Katie Haerling Named Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar

Assistant Professor Katie Haerling (Adamson) is one of just twelve nursing educators from across the country to be named a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholar this year, an honor given to junior nursing faculty members. The accompanying three-year, $350,000 award will help Haerling promote her academic career and support her research.

Haerling teaches in the Nursing and Healthcare Leadership Programs at UW Tacoma. With the award, she plans to look at two high-technology, simulated learning activities for nursing students. Haerling will compare activities conducted with a manikin (or mannequin) patient to practice done with an entirely virtual patient, asking which practices are most effective in teaching and which are most cost-effective.

“This award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides a remarkable opportunity to compare learning outcomes and costs associated with virtual and manikin-based simulation activities used to train the next generation of the nursing workforce.” Haerling said. “I am excited to pursue this important research and I feel honored to be part of such a stellar group of nursing scholars.”

The Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Faculty Scholars program selects junior nursing faculty who show strong promise as future academic leaders. Haerling is part of the program’s seventh and final cohort.

Currently, many schools of nursing are turning away qualified applicants because they do not have the faculty to teach them. The Nurse Faculty Scholars program helps more junior faculty succeed in, and commit to, academic careers.  The award is given by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which works to improve the health and health care of all Americans.

Read a story about the award in Nurse.com, a national news outlet for the nursing profession.