Dr. Woods is a successful scholar and national leader in gerontological nursing. She began her career caring for older adults as a public health nurse and a clinical nurse specialist in Geriatric Psychiatry in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Since then, she has been committed to improving healthcare for vulnerable older persons. Licensed nationally as a as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, she earned a Masters in Nursing with a major in gerontology and community heath, and a PhD focused on gero...Read More
Dr. Woods is a successful scholar and national leader in gerontological nursing. She began her career caring for older adults as a public health nurse and a clinical nurse specialist in Geriatric Psychiatry in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Since then, she has been committed to improving healthcare for vulnerable older persons. Licensed nationally as a as a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner, she earned a Masters in Nursing with a major in gerontology and community heath, and a PhD focused on gerontology and neuroscience from the University of Washington School of Nursing.
Dr. Woods’ research centers on developing and testing non-drug interventions to prevent and treat behavioral symptoms of dementia. Her work focuses on the relationships among genetics and stress hormones to predict whether elders may be at risk for developing behavioral symptoms. Her doctoral dissertation focused on the effect of therapeutic touch on agitated behavior in persons with dementia. Her research has been published in Biological Research for Nursing, Aging and Mental Health, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, Research in Nursing and Health, International Psychogeriatrics.
The Journal of Gerontological Nursing and Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. She has presented her research at the Gerontological Society of America annual scientific meetings, the Congress of the World Federation of Mental Health, the International Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders and the Communicating Nursing Research Conference. Her work on touch was featured on CNN’s American Morning with Dr. Sanjey Gupta.
Dr. Woods is one of the few researchers in the country, inside or outside of nursing, who has made significant progress in building our understanding of the biological basis of behavior in dementia. She is an advocate for older adults through her professional services and an advocate for improving the care of older adults through the education of all nurses.