Alberta Tran, PhD, RN, CCRN

Alberta “Allie” Tran, PhD, RN, CCRN is a Senior Research Scientist at the MedStar Health’s Institute for Quality and Safety (MIQS) and MedStar Health Research Institute (MHRI) and Assistant Professor at the Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Tran is an expert in critical care nursing, having taught and practiced in this setting for over 14 years and serves as a subject matter expert for several legal, research, and consulting teams. Prior to joining MHRI in her current position, Dr. Tran served as a Clinical Educator in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and co-led a policy-driven research project to examine the impacts of the pandemic on the health care workforce and health care delivery across North Carolina.

Dr. Tran’s current research focuses on uncovering new knowledge on the organization and delivery of nursing care to improve quality outcomes in hospitals and ambulatory care settings, improving diagnostic communication and quality for older adults, and using secondary data to respond to timely issues that impact the healthcare workforce and evaluate outcomes of new nursing models of care. She is passionate about generating evidence to support innovative interventions that enhance teamwork and communication amongst patients, clinicians, families, and caregivers. She has previously taught nursing and medical students in clinical simulation and team-based communication, health innovation, and older adult health. She actively contributes to health workforce policy research in collaboration with the Cecil B. Sheps Center for Health Services Research and UNC-CH School of Nursing.

Dr. Tran earned a PhD from UNC-CH School of Nursing with a training focus on quantitative and mixed methods in health systems research, as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Future of Nursing Scholar. She received her Bachelors in Science of Nursing from the University of Virginia with honors. She is an active member of Academy Health, Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society (STTI), the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and the Asian-American / Pacific Islander Nursing Association (AAPINA) and was formerly the 2023-2024 Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine’s Age-Friendly Fellow in Diagnostic Excellence. Allie is always excited to meet new collaborators and aspiring scientists to explore new ideas and innovative approaches to improving nursing care delivery, healthcare worker wellbeing, and patient outcomes.

Professional memberships:
American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN); AcademyHealth; Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society; Asian American/Pacific Islander Nurses Association (AAPINA)

Faculty Appointments:
Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine, Georgetown University Medical Center; Adjunct Assistant Professor of Nursing, University of North Carolina

Research Interests

• Nursing health services research

• Quality and safety

• Diagnostic errors

• Older adults

• Team-based care

• Critical care

• Innovative care delivery models

• Systems of care

• Quantitative methods

Selected Research

Tran AK, Syed QS, Bierman AS, Singh H. State of the Science and Future Directions to Improve Diagnostic Safety in Older Adults. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; September 2024. AHRQ Publication No. 24-0010-7-EF. https://www.ahrq.gov/diagnostic-safety/resources/issue-briefs/dxsafety-older-adults.html

Tran, AK, Knafl, GJ, Baernholdt, M, Fraher, EP, & Jones, CB. (2023). Where are the critical care nurses? A statewide analysis of actively practicing nurses’ transitions out of the clinical area. Nursing Outlook, 71(3), 101947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2023.101947

Jones, CB, Kim, S, McCollum, M, & Tran, AK. (2024). New insights on a recurring theme: A secondary analysis of nurse turnover using the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses. Nursing Outlook, 72(2), 102-107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2023.102107