Darlene Welsh PhD, MSN, RN, FNAP
Professor, Assistant Dean of BSN Program Studies
Darlene Welsh, PhD, MSN, RN, FNAP, is currently the Assistant Dean of BSN Program Studies at the University of Kentucky College of Nursing in Lexington, Kentucky. The BSN program maintains an enrollment of about 1,300 pre-nursing, traditional, accelerated, and RN-to-BSN students. As assistant dean, Dr. Welsh directs the day-to-day operations of the program, supports students and faculty in their academic work, and engages in curricular and program improvements. 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.
Contact Information
Phone: (859) 323-6620
Fax: (859) 323-1057
Email: jdwels00@uky.edu
Office: 427 COLLEGE OF NURSING
Education
PhD, University of Kentucky, 2006
MSN, University of Kentucky, 1989
BSN, University of Kentucky, 1987
AD, BS, Morehead State University, 1977
Interests
Interprofessional team communication, self-efficacy, care of patients with heart failure