Philippine Nurses Association of North Carolina

Dr. Cristina Hendrix is the Assistant Professor at Duke University School of Nursing, teaching graduate nursing students and a Nurse Researcher and Nurse Practitioner at the Durham VA Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center. She is a Senior Fellow at the Duke Center for Aging and engages in clinical practice in a Post-Hospital Geriatrics clinic at the Durham VA Medical Center.

Her research career began in 1999 as a doctoral nursing student. Dr. Hendrix’s research project deals with assisting family or informal caregivers in caring for their loved ones at home. She received research funding from the NIH-NINR on the role of a tailored, one-to-one training given to family caregivers before patients are discharged from the hospital. To date, she had 4 NIH-funded studies as the Principal Investigator and a co-investigator in 2 HRSA-funded training projects. She has a total of 13 peer-reviewed publications and a co-author of a book chapter about research in the role of religion in bereavement. This book entitled, Handbook of Bereavement Research and Practice: 21st Century Perspectives (2008) has an international reach. She has presented in national scientific meetings. She has also been invited in Barbados, Antigua, Taiwan, and the Philippines to speak on nursing, specifically on promoting nursing research advancement in the delivery of care.

She has been the Chair of the PNA North Carolina Scholarship and Awards Committee for the past 8 years. As chair, she championed the promotion of scholarship among nurses in North Carolina and contributed significantly in the development, preparation, and execution of the PNANC Annual Seminars.

Dr. Hendrix has received numerous special recognition awards. Among them are: End-of-Life Education Consortium (ELNEC) – Graduate Award Winner AACN Masters Education Conference, San Antonio, Texas (2006); Distinguished Graduate Award (2002) and Dr. Linda Corson Jones Nursing Research Abstract Award at the 12th Annual Nursing presented by Epsilon Nu Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing in New Orleans, LA (2002); and FA Davis Award for Writing Excellence LSUHSC School of Nursing (2001).

Her research findings have potential for practical application and development of strategies for nursing intervention that offered both caregiver and patient support at the key moment of hospital discharge.

Adapted from PNAA Website's Awards Section