SON: Connections - Fall 2004

Headlines | Briefly | From the Deans Desk

Swanson Named Robert Wood Johnson
Executive Nurse Fellow

Kristen Swanson

Kristen Swanson, an internationally recognized researcher in caring for women who have experienced miscarriage, has been selected as a 2004 Robert Wo od Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow.

Swanson, professor and chair of the Department of Family and Child Nursing in the UW School of Nursing, is one of 20 nurses selected for the three-year fellowship. The fellowship will support a leadership project at the UW, leadership educational opportunities at the national level, and offer significant experience with a senior executive mentor.

Swanson's theory of caring has been incorporated into practice models in a variety of health care settings and has been used internationally as the curriculum framework for several schools of nursing. She conducted one of the first clinical trials testing a caring model for women who had miscarried, and developed a program for a four-week support group for couples after miscarriage. Her current research, funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research, is a randomized clinical trial of the effectiveness of three caring interventions to assist couples to heal together after miscarriage.

"Dr. Swanson's research on caring has won international acclaim with her m odels guiding care around the world," said Nancy Wo ods, dean of the UW School of Nursing. "This fellowship will support her collaboration with Susan Grant, senior associate administrator for Patient Care Services and chief nursing officer of University of Washington Medical Center, and the nurses at UWMC who were the first to achieve the nationally recognized Magnet hospital status for outstanding nursing care. Professor Swanson 's research provides a wonderful foundation for enhancing the care nurses provide to patients-and now she is bringing it home."

The fellowship helps nurses in senior executive roles lead and shape the United States' health care system for the future. The program focuses on five key leadership competencies: self-knowledge, strategic vision, risk-taking and creativity, interpersonal communication effectiveness, and inspiring and leading change.

Applicants are selected based on qualities such as: a strong professional record, a commitment to the advancement of health care, the ability to have an impact on the health care delivery system, and their vision, passion and courage. Margaret Heitkemper, the John and Marguerite Walker Corbally Professor in Public Service and chair of biobehavioral nursing and health systems, completed her tenure as a Robert Wo od Johnson Foundation Nurse Executive Fellow earlier this year.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.

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