Tatiana Sadak PhD, PMHNP, RN, FAAN

Dr. Sadak synergistically dedicates her effort to administration, clinical work, education, research, and policy, focusing on identifying and applying innovative methods to optimize care for people with dementia and their families. Although her primary appointment is at the Yale School of Nursing, Tatiana remains a pivotal member of the UW School of Nursing team.

Tatiana’s mission is to transform the clinical care, research, policy, and education of healthcare professionals by fully integrating and leveraging specialized knowledge that too often exists in isolated silos. “The impact of dementia is personal, emotional, economic, and systemic. Yet health care for people with dementia and their families has changed remarkably little. We have for too long approached a complex and inherently multidisciplinary problem with fragmented care methods in which clinicians with minimal to no formal specialized training work independently of other disciplines.”

Dr. Sadak is leading the Dementia Palliative Education Network (DPEN), the UWSON Excellence in Long-Term Care Externship Program – an innovative initiative directed at inspiring nursing students to see themselves as having a career in long-term care, which has the most significant workforce deficit of any nursing sector. The program model is low-cost, effective, quickly disseminated, and easily duplicated, dissipating misperceptions about LTC.

Tatiana leads UWSON, national and international initiatives to develop a dementia-capable healthcare workforce and improve older adults’ outpatient and Long Term Care (LTC) through rigorous research, education, and policy. Dr. Sadak is a primary investigator on the National Institute of Health, HRSA, Foundations, and State-funded grants that generated over 10 Million in funding for geriatric and education-related initiatives.

Department

Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics

Research Areas

• Innovative Interventions
• Symptom Science
• Health Equity
• Lifespan Health

Research Centers

• de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging