Christine T Kovner

Christine Tassone Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN is a Professor Emerita. She was the Mathy Mezey Professor of Geriatric Nursing at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and a professor of medicine at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Prof. Kovner is the Editor-in-Chief of Policy, Politics & Nursing Practice. She is a highly respected nurse educator and researcher with more than 150 published articles. Her research focuses on quality improvement, RN working conditions, and nursing care costs. For five years she was the principal investigator for the TL1 Pre- and Post-Doctoral Program of NYU's NIH funded Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Kovner was the principal investigator of a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant studying the career trajectories of newly licensed registered nurses over the first ten years of their careers. As a clinical nurse, she was proud to provide COVID vaccinations at Langone Health.

Kovner was a visiting scholar at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Policy for two years and has served on many government policy committees, including New York’s State Hospital Review and Planning Council. She has served as a grant reviewer for the NIH, NIOSH, and the Department of Defense among others.

Among her many honors, Kovner was awarded the Diane O. McGivern Award in 2024. The award recognizes an NYU Meyers graduate for outstanding work in legislation and policy on behalf of professional nursing. Kovner received the Excellence in Policy Award from Nursing Outlook for “Diversity and education of the nursing workforce 2006-2016,” in 2019, the IRGNI Research Mentorship Award from Academy Health (2018), the Eastern Nursing Research Society Distinguished Contributions to Nursing Research Award (2018), the Golden Pen Award from the Journal for Healthcare Quality (2007), and the Lavinia Dock Distinguished Service Award from the New York Counties Registered Nurses Association.

PhD, New York University

MSN, University of Pennsylvania

BS, Columbia University School of Nursing

Post-doctoral Fellowship at Robert Wagner School of Public Service, NYU

Community/population health

Nursing workforce

American Academy of Nursing Fellow

AcademyHealth

Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science

Sigma Theta Tau

International Association of Clinical Research Nurses

Diane O. McGivern Award, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (2024)

Excellence in Policy Award, Nursing Outlook (2019)

IRGNI Research Mentorship Award, Academy Health (2018)

Distinguished Contributions to Nursing Research Award (2018)

Treasurer, CGFNS International, Inc. (2016)

Distinguished Alumna Award, New York University, College of Nursing (2012)

Nursing Outlook Excellence in Policy Award for “State Mandatory Overtime Regulations and Newly Licensed Nurses’ Mandatory and Voluntary Overtime and Total Work Hours.” (2012)

Vernice Ferguson Faculty Scholar Award, New York University, College of Nursing (2010)

Golden Pen Award for “Exploring the Utility of Automated Drug Alerts in Home Healthcare,” Journal for Healthcare Quality (2007)

Health Policy and Legislation Award, New York University, College of Nursing (2006)

Honorary Recognition Award, New York Counties Registered Nurses Association (1999)

Best of Image Award in Health Policy Scholarship, for “Nurse Staffing Levels and Adverse Events Following Surgery in U. S. Hospitals," Journal of Nursing (1999)

Alumni Award for Distinguished Career in Nursing, Columbia University-Presbyterian Hospital Alumni Association (1996)

Distinguished Nurse Researcher, Foundation of the New York State Nurses Association (1994)

Lavinia Dock Distinguished Service Award, New York Counties Registered Nurses Association (1992)

Martha E. Rogers Scholarship Award, Upsilon Chapter, Sigma Theta Tau (1983)

Forum on publishing ethics

Kovner, C. T., Brewer, C., Silva, M. C., Sorrell, J., & Cox, T. (2006). (Vols. 38, Issues 2). 10.1111/j.1547-5069.2006.00102_1.x

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Nurse educators

Kovner, C. T., Fairchild, S., & Jacobson, L. (2006). National League for Nursing.

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Quantifying work-family conflict among registered nurses

Grzywacz, J. G., Frone, M. R., Brewer, C. S., & Kovner, C. T. (2006). (Vols. 29, Issues 5, pp. 414-426). 10.1002/nur.20133

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Work-family conflict is challenging for nurses and the nursing profession. Still unclear is how frequently nurses experience work-family conflict and which nurses experience it most frequently. We document the prevalence and frequency of work-family conflict and describe the demographic predictors of frequent work-family conflict. Nurses reported greater work interference with family than family interference with work. Fifty percent of nurses reported chronic work interference with family (occurring at least once a week); another 41% reported episodic work interference with family (occurring less than 1-3 days per month). In contrast, 52% of nurses reported episodic family interference with work, and 11% reported chronic family interference with work. Few demographic characteristics predicted either work interference with family or family interference with work.

A recently completed study of registered nurses in metropolitan statistical areas in the United States.

Kovner, C. T., & Brewer, C. (2006). (Vols. 38, Issues 2, pp. 111; author reply 111-112).

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Adult Ambulatory Care Visits to Nurses and Physicians : Methodological Limitations of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Data

Rosenfeld, P., Kim, H., Kovner, C. T., Londono, G., & Mezey, M. (2005). (Vols. 6, Issues 3, pp. 221-228). 10.1177/1527154405278472

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The 1997 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) data report that approximately 80 million adult ambulatory visits are made to nursing personnel. Adults who visit nursing personnel and who visit physicians are similar with regard to sex and income. As compared to nursing personnel, physician visits are longer and more likely to involve diagnosis or treatment. Older adult visits (ages 65 to 90) to nursing personnel are significantly longer than the visits of younger adults. As compared to physician visits, nursing personnel visits are significantly more likely to be characterized as “other” for all adults and especially for older adults. Although these findings suggest important differences between physician and nurse ambulatory care visits, the undifferentiated use of the term nurse and the significant percentage of uncharacterized visits to nursing personnel signal serious deficiencies in the MEPS data in exploring nonphysician ambulatory care.

Examining nurses' decision process for medication management in home care.

Kovner, C. T., Menezes, J., & Goldberg, J. D. (2005). (Vols. 31, Issues 7, pp. 379-385). 10.1016/S1553-7250(05)31051-8

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BACKGROUND: The process of medication management within home care agencies was prospectively described, with a focus on the nurse's role and critical points in the process. The process the nurse must follow includes preparing, checking, and administering medications; updating knowledge of medications; monitoring the effectiveness of treatment; reporting adverse reactions; and teaching patients about their drugs. PROCESSES FOR MEDICATION MANAGEMENT IN HOME HEALTH CARE: The steps that home health nurses (HHNs) go through with families and the system changes that could be developed to decrease errors were identified. The approach was based on Failure Mode and Effects Analysis-a method to identify and prevent process problems before they occur. The medication management process was divided into drug utilization review (DUR) for duplicative and harmful interactions; drug administration by the patient, family member, and/or caregiver; and side effects. Failure modes were developed for a DUR for duplicative and harmful interactions. DISCUSSION: Home health agencies should analyze the medication management process in their own agencies and identify system solutions. The difficulty encountered by HHNs in contacting physicians to discuss changes to the drug regimen following the assessment of potential drug interactions or duplications is an ongoing problem. Careful monitoring by HHNs could decrease the impact of adverse drug effects.

Factors influencing the use of registered nurse overtime in hospitals, 1995-2000

Berney, B., Needleman, J., & Kovner, C. T. (2005). (Vols. 37, Issues 2, pp. 165-172). 10.1111/j.1547-5069.2005.00032.x

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Purpose: To assess nurse overtime in acute care general hospitals and the factors that influence overtime among various hospitals and in the same hospitals from year to year. Methods: Staffing data from 1995 to 2000 from 193 acute general hospitals in New York State were used to examine hospital characteristics (size, location, RN unionization, hospital ownership, and teaching status) to determine whether they were associated with nurse overtime. Results: The average weekly overtime RNs worked was 4.5% of total hours, varying from almost none to 16.6%. At mean overtime levels, nurses were working less overtime than the mean for manufacturing workers, but, at the extreme, nurses were working more than 6 hours overtime per week. Significant differences were observed in the use of overtime by hospital ownership and by union status. Nurses in government hospitals worked less overtime than did those in nongovernment hospitals. Nurses in unionized hospitals worked slightly more overtime than did nurses in nonunionized hospitals. Conclusions: Hospitals varied dramatically in their overtime use. That some categories of hospitals (e.g., government-owned) used little overtime indicates that hospital management can find substitutes for overtime to meet fluctuating staffing needs. The finding that hospitals with similar characteristics varied greatly in their number of overtime hours also supported this conclusion.

Forward

Kovner, C. T. (2005). In B. Cleary & R. Rice (Eds.), Nursing workforce development (p. xii-xiv). Springer.

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From science to service : A framework for the transfer of patient safety research into practice

Nieva, V., Murphy, R., Ridley, N., Donaldson, N., Combes, J., Mitchell, P., Kovner, C. T., Hoy, E., & Carpenter, D. (2005). In K. Henriksen, J. Battles, D. Lewin, & E. Marks (Eds.), Advances in patient safety : From research to implementation. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

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Palliative wound care at the end of life

Hughes, R. G., Bakos, A. D., O'Mara, A., & Kovner, C. T. (2005). (Vols. 17, Issues 3, pp. 196-202). 10.1177/1084822304271815

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Wound care, a form of palliative care, supports the health care needs of dying patients by focusing on alleviating symptoms. Although wound care can be both healing and palliative, it can impair the quality of the end of life for the dying if it is done without proper consideration of the patient's wishes and best interests. Wound care may be optional for dying patients. This article will discuss the ethical responsibilities and challenges of providing wound care for surgical wounds, pressure ulcers, and wounds associated with cancer as well as wound care in home health compared to end of life.

Faculty