Darlene Welsh, PhD, MSN, RN, FNAP

Professor

Darlene Welsh, PhD, MSN, RN, FNAP, is a professor at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing in Lexington, Kentucky. Dr. Welsh served as assistant dean for the BSN program for nine years actively participating in student enrollment expansions, significant curriculum changes, program improvements, and other vital leadership initiatives. Along with student instruction, her nursing career includes 13 years of direct patient care for critically ill, hospitalized adults, the implementation of interventions to improve care delivery in a clinical nurse specialist role, and the conduct of research. With over $2.7 million in cumulative funding, Dr. Welsh has developed and disseminated products to optimize education and health care practices for patients and their health care providers. In collaboration with teams of interprofessional faculty, she developed the PEER Model of HealthCare Team Communication and examined best practices in medical error disclosure. As the principal investigator in NIH-funded research, she created an evidence-based, low-sodium diet protocol to use while educating patients with heart failure. Her dissertation research included the development of a tool to quantify self-efficacy in nursing as method for measuring instructional outcomes in practicing nurses. Dr. Welsh supervises BSN students who are precepted in acute, progressive and critical care hospital settings and is the co-author of High Acuity Nursing, a critical care textbook by Pearson Publishing.

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