Dr. Odes has a PhD from UCSF's School of Nursing where she specializes in both Health Policy and Occupational and Environmental Health. Rachel's research focus is workplace violence in the healthcare setting and her dissertation uses mixed methods to investigate hospitals' implementation of California's new workplace violence prevention legislation. Rachel has been practicing as an RN, charge nurse, and nurse educator in the inpatient psychiatric setting for the past ten years. During that time, she has worked with her union and elected officials to improve patient and staff safety in the public hospital system. Rachel obtained a master's degree in nursing from San Francisco State University where she focused on mental health and substance use disorders. Rachel completed her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley where she majored in sociology and film studies.
Research interest: Understanding patients' and their family members' experiences of community-based mental health crisis interventions; improving safety for patients and staff in psychiatric treatment settings.