Planning a global health project during a global health crisis is a difficult task, but that’s exactly what the inaugural recipients of the UMB President’s Global Impact Fund have been doing.
For instance, School of Nursing (SON) professor Kirsten Corazzini, PhD, FGSA, has had to make adjustments to her project, “Developing Capacity for Long-Term Care of Older Adults Living with Dementia in Brazil,” because the study’s population includes nursing home caregivers and residents, a group at the highest risk of COVID-19-related deaths.
“Just as we see nursing homes in the United States struggling to keep residents and staff safe, so, too, are our geriatric medicine clinician-researcher partners in Brazil struggling to provide safe and compassionate care,” says Corazzini, whose project partners are SON assistant professor Vivian Schutz, PhD, MBA, RN, and School of Pharmacy assistant professor Ester Villalonga Olives, PhD, MSc. “How to collect data and co-develop new models of care in this context, therefore, requires integrating COVID-19-related measures and questions, ensuring that the knowledge gained addresses our shared and emergent needs.”