgers, School of Public Health. The purpose of this person-centered approach is to determine the impact of nurse education, staffing, skill mix, and work environment on trajectories of care and care outcomes for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
September 10, 2018
NJBiz's write-up about the 2018 home health research grant from the Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation that we will receive! Click below to read the full article!
September 06, 2018
The Alliance for Home Health Quality and Innovation recently announced their three awardees for its 2018 home health research grant funding cycle, and we are honored to be one of its recipients along with Dr. Rosati of the VNA Health Group. The grant will allow us to continue our project and our push for home health care for those living with dementia. Click below to read full article!
July 24, 2017
In a new study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing's Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research (CHOPR), and the Rutgers University School of Nursing examined the factors influencing the likelihood of missed nursing care in the home care setting. Their findings indicate that home care nurses with poor work environments are more likely to miss required care.
Wee Siang Tay | January 17, 2017
My name is Wee Siang Tay and I am a Class of 2019 international student from Singapore in the School of Arts and Sciences Honors Program. I am majoring in Economics and currently work with Dr. Olga Jarrín. Previously, I worked in a frontline clinical setting at a hospital and I served in the military.
Lilo H. Stainton | August 8, 2016
How do patients from various ethnic and economic backgrounds respond to different models of homecare? As healthcare continues to evolve, homecare providers are playing an expanding role protecting the health of senior citizens, disabled individuals, patients with chronic diseases, and those discharged from the hospital with a need for follow-up care.
Karen Utterback | December 1, 2015
A new study confirms a phenomenon long observed by home health workers: emergency room visits are an indicating factor for unplanned readmissions. A study published in the August issue of the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice found that the strongest predictor of readmission is a high number of previous...
Miquel Hernandis | 23 oct 2015
«Dinero, dinero, dinero, que es lo que la gente entiende». José Antonio Ávila, presidente del Consejo de Enfermería de la Comunidad Valenciana, resumió así de claro el ideario que se marca el colectivo que representa en las Jornadas nacionales que inauguraron ayer en Alicante.
Nurse.com | November 10, 2014
All through nursing school, Melissa Marrero, MSN, RN-BC, was sure she wanted to work in a hospital ICU until she accompanied a home health nurse in New York's Chinatown as part of a clinical rotation in community nursing. I was converted during my senior semester, said Marrero, manager of college relations for Visiting Nurse Service of New York. The mystery of what happens to your patients when you send them home you get to see that.
Dan Verel | October 9, 2014
The National Institutes of Nursing Research is putting $3 million toward further research by Linda Aiken, a professor of nursing at the University of Pennsylvania, that is focusing on how changes in nursing practices can improve patient outcomes. The study, which is getting supplemental funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Alex Hillman Foundation, is looking at nursing practices at some 600 hospitals and hundreds more nursing homes and home care agencies.