Sara E. Hart, PhD, RN

Research Statement

Statement of Program of Scholarship

Health happens in healthy communities and our professional roles demand we advocate for the needs of our patients and our communities; transforming health care at a broader level is fundamental to fulfilling this role. Just as person-centered care is optimized by the concerted efforts of multiple professions, our systems for health and health care delivery can also be improved through collaborative interprofessional engagement. My professional efforts focus on engaging a transformational shift in our approach to education and systems-based practice. This requires both careful application of evidence and the courage to embrace innovation. With the goal of ensuring availability of early, accessible, planned, and coordinated care in our communities, I seek new models of education and practice that have the potential to transform our systems of care and create effective infrastructures for health.

My scholarship reflects a focus on: pedagogy, student value-added models of health care delivery and the use of evidence to influence health systems and governmental policy. I have developed and disseminated a significant body of scholarship focused on innovations in health professions education. I have received funding to test a new model of community-based interprofessional education from the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (funders: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Josiah H. Macy Foundation, the Betty and Gordon Moore Foundation and the Hartford Foundation). I have written two major HRSA grant applications, published guidance on implementing elements of the Affordable Care Act into professional nursing practice and conducted program evaluation for the State of Utah.

As the Principal Investigator for the Utah Health and Homes Collaborative project (UHHC), I am designing and testing an IPE Hotspotting Immersion Model for fostering student development of Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPEC, 2016), while also addressing community-identified needs. Hotspotting is the term used to describe local team-based interventions designed to improve health and health care utilization for individuals with highly complex needs. In this project, IPE student Hotspotting Teams investigate and address individual and population-level drivers of health for chronically homeless individuals living in a supportive Housing First model. This project has received additional funding to expand our work with refugee, geriatric and Spanish speaking populations. Our team has also been awarded a competitive training site designation for the Camden Coalition Interprofessional Student Hotspotting Learning Collaborative.

The UHHC project grew out of work with faculty in Medicine and Interprofessional Education on the revision of the Health Sciences IPE Curriculum. In this role, I designed an interprofessional education model for collaborative systems-based practice. The collaborative systems-base practice curriculum model provides health professions students with a framework for recognizing, understanding, and intervening in systems-level issues that present in nearly every clinical encounter. Students and faculty from all health professions collaboratively identify and discuss the complex economic, social and structural drivers of health and gain skills to influence, educate, and advocate for health systems change and health care delivery transformation. This work and my commitment to educational scholarship and leadership has resulted in twice being named a finalist for the Josiah Macy Faculty Scholar program and the honor of being named a Humanism in Medicine Scholar with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation.

Building on this scholarly work, I was selected to attend the 2015 Harvard Macy Institute for Health Professions Educators. Acceptance to this competitive semester-long faculty development program is based on the merits of the applicant’s innovative education project and their potential for leadership in health professions education. My work on an Innovative Interprofessional Education Model for Systems-based Practice and Health System Transformation is now being presented nationally and creating exciting conversations about the potential for IPE to change the ways in which health professionals influence health care delivery systems and local, state and national health policy.

My scholarship also includes contributions to federal and state policy and program analysis. As a member of a 4-person team, under contract with the State of Utah, I have worked to revise the Waitlist process for the Division of Services for People (DSPD) with Disabilities. This program evaluation and redesign involved creating and administering surveys, conducting focus groups, developing and testing mathematical models for waitlist ranking, and publication of a State Report with guidance for implementation (University of Utah Center for Public Policy & Administration, 2015. Needs Assessment Questionnaire & Manual. Developed for the Division of Services for People with Disabilities, Utah Department of Human Services). This important project will result in improved access to community-based services for Utah citizens with disabilities. Additionally, I have published guidance on application of key elements of the Affordable Care Act in nursing practice (Luther & Hart, 2014) and I have been invited to speak about implementation of the ACA and the professional practice challenges and opportunities at the AACN Faculty Practice Pre-conference.

I arrived at the College of Nursing with a background in health systems and health care quality research. The impact of my scholarship in these areas continues to grow. My study and manuscript on Hospital Ethical Climates and Nurse Turnover (Hart, 2005) has been cited more than 200 times and continues to serve as a foundational work in this emerging area of research. My postdoctoral research (Hart et al., 2010 & 2006; Gajewski et al., 2007; Boyle et al., 2006) continues advancing the science of nursing quality indicators with over 150 citations. Over the course of my career, each vein of my scholarship has maintained a focus on collaboratively advancing the health of our patients, our institutions and the communities we serve.

Selected Publications