Carol Hall Ellenbecker

Carol Hall Ellenbecker, PhD, RN, is a professor and the director of the PhD Nursing Program in Nursing and Health Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston (UMB. She has previously served as executive director and staff nurse at various Visiting Nurse Service organizations. At UMB, Dr. Ellenbecker teaches and mentors students and conducts policy-related research on the exploration of health care delivery systems for the purpose of expanding knowledge in the area of regulation, development, and implementation of health policy that affect the elderly. Her recent work has focused on the concept of the quality of care and the methods used to assess quality in home health care, nurses job satisfaction and developing a model of nurse job retention. This work has implications for retaining nurses in the future and ensuring that future patients have access to safe and effective quality health care.

While at the Center, Dr. Ellenbecker worked to assemble a broad array of resources on legislation, regulation, workforce data, public policy, research and current events regarding nursing, the nursing shortage, nursing workforce issues, nursing in the context of the broader health care system and health care reform, and aging issues.