Nursing PhD student published twice in The Gerontological Society of America journal

Cristina de Rosa headshot.

Published January 17, 2022

PhD nursing student Cristina de Rosa, MSN, RN, had two published poster abstracts in a supplement to the December 2021 issue of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) journal Innovation in Aging. 

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“We hope that this and future research will help us to understand how best to support caregivers and older adults at the same time. ”
Cristina de Rosa, Nursing PhD Student

 In “Informal Caregivers’ Perceptions of Burdens and Benefits Predict Greater Confidence in Their Abilities,” de Rosa, along with co-authors Rebecca Lorenz, PhD, RN, and Suzanne Sullivan, PhD, MBA, RN, CHPN, sought out to learn how feelings of both burden and benefit affected self-confidence in caregiving abilities. Using an existing large dataset from the National Study of Caregiving (NSOC), they found that caregivers were more likely to be confident in their abilities when they said that caregiving showed them how to manage tough situations, brought them satisfaction that their care recipient was well cared for and drew them closer to their care recipient. Ultimately, they discovered that caregiving relationships impact both the person providing care and the person receiving care.

“Dr. Lorenz and Dr. Sullivan guided me every step of the way for this project, and I’m grateful to them for working through these ideas with me,” she says. “We hope that this and future research will help us to understand how best to support caregivers and older adults at the same time.”

In “Family Advocacy for Residents in Nursing Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” de Rosa and co-authors Yanjun Zhou, BSN, Amy Lyons and Yu-Ping Chang, PhD, RN, FGSA, FAAN, FIAAN, were interested in learning how family members of nursing home residents advocated for their loved ones and themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic. They conducted qualitative interviews of family members and found that they maintained concern for residents’ overall well-being and spoke up with and for residents by contacting nursing home staff and policymakers to influence decision-making. Family members remained actively involved with residents to the extent that they were permitted, but also identified gaps in care that they could have helped to fill, as well as missed opportunities for companionship.

“I’m glad to have had the opportunity to disseminate research findings as poster presentations to an international, interdisciplinary audience at GSA’s Annual Scientific Meeting,” she says.

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