Publications by authors named "Pamela L Parsons"

Nursing students participated in an interprofessional student-led prescription produce program (PPP) serving low-income older adults attending a community-based wellness and care coordination program. Students engaged in an online training module covering nutrition education and health promotion, integral components of a PPP. Ninety-five percent of students self-rated themselves as somewhat confident/very confident to participate in the PPP after completing an online learning module.

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Article Synopsis
  • Faculty development programs (FDPs) effectively enhance faculty knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy, but challenges in sustaining curricular projects are underreported.
  • Thematic analysis from interviews with 17 faculty Scholars identified three key areas affecting project implementation and sustainability: supportive versus hindering factors, the need for pedagogical development, and the importance of ongoing sustainability impacts.
  • To improve implementation, it's crucial to provide logistical support, dedicated time, and institutional backing, while further research is needed to explore barriers to sustainability in geriatrics-focused FDPs.
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Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) impact health outcomes; thus, a pilot to screen for important SDOH domains (food, housing, and transportation) and address social needs in hospitalized patients was implemented in an urban safety-net academic medical center. This study describes the pilot implementation and examines patient characteristics associated with SDOH-related needs. An internal medicine unit was designated as a pilot site.

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Taking a phenomenological approach, this qualitative study describes the lived experiences of low-income older adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. A socio-ecological model was used to organize the five identified themes describing the lived experience: socio-economic context, Black Lives Matter and the politics of race, COVID and polarized views of COVID, interpersonal context (social connections), and individual context (feelings, beliefs, and behaviors). Study findings illustrate the intersectionality of contextual influences on the experience of low-income older adults.

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As the population of older adults continues to grow, the need for health care professionals trained in the delivery of interprofessional care for older adult patients is critical. The purpose of this paper is to detail the outcomes of an interprofessional, geriatrics training program for healthcare professionals with a faculty appointment. Specifically, we gathered outcomes at four levels: reactions/satisfaction, learning, behavioral, and organizational.

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Article Synopsis
  • An innovative care coordination program was created to improve health outcomes for low-income older adults in subsidized housing while offering valuable interprofessional education for health students.
  • The program led to a notable decrease in healthcare usage, with participant emergency department visits reduced by 8.6% and hospital admissions by 9.8%; students also showed significant gains in health knowledge and perceptions of teamwork.
  • This model suggests a promising approach for both enhancing health services for older adults and providing practical learning experiences for students in health professions.
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Multiple chronic conditions combined with the complex social needs of individuals and families often create unattainable goals of efficient and effective holistic care within primary care settings. There is a recognized need for new approaches to address the intersection of the role of social determinants of health and the resulting impact on health care utilization and outcomes as an approach to enhancing value-based care. Model description: This paper describes an innovative health and wellness model that complements the essential work of primary care providers (PCPs), as an adjunct to care delivery.

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Background: The number of yearly emergency department (ED) visits by older adults in the United States has been increasing.

Purpose: The objectives were to (1) describe the demographics, health-related variables, and ED visit characteristics for community-dwelling older adults using an urban, safety-net ED; (2) examine the association between demographics, health-related variables, and ED visit characteristics with emergent vs nonemergent ED visits; and (3) examine the association between demographics, health-related variables, ED visit characteristics, and ED visit costs.

Methods: A cross-sectional, retrospective analysis of administrative electronic medical record and billing information from 2010 to 2013 ED visits (n = 7805) for community-dwelling older adults (⩾65 years old) from an academic medical center in central Virginia was conducted.

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Older adults may be at risk of adverse outcomes after emergency department (ED) visits due to ineffective transitions of care. Semi-structured interviews were employed to identify and categorize reasons for ED use and problems that occur during transition from the ED back to home among 14 residents of low-income senior housing. Qualitative thematic and descriptive analyses were used.

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An interprofessional educational approach was used to provide five in-service training sessions for all direct health care providers in a long-term care facility, and one half-day seminar/live webinar for community-licensed health care professionals. Content included presentations by five disciplines: (a) periodontist: oral-systemic relationship, (b) oral pathologist: oral pathology, (c) pharmacist: oral health-pharmacological link, (d) dietitian: oral health-dietary link, and (e) occupational therapist: providing and practicing proper oral hygiene. Significant improvement in posttest scores for the five in-service training sessions and the half-day seminar/live webinar was revealed in t-test results, representing an increase in knowledge gained.

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Objectives: To estimate trends in the prevalence of fatigue among elders living in public housing or in the community; to compare health status of elders living in public housing to their community-dwelling counterparts.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Setting: Community-dwelling elders who reported ever residing in public housing were compared to those living in other community settings.

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Transitional care programs are one method of providing care to elderly high-risk patients. The aims of this study were to determine if patient characteristics (including number of comorbidities, functional status, and length of stay during initial hospitalization) and social factors (including presence of a caregiver in the home and place of discharge disposition) were associated with increased hospital readmission and mortality for patients discharged from specialized transitional care.

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