Gordon Gillespie, Ph.D., R.N., F.A.E.N. Selected as a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar

NEWS RELEASE                                                                            

 August 29, 2012                          

 

 

Gordon Lee Gillespie, PhD, PHCNS-BC, FAEN, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing, is one of just 12 outstanding nursing educators to win a competitive grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Nurse Faculty Scholars program this year. Gillespie will receive a three-year, $350,000 award to promote his academic career and support his research. The Nurse Faculty Scholar award is given to junior faculty who show outstanding promise as future leaders in academic nursing.

 

“I am excited to be selected and this generous award will allow me to determine the characteristics of resilience modeled by so many emergency department workers after being physically and verbally abused by the patients and visitors they are caring for,” Gillespie said. “These characteristics will become the foundation of a large-scale intervention aiming to foster resilience in all emergency department workers before the workers quit or transfer to other occupational settings.”

 

For his research project, Gillespie will survey approximately 225 workers and conduct focus groups with six emergency departments. The information from his project will be used to design an intervention that promotes the resilience and psychological health of victimized workers. The ultimate goal of this project is an intervention that is highly adoptable and sustainable by the emergency departments long after the research team has left. 

 

Gillespie’s research follows a series of studies funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Emergency Nurses Association Foundation, American Nurses Foundation, and the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing that examine the stressors and stress response of emergency department workers. In Gillespie’s previous studies, he found that emergency department workers have the capacity to be resilient despite severe occupational stressors such as workplace violence.

 

The emergency department is quite often reported as the number one health care setting where workplace violence is likely to occur. Gillespie says, “Unfortunately, in today’s emergency care environment, violence is a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if.’” The findings from this study will be used to manage the aftermath when the violence does occur. 

 

The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program is strengthening the academic productivity and overall excellence of nursing schools by developing the next generation of leaders in academic nursing. It is providing $28 million to five cohorts of outstanding junior nursing faculty. Gillespie is part of the fifth cohort.

 

The new Nurse Faculty Scholars also will support the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, which is engaging nurses and others in a nationwide effort to implement recommendations from the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine report, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.

 

Supporting junior nurse faculty will help curb a shortage of nurse educators that could undermine the health and health care of all Americans. The Affordable Care Act will vastly increase the number of people who can access health care in the United States. As the number of patients increases, there will be greater demand for skilled nurses as well as faculty to educate them. Right now, many schools of nursing are turning away qualified applicants because they do not have the faculty to teach them. The RWJF Nurse Faculty Scholars program is helping more junior faculty succeed in, and commit to, academic careers. The program will also enhance the stature of the scholars’ academic institutions, which will benefit fellow nurse educators seeking professional development opportunities.

 

To receive the award, scholars must be registered nurses who have completed a research doctorate in nursing or a related discipline and who have held a tenure-eligible faculty position at an accredited nursing school for at least two and no more than five years.

The Nurse Faculty Scholars program is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and administered through the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. It is directed by Jacquelyn Campbell, PhD, RN, FAAN, who is the Anna D. Wolf chair and professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing.

To learn more about the program, visit www.nursefacultyscholars.org.

 

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