Deb Bakerjian, Ph.D., A.P.R.N., F.A.A.N., F.A.A.N.P., F.G.S.A.

Deb Bakerjian is the associate dean for practice and a clinical professor at the Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing at UC Davis. As the interim associate dean for practice, she leads the school’s clinical enterprise, including oversight of clinical faculty practice development and implementation, UC Davis Health and community strategic partnerships and advocacy, interprofessional practice and clinical partnerships and strategies for the school’s contribution to the Healthy Aging Clinic.

Bakerjian’ s research aims to improve the quality of care for aging populations. Her research focuses on patient safety and quality improvement practices in long-term care, particularly nursing homes, as well as interprofessional education and collaborative practice in primary care. She is specifically interested in the roles of nurse practitioners and physician assistants as members of the interprofessional team. As a founding faculty member, she was instrumental in transitioning the family nurse practitioner and physician assistant programs from the School of Medicine to School of Nursing and establishing both as master’s degree programs.

Bakerjian led several workforce enhancement grants funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) over the last decade. Currently, she is the director for the primary care nurse practitioner residency program, a primary care training enhancement grant for physician assistants and nurse practitioners, as well as a grant to enhance the skills of registered nurses in public health. She recently received an additional $4 million from HRSA to develop a nurse-led mobile clinic. Bakerjian is also the co-principal investigator and co-editor-in-chief for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety Network website and co-principal investigator for Cal Long Term Care Compare, a statewide website that provides data to consumers on the quality of long-term care organizations such as nursing homes.

Bakerjian was a Pat Archbold Predoctoral Scholar and a Claire M. Fagin Postdoctoral Fellow 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, both from the UCSF School of Nursing. Her doctoral study, “Utilization of Nurse Practitioners in Nursing Homes: A Comparison with Physicians,” received the 2006 Dissertation of the Year Award at UCSF. Bakerjian earned both a family nurse practitioner and physician assistant certificate from the UC Davis School of Medicine in 1991 and a Bachelor of Science in Health Services Administration from the University of Phoenix in 1983. She received an Associate Degree in Nursing from Evergreen Valley College in San Jose, California, in 1977.

Bakerjian participates in a variety of areas of service in the health system. She is the co-chair of the clinical delivery committee for the UC Davis Health Aging Initiative and is a member of the UC Davis Health resource utilization committee. Bakerjian is active in both state and national organizations associated with nursing, patient safety and quality, and the care of older adults. She is chair of the board of directors for HealthImpact, the California Nursing Workforce Center. She serves on the National Quality Forum’s Skilled Nursing Facility Technical Expert Panel for Serious Reportable Events and Common Formats. She is on the Governance and Transitions of Care committees for AMDA —The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care and is a past president of the California Association of Long-Term Care Medicine and the Gerontological Advanced Practice Nurses Association.

She is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, Western Academy of Nurses and the Gerontological Society of America.

Contact Information: Phone: 916-734-2145 | E-mail: dbakerjian@ucdavis.edu