About
Zahra Rahemi earned her Ph.D. at College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University. For the past four years, Rahemi has been a faculty member at Clemson University, School of Nursing. She has studied older adults from culturally and ethnically diverse populations and those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, their treatment preferences, and end-of-life care planning. Her current research interests focus on an interdisciplinary approach to enhance older adults’ quality of life and end-of-life care. Rahemi has authored and coauthored several articles in peer-reviewed journals, and her publications mainly focus on older adults, end-of-life planning, treatment decisions, quality of life, complementary treatments, and instrument development. Rahemi has had collaborations with researchers with a broad range of interests and seeks further interdisciplinary research to ultimately enhance older adults’ quality of life and end of life, especially through artificial indigence techniques.
Visit Dr. Rahemi's College Profile.
How their research is transforming health care
As the number of older adults, especially immigrants, progressively increases, research in transforming health care systems becomes more important. End-of-life care and advance care planning among culturally diverse older adults are important topics in healthcare and health research. Advance-care planning is not a culturally accepted norm and practice among immigrants and culturally diverse populations. Rahemi aims to find culture-specific factors for enhancing advance care planning among older adults of different cultural backgrounds and those with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias, especially through artificial intelligence techniques. The results from this category of research may ultimately benefit older adults in communicating their desired care before dying or prior to becoming unable to communicate. The results can also inform policies regarding developments of strategies for communication of care desires and improvement of high-quality care at end-of-life among older adults.
Rahemi’s other research interest is focused on increasing the quality of life of chronically ill patients. She collaborates with researchers to find and enhance alternative ways, such as complementary therapies, to help these patients improve their quality of life or cope with their conditions. She believes that transforming the health care system with regard to end-of-life care for culturally diverse older adults and quality of life of chronically ill patients demands an interdisciplinary team approach.
Health Research Expertise Keywords
Faculty Scholar, Gerontology; older adults; end-of-life care; culturally diverse populations; culturally competent care; quality of life; advance care planning; Alzheimer’s disease; dementia
