Heather Coats, PhD, APRN-BC

Dr. Heather Coats is an Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado College of Nursing and Director of Research for the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association. Shaped by her 20 year career in hospice and palliative care, her program of research examining the role of person-centered narrative intervention (PCNI) focuses on improving quality of communication between persons receiving care and the clinicians who provide. Her PCNI research has been continuously funded (NIH and Cambia Health Foundation) since 2014. These funded studies focus on the testing, integration and adaptations to the implementation of person-centered narrative interventions to improve quality of communication between patients and their clinicians and evaluating the impacts on psychological, social and spiritual well-being of persons who live each day with serious illnesses. Her goals for the clinical trials intensive are to learn, network and build collaborative relationships with other AD/ADRD researchers and submit an PCNI focused R01 that situates her program of research on improving quality of communication for persons and their caregivers who live each day with AD/ADRD.