We Welcome Dr . Shena Gazaway , Assistant Professor to UAB
By : Ronit Elk , PhD
June 2021 | Issue 3 | Page 4
Please join us in welcoming Dr . Shena Gazaway , Assistant Professor in the UAB School of Nursing , and to the Center for Palliative and Supportive Care . Since we met Dr . Gazaway , a junior faculty member Dr . Bakitas and I knew she was someone who would make a great contribution to the field . Over the past year and a half , Dr . Marie Bakitas and I have had the privilege of mentoring Dr . Shena Gazaway as she wrote and was awarded her Diversity Supplement from the NIH .
In Dr . Gazaway ’ s own words : “ I graduated with BSN and MSN in Nursing Education from Brenau University in Gainesville Georgia , ( 2005 and 2009 respectively ), and completed my PhD in Nursing Research in 2017 from Augusta University . My practice , educational and early research career goals made me an ideal candidate for the NIH research supplement to become an independent research promoting health-related research in palliative and end-of-life care . I started my career as a
Shena Gazaway , PhD community health nurse in a rural health department located in Northeast Georgia . In this position and a subsequent home health positions I worked with minority populations in the rural Northeast Georgia community and during this time of practice I grew to understand that critical goals of care discussions in serious illness were avoided by providers and specifically African American patients and their families .
Assistant Professor School of Nursing , University of Alabama at Birmingham
I frequently observed and patients / families shared that when goals of care discussions were held that often the language and verbiage used by providers was not easily understood or accepted by these patients or their families . As a trusted nurse caregiver , I would engage them in a more meaningful and fundamental process to discover wishes and desires in serious illness . I entered my PhD program in 2012 focused on an academic administrative career track . My dissertation work , entitled Effects of mentoring relationships on professional socialization of clinical nurse leader graduates reflects this focus and career goal . However , my experiences with the course work required , and my time as the College ’ s Jonas Scholar with Dr . Lucy Marion as my mentor sharpened my interest in culturally congruent care and translational research as an avenue for me to create an impact on my rural community ’ s health and wellbeing . The personal experience of my paternal grandmother ’ s cognitive decline from Alzheimer ’ s and how my mother and her siblings navigate healthcare decisions and the burden and stress they carried and have carried drove into focus my current research path and area of study .
Embarking on the journey I acknowledge that I needed to take the time to develop a deeper knowledge in advanced care planning , goals of care , and palliative and hospice care . To accomplish this goal , I conducted a comprehensive review of the literature and was approved by my employing institution to enter the research tenured faculty track . Being a tenure track faculty member
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