To college faculty, excellence is an attitude — starting with a passion to instruct the next generation of nurse leaders to excel in their careers.

Thanks to several new initiatives, the college’s clinical faculty now have additional paths to channel their passion and become the best clinical scholars possible.

A recent addition to empower faculty to pursue advancement opportunities now welcomes clinical faculty into its ranks. Named the Pathways to Promotion program, the initiative was created in 2022 to provide an opportunity for junior faculty to develop the abilities needed to become an exceptional scholar, including publishing, career planning, acquiring funding and refining time-management skills.

Through one-one-one mentorship and brainstorming sessions, faculty with at least two years of experience can learn how to meet their goal of promotion within one to three years, as well as place a renewed focus on any areas of concern in advance of a tenure review evaluation. In just over a year, nine faculty members have been accepted into the eight-month program.

One such member, Clinical Associate Professor Sandra Citty, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, enjoys the chance to balance her clinical responsibilities with involvement in this special pathway.

Citty is a clinical nurse investigator at the Malcom Randall Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center and UF Health who specializes in clinical quality improvement initiatives for hospitalized patients, as well as a current participant in the program’s second cohort. Citty was originally drawn to nursing education thanks to the belief that she could make an impact mentoring the next generation of nursing professionals, while also staying active in clinical practice.

Now 20 years after she earned her PhD from the UF College of Nursing, Citty believes that this goal has been made a reality.

“I have a unique opportunity to serve as a faculty member at the UF College of Nursing, where I can synergize my efforts to teach and mentor students while improving care for veterans,” she said. “The work I do at the college informs my clinical practice and service for the VA and UF Health, and I am very thankful for this chance to help both students and patients thrive.”

A leader in the field, Citty is also a member of committees for the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the National Veterans Health Administration Clinical Nutrition Support Team, allowing her to share her expertise nationally. But since joining the Pathways to Promotion program, she now believes that learning how to better share knowledge with her mentees, as well as exchange clinical practice information with her peers, has been an invaluable experience.

“I am blessed to have the opportunity to mentor students and staff from our partnering health care settings,” Citty said. “Likewise, it has been a valuable experience to learn from this program’s facilitators as they share their personal experiences with promotion and provide us with real-world guidance on navigating our careers as nursing faculty.”

Another initiative — the College of Nursing’s Mentorship Academy — now provides faculty a resource of their own to help take their mentorship skills to the next level. Through a four-session training program, all faculty have the opportunity to learn how to align expectations when mentoring a peer or student, as well as how to remain conscious of ethics to provide inclusive mentorship. The academy also serves as a resource on how to navigate difficult mentorship situations, such as conflict, preparing faculty in the event of the unexpected.

Armed with additional knowledge about interacting with others, in addition to their own communication preferences, the more than 20 faculty members who have completed the program have ‘graduated’ with a certification indicating their skill at relationship building and a sharable mentorship statement, helping them more easily translate nursing knowledge to others for the benefit of the field.

In addition to developing their own academic career trajectory, UF College of Nursing faculty serve on the frontlines of care and inspire future clinicians.

As a family nurse practitioner, director of UF Health Archer Family Health Care and the associate dean for clinical affairs at the College of Nursing, Denise Schentrup, APRN, DNP, FAANP, spends her days rounding the halls of the nurse-led practice, as well as fulfilling administrative duties.

“Working as a faculty member with clinical responsibilities is definitely not for everyone,” Schentrup said. “But everything from caring for patients, charting and reviewing labs has kept me current and engaged in the ever-changing health care arena.”

Despite the balancing act, helping a new faculty member fulfill their own professional goals still puts a smile on her face.

In her associate dean for clinical affairs role, Schentrup is responsible for supporting faculty clinical practice initiatives, including placing faculty in their own clinical practice sites as part of their assignment at the college. Working with clinical partners, such as UF Health, she assigns clinical faculty to clinical worksites, allowing them to practice as providers in an official capacity.

Thanks to the opportunity, clinical faculty can meet their aims to combine teaching and practice, as well as expand the college’s clinical enterprise. According to Schentrup, the chance to see patients even after moving away from full-time clinical nursing also allows faculty to grow professionally and expand their personal expertise in their specialty area, supporting promotion goals as well.

“It is very important for clinical faculty to maintain a practice for multiple reasons,” Schentrup said. “Practicing helps support professional goals, augments teaching of students and provides opportunities for research and quality improvement projects in the clinical arena. This ‘dual role,’ helps keep our faculty knowledge up to date and helps them dedicate precious time to clinical initiatives.”

At some placements, faculty members like Clinical Assistant Professor Bryce Catarelli, DNP, APRN, FNP-C, are a welcome, familiar face for Gator Nurses.

A family nurse practitioner, Catarelli recently combined her love for clinical practice and education through her appointment at the UF Student Health Care Center. There, she works as a provider for the clinic during its busy fall and spring months, as well as a preceptor for the college’s Doctor of Nursing Practice students.

Now renewed for a second academic year, Catarelli believes this collaboration can provide additional opportunities for clinical faculty to engage in practice, and offer clinical placements and a potential site for implementing quality improvement projects for the college’s DNP students. The success of the academic-practice partnership was recently shared in a publication in The Journal for Nurse Practitioners.

Catarelli’s experience with clinical practice also builds on her budding research on the academic-clinical relationship between the college and its clinical partners. With the help of her colleagues, Clinical Lecturer Michael Aull, MSN, BSN, and Clinical Assistant Professor Patrick Nobles, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, CNL, Catarelli has dedicated her research to helping improve nursing staff well-being, specifically using UF Health, the college’s practice partner, as a model for other health systems. For example, the team has identified successful tactics to combat first-year nurse burnout by providing mental health support and transition programs.

Together with her love of teaching, Catarelli’s passion for improving the health of her student patients continues to drive her desire to improve both the university and clinical experience for her Gator Nurses — the future of the profession.

“I’ve known from a young age that I wanted to have a positive impact on my future students as a nurse educator, given the excellent mentors I had during my time in nursing school at UF,” Catarelli said. “It’s my way of giving back not only to the college that helped shape the nurse I am today, but to the profession as a whole. We need more great nurses and I want to be a part of that solution.”

For Professor and Interim Associate Dean for Research Leslie Parker, PhD, APRN, NNP-BC, FAAN, FANNP, serving the tiniest patients and their families for almost four decades has been her highest calling.

Working as a nurse practitioner in the UF Health Shands neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU, Parker is responsible for assessing, diagnosing and performing procedures for premature and critically ill newborn infants. Her experience in the clinical setting has also inspired a vast body of research, ranging from infant nutrition to lactation. Parker’s research excellence was recognized through her appointment as the college’s interim associate dean for research earlier this year.

Parker’s innovations in the clinical setting have changed the standard of care at UF Health and beyond. Her findings on feeding practices in the NICU have led units around the country to eliminate the practice of routine gastric residual evaluations, improving the care of preterm infants and reducing clinician workloads. She is also a founding member of the health system’s multidisciplinary “Evidence-Based Nutritional Committee,” which is responsible for developing nutritional protocols and providing consultations for at-risk infants.

In addition to her clinical experiences, Parker’s long history of mentorship for BSN, DNP and PhD students, as well as junior faculty from various departments and nurses on the NICU, have been one of her favorite parts of her career. Over 100 undergraduate students alone have learned from her words of wisdom, carrying Parker’s passion for improving global health for infants, children and mothers into their future careers.

But to Parker, the opportunity to work as an educator and clinician has been especially rewarding. Her commitment to improving health care for infants and children, as well as sharing her expertise with others, has transformed nursing practice for the past 30 years.

“These patients and students are the future, and it is so rewarding to make a difference in their lives,” Parker said. “I can truly say that I love my job, and that each day is as enjoyable as the next.”

Thanks to a commitment from the State of Florida to expand the nursing workforce, the College of Nursing is more equipped than ever to mold the clinicians, researchers and nurse educators of tomorrow.

The addition of multiple clinical faculty members as part of the college’s $3.6 million PIPELINE funding has allowed for a record increase in admitted BSN students — seeing the number of RN-BSN and Accelerated BSN students growing by nearly 100% and 40%, respectively.

Due to larger class sizes and more teaching faculty, the college’s UF Health Jacksonville campus can now accommodate larger numbers of students into its Academic Partnership Unit. The APU, used to create a pathway for nurses to remain on the unit they shadow as a student, which has shown to reduce turnover rates, helps to encourage a culture of collaboration and excellence at UF Health, as well as staff units with highly motivated Gator Nurse grads.

Across both college departments, faculty membership spans multiple professional organizations, helping to incorporate the latest standards of care into clinical practice.

According to Clinical Assistant Professor Michael Maymi, DNP, APRN, CPNP-AC, CCRN, CNE, the opportunity to shape practice as a clinician has been an unforgettable experience.

While in nursing school, Maymi was fascinated by the clinical knowledge of his instructors. Now a nurse educator himself, as well as a pediatric nurse practitioner, Maymi enjoys leading pediatric nurse practitioner students and BSN students on the UF Health pediatric intensive care unit.

Driven to make an impact for all certified pediatric nurses and nurse practitioners, Maymi decided to seek out more responsibility in order to leave a lasting mark. Beginning in 2012, he became involved with the Pediatric Nursing Certification Board, the largest nonprofit organization for pediatric nursing.

Since joining, Maymi has risen rapidly through the organization’s ranks, being selected to serve as the pediatric acute care member at large in 2017 and later, chairman of the board from 2021 until June 2023. During his tenure, he was also responsible for leading the organization in defining the role of the acute care pediatric nurse practitioner, as well as outlining content for the position’s licensing exam.

Maymi still remains a trusted resource for clinical expertise. He intends to work with the board to develop a new framework for recertification, develop micro-certifications for acute care nurse practitioners caring for children with behavioral and mental health disorders and lead a team once again to evaluate the official job tasks typically assigned to acute care pediatric clinicians.

In the clinical setting, Maymi hopes that sharing advice molded by his own experience as a nurse leader will also help students navigate their own careers.

“For me, it truly is an honor to work with all my students,” Maymi said. “I feel the knowledge I have gained over the years was given to my mentors, and I truly believe it is my duty to pass it on to help shape the next generation of nurses.”

To Kevin Cho Tipton, NP-C, becoming a Gator Nurse was the chance of a lifetime to count himself among the ranks of the state’s ‘best and brightest.’

A major in the Florida National Guard and a critical care nurse practitioner at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida, Tipton knows that his passion and service can come in many forms — from serving one’s country to serving patients at the bedside.

Adopted from Korea as an infant, Tipton can still recall an early memory of the National Guard providing aid to his family after Hurricane Andrew, which inspired him to pursue a career of state service. Now a current DNP student, Tipton’s devotion to others comes full circle, driven by a sense of purpose and the desire to give back to a country that gave him so much.

His extraordinary service has been recently recognized with one of the nation’s highest honors, The Surgeon General’s Medallion — specifically presented to him for his efforts as a nurse practitioner during the COVID-19 pandemic. He credits his ability to receive this award to the support he received from his loving family, as well as his adopted homeland.

After graduating, Tipton plans to continue with a new mission: to serve future generations of nurses through education. He hopes to become a nurse educator himself, becoming a presence in the lives of students, as well as providing guidance to help them find their own purpose in life.

“Being able to similarly give back in times of need has been profoundly gratifying and humbling,” Tipton said. “If I can be there for someone else — if we all can — then our work will always have meaning and the impacts we make will last a lifetime.”