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Indiana University

Susan Hickman, PhD

Susan Hickman, PhD
  • Associate Professor, Department of Environments for Health
  • Co-director, Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Communication and Training (RESPECT) Center

Contact Information

(317) 274-0032
Nursing E419
hickman@iupui.edu

External Funding

R21 NR010397 (2008 – 2010). Principal Investigator. End-of-Life Research Ethics: Concerns, Approaches, and Impact.

American Cancer Society (2007 – 2011). Co-Investigator. The Family Living with Lung Cancer.

RO1 NR009784-03 (2005 – 2009). Principal Investigator. Converting Treatment Wishes into Orders at End of Life.

Biosketch

Dr. Susan Hickman is a full-time, tenure track faculty member in the Indiana University School of Nursing. She is a member of the Indiana University Institutional Review Board and an Affiliate Faculty Member in the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at Clarian. Her research focuses on ethical issues in end-of-life care and the conduct of research. Her work in end-of-life care includes a federally funded multi-state study on use of the POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) in nursing facilities. The POLST is designed to document patient treatment preferences in the form of immediately actionable medical orders that follow the patient throughout the healthcare system. Programs based on this model are currently being used or in development in approximately 30 states (note: it is not currently available in Indiana). Dr. Hickman is a member and Research Committee Co-Chair for the non-profit National POLST Paradigm Task Force (www.polst.org ). Dr. Hickman also has federal funding to study the effect of ethical concerns on the conduct of end-of-life research, building on prior work supported by The Greenwall Foundation to evaluate ethical issues in community-based research. She teaches the undergraduate Applied Ethics course in the School of Nursing.

For more information on the IU Research in Palliative and End-of-Life Communication and Training (RESPECT) Center, please visit http://www.iupui.edu/~irespect/

Selected Publications:

Resnick, H.E., Foster, G. L., & Hickman, S. E. (2009). Nursing home participation in end-of-life programs: United States, 2004. American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, 26(5), 354-360.

Hickman, S.E., Nelson, C.A., Moss, A., Hammes, B.J., Terwilliger, A., Jackson, A., & Tolle, S.W. (2009). Use of the Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) Paradigm Program in the Hospice Setting. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 12, 133-141.

Hickman, S.E., Cartwright, J.C., & Young, H. (2008). Administrator perspectives on ethical issues in long-term care research. Journal of Empirical Research in Human Research Ethics, 3, 69-78.

Hickman, S.E., Sabatino, C., Moss, A.H., & Nester Wehrle, J. (2008). The POLST (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment) Paradigm to Improve End-of-Life care: Potential State Legal Barriers to Implementation. Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics, 36 (1), 119-140.

Hickman, S.E., Barrick, A.L., Williams, C.S., Zimmerman, S., Connell, B.R., Preisser, J., Mitchell, C.M., & Sloane, P.D. (2007). The effect of ambient bright light therapy on depressive symptoms in persons with dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 55, 1817-1824.

Sloane, P.D, Williams, C.S., Gill, K.S., Mitchell, C.M., Preisser, J., Wood, W., Barrick, A.L, Hickman, S.E., Edinger, J., Connell, B., & Zimmerman, C. (2007). High Intensity Environmental Light in Dementia: Impact on Sleep and Activity. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 55, 1524-1533.

Cartwright, J.C., & Hickman, S.E. (2007). Ethical and Regulatory Implications of Conducting Research in Community-Based Care Facilities. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, October, 5-11.