HSC Profiles
Kathleen Long
Committed to Caring:
Designing the future of nursing and health care
In the more than 20 years that UF College of Nursing Dean Kathleen Ann Long, Ph.D., R.N. has been involved with nursing education, she has learned that those who lead the profession today will determine its future. Perhaps that is the reason why she has been such a champion for better-educated nurses in the workforce.
“We can never fix our broken health-care system or provide high-quality nursing care for every patient by embracing the status quo,” Long said. “Rather, I view current challenges related to the nursing shortage as a tremendous opportunity to improve the future of health care — a chance to better educate nurses and reform our delivery models so that every professional nurse is utilized to the full extent of her or his knowledge, skill and ability.”
Long, who has served as dean of the College of Nursing for 12 years, follows in the footsteps of the college’s founding dean, Dorothy Smith, who pioneered innovations in nursing education and practice.
Long has led in the implementation of innovative educational initiatives at the state and national levels. These include the Accelerated B.S.N., B.S.N. to Ph.D., the North Florida Ph.D. Consortium, and most recently the Clinical Nurse Leader and Doctor of Nursing Practice programs. All these address crucial issues related to the growing nursing shortage, the even more critical faculty shortage, and the need to redesign care delivery systems.
Long’s service to the profession extends far beyond the walls of the university. From 2002 to 2004, she served as president of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, the national voice on baccalaureate and higher degree nursing, and was a member of the AACN Task Force that authored Nursing Education’s Agenda for the 21st Century. She also chaired AACN’s first Task Force on Education and Regulation for Professional Nursing.
As dean, Long continues to champion the vision that every faculty member and every graduate must demonstrate the ability to care, lead and inspire. This vision guided the development of a partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida, which recently gave $3.5 million to establish the BCBSF Center for Health Care Access, Patient Safety and Quality Outcomes at the UF colleges of Nursing and Public Health and Health Professions. This new center will foster faculty synergy across disciplines and is focused on improving the health of Florida’s citizens through research on topics such as nurse retention, patient safety and quality care outcomes, and financing and delivering health care in a fiscally responsible manner.
“Responsibility for the future of our profession guides my leadership of our college — we must not only protect the noble history and heritage of nursing, but also envision and create a tomorrow where well-educated nurses lead in improving the safety and quality of health care across the globe.”
