Professor
Elizabeth Tone Hosmer Professor of Nursing
Department
Department of Systems, Populations and Leadership
University Affilliations
Professor, Health Management and Policy School of Public Health
Associate Director for Cancer Control and Population Sciences, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center
Contact
University of Michigan School of Nursing
400 North Ingalls Building
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5482
Christopher Friese is not accepting new PhD students.
In the News
June 21, 2023, Michigan Radio, "Michigan nurses 'heading for the exits' as staffing crisis continues."
April 11, 2023, WXYZ Detroit, "U-M survey finds 39% of nurses plan to leave their jobs within the next year."
January 18, 2023, New York Times, "Nurses are burned out and fed up, with good reason."
March 25, 2022, Detroit Free Press, “Exhausted and abused, nurses are searching for new jobs, or reasons to stay.”
September 23, 2020, Kaiser Health News, “Battle Rages Inside Hospitals Over How COVID Strikes and Kills.”
September 18, 2020, National Public Radio All Things Considered, “How Loss of Health Care Workers in Pandemic Affects Profession.”
April 7, 2020, The Hill, “Time to meaningfully invest in health care worker safety.”
January 24, 2017, Time, “Half of Women Have Serious Side Effects From Breast-Cancer Treatment."
July 8, 2015, Detroit Free Press, “How to avoid the next [Farid] Fata case.”
Interests
Cancer
Health Services Research
Quality and Safety
Nursing Work Environments
Health Policy
Dr. Christopher R. Friese is a national authority in measuring and improving the quality of cancer care delivery. Over his career, he has led pivotal studies to develop and test strategies to improve outcomes of high-risk care. His research findings were among the first to establish a significant relationship between favorable nurse practice environments and lower surgical mortality. With over 150 peer-reviewed publications, Dr. Friese’s research findings have informed clinical practice guidelines, and state and federal health policy. Dr. Friese spent 2016-2017 as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the United States Senate. Dr. Friese is a clinical expert in the nursing care of patients with hematological malignancies and advanced cancers. In 2021, the President appointed Dr. Friese to a six-year term on the National Cancer Advisory Board, which sets national cancer research policy.
Current Research Grants and Programs
Comprehensive training in methods for adapting and personalizing cancer control interventions, National Cancer Institute, Co-PI
University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center Support Grant, 2023-2028, National Cancer Institute, Co-I
Return-to-work issues in healthcare workers diagnosed with cancer: Investigation and Intervention Development, National Cancer Institute, Mentor
Teaching
Dr. Friese focuses his teaching on action-oriented learning. Borrowing from Benjamin Franklin, he believes his students should learn the “most useful and most ornamental.” He has taught across the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. He developed an interprofessional elective in Cancer Care and frequently teaches policy analysis, organizational theory, and systems assessment for health care. In recent years, Dr. Friese has focused his energies on mentoring the next generation of health care leaders and scientists, as the inaugural program director in Cancer Care Delivery Research Training at the University of Michigan.
Affilliations/Service
Member, Oncology Nursing Society, 1995-Present (several service roles, 1999-present)
Member, American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2000-present (several service roles, 2000-present)
Member, AcademyHealth, 2005-Present
Member, Patient Centered-Outcomes Research Board of Governors, 2018-2030
Member, National Academy of Medicine Committee on the Use of Elastomeric Respirators in Health Care, 2017-2018
Member, National Academy of Medicine Emerging Leaders in Health and Medicine, 2017-2020 (Co-Chair, 2019-2020)
Member, National Cancer Policy Forum, 2023-2026
Member, National Cancer Advisory Board, 2021-2026
Notable Awards/Honors
International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame, Sigma Theta Tau International, 2022
Distinguished Researcher Award, Oncology Nursing Society, 2021
Elected Member, National Academy of Medicine, 2020
Research Mentorship Award, AcademyHealth Interdisciplinary Research Group on Nursing Issues, 2020
Elizabeth Tone Hosmer Endowed Professorship (inaugural holder), 2017
Henry Russel Award, University of Michigan, 2016
Education
Post-Doctoral Fellowship, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard University, Boston, MA, 2008
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 2005
BSN, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 1997
Publications Highlights
Friese, C.R., Khadr, L., Marriott, D.J., Medvec, B.R., & Titler, M.G. (2026). Nurses carry substantial student loans: Health care workforce implications. Health Affairs Scholar. In press. https://doi.org/10.1093/haschl/qxag019
Medvec, B. R., Marriott, D. J., Khadr, L., Ridge, L. J., Lee, K. A., Friese, C. R., & Titler, M. G. (2023). Patterns and correlates of nurse departures from the health care workforce: Results from a statewide survey. Medical Care, 61(5), 321-327. https://doi.org/10.1097/MLR.0000000000001837.
Costa, D. K., & Friese, C. R. (2022). Policy strategies for addressing current threats to the U.S. nursing workforce. The New England Journal of Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp2202662.
Friese, C.R., Choueri, T.K., Duma, N., Farmakiotis, D., Grivas, P., Rini, B.I., Shah, D.P., Thompson, M.A., Pergam, S.A., Mishra, S., & Warner, J.L. 2021. Care without a compass: Including patients with cancer in COVID-19 studies. Cancer Cell, 39, 895-896, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccell.2021.04.006.
Tubbs-Cooley, H., Lavin, R.P., Lyndon, A.,…& Friese, C.R. 2021. Stronger together: The case for multidisciplinary tenure track faculty in academic nursing. Nursing Outlook, 69, 531-533, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.outlook.2021.03.016.
Davis, M.A., Cher, B., Friese, C.R., & Bynum, J.P.W. 2021. Association of U.S. nurse and physician occupation with risk of suicide. JAMA Psychiatry. 78, 1-8, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2021.0154.
Fauer A., Choi S.W., Wallner L.P., Davis M.A., & Friese, C.R. 2021. Understanding quality and equity: Patient experiences with care in older adults diagnosed with hematologic malignancies. Cancer Causes & Control, 32, 379-389, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10552-021-01395-4.
Aebersold, M.L., Kraft, S., Farris, K.B., Mendelsohn-Victor, K., Scherdt, M., Olsen, M., Polovich, M., Shelton, B.K., Montgomery, G.H., & Friese, C.R. (2020). Evaluation of an interprofessional training program to improve cancer drug safety. Journal of Clinical Oncology: Oncology Practice. e1551-e1558, https://doi.org/10.1200/op.20.00816.
Fauer, A., Wallner, L. P., Davis, M. A., Choi, S. W., & Friese, C. R. (2020). Health care experiences for older adults diagnosed with leukemia and lymphoma: Factors associated with emergency department use, timeliness and access of health care. Journal of Geriatric Oncology, 12, 250-255, https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13574.
Friese, C.R., Fauer, A.J., Kuissel, C., Mendelsohn-Victor, K., Wright, N.C., Griggs, J.J., Manojlovich, M. (2020). Patient-reported toxicity outcomes collected from a diverse sample of ambulatory oncology practices: Feasibility, patterns, and correlates. Health Services Research, 55, 966-972.
Mason, D.J., & Friese, C.R. 2020. Protecting health care workers against covid-19—and being prepared for future pandemics. JAMA Health Forum, doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2020.0353.
Friese, C. R., Veenema, T. G., Johnson, J. S., Jayaraman, S., Chang, J. C., & Clever, L. H. (2020). Respiratory Protection Considerations for Healthcare Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Health security, 18, 237-240, https://doi.org/10.1089/hs.2020.0036.
Friese, C. R., Wong, M., Fauer, A., Mendelsohn-Victor, K., Polovich, M., & McCullagh, M. C. (2020). Hazardous Drug Exposure: Case Report Analysis From a Prospective, Multisite Study of Oncology Nurses' Exposure in Ambulatory Settings. Clinical journal of oncology nursing, 24, 249–255, https://doi.org/10.1188/20.CJON.249-255.
Lafferty, M., Manojlovich, M., Griggs, J. J., Wright, N., Harrod, M., & Friese, C. R. (2020). Clinicians Report Barriers and Facilitators to High-Quality Ambulatory Oncology Care. Cancer nursing, 44, E303-E310, https://doi.org/10.1097/NCC.0000000000000832.
Lafferty, M., Fauer, A., Wright, N., Manojlovich, M., & Friese, C.R. 2020. Causes and consequences of chemotherapy delays in ambulatory oncology practices: A multi-site qualitative study. Oncology Nursing Forum, 47, 417-427, https://doi.org/10.1188/20.onf.417-427.