Current Courses

Summer 2024

  • NURS 7980-009
    Faculty Consultation

Professional Organizations

  • American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. 09/16/2019 - present. Position : Member.
  • Society for Behavioral Medicine. 01/01/2018 - present. Position : Member.
  • Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. 01/02/2017 - present. Position : Member.
  • National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence. 05/02/2016 - present. Position : Legacy Member.
  • Geropsychiatric Nursing Initiative Workgroup. 10/06/2014 - present. Position : Member.
  • Gerontological Society of America. 12/2012 - present. Position : Member.
  • University of Utah Center on Aging. 06/2011 - present. Position : Member.
  • Sigma Thetai Tau International Gamma Who Chapter. 02/01/2010 - present. Position : Member.
  • Western Institute of Nursing. 04/03/2006 - present. Position : Member.

Courses I Teach

  • NURS7330 - Critical Discourse Analysis
    This course explores critical discourse analysis as a method of scholarly inquiry. We discuss various historical, epistemological and methodological versions of discourse theory as they relates to differing ideas about what discourse is/does and how a researcher might address discourse as a unit of analysis. A major focus of the class will be to apply these frameworks to the analysis of texts used in social research such as archival and historical material, institutional and legal policies, interviews, focus groups and graphic images. Students will practice methods of discourse analysis using their own or selected data. Questions about how research production is also a discursive practice are emphasized and specific production strategies will be discussed. An organizing thread throughout will be the ongoing critical analysis of discourse in health sciences research and practice.
  • NURS7445 - Content Analysis
    This course explores content analysis as a method of data reduction and analysis that lends itself to integration into both textual and statistical study designs. Content analysis is an often misunderstood and underdeveloped method of analysis despite the fact that it is offers significant utility to many research questions and areas of inquiry and is often cited as a central method in nursing research. In this course, students will learn the basic premises and assumptions that support various techniques of content analysis as these describe, in both statistical (quantitative) and textual (qualitative) forms, the manifest and latent content and structure of textual data. Students will explore how content analysis can be applied to various forms of data including large corpus, media, archival, interview, focus group data and written survey responses, and how these methods can inform further statistical and textual analyses. Specifically, students will develop their understanding of how content analysis techniques can be used to address their own research questions, and will articulate a rationale for including content analysis in their own data analysis plan.

Current Students

  • Vanessa Colicchio, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.
  • Vanessa Colicchio, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.

Former Students

  • Rebekah Perkins, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.
  • Rebekah Perkins, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.
  • Katherine Doyon, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.
  • Katherine Doyon, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Project Type: Dissertation. Role: Member.