“I seek to become a leading clinician educator in gero-palliative nursing for persons with dementia living in the community. I am passionate about improving the quality of care and quality of life for older adults with dementia and their family by specifically focusing on ways to integrate palliative care earlier in the course of the disease process. In my professional experience, palliative care is too often intertwined with hospice and focused on the later stages of dementia. Unfortunately, many nurses and other primary care providers do not understand palliative care or have the misconception that it is synonymous with end of life care. Primary care providers are also not as well prepared to respond to the functional, social and emotional needs of older adults with advanced illness, in addition to their medical needs. Nurse practitioners make up the most rapidly growing component of the primary care workforce caring for patients between the ages of 66 and 85 years old.“