PhD and MSN University of Illinois at Chicago
BSN, University of Oklahoma
MA, French and Education, University of Bucharest, Romania
Geropsychiatric nursing, Grief, Alzheimer’s and related dementias caregivers, Long-term care, Group-based interventions
Dr. Olimpia Paun started working at Rush University Medical Center as a gero-psychiatric nurse in 1992. In 2002 she joined the faculty in the College of Nursing and is currently a Professor in the Department of Community, Systems and Mental Health Nursing. She has received her BSN from the University of Oklahoma (1990) and MSN and PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago (1994 and 2000 respectively). Between 2004 and 2006 she has completed post-doctoral studies through a John A. Hartford Foundation, Claire M. Fagin Fellowship.
Her area of clinical expertise is advanced practice psychiatric nursing with a focus on geriatric populations. As a researcher, she is focusing on interventions for family caregivers who placed relatives diagnosed with dementia in long-term care facilities. In past years she has received funding from local (Rush University) and regional (Midwest Nursing Research Society) sources to investigate dementia caregivers’ mental and physical health needs. In 2008 she received federal funding (National Institute of Nursing Research [NINR]) to pilot- test a group-based intervention she had created to address caregivers’ chronic grief after placing their relatives in long-term care.
Currently, Dr. Paun and her research team are testing a digital delivery of the group-based Chronic Grief Management Intervention-Video in a randomized clinical trial recently funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA). Results from this study will further inform the translation of the intervention into long-term care settings. Her research findings are published in nursing and non-nursing journals.
Inaugural Kellogg Faculty Scholar, Rush University, 2015-2017
Fellow of the Institute of Medicine Chicago, 2015
Pinnacle Leader, The Power of Nursing Leadership, 2015
Invited presentation at the Annual Conference of the Romanian Alzheimer’s Association in Bucharest, Romania, Spring 2019
Recent Funded Research
Chronic Grief Management: An Intervention for Dementia Caregivers in Transition
NIH, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development
R01HD086211
Co-Investigator
2016 - 2021
Steps to Effective Problem-Solving