2022 Winter GAPNA Newsletter Volume 41 Number 4

Spotlight on Research Committee Member: Erica Frechman, PhD, AGPCNP-BC, ACHPN, NEA-BC, FPCN

Erica Frechman, PhD, AGPCNP-BC, ACHPN, NEA-BC, FPCN, is the Chief Advance Practice Provider at Atrium Health Cabarrus Palliative Care, where she serves as a team leader of an interdisciplinary Palliative Care team. She has over 16 years of experience in health care, working as a registered nurse in oncology and bone marrow transplant at Mount Sinai in New York City. Dr. Frechman also worked as a Geriatric and Palliative Care Nurse Practitioner (NP) at Atrium Health, caring for older adults across the healthcare continuum from outpatient to inpatient to long-term care settings.

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Dr. Frechman is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing PhD in Nursing Science and Health Service Research program. Her dissertation study, PLAN: Preparing and Living for Aging Now, was funded by the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research and the GAPNA Carolinas Chapter.

She was interested in gerontology and geriatrics early in life with the influence of her grandparents, who all lived from 80 to 90 years old. Their life stories and aging trajectory inspired and grounded her future research dedicated to helping people live healthier lives as they age. She has been a GAPNA member since 2007 and attended her first Annual Conference as an NP many years ago in Savannah, Georgia.

Dr. Frechman’s research program is focused on gerontology and palliative care with an emphasis on planning for aging and frailty, advance care planning, healthy aging, dementia care, transitions of care, team-based care models, and geriatric palliative care.

Dr. Frechman has been part of GAPNA’s Research Committee for the past 4 years. She enjoys networking and collaborating with the committee of Gerontology APRNs, who are passionate about using research to provide the best evidence in the care of older adults.

Dr. Frechman will soon be transitioning into a faculty position and looks forward to research projects that translate research into clinical practice.