FSU College of Nursing faculty receive highly-competitive Hillman Grant to develop innovative pain care model
The Florida State University College of Nursing has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation to test an innovative, nurse-led approach designed to expand easier-to-access, drug-free pain care.
The award, provided through the foundation’s 2026 Hillman Innovations in Care program, will support real-world testing of Pain Pause, a scalable model designed to integrate non-medicated pain care into clinical settings while minimizing demands on clinic staff and infrastructure.
FSU College of Nursing Associate Professor Geraldine Martorella, PhD, RN, FAAN, will serve as principal investigator, with Associate Professor Adam Hanley, PhD, serving as co-principal investigator. Kathryn Muessig, PhD, and Lisa Hightow-Weidman, MD, MPH, co-directors of the Institute on Digital Health and Innovation, will serve as co-investigators. The research team will partner with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) to implement the project, working alongside TMH nurses to support the scalability, implementation and dissemination of the Pain Pause intervention. The project will adapt and evaluate nurse-led mind-body interventions for adults with chronic pain, designed to be embedded into routine clinical workflows.
“This grant gives us the opportunity to move Pain Pause toward a model that can be sustained and adopted well beyond a single clinical setting,” Martorella said. “By focusing on an approach that is practical, affordable and designed for broader implementation, we can help expand access to pain care while demonstrating the innovative role nurses can play in changing how pain is managed.”
“This grant allows us to put a practical tool directly into the hands of local nurses to help patients manage pain more comprehensively,” Hanley said. “By supporting nurses in addressing both the physical and psychological dimensions of pain during routine care, we hope to make effective pain management more accessible to community patients who need it.”
The project also demonstrates the growing role of nurses in designing and implementing innovative approaches to care that address health disparities and translate research into practical solutions for patients and communities.
“Our researchers are developing innovative solutions that are designed to work in the realities of healthcare delivery,” said Jing Wang, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, FAAN, dean of the FSU College of Nursing
The Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation’s Hillman Innovations in Care program is a highly competitive national program supporting nursing-driven models of care. For this grant the foundation received 164 applications from universities, medical centers and community-based care settings across the country. Nine proposals advanced to the second round, with just four ultimately selected to receive funding.
As a leading philanthropic organization dedicated to advancing nursing-driven models of care, the Hillman Foundation’s support represents a significant national recognition of the FSU College of Nursing research team and its work to advance pain care.
To learn more about how the FSU College of Nursing is advancing nursing research, education and healthcare, visit nursing.fsu.edu.