Debora Dobbs, PhD

Debra  Dobbs is an Associate Professor in the School of Aging Studies at the   University of South Florida and serves as USF’s Academic Director of the   Center for Hospice, Palliative Care and End-of Life Studies.  Her   research has focused on palliative and hospice care education and training   for providers of persons with dementia in assisted living communities.    She recently completed a feasibility stage 1b cluster randomized trial of the   Palliative Care Education in Assisted Living for Dementia Care Providers   (PCEAL-DCP) that was funded by the Florida Department of Health’s Ed and   Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program (2019-21) in a sample of 10   assisted living communities in collaboration with two hospice partner   organizations.  The PCEAL-DCP intervention is found to be feasible to   implement in assisted living communities and to improve documentation of ACP   discussions and increase hospice admissions. Her long-term objective is to   obtain funding to expand the PCEAL-DCP to a large-scale trial to prove   effectiveness in order to disseminate the PCEAL-DCP more broadly. The   PCEAL-DCP can potentially be an educational resource for assisted living   nursing staff to improve the quality of palliative care for residents with   dementia.