Patricia Hinton Walker, Ph.D., F.A.A.N., recently joined the staff of the Center for Outcomes and Effectiveness Research, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, as AHRQ's fifth Senior Nurse Scholar. A Professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, School of Nursing, Dr. Walker also served as Dean of the School of Nursing and Vice President for Patient Affairs. She was a member of the American Nurses Association Task Force on Standards and Regulation of Managed Care and has published broadly on the topics of nursing practice and education. In addition, she has provided significant national and international consultation in the areas of faculty practice, development of cost and quality outcomes research, and competency-based online education.
Dr. Walker received her doctorate in higher education administration and her master's in nursing from the University of Mississippi. Her research interests include cost-effectiveness analysis with a focus on cost savings in managed care environments, activity-based costing, practice-based research in community-based settings, and the value of interdisciplinary care. Her project at AHRQ will involve participation in the Agency's new research initiative on clinical economics. Outcomes of her project for the American Academy of Nursing will assist nurse researchers to select appropriate methodologies for cost-effectiveness research and identify future research questions that should be addressed by nurse researchers. In addition, she hopes to explore strategies for improving the doctoral and postdoctoral preparation of nurses in the language, research questions, and methodologies for outcomes research (particularly cost-effectiveness research) that will enhance the success of nurse researchers in obtaining support for their work.