Åsa Mikaelsson Olsson

I am a specialist nurse with many years of experience working in elder care and am employed by the Enskede-Årsta-Vantör City District Administration within the City of Stockholm.

As part of my employment, I completed doctoral studies at Karolinska Institutet as a municipal doctoral student and earned my PhD in 2026 with the thesis Co-created Implementation of Proactive End-of-Life Conversations in Residential Care Homes for Older People. The thesis focuses on how older people living in residential care homes, family members, and care staff can jointly develop practices that build preparedness and strengthen participation in conversations about end-of-life care.

My research is grounded in a practice-based and co-creative perspective in which older people, family members, care staff, and care organizations are involved in the development of new knowledge. I have a particular interest in issues related to preparedness for the end of life (death literacy), older people's participation, care staff's motivations for change, person-centered care, knowledge exchange and learning, as well as the reach and impact of research and development initiatives for organizations and the people they affect.

I also work to build and strengthen collaboration in education and research at the Unit for Teaching and Learning Karolinska Institutet, and I am currently undertaking a postdoctoral position at the Stockholm Gerontology Research Center (Stiftelsen Stockholms Läns Äldrecentrum).

I am a member of SAIN - SWEAH (National Graduate School on Ageing and Health) Alumni Interdisciplinary Network

End-of-life care, palliative care, public health, elder care, qualitative methods, interpretive description, participatory action research, qualit of life, person centred care, dementia