Faculty Profile of the Month: February 2009

Faculty member promotes connection between technology and learning

By Ashley Wiggin

Brenda Zierler’s career and research have been defined by the intersection of health care and technology, and by the forging

of partnerships in education and research.

Now she is exploring how to integrate interprofessional learning into the education of the future health workforce through simulation labs in UW Medicine and the School of Nursing.

“Doctors and nurses work together as a team at the bedside,

so why not train them as a team?” said Brenda, associate dean for Technology Innovations in Education and Research (TIER) and associate professor in Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Systems.

Since her early days exploring the use of technology in health care delivery, Brenda has been passionate about finding innovative ways to improve care delivery for patients and learning opportunities for students.

Last year, Brenda and Brian Ross, a colleague from UW Medicine, began working on a partnership to train students from medicine, nursing and pharmacy working side-by-side on human patient simulators -- work that was recently highlighted in local news outlets.

The simulation labs in medicine and the school’s Center for Excellence in Nursing Education are giving students the opportunity to experience patient care firsthand. The long-term goal is to integrate students from all Health Sciences programs to work together as a team.

As a biology major in the last quarter of her senior year at Western Washington University, Brenda left to attend nursing school at Skagit Valley College from 1978-1980. Upon graduation, she took a job as a cardiovascular nurse with two vascular surgeons in Bellingham. Running a pacemaker clinic and vascular laboratory, Brenda learned to use ultrasound and other technology to diagnose and monitor her patients’ vascular disease. She is certified as a registered vascular technician.

Brenda came to the UW in 1988 to work with a renowned vascular surgeon, the late Dr. Eugene Strandness Jr., to study deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The project sparked her interest in standardizing care delivery in DVT, and she has received three subsequent grants to improve the standards of care for patients at risk for or diagnosed with DVT.

“There was a clear lack of knowledge of how to treat DVT,” she said. “The literature was clear about treatment strategies, but practitioners were giving different instructions to patients.” She completed her BSN in 1991, and received her PhD from the SoN in 1996. “Coming to the UW from the small town of Port Angeles was a huge accomplishment for me. I love this school. Being a part of it has been very important to me,” she said.

When the opportunity to lead TIER came up in 2006, it felt like the perfect fit for Brenda. “There is a technology gap between students and faculty, and we are trying to catch up, … moving quickly to integrate technology into our educational programs,” she said.

An avid baseball fan and reader, Brenda loves doing yoga and pilates and spending time with her family. She has two sons and two stepdaughters (two of whom are UW grads) and lives with her husband, one son and their black lab, Klaloch, in Redmond.

To learn more about the simulation collaboration with UW Medicine, see this recent Seattle P-I article: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/394704_simulsurg05.html