Deirdre Kling Thornlow

Deirdre K. Thornlow, PhD, RN, CPHQ, CNE is an advanced practice nurse with over 30 years of experience in healthcare. She has held numerous leadership positions throughout her career, including Director of Quality Operations at The George Washington University Hospital and Gerontology Project Director for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). 

 Dr. Thornlow’s program of scholarship capitalizes upon her expertise in acute care quality and patient safety.  In her earlier research, she used large datasets to understand the relationship among hospital characteristics, patient safety practices, and patient outcomes, finding that hospitals that use fewer patient safety practices demonstrate higher rates for certain adverse events. Her work also focused on patient safety in hospitalized older adults, studying the concept of cascade iatrogenesis.  Dr Thornlow’s work has been funded by the NINR and published in journals including Medical Care and International Journal of Nursing Studies. Dr. Thornlow currently serves as an Associate Clinical Professor at the Duke University School of Nursing where she teaches across academic programs, including the pre-licensure and doctoral programs. 

Dr. Thornlow is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Quality (CPHQ), a Certified Nurse Educator (CNE), and a Distinguished Educator in Geriatric Nursing (DEGN).  She is a member of the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ).

Research Interests:
health services research
patient safety in acute care hospitals
quality of care in acute care hospitals
quailty and patient safety outcomes in hospitalized older adults