Columbia Nursing Receives $2.7 Million Grant to Fund Palliative Care Research Center

The Columbia University School of Nursing recently received a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) to fund a new exploratory center called the Center for Improving Palliative Care for Vulnerable Adults (CIPC) with multiple chronic conditions (MCC).

According to Nursing.Columbia.edu, the prevalence of MCCs in older adults represents one of the nation’s most formidable healthcare challenges with Medicare beneficiaries with MCCs accounting for 93 percent of programmatic spending, while one-third of recipients with four or more chronic conditions account for 75 percent of spending. Elderly patients with MCCs are more likely to have greater complications, longer hospital stays, and experience end-of-life crises that lead to high healthcare resource use.

Patricia Stone, PhD, Centennial Professor of Health Policy at Columbia University School of Nursing and Co-Principal Investigator at CIPC, tells Nursing.Columbia.edu, “As the country grows older demographically, more and more people are faced with the increased possibility of developing multiple chronic conditions, which can include diabetes and arthritis, among many others, that require long-term management and pain control. Accordingly, improving palliative care across clinical settings could not be more important, and research is the first step in finding out how to do so in an evidence-based, scientifically rigorous manner.”

The new Center for Improving Palliative Care for Vulnerable Adults is conducted in partnership with the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (VNSNY). CIPC will generate knowledge on how best to provide vulnerable populations with palliative care, studying factors that influence health vulnerability including race and ethnicity, acculturation, socioeconomic status, age, living location/situation (eg, at home, in assisted living), and sexual identity. The CIPC’s first two pilot projects include: the “NH-Resident Engagement in Antibiotic Care and Health Symptoms” study and the “Aged Immigrant Chinese-Americans with ESRD: Self-Care Strategies for Healthy Living” study.