Dr. Kristin Hittle Gigli, Assistant Professor in Graduate Nursing, joined CONHI in the fall of 2020. Her work as a pediatric nurse practitioner influences her research, which examines pediatric hospital care, including the utilization of nurse practitioners in hospital-based care and the influence of health policy on the outcomes of hospitalized children.

Over the summer, Dr. Gigli plans to interview school principals, guidance counselors, and school nurses in Dallas and Tarrant County schools to learn about current practices related to screening for opioid use disorder, their processes for referral to treatment for opioid use disorder, and barriers and facilitators to these practices. 

“All across the country, kids are having relatively similar experiences. In Texas, one in five kids uses opioids at some point, and if misuse doesn’t become addressed, it becomes addiction,” Dr. Gigli said. “This will be an opportunity to see how those policies might impact students in Texas. I hope this work will inform a larger study to better understand the barrier to adolescent opioid use disorder treatment.” 

“The spread of sexually transmitted infections has hit an all-time high, particularly among minority adolescents and young adults. I am targeting minority young women who have a history of recurrent sexually transmitted infections, which increases their risk for HIV infection and for infecting others.”

Dr. Jessica G. Smith, Assistant Professor in Undergraduate Nursing, has devoted significant effort to studying rural hospitals. Her research works towards understanding the needs of the acute rural nursing workforce to deliver safer patient care and how work environment and processes influence nurse well-being. She is keenly interested in the effect of rural hospital closures on nurse job outcomes and the communities that they serve, and she is currently composing a quantitative survey for nurses across several hospital settings in the state. 

“First my question is: What happens to nurses after their hospital closes? What percentage retire versus what percentage decide to leave the profession? Maybe they want to find a job in the area, or they are committed to nursing to the extent that they move and find a job in a similar area,” Dr. Smith said. “Then my question will be: What happens for the community outcomes? If they lose their nurses, if they don’t have local care, then what happens in these communities?”

Dr. Jaquetta Reeves, Assistant Professor in Graduate Nursing, joined CONHI in the spring of 2021. She has worked as a family nurse practitioner for nearly a decade, and her research addresses sexual health inequities and health disparities among minority populations who are understudied and underserved in sexual and reproductive health care.

Since arriving at UTA, she has been working to form a strong community academic partnership, both clinically and collaboratively, between the public health department and local community-based health care clinics in the area who are serving the underserved and underinsured patient population. She hopes to use these connections to strengthen her first research project, which will focus on helping identify facilitators and barriers to condom use among minority young women who have a history of having a repeated sexually transmitted infection. 

“The spread of sexually transmitted infections has hit an all-time high, particularly among minority adolescents and young adults. I am targeting minority young women who have a history of recurrent sexually transmitted infections, which increases their risk for HIV infection and for infecting others.”

“(A qualitative study) tells you the story of their lived experience. It gives them an opportunity to share their life experience, which helps me to gain a better understanding of the internal and external factors that impact consistent condom use among this group of young women,” Dr. Reeves said. “Maybe it’s something we’re missing, maybe it’s something else that we need to learn from them that will help us be an even greater support and empower these young women to protect themselves from recurring STIs and risk for HIV infection.”