Honor/Award
Karen Lasater, Population Aging Research Center at Penn (PARC), was inducted as a 2021 Fellow into the American Academy of Nursing. Inductees will be recognized for their contributions/impact to advance health care at the AAN hybrid Health Policy Conference on October 9, 2021.
The American Academy of Nursing’s Fellows are nursing leaders in education, management, practice and research. Fellows represent association executives; university presidents, chancellors and deans; elected officials; state and federal political appointees; hospital chief executives and vice presidents for nursing; nurse consultants; and researchers and entrepreneurs. Invitation to Fellowship is more than recognition of one’s accomplishments within the nursing profession. Academy Fellows also have a responsibility to contribute their time and energies to the Academy, and to engage with other health leaders outside the Academy in transforming America’s health system.
Dr. Lasater leads a unique major initiative to rapidly produce evidence about the hospital nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and its association with patient outcomes – information needed to inform policy choices in states considering staffing legislation. This study brings rigorous, current, relevant evidence—collected prior to implementation—to policy discussions impacting the public’s health and healthcare. She has also received external funding to study the effects of nursing work environments on patient outcomes at the end of life. Dr. Lasater’s research examines the potential for hospital staff nurses to render patient and family-centered care at the end of life, given the right circumstances.