New Faculty Profile

Christine Coughlin
(Associate Professor, School of Nursing)

A brief overview of background, area of expertise, research and teaching.

I joined Adelphi University as a full-time associate professor in January 2005. I received a BSN from Adelphi University, an MA in Nursing Administration from NYU and an EdD in Organization and Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University. Before coming to Adelphi, I held a position as Vice President for Patient Care Services and Chief Nurse Executive at New York United Hospital in Westchester. Prior positions include Vice President for Clinical Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx and the Director of the Cardiac Care Center/Associate Hospital Director at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan. My clinical nursing practice has been as an intensive care nurse.

While holding administrative positions, I remained active in education, holding adjunct positions at Teachers College, Columbia University and Lehman College, City University of New York. My goal is to bring a realistic and optimistic view of nursing and healthcare to my students thereby preparing them for the important work that lies ahead in healthcare. My research interests include patient/family perception of care, and leadership qualities of front line nursing leaders.

What do you wish to contribute? What do you feel strongly about in regards to teaching or your specialization?

I feel strongly about the issue of perception of care. As a healthcare executive for the past fifteen years, I have had the opportunity to observe the misalignment between patient satisfaction and nurse satisfaction. It is my belief that this occurs due to many complex variables. This phenomenon has long been an interest and a subject of my concern and study. Due to my concerns and in order to optimize nursing's contribution to patient care, patient and family satisfaction, and patient outcomes, I conducted research on the patient's perceptions of care and the nurse's perception of care. Utilizing an ethnographic methodology, I obtained my data through both observation and an unstructured interview technique. In eighty percent of the cases there were completely differing perceptions of the care given. The findings provide direction for further research and the development of more precise satisfaction measuring tools that would promote improved quality outcomes from the patient and caregiver perspective.

What do you wish to impart to your students?

Leadership development-- in teaching my graduate and undergraduate students. Although there is much published on this subject, leadership development programs are lacking in most healthcare institution. With the fiscal constraints, the mentoring of current and future leaders has been abandoned. This is an area in which I have done work and would like to continue to provide individual and group coaching and mentoring. In addition, with an increased focus on leadership for nurses, my goal is to conduct research on the early development of leadership characteristics in clinical nurses.