Judy’s
primary area of interest is in dementia. Specifically, she is
interested in
developing interventions that will delay placement in long-term care as
long as
it is realistic for both persons with dementia and their primary
caregivers,
and also to improve the experience of living with dementia. Her
intended direction of research is to evaluate
change in the behaviors in persons with
dementia, and caregiver reactions to behaviors, in relation to the
caregiver’s
use of a home monitoring system that assists in management of nighttime
behaviors, as compared to a control group.
Judy’s
interest in aging and the elderly surfaced in her undergraduate
studies, where
her senior project centered on loneliness in aging.
Her interest continued into her nursing career, where
several
positions involved directly working with the elderly, both in acute and
long-term care. In her Master’s
program, her interests were brought more clearly into focus on the
problem of
dementia within the aging population. Her
thesis was based on a small pilot study that evaluated
the use of
stuffed animals for agitation in Alzheimer’s disease.
Prior
to
entering the PhD program, Judy has been
a nurse educator at the community college level since 1990, where she
received
several awards for innovative teaching methods, and taught most of the
gerontology-related curriculum. Judy is
excited to have returned to nursing studies in UF’s College of Nursing,
where
she has received funding through the UF Alumni Fellowship. She is
serving as a Research Assistant on
Dr. Meredeth Rowe’s NIH-funded ‘Carewatch’ study, and has been assigned
the
role of “Data Integrity and Management.” This
invaluable exposure to current research has prompted
further
interest in nursing research as a career path, specifically research
related to
the community-based dementia caregiving dyad.
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