Faculty Directory Listing

Kirsten N. Corazzini
Tel: (919) 668-5106
Office: 718 Rutherford Street, Room 130
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Kirsten N. Corazzini, PhD, FGSA

Associate Professor

  • Brief Bio

    Dr. Corazzini joined the School of Nursing after completing a National Institute on Aging Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development in 2002. She earned her PhD in gerontology from the McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies at the University of Massachusetts. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, a core faculty member in Duke's Center of Excellence in Geriatric Nursing Education, and a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. She was inducted as a Fellow of of the Gerontological Society of America in 2012.

    The focus of Dr. Corazzini’s research is nursing management in long-term care, especially delegation and the role of professional nursing in nursing homes. With support from a Fulbright-Schuman Fellowship Award, she is currently conducting research on how registered nurses in Sweden and the U.K. accomplish person-centered care in regards to frail older adults in residential long-term care with assistive caregivers.

    Academic Program Affiliations

    Master of Science in Nursing Program
    Doctor of Nursing Practice Program
    PhD in Nursing Program

    Education

    PhDUniversity of Massachusetts (Boston), McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies
    ABBryn Mawr College

    Research Interests

    Dr. Corazzini is a social gerontologist whose research focuses on understanding how nursing clinical expertise affects care of older adults through systems-level factors that systematically shape how care occurs. To that end, she has examined how front-line, paraprofessional healthcare workers in both community-based and institutionalized long-term care settings operationalize licensed clinical care practices and the effects of these behaviors on patient outcomes, with particular attention to the role of RN clinical leadership in shaping these behaviors. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health / National Institute of Nursing Research, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and the Hartford Foundation.