A Day in the Life of an Academic Geriatric Nurse
Hilaire Thompson, PhD, RN, CNRN
Assistant Professor
Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems
Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Claire M. Fagin Post-doctoral Fellow 2006-2008
Research: Improving outcomes from traumatic brain injury in older adults
Hilaire Thompson, PhD, RN, CNRN, graduated from nursing school with a specialty in neuroscience, specifically the care of patients with traumatic brain injuries. When her 70-year-old mother suffered a head injury it became personal. Dr. Thompson’s mother was treated and evaluated and deemed by her physician to be fine. “She was not fine,” says Dr. Thompson. Her short-term memory was impaired and she got lost traveling to previously familiar places. “It took her much longer to recover than it would a younger person,” she says.
Dr. Hilaire Thompson
In her own practice, Dr. Thompson had noticed a gap in knowledge about how best to treat, and prevent, head injuries in older adults. She wanted to switch her research focus, but she had no geriatric experience. The Claire M. Fagin Post-doctoral Fellowship gave her the opportunity she needed. “Through this program I obtained the geriatric skill set I needed to move my research in the direction of working with older adults,” she says.
“Through this program I obtained the geriatric skill set I needed to move my research in the direction of working with older adults.”Dr. Thompson now conducts research to improve the care of older patients with head injury from the time of emergency department admission and throughout the following year. She hopes to improve assessment and identify new interventions to optimize recovery following injury. Her research also focuses on preventing head injuries from occurring, primarily by preventing falls. She was recently appointed to the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Cognitive Rehabilitation Therapy for Traumatic Brain Injury, which is reviewing the evidence for the effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation therapy.
Dr. Thompson also teaches an undergraduate gerontologic nursing course and works on curriculum development to increase the infusion of aging-focused nursing content in the adult nurse practitioner and adult clinical nurse specialist programs.
Dr. Thompson walking with Patricia A. Blissitt, PhD, RN, Neuroscience Clinical Nurse Specialist, in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, WA, where she is gathering data for her research on brain injury in older adults.
Dr. Thompson with a student in the laboratory at the University of Washington. 
Dr. Thompson with a resident at University House in Seattle, an assisted living facility, where she is working on a project to monitor older adults using information technologies (such as cognitive assessment software and a telehealth kiosk) to predict when adverse events, such as falls or unexpected hospitalization, are likely to occur. 
