Rutgers School of Nursing Magazine - Summer 2024

Shrinking The Shortage: Q & A with Dr. Linda Flynn Teaching came naturally to Flynn, named National League for Nursing’s Nurse Educator of the Year in 2022. “When I was a young staff RN,” she remembers, “faculty on our unit would tell me that I was very good with their students and should consider teaching.” She volunteered at community organizations teaching new parent classes, and realized she loved teaching, and also realized, “I could make a bigger impact by educating future nurses.” A proud Rutgers alumna, she went on to get an MS in community health and a PhD in nursing research. Her PhD reflects another passion: “I fell in love with research as an undergraduate,” says Flynn, named to Stanford University’s World’s Top 2% Nurse-Scientists list. Her groundbreaking research, concerned with how nurse staffing and organizational culture affect patient outcomes, has had an impact on federal policy. She’s also helped support fellow researchers at the School of Nursing, contracting with acclaimed nurse-researcher Shirley Moore, PhD, RN, FAAN, to consult with faculty; hiring two manuscript editors; and instituting workshops on statistics and manuscript writing. Her initiatives have allowed the School of Nursing to serve more students and hire more—and more experienced—faculty. She founded a faculty fellowship program to help solve a longstanding conundrum: “Nursing schools only like to hire faculty with teaching experience,” she notes. “But how do you get teaching experience if you can’t get hired?” The program mentors highly qualified clinicians for a year so they can gain the experience they lack. Flynn also has had a long commitment to advancing diversity and creating a more equitable health care system; she wrote the proposal for the Center for Health Equity and Systems Research that opened at the School of Nursing this year. Under her leadership the school has gained top honors including a No. 5 ranking for its doctor of nursing practice program from U.S. News & World Report 2024 . Retirement won’t be stopping Flynn from elevating patients and nurses. She’d like to volunteer at Rutgers and continue teaching as an adjunct. She’ll be needed. Contemplating the future of the field, she says that “nursing is becoming more complex every day, from infection prevention and epidemic control to acute- care hospitalization.” She sees increasing complexity as a good thing. “I envision multiple opportunities for nurses in the future,” she says. Thanks to her vision and leadership, graduates of the School of Nursing will be uniquely prepared to rise to those challenges and seize the opportunities they offer. n R U T G E R S N U R S I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 4 6 / 7 Rutgers School of Nursing turns away 1,000 qualified applicants annually in spite of a severe nursing shortage, and it’s a countrywide problem. Q: Why can’t we graduate more nurses? A: Schools of nursing can’t expand for lack of faculty, space, and clinical placement. Q: How have you addressed these deficits? A: Our faculty fellowship program addresses the first. And we’re lucky: Rutgers can lease commercial space when we need it. I created the position of associate dean of simulation to expand educational capacity via simulation. We’ve raised nearly $1 million to acquire more high-fidelity manikins and introduce technologies like virtual reality. Q: Any results yet? A: We’ve increased this year’s admission cohort, and next year’s as well, by more than 75 students each.