Donna S. Havens, PhD, RN, FAAN, was recently interviewed by Jeffrey M. Adams, a contributor to the Journal of Nursing Administration (JONA). JONA publishes interviews of outstanding nursing leaders who have made significant contributions in nursing research, practice, policy, and education. In her interview, Dr. Havens explained her passion for improving health care quality and elaborated on her desire to advance nursing leadership and practice environments. She stated that her personal/professional goal is to “shape systems to promote desired outcomes.”
“I’ve always been interested in promoting good nursing practice and patient care,” she explained. “I was drawn to literature focusing on sociology of the professions, professional nursing practice, and organizational studies.” This body of literature “helped me to craft what remains my passion today—studying and enhancing professional nursing practice environments.” Her work in this field has been funded by the Health Resource and Services Administration (HRSA) for the past 10 years. Through these projects, Dr. Havens and her colleagues were able to work with 11 hospitals to “enhance staff nurse decisional involvement and improve communication and collaboration.”
She has recently submitted another proposal to the HRSA that involves working with hospital teams to implement “interprofessional collaborative practice in rural Emergency Departments.” This plan grew from the knowledge Dr. Havens generated during her first two proposals. Dr. Havens also emphasized the positive impact of nursing practice environment research. After building successful, trusting relationships with the 11 hospitals she partnered with during her projects, Dr. Havens saw the hospitals advance and improve. “Two partner hospitals gained enough confidence to pursue the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s (ANCC) Pathway to Excellence® status; a couple more are currently working on this designation and one is on the Magnet® journey,” she explained. “These outcomes were possible because the projects helped the hospital teams to build capacity and become empowered.”
She also stressed the importance of nursing leadership development. “All nurses, both today and into the future, need to learn to be effective, influential leaders,” she said. “I hope that we can help them develop the confidence to use their voices to share the right messages in powerful ways.”
Click here for the full interview (Please note a subscription may be required.)