Olga Jarrín, PhD, RN
Hunterdon Professor of Nursing Research
Division of Nursing Science
Dr. Jarrín joined the Rutgers School of Nursing faculty in 2016 after completing postdoctoral fellowships in Gerontological Nursing and Health Services Research at the University of Pennsylvania. She directs the Community Health and Aging Outcomes Laboratory which focuses on evaluating how environmental factors (including structural and systemic racism), other health system factors, and state policies shape racial/ethnic disparities in access to health care services and health outcomes among Medicare beneficiaries living with dementia and other chronic illness.She was appointed to the Hunterdon Endowed Professorship of Nursing Research on July 1, 2023. She currently leads two large NIH funded interdisciplinary team science projects focused on improving late life care quality and outcomes among people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (R01AG066139 & R33AG068931). These projects build on Dr. Jarrín’s ongoing work focused on the comparative effectiveness home health care and home hospice on outcomes for racial/ethnic minority older adults living with chronic and advanced illness, originally started with funding from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (K99/R00HS22406). This long-term goal of this program of research is to develop policy and practice recommendations to better meet the needs of the increasingly diverse population of older adults in the United States.
In addition, Dr. Jarrín serves as director of the Rutgers Multicultural Nurse Leadership Institute, co-chair of the university-wide Healthy Aging research interest group based at Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy, and Aging Research, and as co-lead of the Integrating Special Populations in Research core of the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS). Dr. Jarrín is a preceptor in the NJ ACTS Academy of Mentors and accepting predoctoral students and postdoctoral trainees. She is also a core member of the Rutgers Institute for Global Health and is a Faculty Fellow in the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis Project Life and Death.
Dr. Jarrín’s doctoral work focused on conceptualizing an integral philosophy and definition of nursing (2007, 2012) that has been cited in major nursing texts in the United States and Mexico (e.g., Dossey’s Holistic Nursing, 2008, 2012, 2015, 2021; McCaffrey’s Doctor of Nursing Practice: Enhancing Professional Development, 2012; Filosofía y Práctica de Enfermería, 2016; Salud Familiar y Enfermería, 2016), numerous doctoral dissertations, and peer-reviewed papers from countries including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, Iran, Kenya, South Africa, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Dr. Jarrín earned her Bachelor’s of Science, Master’s of Science, and Ph.D. in Nursing Science from the University of Connecticut and completed postdoctoral fellowships in health services research and gerontology nursing outcomes at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Nursing, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research and the National Hartford Center of Gerontological Nursing Excellence.