Ruth A. Anderson

My research program is concerned with understanding and improving nursing management practices and their impact on outcomes, with a particular interest in resident outcomes in nursing homes. I use complexity science, organizational and nursing theory to bring together the constructs of communication and decision processes, relationship and interaction, organizational structures, context, resource allocation and health care outcomes. In my most recently NIH/NINR funded study, “Outcomes of Nursing Management Practice in Nursing Homes,” I worked with a multidisciplinary team to explore relationship patterns and management practices that enable nursing homes to attain high quality resident outcomes in a series of eight comparative case studies, identifying management practices that are distributed through all levels of workers and appear to build capacity for high quality outcomes. From this work, we developed a new intervention for improving staff interactions and information exchange in long term care settings. I now engaged with this multidisciplinary team in a VA-Funded study to test the intervention for its impact on reducing patient falls. I have expertise in both quantitative and qualitative research methods.

Current Appointments & Affiliations

Professor Emerita in the School of Nursing · 2015 - Present School of Nursing

Senior Fellow in the Center for the Study of Aging · 1998 - Present Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development, Institutes and Centers

In the News

Published June 19, 2014

Nursing ADAPT Center Marks Two Years of Improving Care of Chronic Illness

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Recent Publications

Coping with cognitive decline in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia: a scoping review.

Journal Article Aging & mental health · January 2025 ObjectivesThis scoping review aims to map out the coping strategies among Persons with Mild Cognitive Impairment (PwMCI) and Persons with Mild Dementia (PwMD), identifying the facilitators and the barriers to the use of the strategies.Method Full text Cite

Understanding Adaptive Leadership in the Context of Nursing Homes.

Journal Article Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society · October 2024 Rapidly growing populations of older adults rely heavily on formal long-term care services such as those provided in nursing homes. Nursing home staff are confronted with complex challenges. We explored how staff (N = 88), particularly care aides, i ... Full text Cite

Cancer-related cognitive impairment in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia treated with hypomethylating agents and venetoclax chemotherapy: a longitudinal descriptive study.

Journal Article Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · July 2024 PurposeTo explore cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) receiving venetoclax in combination with hypomethylating agents or low-dose cytarabine chemotherapy.MethodsThis study is a long ... Full text Cite

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Education, Training & Certifications

University of Texas, Austin · 1987 Ph.D.

University of Pennsylvania · 1981 M.S.N.

Ruth A. Anderson

Overview

Current Appointments & Affiliations

In the News

Recent Publications

Coping with cognitive decline in older adults with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia: a scoping review.

Understanding Adaptive Leadership in the Context of Nursing Homes.

Cancer-related cognitive impairment in older adults with acute myeloid leukemia treated with hypomethylating agents and venetoclax chemotherapy: a longitudinal descriptive study.

Recent Grants

Care-partner assisted intervention to improve oral health of individuals with mild dementia

Mentoring Intervention Development in Fall and Fracture Prevention

Outcomes of Nursing Management Practice in Nursing Homes

Education, Training & Certifications