Patricia Carter, PhD, RN, CNS
The University of Texas at Austin, School of Nursing
1700 Red River Street
Austin, TX 78701-1499
NUR 5.128 (office location)
512 232-4709 (office phone)
512 471-3688 (Fax)
Biography
Dr. Carter is an Associate Professor of Adult Health Nursing
As a member of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society, Dr. Carter collaborates with interdisciplinary colleagues across the nation to explore the use of Behavioral Sleep Medicine approaches that can be useful to decrease insomnia in family caregivers of persons with chronic and disabling conditions. In the past 10 years of research Dr. Carter has found that family caregivers suffer with severe insomnia but they are unable to take advantage of pharmacologic treatments, because the excessive sedation does not allow for ongoing monitoring of the patient’s needs throughout the night. Dr. Carter’s work has focused on designing, testing, and evaluating non-pharmacologic approaches to decreasing insomnia and depression symptoms while improving quality of life in active and bereaved family caregivers.