Scholar Profile

Andrew Dierkes is a registered nurse and health services researcher. He worked at the bedside at Pennsylvania Hospital (Philadelphia, PA) and remains clinically active as a medical/surgical clinical instructor for traditional and accelerated undergraduate students at the University of Pittsburgh where is an assistant professor. He lectures on topics related to health policy, finance, insurance, and reform and provides mentorship to both DNP and PhD students. His research aims to leverage the nation’s largest healthcare workforce—nurses—to improve outcomes for patients and healthcare workers. He is especially interested in optimizing nurse-patient-aide assignments in hospitals to make the best use of available staff, particularly during periods of staffing shortages.