Publication and presentation roundup — Fall 2026
The latest scholarly work from the UNC School of Nursing
Carolina Nursing faculty, staff, and students are actively sharing their research findings on critical health care topics through publications in academic journals, presentations at national and international conferences, and features in various media outlets, including articles, podcasts, and more.
Take a look at the selection of publications, presentations, and media features below to learn more about how Carolina Nursing experts are advancing health for all by addressing the greatest health care challenges of our time.
Please note that the following list was compiled based on information submitted by our researchers and is categorized into presentations and publications.
Have a publication, presentation, or media feature to share to share? School of Nursing faculty, students and staff can submit information here to be included in the next roundup.
Publications
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Not every home is a haven: how policy and practice can address vulnerabilities in home-based care
Tamryn L. Fowler, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN — he authors argue that although home-based care is often portrayed as more patient-centered, comfortable, and desirable, the home should not automatically be assumed to be a safe or adequately resourced setting for complex care. As increasingly intensive care moves home, patients and families may face inadequate physical environments, limited community resources, financial pressures, and insufficient clinical support. Much of the responsibility consequently falls on unpaid family caregivers, who may be expected to perform complex tasks, including symptom monitoring, medication and equipment management, assistance with daily activities, care coordination, and transportation, while simultaneously managing employment and other family responsibilities. A central message is that home-based care can transfer both work and risk from health systems to families. The authors therefore call for health systems and policymakers to assess the capacity and safety of the home environment rather than simply assuming that “home” is an inherently supportive care setting. They emphasize policies and practices addressing caregiver support and protections, reimbursement, training, community infrastructure, and resources needed to safely sustain complex care at home. Without these supports, expansion of home-based care could exacerbate rather than reduce existing inequities.
“Nursing must extend beyond the walls of the health care system to meet patients and families where they live, work, play, and find community to ensure that care at home is not only possible, but safe, equitable, and sustainable.” – Tamryn L. Fowler
Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN and Jingle Xu ’26 — Rachel Hirschey, PhD, RN, FAAN, and her team have published the pilot evaluation of Getting Real About Colorectal Cancer Education (GRACCE), a community-led cancer prevention initiative developed in partnership with the Angelic Warrior Foundation (AWF) (include AWF URL). GRACCE brings together AWF’s community expertise and lived experience with Hirschey’s cancer prevention research to reach young adults with colorectal cancer education that is relevant, personal, and actionable.
A hallmark of the program is its student-led approach. College students, including UNC students, were trained as GRACCE Ambassadors and supported in bringing evidence-based education about colorectal cancer risk, prevention, symptoms, and screening to their peers. The pilot reached 118 young adults, who reported high knowledge gains and strong intentions to engage in cancer-prevention behaviors.
“GRACCE reflects how I want to conduct cancer prevention research with communities rather than for them. Our partnership with the Angelic Warrior Foundation brings together their lived experience, relationships, and passion for preventing colorectal cancer with the research expertise and resources we can contribute from Carolina,” said Hirschey. “Seeing students become ambassadors and share that education with their peers is exactly the kind of community-driven impact we hope to create.”
Kea Turner, PhD, MPH, MA — Skin cancers are the most common type of cancer in the United States, occur in all segments of the population, and are preventable. Our previous research with primary care patients’ demonstrated interest in and efficacy of a precision prevention intervention providing feedback on MC1R risk level (higher versus average) in combination with prevention education materials relative to a standard educational intervention. Our current study is a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation trial deployed at six federally-qualified health centers. This paper presents the study protocol.
Emancipatory Pedagogy for Nurse Practitioner Education in Rural and Underserved Settings
Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FISPN, FAANP, FAAN — In a newly published article in the Journal of Nursing Education, UNC School of Nursing Distinguished Professor Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FISPN, FAANP, FAAN, presents an innovative framework for preparing nurse practitioner students and residents to thrive in rural and underserved communities. The article introduces a practical, justice-oriented approach to teaching that empowers future clinicians to address health inequities, navigate complex practice environments, and develop the confidence and professional agency needed to lead change. By linking nursing theory with real-world clinical challenges, this work offers educators a transformative model for strengthening the next generation of advanced practice nurses.
Integrating Behavioral Health Care in a Rural Nurse Practitioner Residency Program
Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FISPN, FAANP, FAAN — In The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, Victoria Soltis-Jarrett, PhD, PMHNP-BC, FISPN, FAANP, FAAN, highlights the success of a pioneering rural nurse practitioner residency program designed to expand access to integrated behavioral health care in underserved communities. Combining mentored clinical practice, behavioral health training, and telehealth-enabled psychiatric consultation, the innovative program supported 22 nurse practitioner graduates and achieved strong rural workforce retention outcomes. The publication showcases a scalable model that strengthens the primary care workforce, enhances whole-person care, and addresses critical behavioral health needs in rural America.
Kandyce Brennan, DNP, CNM — Young adults aged 18 to 25 years in rural communities face barriers to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information, including clinician shortages, clinic closures, and privacy concerns in close-knit communities. Many rely on online sources of varying quality; one analysis found that 40% of birth control video content is inaccurate or misleading. AI-enabled conversational health tools (chatbots) may provide scalable SRH information, but implementation may be constrained by low institutional trust, privacy concerns, and rural users’ underrepresentation in AI development. SARHAchat is an AI-enabled SRH conversational health tool developed through prior work. This protocol describes a study to co-design and evaluate SARHAchat with rural young adults, treating trust as a design input rather than a postdeployment outcome.
Saif Khairat, PhD, MPH, and Sandy Hatoum — Among rural respondents, trust in AI scribe accuracy does not fully translate into perceived interaction benefit or willingness to use AI scribes in future encounters, supporting rollout strategies that prioritize clear communication, privacy transparency, and meaningful choice.
The Impact of Stress, Trauma, and Violence on Well‐Being and Physical Health
Jada Brooks, PhD, MSPH, RN, FAAN — This special issue on the impact of stress, trauma, and violence on well‐being and physical health, featured in Research in Nursing & Health, is particularly timely amid rising burdens for individuals, families, and communities worldwide. Recent societal shifts—driven by climate change, social unrest, systemic inequality, resource scarcity, and economic instability—heighten exposure to chronic stress, violence, and potentially traumatic events. Indeed, approximately 70% of people globally will experience at least one potentially traumatic event during their lifetime (World Health Organization 2024). Yet exposure to adversity—and access to resources that foster healing, recovery, and resilience—is not equitably distributed. Social, economic, environmental, and structural conditions shape who is most vulnerable to adversity, how its effects unfold and become embodied across the life course, and the opportunities available to promote health and well‐being after exposure.
LaTonia Chalmers, DNP-TCN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, APHN-BC, HWNC-BC—This paper examines the discursive, emotional, and institutional dynamics embedded in the racially defensive statement, “But I love the Colored,” voiced by a white nurse leader in academia. The phrase “the Colored,” a US-specific designation rooted in Jim Crow-era segregation, is deliberately retained to surface how segregationist vocabulary can be effectively reactivated in contemporary academic settings. While seemingly well-intentioned, such language reveals the enduring mechanisms of whiteness in nursing academia, including benevolent racism, white emotionality, and the rhetorical deflection of accountability. Through historical, theoretical, and linguistic analyses, this paper argues that these racial speech acts function as institutional behaviors that retraumatize racialized faculty and students, cause increased workload and fatigue, silence dissent, and reproduce racial hierarchies under the guise of care.
Jessica K Zègre-Hemsey, PhD, RN, FAHA — One in 10 patients present to the emergency department (ED) with symptoms of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The 13-item ACS Symptom Checklist is a validated tool for rapid ACS symptom assessment. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the 13-item ACS Symptom Checklist in distinguishing NSTEMI patients with and without an occluded artery using natural language processing (NLP).