Maja Djukic, Ph.D., R.N. Selected as a 2012 Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar

NEWS RELEASE                                                                            

August 28, 2012                                                                                            

 

 

Maja Djukic, PhD, RN, an assistant professor at New York University 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. Djukic will receive a three-year, $350,000 award to promote her academic career and support her research. The Nurse Faculty Scholar award is given to junior faculty who show outstanding promise as future leaders in academic nursing.

 

“Being selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar is an incredible honor and a tremendous opportunity for me to grow as a teacher, researcher, and a leader,” Djukic said. “With the generous support from RWJF, I intend to discover what drives nurse managers to implement evidence-based nurse work environment improvement strategies that have been linked to positive patient outcomes, such as safe nurse-to-patient ratios, nurse autonomy, resource adequacy, good nurse-physician relationships, and nurse participation in organizational decision making, in their daily work.”

 

For the proposed study, Djukic will collaborate with nurse leaders from the nation’s largest public health system, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which serves a primarily low-income and diverse population. She will survey about 300 nurse managers employed at 11 hospitals within this system to explore personal and organizational factors associated with the implementation of evidence-based nurse work environment improvement strategies.

 

“What I am proposing has not been investigated before,” Djukic said. “My program of research will make important contributions to the emerging, interprofessional field of implementation science, where traditionally the focus has been on identifying factors associated with implementation of evidence-based disease prevention and treatment strategies by clinicians.”

 

The need for the proposed study is partly informed by preliminary findings from Djukic’s prior research with a national sample of early career nurses in the U.S. In it, only about 40 percent of nurse managers report being very prepared to use evidence to inform their practice. Djukic’s goal with this study is to help transform nurse manager practice by developing novel interventions to support nurse managers in leading collaborative efforts to redesign nurse work environments as a fresh approach to securing high-quality patient care.

 

Her mentors are: Christine Kovner, PhD, RN, FAAN, a professor at New York University College of Nursing; and Donna Shelley, MPH, MD, an associate professor at New York University School of Medicine.

 

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. Djukic 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 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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