Lauren Hunt, PhD, RN, FNP
Assistant Professor
Physiological Nursing
School of Nursing

My research questions are driven by my professional experiences as a clinician working with seriously-ill older adults in acute care, hospice, and outpatient clinics, where I have witnessed firsthand how gaps in current care models negatively impact patients and families.

My vision is to help older adults, particularly those with dementia, to live and die as comfortably and peacefully as possible. To that end, my research has focused on three main areas: 1) End-of-life health service use and quality of care in older adults with dementia; 2) Geriatric palliative care needs in vulnerable older adults across settings; 3) Potentially burdensome interventions and transitions in vulnerable older adults. I also have a methodological interest in using existing datasets to answers questions in these domains.

• Care Ecosystem Collaborative Model and Health Care Costs in Medicare Beneficiaries With Dementia: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.
  JAMA internal medicine 2023 Guterman EL, Kiekhofer RE, Wood AJ, Allen IE, Kahn JG, Dulaney S, Merrilees JJ, Lee K, Chiong W, Bonasera SJ, Braley TL, Hunt LJ, Harrison KL, Miller BL, Possin KL
• Health Care Costs Associated With Hospice Use For People With Dementia In The US.
  Health affairs (Project Hope) 2023 Aldridge MD, Hunt LJ, Harrison KL, McKendrick K, Li L, Morrison RS
• Hospice Quality, Race, and Disenrollment in Hospice Enrollees With Dementia.
  Journal of palliative medicine 2023 Hunt LJ, Gan S, Smith AK, Aldridge MD, Boscardin WJ, Harrison KL, James JE, Lee AK, Yaffe K
• The Epidemiology of Smoking in Older Adults: A National Cohort Study.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2022 Hunt LJ, Covinsky KE, Cenzer I, Espejo E, Boscardin WJ, Leutwyler H, Lee AK, Cataldo J
• Functional and clinical needs of older hospice enrollees with coexisting dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022 Harrison KL, Cenzer I, Smith AK, Hunt LJ, Kelley AS, Aldridge MD, Covinsky KE
• Role of Home Health for Community-Dwelling Older Adults Near the End of Life: A Resource Beyond Hospice?
  Journal of palliative medicine 2022 Oh A, Hunt LJ, Ritchie CS, Ornstein KA, Kelley AS, Rajagopalan S, Ankuda CK
• The Role of Geropsychiatric Nursing in Promoting Age-Friendly Health Care.
  Journal of gerontological nursing 2022 Massimo L, Hunt L
• A national study of disenrollment from hospice among people with dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022 Hunt LJ, Gan S, Boscardin WJ, Yaffe K, Ritchie CS, Aldridge MD, Smith AK
• Hospice Improves Care Quality For Older Adults With Dementia In Their Last Month Of Life.
  Health affairs (Project Hope) 2022 Harrison KL, Cenzer I, Ankuda CK, Hunt LJ, Aldridge MD
• The Association Between Race and Place of Death Among Persons With Dementia.
  Journal of pain and symptom management 2022 Mayan I, Yaffe K, James J, Hunt LJ
• Life expectancy for community-dwelling persons with dementia and severe disability.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022 Harrison KL, Ritchie CS, Hunt LJ, Patel K, Boscardin WJ, Yaffe K, Smith AK
• Incidence of potentially disruptive medical and social events in older adults with and without dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022 Hunt LJ, Morrison RS, Gan S, Espejo E, Ornstein KA, Boscardin WJ, Smith AK
• Impact of Comorbid Dementia on Patterns of Hospice Use.
  Journal of palliative medicine 2021 Aldridge MD, Hunt L, Husain M, Li L, Kelley A
• Instead of wasting money on aducanumab, pay for programs proven to help people living with dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2021 Hunt LJ, Harrison KL, Covinsky KE
• Opening the black box: Evaluating the care of people with serious illness in Medicare Advantage.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2021 Ankuda CK, Hunt LJ
• Earlier initiation of palliative care in the disease trajectory of people living with dementia: a scoping review protocol.
  BMJ open 2021 Gilissen J, Hunt L, Van den Block L, van der Steen J, Tahir P, Ritchie C
• Live discharge from hospice for people living with dementia isn't "graduating"-It's getting expelled.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2021 Hunt LJ, Harrison KL
• Improving End-of-Life Care for Persons Living With Dementia: Bereaved Caregivers' Observations and Recommendations.
  Journal of pain and symptom management 2021 Yeh JC, Newman J, Main R, Hunt LJ
• "It's Case by Case, and It's a Struggle": A Qualitative Study of Hospice Practices, Perspectives, and Ethical Dilemmas When Caring for Hospice Enrollees with Full-Code Status or Intensive Treatment Preferences.
  Journal of palliative medicine 2020 Dressler G, Garrett SB, Hunt LJ, Thompson N, Mahoney K, Sudore RL, Ritchie CS, Harrison KL
• "Goals of Care Conversations Don't Fit in a Box": Hospice Staff Experiences and Perceptions of Advance Care Planning Quality Measurement.
  Journal of pain and symptom management 2020 Hunt LJ, Garrett SB, Dressler G, Sudore R, Ritchie CS, Harrison KL
• Fingerstick Glucose Monitoring in Veterans Affairs Nursing Home Residents with Diabetes Mellitus.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2020 Jeon SY, Shi Y, Lee AK, Hunt L, Lipska K, Boscardin J, Lee S
• Original Research: Understanding Nursing Home Staff Attitudes Toward Death and Dying: A Survey.
  The American journal of nursing 2020 Bui N, Halifax E, David D, Hunt L, Uy E, Ritchie C, Stephens C
• Improving care for older adults in the Emergency Department warrants greater investment in geriatric nursing-Stat!
  Geriatric nursing (New York, N.Y.) 2020 Hunt LJ
• Transitioning to Life in a Nursing Home: The Potential Role of Palliative Care.
  Journal of palliative care 2020 Halifax E, Bui NM, Hunt LJ, Stephens CE
• Palliative Care in the Nursing Home-Shifting Paradigms.
  JAMA internal medicine 2020 Hunt LJ, Stephens CE, Smith AK
• Glycemic Over- and Undertreatment in VA Nursing Home Residents with Type 2 Diabetes: a Retrospective Cohort Study.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2019 Lederle L, Jing B, Rodriguez A, Hunt LJ, Lee SJ
• Care Settings and Clinical Characteristics of Older Adults with Moderately Severe Dementia.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2019 Harrison KL, Ritchie CS, Patel K, Hunt LJ, Covinsky KE, Yaffe K, Smith AK
• Dying With Dementia: Underrecognized and Stigmatized.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2019 Harrison KL, Hunt LJ, Ritchie CS, Yaffe K
• Emergency Department Use by Community-Dwelling Individuals With Dementia in the United States: An Integrative Review.
  Journal of gerontological nursing 2018 Hunt LJ, Coombs LA, Stephens CE
• Palliative Care Eligibility, Symptom Burden, and Quality-of-Life Ratings in Nursing Home Residents.
  JAMA internal medicine 2018 Stephens CE, Hunt LJ, Bui N, Halifax E, Ritchie CS, Lee SJ
• A scoping review of the nurse practitioner workforce in oncology.
  Cancer medicine 2016 Coombs LA, Hunt L, Cataldo J