, PhD
Biography
After graduating from Cerrahpasa Medical Faculty in Istanbul, Turkey, Dr. Cayir served as a general practitioner at a primary care clinic in Istanbul. Her experiences as a clinician, and her passion for making an impact on health at the population level brought her to the field of Public Health. She worked and received training as a resident physician in the Department of Public Health at the Hacettepe Medical University in Ankara, Turkey, before receiving a Fulbright fellowship to study in the US. In 2017, she earned her PhD from the Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina.
Ebru is interested in understanding how organizations can support self-care and resilience among caregiving professionals so they can not only maintain their well-being, but also thrive in their work. She also focuses on how social identity categories such as race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, nationality intersect with one another and shape work experiences, well-being, and belongingness among healthcare providers. Her other research interests include mental health disparities that affect ethnic minority and vulnerable populations, intersectional and social justice-based methodologies. Currently, she is working on an intervention study that examines the impact of a brief, mindfulness-informed practice on healthcare providers’ well-being, resilience and capacity to provide compassionate care.
Honors and Awards
Fulbright Scholarship (Ph.D.), U.S. Department of State, Institute of International Education. 2011-2017
Graduate Civic Scholarship Program, Inaugural Cohort Member, University of South Carolina. 2014
Harriot Hampton Faucette Graduate Student Research Award, University of South Carolina, Women’s and Gender Studies Program. 2014.
Provost Funds for Dissertation Research. Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina. 2016
Publications
Journal Articles
Cayir, E., Cunningham, T., Ackard, R., Haizlip, J., Logan, J., & Yan, G. (2022). The effects of the Medical Pause on physiological stress markers among health care providers: A pilot randomized controlled trial. SAGE Journals. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 44(11), 1036-1046. https://doi.org/10.1177/01939459211027657
Cayir, E., Spencer, M., Billings, D., Hilfinger Messias, D. K., Robillard, A., & Cunningham, T. (2021). “The only way we’ll be successful”: Organizational factors that influence psychosocial well-being and self-care among advocates working to address gender-based violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(23-24), 11327-11355. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260519897340
Cayir, E., Owen, J. A., Brashers, T., Haizlip, J., & Cunningham, T. (2020). Measuring compassionate care among interprofessional health care teams: Developing and testing the feasibility of a collaborative behaviors observational assessment tool. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 1, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2020.03.011
Elk, R., Felder, T. M., Cayir, E., & Samuel, C. A. (2018). Social Inequalities in Palliative Care for Cancer Patients in the United States: A Structured Review. Seminars in oncology nursing, 34(3), 303-315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.soncn.2018.06.011
Cayir, E., Burke, M. P., Spencer, M., Schure, M. B., & Goins, R. T. (2018). Lifetime trauma and depressive symptomatology among older American Indians: the Native Elder Care Study. Community mental health journal, 54(6), 740-747.
Osman, A., Thrasher, J. F., Cayir, E., Hardin, J. W., Perez-Hernandez, R., & Froeliger, B. (2016). Depressive symptoms and responses to cigarette pack warning labels among Mexican smokers. Health Psychology, 35(5), 442-453. https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000298
Burke, M.P., Martini, L.H., Cayir, E., Grafton, H.H., and Meade, R.L. (2016). Severity ofhousehold food insecurity is positively associated with mental disorders among children andadolescents in the United States. The Journal of Nutrition, 146(1), 2019-2026. https://doi.org/10.3945/jn.116.232298
Cayir, E., Sevencan, F., and Ozvaris, S.B. (2010). Violence exposure among visually handicappedwomen. Health and Society, 20(4), 22-27.
Sevencan, F., Cayir, E., & Uner, S. (2010). Burnout status of interns and associated factors. Cahiers de sociologie et de demographie medicales, 50(4), 501-515.
Book Sections
Ivashkevich, O., Hilfinger Messias, D.K., Soltani, S.N., & Cayir, E. (2017). Mapping social and gender inequalities: An analysis of art and new media work created by adolescent girls in a juvenile arbitration program. In M. Capous-Desyllas & K. Morgain (Eds.), Creating social change through creativity: Anti-oppressive arts-based research methodologies (pp. 151-170). Palgrave McMillan
Cayir, E. & Soltani S.N. (2017). Persepolis. In A. M. Savage (Ed.), Women’s Rights: Reflections in Popular Culture (pp. 62-63). ABC-CLIO