University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing PhD in Nursing alumna Rachel Wells, PhD (2019) is continuing her career at School of Nursing as a postdoctoral trainee. Through the highly competitive UAB Health Systems, Outcomes and Effectiveness Research (HSOER) Training Program, Wells is designing a trial to test intervention component effects on quality of life outcomes for advanced heart failure patients.
Wells is one of two postdoctoral trainees selected for the program, funded by a T32 grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to Kenneth Saag, M.D., he Jane Knight Lowe Professor of Medicine, Division of Clinical Immunology and Rheumatology and Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine at UAB School of Medicine.
The program aims to prepare independent investigators to pursue health services, outcomes and effectiveness research careers focused on translating research evidence into practice.
The T32 allows Wells to continue her postdoctoral training, with her two primary mentors, Marie L. O’Koren Endowed Chair in Nursing Marie Bakitas, DNSc, NP-C, FAAN, a world renowned expert in palliative care, and Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Preventive Medicine Raegan Durant, MD, MPH, a leading expert in minority health and health disparities,.
“The T32 HSOER Training Program at UAB and the School of Nursing provides me with a uniquely nurturing and rich environment to develop and deepen my research skills required to contribute and shape palliative care knowledge for advanced heart failure patients,” Wells said. “Coupled with the powerhouse expertise of Dr. Bakitas and Dr. Durant, established, rigorous T32 trainings led by international research leaders in all disciplines, and world-class nurse leaders in the SON and Center for Palliative and Supportive Care, I have unparalleled mentorship and resources all but ensuring my successful transition to independent scientist.”
After successfully defending her dissertation, which focused on the dose effect of an early palliative care intervention for advanced heart failure patients, Wells underwent a national postdoctoral fellowship search. Remaining at UAB was the right choice, she said, because the University’s focus on collaborative, interdisciplinary research focusing on minority health and health disparities, abundant training workshops and programs, and world-class palliative care center will position her to best establish her research program.
Wells is a two-time graduate of the School of Nursing. She was one of the first graduates of the School’s Accelerated Masters in Nursing Pathway (AMNP) and received her Masters of Science in Nursing (MSN) with a Clinical Nurse Leader concentration in 2010.
Throughout her time as a PhD candidate, Wells received national recognition for her work. She was a 2016 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar, a Heart Failure Society of America 2017 Emerging Leader in Heart Failure, a 2018 recipient of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurse Robin J. Trupp Scholarship Recipient, and a 2018 Alabama State Nurses Association Alabama Nursing Foundation scholarship recipient. Her oral presentation at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Association of Heart Failure Nurses also won the Annual Research Award.