About

Dr. Carolyn Phillips is a nurse scientist, educator, and musician whose work integrates expressive arts, music-based interventions, and healthcare research to enhance emotional communication, resilience, and well-being among patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. With over two decades of experience as an oncology nurse and nurse practitioner, as well as advanced postdoctoral training at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/Harvard Medical School, she has distinguished herself as an expert in applying innovative research methods to develop and evaluate arts-based interventions. Dr. Phillips brings a deep understanding of the emotional and relational dimensions of healthcare into her research and teaching. Her pioneering work at the intersection of arts and health is reshaping how psychosocial interventions are designed and delivered in clinical and community settings. Her research portfolio is marked by the integration of music and storytelling into therapeutic strategies. Dr. Phillips has designed and tested music-based interventions that harness the transformative power of the arts to address a range of health challenges. Notably, she has developed and evaluated the Storytelling Through Music interventions, tailored specifically for diverse populations, including bereaved parents coping with the loss of a child to cancer and healthcare professionals who face the emotional toll of high-stress clinical environments. Additionally, she leads projects such as the Music-4-MS Optimization Study, which explores a 12-week music-based cognitive rehabilitation intervention aimed at enhancing cognitive outcomes for individuals with multiple sclerosis. Dr. Phillips’s work, published in leading nursing and healthcare journals, underscores her commitment to enhancing the well-being of individuals dealing with chronic illness, loss, and the stresses of caregiving, as well as advancing arts-based approaches as catalysts for healing, resilience, and transformative change in healthcare.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Internal medicine
• Psychology
• Gerontology
• Endocrinology
• Social psychology
• Gastroenterology
• Intensive care medicine
• Medical emergency

Selected publications

• Health care utilization by women sexual assault survivors after emergency care: Results of a multisite prospective study

  UNC Libraries · 2025-01-10 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Approximately, 100,000 US women receive emergency care after sexual assault each year, but no large-scale study has examined the incidence of posttraumatic sequelae, receipt of health care, and frequency of assault disclosure to providers. The current study evaluated health outcomes and service utilization among women in the 6 weeks after sexual assault. METHODS: Women ≥18 years of age presenting for emergency care after sexual assault to twelve sites were approached. Among those willing to be contacted for the study (n = 1080), 706 were enrolled. Health outcomes, health care utilization, and assault disclosure were assessed via 6 week survey. RESULTS: Three quarters (76%) of women had posttraumatic stress, depression, or anxiety, and 65% had pain. Less than two in five reported seeing health care provider; receipt of care was not related to substantive differences in symptoms and was less likely among Hispanic women and women with a high school education or less. Nearly one in four who saw a primary care provider did not disclose their assault, often due to shame, embarrassment, or fear of being judged. CONCLUSION: Most women receiving emergency care after sexual assault experience substantial posttraumatic sequelae, but health care in the 6 weeks after assault is uncommon, unrelated to substantive differences in need, and limited in socially disadvantaged groups. Lack of disclosure to primary care providers was common among women who did receive care.

  PublisherDOI

• “I still feel so lost”: experiences of women receiving SANE care during the year after sexual assault

  UNC Libraries · 2025-01-10

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVE: Emergency caregivers provide initial care to women sexual assault (SA) survivors. An improved understanding of the issues facing this population can aide emergency care practitioners in providing high quality care. The goal of this study was to share the experiences of women SA survivors with the emergency care practitioners that care for them. METHODS: English-speaking adult women (n = 706) who received SA Nurse Examiner (SANE) evaluation within 72 hours of SA at 1 of 13 geographically distributed sites were enrolled in a prospective, longitudinal multi-site observational study. We qualitatively analyzed responses to the open-ended question: "What do you think is most important for researchers to understand about your experience since the assault?" asked 1 week, 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year after enrollment. RESULTS: Themes from responses (n = 1434) from 590 women (84% of study sample) fell into 12 broad categories: daily life, justice, medical, and social services, mental health, physical health, prior trauma, recovery, romantic relationships, safety, self, shame, and social interactions. Responses demonstrated that the assault permeates many aspects of assault survivors' daily lives. CONCLUSIONS: Qualitative analyses of open-ended responses from a large cohort of women SA survivors receiving SANE care highlight the challenges for survivors and can increase understanding among the emergency care practitioners who care for them. The authors propose a brief acronym to help emergency care practitioners recall important messages for SA survivors.

  PublisherDOI

• Pregnancy Complications Before 20 Weeks

  2025-01-01

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Registered Nurses’ Experiences of Vertical Violence in the United States Health Care Workplace: A Qualitative Study

  Western Journal of Nursing Research · 2025-09-05

  articleSenior author

  BACKGROUND: The presence of health care workplace violence (WPV) significantly impacts victims, patients, and the organization. Registered nurses' experience of vertical WPV is not well understood, in part because the extant literature uses inconsistent and ambiguous terminology or focuses on bullying or incivility, excluding other violent behaviors. OBJECTIVE: This critical ethnography study explored the perceptions and experiences of registered nurses who have been victims of vertical violence in the health care workplace. METHODS: Eight registered nurses who self-identified as victims of vertical violence were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling. Data analysis used the constant comparative method described by Glaser and Strauss. Beck's criteria for rigor in qualitative studies was used to enhance the credibility of findings. RESULTS: Data analysis revealed 4 categories of the registered nurses' victim experience of vertical violence: (1) encountering vertical violence, (2) understanding vertical violence, (3) struggling with vertical violence, and (4) reflecting on the experience of vertical violence. CONCLUSIONS: The use of power, influence, and organizational mechanisms to commit vertical violence has the potential to harm nurses and suppress the nurses' willingness to advocate for others. Despite widespread attempts to prevent WPV, vertical violence continues and poses a significant threat to health care organizations' core values, culture, reputation, and patient care outcomes. Health care organizations must prioritize the well-being of nurses, create effective systems that support nurses, and foster a culture of accountability to adequately address vertical violence and reduce the detrimental impacts on nurses, patients, and the organization.

  PublisherDOI

• WIC Peer Counselors Support Breastfeeding Among WIC Participants

  Western Journal of Nursing Research · 2024-05-07 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  BACKGROUND: The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, also known as WIC, is associated with improved health outcomes for participants. The role of WIC Peer Counselors was created to support breastfeeding among WIC participants. OBJECTIVE: This Naturalistic Inquiry study explored the perceptions and experiences of 9 WIC Peer Counselors located in Southeast Texas. METHODS: The WIC Peer Counselors were recruited via purposive and snowball sampling and participated in semi-structured face-to-face interviews. Data collection, analysis, and trustworthiness adhered to established guidelines. RESULTS: Study findings revealed the novel approaches the WIC Peer Counselors used to encourage, initiate, support, and sustain WIC participants' breastfeeding, including using tools of their craft, involving and educating family members, making themselves accessible 24/7, and identifying the need for equipment and supplies. CONCLUSIONS: The WIC Peer Counselors' understanding of the breastfeeding culture of their WIC clients and their unique ability to establish and maintain rapport with them make WIC Peer Counselors ideally suited resources to meet the WIC goal of increasing breastfeeding and thereby improving the health of the nation. Health care providers should recognize the valuable, yet unrecognized and underutilized, contributions of WIC Peer Counselors and consider referring pregnant and postpartum dyads to WIC for breastfeeding education and support.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Referee report. For: Identification of putative reader proteins of 5-methylcytosine and its derivatives in Caenorhabditis elegans RNA [version 1; peer review: 1 approved, 1 approved with reservations]

  Faculty of 1000 Research Ltd · 2023-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Violent Video Gaming and Aggression in Children

  Pediatric nursing · 2022-01-01

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Sepsis with liver dysfunction and coagulopathy predicts an inflammatory pattern of macrophage activation

  Intensive Care Medicine Experimental · 2022-02-21 · 35 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Interleukin-1 receptor antagonists can reduce mortality in septic shock patients with hepatobiliary dysfunction and disseminated intravascular coagulation (HBD + DIC), an organ failure pattern with inflammatory features consistent with macrophage activation. Identification of clinical phenotypes in sepsis may allow for improved care. We aim to describe the occurrence of HBD + DIC in a contemporary cohort of patients with sepsis and determine the association of this phenotype with known macrophage activation syndrome (MAS) biomarkers and mortality. We performed a retrospective nested case-control study in adult septic shock patients with concurrent HBD + DIC and an equal number of age-matched controls, with comparative analyses of all-cause mortality and circulating biomarkers between the groups. Multiple logistic regression explored the effect of HBD + DIC on mortality and the discriminatory power of the measured biomarkers for HBD + DIC and mortality. RESULTS: Six percent of septic shock patients (n = 82/1341) had HBD + DIC, which was an independent risk factor for 90-day mortality (OR = 3.1, 95% CI 1.4-7.5, p = 0.008). Relative to sepsis controls, the HBD + DIC cohort had increased levels of 21 of the 26 biomarkers related to macrophage activation (p < 0.05). This panel was predictive of both HBD + DIC (sensitivity = 82%, specificity = 84%) and mortality (sensitivity = 92%, specificity = 90%). CONCLUSION: The HBD + DIC phenotype identified patients with high mortality and a molecular signature resembling that of MAS. These observations suggest trials of MAS-directed therapies are warranted.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Utility of Biomarkers for Sepsis-Associated Acute Kidney Injury Staging

  JAMA Network Open · 2022 · 64 citations

  • Medicine
  • Internal medicine
  • Intensive care medicine

  Importance: The 23rd Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI-23) consensus conference proposed a framework to integrate biomarkers into the staging of acute kidney injury (AKI). It is unknown whether tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinases 2 (TIMP-2) and insulinlike growth factor binding protein 7 (IGFBP7) could be used for staging. Objective: To test whether higher levels of urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] are associated with lower survival among patients with the same functional stage of AKI. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study was performed using data from the Protocolized Care for Early Septic Shock (ProCESS) trial, which enrolled critically ill patients with septic shock who presented at academic and community emergency departments and intensive care units in the US from March 2008 to May 2013. Patients with end-stage kidney disease, a reference serum creatinine level of 4 mg/dL or greater (to convert to μmol/L, multiply by 76.25), or missing data on serum creatinine levels or urinary levels of [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] were excluded. Data were analyzed from October 2020 to October 2021. Exposures: The presence of AKI, assessed using Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes criteria within 24 hours after enrollment and the highest AKI stage as well as urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] level at 6 hours after enrollment. A previously reported high-specificity cutoff level for [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] of 2.0 (ng/mL)2/1000 was used to categorize patients (including those without functional criteria of AKI) according to the new staging system proposed by the ADQI-23 as biomarker negative (urinary [TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] level ≤2.0 [ng/mL]2/1000) or biomarker positive ([TIMP-2] × [IGFBP7] >2.0 [ng/mL]2/1000). Main Outcomes and Measures: Survival (assessed using Kaplan-Meier plots and the log-rank test) and mortality (assessed using relative risk [RR] 30 days after enrollment). Results: The analysis included 999 patients with a median age of 61 years (IQR, 50-73 years); 554 (55.5%) were male. Biomarker-positive patients had lower survival and higher mortality at 30 days in the groups with AKI stage 1 (RR, 2.20; 95% CI, 1.02-4.72), stage 2 (RR, 1.53; 95% CI, 1.04-2.27), and stage 3 (RR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.00-2.60). The associations were specific to patients with AKI. No difference in 30-day survival was found between biomarker-positive and biomarker-negative patients in the absence of functional criteria for AKI (RR, 1.16; 95% CI, 0.45-3.01). Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that assessment of the cell-cycle arrest biomarkers TIMP-2 and IGFBP7 may augment AKI staging for patients with functional criteria for AKI.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Research Among Women Sexual Assault Survivors Presenting for Emergency Care is Justified: Results From a Multi-Site, Prospective Observational Cohort Study

  Biological Psychiatry · 2021-04-27

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• David Milzman

  Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

  20 shared

• Han Huang

  Beihang University

  16 shared

• Michael S. Antonis

  Georgetown University

  12 shared

• Megan Lechner

  Memorial Hospital

  11 shared

• Kathryn Voss

  University of Rochester Medical Center

  9 shared

• Jennie Buchanan

  University of Colorado Denver

  9 shared

• Kayla Dewey

  University of Rochester Medical Center

  9 shared

• Israel Liberzon

  Mitchell Institute

  7 shared