Janine Overcash, PhD, GNP-BC has been in the health care field for almost 20 years as a clinician, educator, and researcher. She received her undergraduate degree in nursing from Florida State University, and a Masters in nursing and Ph.D. in medical anthropology from the University of South Florida. Dr. Overcash is a Geriatric Nurse Practitioner (GNP) specializing in geriatric oncology, and is currently the Director of Nursing Research at the James Comprehensive Cancer Center and an Assosciate Clinical Professor at the College of Nursing at Ohio State University. Her primary areas of interest are the care of the older patient diagnosed with cancer, with a focus on maintaining functional independence, performance status, and the ability to care for self, and assessment of the older cancer patient for prediction of cancer treatment tolerance.
Dr. Overcash has multiple publications including journal articles, book chapters and educational modules and materials. In a recent article titled “Retrospective study of multidisciplinary rounding on a thoracic surgical oncology unit” (Dec. 2012), Begue A, Overcash, J, et. al., ”. . . evaluated hospital length of stay, patient satisfaction, admission to a skilled care facility, and the use of home health care or hospice in patients who received multidisciplinary rounding (MDR) compared to those who did not.” One study finding was that the average length of stay for MDR patients was shorter (5.3 days) than patients who did not receive MDR (6.5 days). Review the article (linked above) for more information.
Dr. Overcash has also presented at multiple local, regional, national, and international conferences. Recently she traveled to Manchester England for the 12th Annual Meeting of the International Society of Geriatric Oncology where she presented “Falls and the Older Cancer Patient.” More locally, Dr. Overcash was the key note speaker at the Nursing Research Day at the James Cancer Hospital presenting on “The Power of Nursing Research.” And at the James Cancer Hospital Nursing Grand Rounds, she presented on the “Principles of Geriatric Oncology.
For more information about Dr. Overcash and her work at the James Cancer Center as the Director of Nursing Research, click here.