In 2005, I joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) School of Nursing (SON) as a lecturer. The SON was in the process of implementing a new curriculum in their baccalaureate nursing program, and the SON would have a stand-alone gerontological nursing course for the first time. This was in part due to the work of the John A. Hartford Foundation and the work of the Hartford Centers for Gerontological Nursing Excellence to enhance geriatric nursing education at the baccalaureate level since 1996.
After my first year of teaching, I decided to obtain my PhD in Nursing from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) College of Nursing (CON). I completed my PhD in Nursing in 2011, along with a post-Master’s certificate as a Nurse Educator. I joined Duke University School of Nursing (DUSON) as a tenure-track faculty in August of 2011. I continued to teach gerontological nursing at the baccalaureate level until 2015, and I currently teach advanced practice care of the older adult in Duson’s Masters of Science in Nursing program to Nurse Practitioner students.