University of Hawai'i at Manoa Nursing Professor Receives $100,00 Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Gerontological Nursing

HONOLULU--Charon Pierson, assistant professor at the School of Nursingand Dental Hygiene, University of Hawai'i at Manoa (UHM), was recently awardeda $100,000 post-doctoral fellowship in gerontological nursing from TheBuilding Academic Geriatric Nursing Capacity Program. Pierson is theonly doctoral nursing faculty in the State with extensive background ingerontological nursing and a keen interest in the issues related to aging. She is one of seven in the nation to receive the fellowship. Funding willbe provided for a portion of Pierson's salary, travel, materials and suppliesfrom September 2001 through August 2003.

Pierson's research project, "Ethnicity and Race as Predictors ofNursing and Long-term Care Service Use" will identify factors thatpredict the use of nursing and long-term care service use in a populationof Japanese-Americans in the State of Hawai'i. Results will be comparedto prior research of similar data on the U.S. population, including thelimited number of studies on ethnic minority populations. Dr. CharleneHarrington, a nurse researcher and professor of sociology and nursing atUCSF, will serve as Pierson's mentor. Pierson's Hawai'i mentors includeDrs. Patricia Blanchette, Lon White, Cullen Hayashida, and Eldon Wegner.

According to Pierson, Hawai'i's elderly population is growing at about2.5 times the national average rate, and the proportion of elders in thestate has exceeded the national average for the first time this year. Thestate's nursing home bed supply is far below the national average of 53beds per 1,000 elder. Access to and use of long-term care services amongthe elderly is a critical issue for the State.

The fellowship will enable Dr. Pierson to contribute substantially tothe development of nursing scholarship at UH, participate as a member ofthe multidisciplinary collaborative team, assist with the development ofthe research agenda for long-term care research and improve the care ofelders in Hawai'i.