Debra Bakerjian, Ph.D., F.N.P., R.N.

Debra Bakerjian is an assistant adjunct professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. Previously, Bakerjian was a postdoctoral scholar with a specialty in Health Policy and System Change.

Bakerjian’s research is primarily focused on nurse practitioners and quality improvement practices in nursing homes; care transitions between acute-care facilities, nursing homes and assisted living centers; chronic disease management; pain management; quality of care and of life; and interprofessional education for health-care workers.

Previously, Bakerjian was a Claire M. Fagin Postdoctoral Fellow, Atlantic Philanthropies and John A. Hartford Foundation, at UC San Francisco in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, where she was also an assistant adjunct professor. She earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Policy and Gerontology in 2006 and a Master in Science of Nursing in 1992 from UC San Francisco School of Nursing. Bakerjian earned a Family Nurse Practitioner/Physician Assistant certificate from UC Davis School of Medicine in 1991 and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Phoenix in Arizona in 1983. She received an Associate Degree in Nursing from Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, Calif. Her doctoral study, “Utilization of Nurse Practitioners in Nursing Homes: A Comparison with Physicians,” received the 2006 Dissertation of the Year Award at UC San Francisco.

Bakerjian is active in both state and national organizations associated with the care of older adults. She serves on the Board of Directors for Advancing Excellence in American Nursing Homes’ and on the National Quality Forum’s Skilled Nursing Facility Technical Advisory Panel for Serious Reportable Events and Common Formats. She is on the Health Sciences Executive Committee of the Gerontological Society of America and the Quality Measures committee for the American Geriatrics Society. She is also chair of the Nursing Home Special Interest Group and past president of the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurse’s Association. She is on the Education Committee and board of directors for the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine. She is also on the Advisory Committee for the American Medical Director’s Association Clinical Practice Guidelines. 

Bakerjian is currently president of geriHEALTHsolutions, Inc. She has been a nurse operations officer and nurse practitioner at many institutions, most recently in her own private clinical practice where she continues to visit nursing home residents. She has several pending publications, a book chapter on nurse practitioners in nursing homes and has presented multiple times at national conferences, mostly on the nurse practitioner collaborative practice and quality of care in nursing homes. The recipient of several grants and awards, Bakerjian’s research aims maximize the role of advanced practice nursing and to improve the quality of care for aging populations.

Contact Information: Phone: (916) 734-2145 | E-mail: debra.bakerjian@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu